Earlier text: Why Was it not Known Before?“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away.” These words, to those in sorrow and affliction, are full of consolation. In this world the reign of God is as universal as it is appalling. The young in their beauty and loveliness, and the old in their maturity and wisdom, are swept away. Dear ones of earth, linked to our hearts by the most tender ties, have departed. We have tearfully laid them in the grave to slumber till the great awakening. We shall see them no more in the land of the living. Worldly thoughts, and cares, and passions, disturb them no more. “There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave” whither they have gone. Their very bones may turn to ashes, and their dust be scattered and wasted. The monumental marble that marked the resting-place of human hearts once beating as warm as ours may have crumbled, and the name and all pertaining have gone to oblivion. And yet, at the mandate of Him who holds the countless worlds in their courses, they shall spring forth to life again. Why should it be thought a thing incredible that God should raise the dead? How can we doubt when we behold how glorious the vilest earth may become? The same substance that begrims the laborer in the charcoal pit when changed a little shines forth with resplendent brightness in the crown of royalty. The dirt, trodden beneath our feet, and which is so offensive to our person or in our food, changed a little becomes inviting to the taste, and changed a little more—behold! it glows upon the cheek of beauty and sparkles in the eye of intelligence. The steam that with resistless and tireless energy propels the leviathan of the deep in the face of wind and waves, or with still mightier energy upheaves the mountains from their beds—what is it but the awakened energies that were just now lying dormant in the sleeping, sluggish waters of the deep? The lightning, which in its destructive course rends oaks and rocks to pieces in its passage from cloud to earth, is the same element that was just now sleeping as gently as the babe in its cradle. At whose bidding do these dormant energies start to life? Who fashioned the shapeless dust into forms of beauty? Who gives such exquisite coloring, such dazzling brightness to the sightless lump? And cannot the same power cause that this mortal shall put on immortality? He who has marked the transformation of the rude earth into forms of life and beauty, he who has seen the rough lump of charcoal, made by a simple change in the arrangement of its particles to flame forth in the radiant hues of the diamond, he who has marked the speed of electricity, and the impenetration of heat, he who has noticed the expansibility of light, and the velocity with which it travels through unbounded space, such an one can no longer wonder at any transformations the body may experience, or any glories with which it may be invested, or any spiritual adaptations it may attain in the resurrection and heavenly state. Here the material body may prove an element of weakness and dishonor; but there it shall possess power and glory. Here it may be animal, gross, and evil; but there it shall be a spiritual body. Refined from the grossness of that which is merely animal, it shall be endowed with an elasticity of action; with an imperishable nature; and vitalized anew, beautified with its highest perfections, it shall shine forth anew with undecaying brightness in the kingdom of God. And we shall know and recognize each other there. Friendship is not confined to this present state. “Go where you will,” says Dr. Berg, “and we find the sentiment that friendship is perpetuated beyond the grave. It is enshrined in the heart of our common humanity. The Bible teaches it; and the Vale of Tempes, the Hesperian Gardens, the Elysian Fields, the Islands of the blest, and the Great Hunting Grounds, are only so many forms in which the pagan faith has by a blotted copy, expressed the great expectation of re-union and recognition in another life. “We read of the immolation of widows on the funeral pyre, of the killing of slaves, subjects, and friends, that they might accompany the souls of the departed and sustain to them relations kindred to those sustained in this life. These cruel practices have been almost co-extensive with heathenism itself. They now exist, or formerly existed in nearly all the vast and populous empires of Asia, in the benighted regions of Africa, among the Indians of both North and South America, and upon nearly all the populous Islands of the Pacific and Indian oceans. “These brutal practices have their bright, as well as their dark, side. They are the darkened soul’s expression of the conviction of another life, and that the friendships formed here are perpetuated there. As we said before, they are but blotted copies, illustrating the truthfulness of that expression of St. Paul, Rom. 1: 21, ‘Because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.’ But in the sacred book of God all is clear. The expressions of Job 19: 25–27: ‘For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God; whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.’ Isa. 26: 19, ‘Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise.’ Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out her dead.’ Dan. 12: 2, ‘And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.’ The reply of Jesus to Martha, John 11: 23, 24: ‘Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.’ The expressions of Paul, Rom. 6: 5: ‘For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection;’ Phil. 3: 21, ‘Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.’ The transfiguration and recognition of Moses and Elias by the disciples; and the parables of our Lord illustrating the kingdom; all these each a distinct recognition of each other.” Our loved dead are still linked to us, not only by the cords of memory, but by the ties of affection. The monuments carved to their memory, the flowers that blossom above their sleeping dust, and the tears that bedew their graves, are so many living testimonies of our undying affection to them, and the yearning of the heart for a reunion with them. “She goeth unto the grave to weep there,” is the record, not merely of Mary, but of the heart yearnings of humanity in all ages. This human feeling finds its consummation only in a recognized personal reunion; and in response to that craving our funeral hymns take up the blessed strain and whisper it to our hope in sweetest melodies. Yes, “We shall know each other there;” and all tears will be wiped away by the hand of Jesus. He has the keys of the great charnel house, and the time is close at hand when he will unlock its doors, the sweet, silvery tones of that voice that once called forth the sleeping Lazarus and restored him to his friends, will soon be heard from Heaven again. Oh! are we ready and waiting to receive the consolation promised at the head of this article? Let us be diligent in making search for our individual sins, both of omission and commission, and may the Lord grant us grace at last to overcome. How They Love One Another.
By Mary Stratton
As a denomination we are small. Our churches are scattered over a great territory, but they are neither numerous nor large. The mass of professors of religion do not come in with us. The way is too strait, the doctrines too unpopular. We are indeed a separate people. When we fully endorse the third angel’s message, it can truly be said, None hold with us in these things. Considering this we ought to be closely united, and love as brethren, in order to live out this last solemn message of truth. A few years ago when Bro. Andrews organized a little church in this place of a dozen members, we felt that our hearts were knit together like the hearts of David and Jonathan. And through all these years of changes the Lord has been pleased to spare our lives so that none of us have fallen by death till recently. In sadness we have lain one of our dearest ones away in the grave. One whose seat was always filled in the Sabbath and prayer-meetings, who never went away without leaving her testimony in favor of the truth, we miss her. Death has at last invaded our little company and taken one dear to us all. O death, come when thou wilt, thou are terrible. “The groan, the knell, the pall, the bier,
And all we know or dream of here
Of misery, is thine.”
But the words of our blessed Saviour come in just here: “I am the resurrection and the life, and he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” These texts bring solace to many an aching heart. “The Lord himself shall descend from Heaven . . . and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air.” We are exhorted to comfort one another with these words. And what a comfort to those living right in the time when these precious promises are to be fulfilled. I hope to be humble and faithful so that I may share in the reward that will be given to God’s dear people in a little while. Nature bleeds when our reputation suffers from the evil opinions of our fellow-men; but the true and only infallible balm for this wound is the consciousness that we have done those things, for which our fellow-men blame and distrust us, with a single eye to the divine glory.—Upham. THE soul is not happy which is not at rest; but the soul can never have true rest which places its confidence in anything short of God. Mutability and uncertainty are characteristic of everything which has not God in it.—Upham. THE will of God includes every possible good. He who seeks conformity to the will of God, necessarily seeks whatever is most desirable and best for himself.—Upham. The Transforming Power of True Religion
WHAT is most characteristic in true religion—what is most wonderful—is the fact that it wells right up against a man's desires, his inclinations, his preconceptions. It shatters his old moldy crust of habits, it changes the current of his thoughts, it makes his dumb, stupefied conscience talk right out, speak to the purpose; it transfigures, it regenerates him. If it cannot make a small power large, it makes it good. If it cannot give a big brain in the place of a contracted one, it transmutes a man's intellect all into a divine essence of purity and love, or freights it with the thunder and lightning of dauntless and effective energy. Faith Unites the Soul to Christ
FAITH is the vital bond that unites the soul to Christ. ANSWER. We do not think the two passages first quoted refer to the same thing. Nor do we think the instructions in Matt. 5, forbid a proper use of the judicial oath. We understand David to teach in Ps. 15: 4, that it is commendable in a man to faithfully perform his promises or vows, even if, after having made them, he finds he cannot fulfill them except through a loss, pecuniary or otherwise, to himself. QUESTION. In Acts 9: 7, Luke says, respecting the men who journeyed with Paul to Damascus, “And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice but seeing no man.” In Acts 22: 9, Paul himself gives an account of this matter in these words: “And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid; but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me.” How can these passages be harmonized together? A. J. ANSWER. The verb to hear (Gr. ἀκούω) has not only the sense of hearing, that is, of perceiving sound by the organs of the ear, but also of understanding what is said. Luke evidently uses it in the former sense, and Paul in the latter. They heard a sound but did not understand the words that were spoken. QUESTION. By what law do you determine whether a passage of Scripture is to be understood as literal or figurative? A. J. ANSWER. Understand it as literal always when it will make good sense to so understand it; that is, when there can be no objection against it. But if it cannot consistently be taken as literal, then it must be a figure; and then we must remember that all figures must be explained by language which is literal, and so look elsewhere for literal testimony which will explain the figure. ANSWER. We recently heard some suggestions from Bro. Geo. I. Butler on these verses, which seem to be correct. Will he please write an article on this scripture soon for the REVIEW? ANSWER. The subject Christ is presenting before the minds of the people in this chapter is a knowledge of heavenly things; and the sense of verse 13 evidently is that no man has ascended up to Heaven for the purpose of bringing back word concerning the knowledge he might gain there. The mere fact that Enoch and Elijah had ascended to Heaven in past ages as a pledge of God's faithfulness and a future life, but not to come back to the world as teachers of heavenly things, does not therefore militate in the least degree against this statement of Christ's. Then he adds, “but he that came down from Heaven;” that is, Christ, who came down from Heaven is qualified to speak to them, from absolute knowledge, of heavenly things; for “he is in Heaven;” that is, as to his knowledge of the place, its truths and principle, it is the same as if he was even then there. He could speak with as much positiveness and assurance, as if he spoke from Heaven itself, instead of here upon the earth. QUESTION. Will you give an explanation of Rom. 9: 11–24. F. R. R. ANSWER. We have not time at present, to give a lengthy examination of that portion of scripture. We will only say here that we think that verse 22 presents in one sentence the great idea which the apostle designs to inculcate. Some suppose that Paul, in this scripture, represents God as acting arbitrarily, and raising up for subjects of his wrath those who have done nothing to merit it. But we do not so understand him; for the verse referred to says that he endures with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction. That is, all along in the history of the race, agents appear on the stage of action, who perversely stand in the way of the will of God. He gives them opportunity to accept his grace, and become vessels of mercy; sometimes offering large opportunities to become illustrious agents in the fulfillment of his purposes, as in the case of Pharaoh. But they resist and resist, and reject his offers and oppose his will; and he waits and waits, suffering long with them. At length, when they prove themselves hopelessly apostate, he gives them up to their own ways, and then shapes events so that the wrath of man shall praise him; in other words, so that their stubbornness, perverseness, and persistent rebellion, shall only be the occasion for the manifestation of his power, and redound to his honor and glory. This we believe to be, in short, the intent of the apostle's teaching here. QUESTION. We wish for an explanation of 1 Cor. 5. Does Paul in this chapter refer to anything except fornicators? Are the teachings of this chapter designed for the benefit of the church at the present day? If so, in what respect, and to what extent? M. E. F. ANSWER. We think Paul writes to the Corinthian church concerning a particular case in their midst; but the principles he lays down, will apply to all cases of a like nature in all ages. REPLY TO A LETTER FROM A FRIEND
By Jos. Clarke
REPLY TO A LETTER FROM A FRIEND.
Good Sunday-keepers, bad Sabbath-keepers. No doubt there are Sunday-keepers, who have not heard much of the argument in favor of the true Sabbath, who conscientiously keep Sunday. And there may be those who are keeping the seventh day, who do so from a wrong motive. This does not affect the question at issue. The question is, Has God abolished the seventh-day Sabbath, and transferred its sanctity to the first day? If so, the fact is clearly stated somewhere in the Bible. The moment you prove that God has done this, that moment we will confess our error, and resume the keeping of the first day of the week. Don't know the day. The objection Mrs. —— propounds is this: No one knows that Saturday is the true seventh day, or that Sunday is the day on which Christ arose. If this is so, then we are released wholly from any divine sanction for Sabbath-keeping, and all is at loose ends; for the only claim or authority for Sabbath keeping is contained in the fourth command; and this claims a special day as holy time, and no other day. But the miracle of the manna ceasing every seventh day for forty years, and this, too, in connection with the promulgation of the Sabbath from Sinai; and its practical illustration, in the practice of the Hebrews in the desert, connected with the reference to the first institution of the same in Eden, in the command itself; all this, connected with the expression in Luke 23: 56, that “they returned and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment,” presents an unbroken chain, down to the time of Luke; and no one in his senses can claim the opposite; nor will any be so blind as to claim that the day has been lost since that time. Only a few keep it. True, only a few keep the seventh day; and of that few, some are no honor to the name; but this is no proof that the Sabbath has lost its sanctity, or its identity. As to the objection that only a few are observing the seventh day, the same objection was no doubt often presented to Noah by the antediluvians; but as to its futility, you need no other evidence than the examples furnished in the history of the past. Custom against it. The question is one which the custom of the professing Christian world should not affect. Rather should we propound to ourselves the question, Has the Protestant world continued the Reformation begun so gloriously by Luther and his associates? or have they set their stakes there, and said, by adopting certain creeds, “we will advance no further than our ancestors led the way.” Responsible for light. We live in an age of light. Bibles are found in almost every cottage in our land. This is the work of God, and he requires us to advance with the age, and the opening prophecies. That this is obligatory, read the preface to the book of Revelation, chap. 1: 3: “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.” Can you keep that you do not understand? Also, read Prov. 1: 6. What is more difficult to understand than the prophecies? Yet this is your duty from these proofs. Also read Deut. 29: 29. “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever.” Is not prophecy a revelation? and what is the use of prophecy if only understood after fulfillment? The Jews might have been saved if they would have fully understood Isa. 53, before they crucified Christ. It would have kept them from taking the life of the Lord of glory. Are you sure that no such mistake will be made by the professed church of this age, by not understanding the symbolic representations of Daniel and John? But you will say, It is dark. But is that a good reason for avoiding the study of arithmetic, or of geography? Do you thus talk to your pupils? Read the closing paragraph of Deut. 29: 29: “That we may do all the words of this law”; as though understanding the revelation of God's will was connected with keeping his commandments. Prophecies cannot be called secret things in any sense whatever, at present; for John says, Rev. 22: 10, “Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book; for the time is at hand;” and Daniel is shown to be unsealed by the angel of Revelation 10. But there is another point in the letter of Mrs. ——, to which I will reply briefly. She says, The tracts prove nothing as to the state of the dead, and then she adduces the case of Moses and Elias. Now it is stated that Elijah (Elias) was translated to Heaven, alive, and Moses, we must believe, was resurrected soon after death; for it is said, “no man knoweth of his sepulcher.” Deut. 34: 6. Jude states that Satan disputed with Michael about the body of Moses; and it must be that Michael (Christ) had come for Moses' body, or Satan would have had no cause of dispute respecting that body. Therefore I think that a further reading of the tracts will prove them Scriptural. Also, Mrs. —— adduces the happy deaths of those who believe as she does, that Heaven immediately follows death. I would reply that the moment of death is not one chosen of God to correct an error of this sort; but those who have been in darkness on this point, if they have been faithful to the light they possessed, will be rewarded; and the lapse of time, however great, will be but a moment to them, and Heaven will burst upon them in the resurrection, seemingly only an instant from the dying hour. Angels are often sent from Heaven to smooth the pillow of death, but not always to correct old, stereotyped, errors. Great, and long established, and extensively prevailing, errors, require consideration, and time, and research, and discussion, in order to correct them; and when God would correct his people, he raises up men for the occasion, as he did in the time of Luther, and of the age of the apostles. No doubt many died before the age of Luther, and while he was laboring, who honestly believed the pope was the true vicar of God upon earth; who, while living, were blameless, and dying, were blessed. But had they lived fifty years afterward, they would have died in the faith of Luther. The Reformation called for progress; and those dying previously, who were misinformed upon the doctrines of the Reformation, will not lose Heaven if they were pure in heart. A new age is upon us. Spiritualism, the masterpiece of Satan, is assuming a practical phase; and depend upon it, a knowledge of man's condition in death, and his destiny, is of the greatest importance. We should be able to meet the agents of Satan at present, and at hand. Beware of ignorance on this point. Respectfully,
Jos. Clarke. The Seventh and First Days.
A CORRESPONDENT sends us the following item clipped from a recent paper. It is a new device for explaining the change of the Sabbath, and as such will be interesting. We have long been waiting for something new on this question. “Our excellent editorial brother of the Journal and Messenger is entitled to credit for presenting an original view of the reason of the change from the seventh to the first day of the week, as the Sabbath. It is certainly novel, if not convincing.” “We believe that all time is estimated by its relation to the work of redemption; this world was made by Jesus and for Jesus, as the theater of human redemption. Hence, when Jesus lay dead full twenty-four hours in the grave of Joseph of Arimathea, that day was dropped from God’s record of time; the clock of the world stood still while its Creator lay in the icy embrace of death. When Jesus arose, on the first day of the week, time began again. Hence if our theory of the case be a true one, there was no necessity for legislation. The old law was still in its inherent force; but if that Saturday in which the world’s Maker lay dead dropped out of time, then that Sunday morning on which he rose was the true successor of the old Sabbath day. There was no need of a new command. ‘Six days shalt thou labor and the succeeding day shalt thou hallow unto the Lord’ is all that is needed; only now it acquires a new value and splendor as the anniversary of the resurrection of the Lord of time.” “There are many other explanations, if this does not suffice; thirty years of study on the problem has not presented us with a better.” The writer could hardly have made a better admission than is contained in the last sentence of the foregoing extract. For if the fact that thirty years of study could not produce a better reason than this for the change of the Sabbath, is not sufficient to show to any one that it is a hopeless case, nothing could. We had supposed that spiritualism was destined to take the lead in running men and women into everything that is ridiculous and absurd. But we are not sure, in view of the above, but that people are bound to reach the climax of folly on the Sabbath question. The writer certainly mistakes in regard to the day in which the great “clock of the world stood still,” and which should be dropped out of the calendar; for if any day deserves to be treated in that manner, it is the one which gave birth to the monstrous proposition here advanced. If this writer is correct, Sunday succeeded to the sixth day on which Christ was crucified, as the seventh day of that week. But lo! the evangelists, inspired to give us the gospel records for the benefit of the whole Christian church, who wrote many years after the event, and wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, have misled the entire Christian world by making the blunder of calling it the first day of the week. And this blunder has been perpetuated for over eighteen hundred years till this prodigy arose, and after thirty years of hard labor discovered the mistake! Then, with a childlike simplicity and frankness that is most touching, he throws away all the results of his thirty years’ hard labor by exclaiming in the virgin ingenuousness of his guileless heart, “There are many other explanations if this does not suffice.” This is the best I have after thirty years’ study, but there are many others, if this won’t do. These, to be sure, are not so good and may destroy each other; but no matter; let us somehow explain this thing away. It is always in our power to make a friend by smiles; what folly, then, to make an enemy by frowns. Pleasure Seeking at Camp-Meetings.
A SISTER in Minnesota sends us the following timely thoughts respecting the manner in which these sacred seasons should be improved: As camp-meeting season approaches, my mind is drawn out after those who will go to seek worldly pleasure at these gatherings. Nothing so deadens the spirit of these meetings as this one great sin. The young, especially, are in danger of losing the blessing God designs to give. I have been to these places of worship and seen some who arrived before the opening session, who appeared as though they had nothing to do or think of but to collect in small groups to have a general visit and to enjoy a social chit-chat, or separate in couples walking about the grounds and frequently riding out to places from five to ten miles distant and run the risk of being absent at some very important meeting. This they do instead of trying to prepare themselves, through the medium of secret prayer, for the blessing which they might receive. In all these associations and visits, do we hear the name of God mentioned? Do we hear them pleading with their young and unconverted friends to forsake the vanities and pleasures of earth, and go with them to that beautiful home beyond this life? We have good reason to fear that these precious themes are not the subject of conversation. If they were, the time would be much more profitably spent, and greater good would be accomplished. These walks, talks, and rides, we often hear styled “courting at camp-meeting.” My dear young brethren and sisters, these things ought not so to be. We should try to show to those around us that we are aiming for something higher and more elevated than to be a mere seeker after earthly pleasure. What lasting enjoyment do we experience in this? Not any. It leaves a sting behind, and we are conscience-smitten and feel we have not received the expected blessing. Perhaps you cannot tell why this blessing has been withheld. It is because it has not been sought. The time that should have been employed in close self-examination and humble supplication at the throne of grace has been trifled away in seeking your own amusements, and now those precious moments have gone, and you are as far, perhaps much farther, from receiving the blessing than you were when you started for that holy gathering. Oh! why do the young, aye, and the middle-aged too, resort to these things? Do you realize, my friends, that you will have an account to give for the way you improve your time while at this place? It is certainly so, and an awful account I fear it will be for some. Let us awake to the importance of these holy convocations. The camp-meeting of this summer may be the last you will ever attend. Death may come with his icy fingers and snatch you from the embrace of near and dear friends; and shall they be left to mourn as those who have no hope? I fear they will without you arouse to a sense of your fearful situation; and more fearful still, you will have to stand before the bar of God, to bear his withering frown, and hear him say, “Depart from me, I never knew you.” We would say to the friends in Minnesota especially, Let us try to set an example to those around us at the coming camp-meeting, that will be worthy of imitation. UNBELIEF is the same in all ages, the chosen weapon of Satan, being a composition of doubt, suspicion, and distrust. Refusing to be instructed by revelation, arrogant and presumptuous in its very nature, it arrays itself against God, assuming the place of judge with regard to God and his word, and bringing in its train darkness and death. It was through unbelief that Satan succeeded in beguiling Eve. His fair speeches led her to distrust the word of God and yield to Satan’s influence. After this, she becomes a willing instrument in his hands to seduce the man. The effects of the fall are soon witnessed in Adam’s posterity. The first is an unbeliever, filled with rage and envy toward his brother. And why did he slay his brother? “Because his own works were evil and his brother’s righteous.” His spirit soon filled the antediluvian world. The crying sin of unbelief filled the hearts of the people, “and violence filled the earth.” Gen. 6:13. After a faithful warning, God overthrew them in the deluge, Noah and his family alone escaping. Also, the cities of the plain were made an example of warning to after generations, God warning them through Lot whose righteous soul was vexed with their filthy conversation. As they were full of darkness and all manner of wickedness, “God rained fire and brimstone upon them,” and they were destroyed. The Jews also present a fearful history with regard to the sin of unbelief, although God chose them from the rest of the world, and manifested himself to them as he did to no other people. His signal judgments upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians, their miraculous passage through the Red Sea, the overthrow of the Egyptian hosts in the sea, the waters gushing from the rock, the falling of the manna, together with the wonderful manifestations of God’s presence in giving his law on Mt. Sinai, as well as his visible presence in the tabernacle to lead them by a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night, together with his signal judgments from time to time upon the rebellious, all proved ineffectual so far as curing them of their unbelief, until the entire host that joined in the song of deliverance at the crossing of the Red Sea died in the wilderness, except Caleb and Joshua, who fully followed the Lord. Passing the long line of judgments and disasters that befell their children who entered the land of Canaan because of their rebellions and unbelief, we come to the climax of their history in that they rejected the Son of God himself. Although he came in the precise manner that was foretold by the prophets, and did the works predicted of him, such as healing the sick, raising the dead, feeding the hungry, casting out devils, and preaching his own gospel; and notwithstanding the benevolence of Christ, his innocence and loveliness, as well as his compassion for his own people, he was a vile thing in their eyes, and nothing short of his blood could satiate the unnatural thirst that burned in their hearts toward him. And although Pilate trembled in view of the unholy deed, and washed his hands before them, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this just person, see ye to it,” yet they cry out, saying, “His blood be on us and on our children.” See Matt. 27:24, 25. A few days before, the Saviour had wept over their city, saying, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how oft would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.” Matt. 23:37, 38. But their thirst for blood was not assuaged by the death of Christ. They follow his disciples with the same spirit, till Stephen, a man full of the Holy Ghost, fell a sacrifice for the truth, when God gave them over, as a people, to unbelief and blindness of mind, to work out their destruction with greediness. About forty years after this, their city and temple were destroyed by the Romans, and about three millions of the Jews miserably perished. See Josephus’ Wars of the Jews, book 6, chap. 9. “And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” Isa. 8:14. We have seen the fate of the first house, the Jews, and how they stumbled over Christ’s first coming. Have not the second house, or Gentile churches, stumbled over his second coming, inasmuch as they reject the Advent doctrine, thrusting out the Advent people from them, as unworthy of their fellowship, as was especially manifested in 1844. And as the Jews, after their fall, had a space granted to fill up the cup of their unbelief, so the fallen churches are now having a space in which to ripen up for the seven last plagues. And to the student of prophecy, it is evident that the work of apostasy is moving rapidly onward. Spiritualism is stealthily, though surely, throwing its coils around these churches, whilst they, though imperceptibly to themselves, are falling into the snare. Whilst spiritualism discards the word of God as a whole, the churches are doing the same thing by piece-meal. Roman Catholicism, or the old mother, struck down the fourth commandment many centuries ago; but it was left for the daughters in these last days to demolish the whole ten. Spiritualism teaches that there is no moral distinction in the acts of men; that it is just as holy to take a man’s life as it is to carry him food when he is hungry, or to clothe him when he is naked; that whatever is, is right; that men and devils are a part of God, and therefore act through his agency; thus making God the author of all acts good or bad. See Nature and Tendency of Modern Spiritualism, chap. 4. And do not the no-law churches in their teaching virtually advocate the same thing? Take the moral law away, and what have we to define sin? for by the law is the knowledge of sin, Rom. 3:20; also 7:7; and where no law is, there is no transgression, Rom. 4:15. To destroy the vital part, therefore, is to destroy the whole. Thus Satan is effectually working out his design through these bodies. The doctrine of Christ’s second coming and the lines of prophecy are as carefully avoided as if they were no part of God’s word. The books of Daniel and Revelation are and will forever remain to them sealed, there being no love in their hearts for them. The great moral battle of the last days is therefore fairly joined. Spiritualism, in its present form, came up in 1848, and has scattered its poisonous miasma far and wide. Almost simultaneously with it, came into being the doctrines of Seventh-day Adventists, embracing the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, the prophetic periods and the near coming of Christ. The twenty-four years that have passed, have sufficiently developed the conflict to show the following: That the popular churches who hold to the doctrine of the natural immortality of the soul will so far yield to spiritualists and their influence that they will effectually do their work. So far as the no-law Adventists are concerned, they stand in a very awkward position. They must necessarily renounce the mortality of man and go over to spiritualism or otherwise embrace the law and messages, and stand for the truth. In their present position they are prepared for neither, and it is hardly probable they will go through the battle thus. “And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet; for they are the spirits of devils working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth, and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.” Rev. 16:13. The final consummation of this battle is just before us. The devils that are to come out of the mouths of those three powers are already on their mission preparing for the final conflict. The dark pall of unbelief with regard to God and his word follow in their wake. The dragon or paganism which covers a great portion of the earth is already in Satan’s hands. The beast or Catholicism which has its seat in Europe is also to play an important part. The false prophet or the United States, though named last is perhaps not least in importance. This being the strongest hold for Bible truth, it is selected as the main battle field. It is here the great deception is developed. When this government is taken, the rest of the earth will fall comparatively an easy prey into the hands of Satan. In view, therefore, of the present condition of the earth and the developments we behold around us, who that is standing in the light can doubt the near approach of the end? The last year has developed more clearly than ever before the last work of the two-horned beast in forming an image to the first beast. The great conflict between the remnant church and the powers of darkness must necessarily grow in magnitude and interest till the close. Unbelief in God and his word is fast filling the minds of men. “Thou shalt not surely die,” was Satan’s first, and it is his last—his alpha and omega.