Earlier text: Knowing the TimeThe Biblical Institute.
By George Ide Butler
This is designed to be an important gathering. We hope it will be made a great blessing to the cause. It comes in to help supply our greatest lack. We want laborers more than anything else. We trust this will help to supply them. The fields are white for the harvest. We must have men to gather it. Calls for labor come from all directions. We want men to fill them. How reasonable, then, that special instruction should be given to those who can be useful? To meet this want the Biblical Institute is planned. We expect a large attendance of our young men who are anxious to work for the Lord. Some who are older can also attend profitably. An effort will be made to furnish just that instruction which is needed to qualify persons to labor in this cause. Those of experience in the work will do their best to instruct those who are younger. This movement, although in one sense an experiment, is so clearly demanded by the wants of the cause, and is so reasonable in the nature of things, and intended to supply a lack so apparent among us, and to be conducted by those of such experience, that we have every reason to believe in its success. We hope it may result in giving many active laborers to the cause, and thus be an important step toward the accomplishment of this work. It is important that we secure the greatest possible good from this movement. Efforts should be made to secure the attendance of all who ought to be present. The presidents of our State Conferences, if they know of persons who ought to attend, and who are liable to be kept away, should correspond with such, and take all reasonable means to secure their presence. There may be some who should receive pecuniary assistance to enable them to be present. Such, however, should be special cases, and those in which the duty to be present is clear. This is a matter of sufficient importance to warrant careful and judicious efforts by those in leading positions. The addition of one efficient laborer to the cause is of great importance. When there are those in any locality who should be assisted in coming, that burden properly belongs to their own friends or Conferences, rather than upon those at head-quarters. Let the friends in each locality look after such cases, since their section is the one to be benefited specially by their future labor. We desire and expect a large attendance at the Biblical Institute. It must be made an occasion of great importance in regard to spiritual and mental improvement. The Health Institute has more patients than common at this season of the year. There will be many scholars remaining over from this to the winter term of school, and many will be coming in to attend that term, who will want to be here at the Biblical Institute. This church want to do all they can to help make this movement a success. They are willing to open their houses, and bear all proper burdens; but they cannot do impossibilities. We therefore advise all who come to bring bedding ticks &c., as far as possible, sufficient for their own accommodation. Those who are ready to consecrate themselves to the work of the Lord, and are eager to receive the instruction necessary to fit them for this great work, will not complain if they receive only plain and substantial fare, which we know is always best for those engaged in hard study. If there are others who wish for luxuries, there are excellent hotels in Battle Creek, where they can be obtained at reasonable prices. Neither could we advise those coming to bring their wives and friends with them, unless they themselves are preparing to be laborers also; for, however proper it might be on ordinary occasions, the crowd present at this time would make it improper. If there are those who think they need assistance to come and have not the means to attend. They should apply to the officers of their own State Conference rather than to the Review Office, seeing they are best situated to understand all the circumstances, and are specially charged with responsibilities in those sections. We believe these considerations will appear reasonable to all candid persons. We truly hope they will not deter any from attending, who should come. We want to see large fruits of this effort, and to see many laborers going forth, prepared to present this great truth to others. We trust it may be an epoch in the cause, of no small magnitude. Come, friends, prepared to enter into the work of mental and moral improvement with ardor, and thus be ready to labor for God. Geo. I. Butler.
Battle Creek, Mich., Nov. 27, 1874. MINISTERING.—
By J. L. Stone
Pure religion and undefiled is “ministering;” not the other thing—“being ministered unto.” It is handing over the morning paper to another for its perusal. It is vacating a pleasant seat by the fire for one who comes in chilled. It is giving up the most restful arm-chair or sofa-corner for one who is weary. It is “moving up” in the pew to let the new comer sit down by the entrance. It is rising from your place to darken the blind when the sun’s rays stream in too brightly upon some face in the circle. It is giving your comfort and convenience every time for the comfort and convenience of another. This is at once true courtesy and real Christianity. If we mean to copy the spirit of the Master we must be ready in every relation of life, and at every hour of the day, to give up being waited upon, and to practise this self-sacrificing, beneficent, and “ministering” graciousness of spirit and conduct.—Rev. J. L. Stone, D. D. There Is One Lawgiver.
By J. H. Waggoner
We would not by any means underrate the objections urged against our faith. Though very many of them prove only the strength of prejudice, or how far people may be led from the plain truth of the word of God by tradition, they have all the force of real objections in the minds of those who put them forth, and are therefore entitled to a fair examination. Many suppose our application of the above text is wrong, because Christ was raised a prophet “like unto” Moses, who was both a lawgiver and mediator; and in the Scriptures we have the phrases, “Law of Moses” and “Law of Christ.” We accept the facts, but insist that they prove the correctness of our application of the text. In the first place, inasmuch as the text is in the New Testament, our opposers should show, if possible, that it may be harmonized with their interpretation. Should they attempt to do this we think they would fail. There is not in all the Old Testament a law which Moses gave on his own authority. As direct a testimony as the Bible contains is found in John 7:23, which ascribes circumcision to “the law of Moses,” and this is an example or illustration of all. Yet the Lord gave circumcision directly to Abraham long before Moses; and in the following manner it was given by, or really through, Moses: “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying,” Lev. 12:1–3. Then follows the order for circumcision. Inasmuch as all those laws came directly from God, the text of James was strictly true in the time of Moses. Jehovah was the “One Lawgiver,” and Moses gave no law except as the instrument through whom the Lord spake to Israel. This being so, a becoming reverence should check the sneering manner of all those who are wont to speak so contemptuously of “the law of Moses.” And the same is true, also, of Christ. He never claimed any independent authority, nor to speak for himself or in his own name. Everything is ascribed to the Father. “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself.” Therefore Jesus said, “My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.” “I can of mine own self do nothing; as I hear I judge; and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.” “I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me I speak these things.” All is summed up in the following words: “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son.” Now as “God cannot deny himself,” and “with him is neither variableness nor shadow of turning,” he could not send his Son to contradict him, or to speak contrary to the revelation of his own will. The morality of both Testaments must necessarily be the same. A moral precept once proclaimed must ever remain the same until God denies himself, or until with him is variableness. A mediator has respect, in his work, to moral law; such as God proclaimed with his own voice, and himself declared to be the rule of holiness in life. Instead of mediating for positive laws, they are severally parts of the plan of mediation and redemption. It is manifestly true that if Christ gave a new moral law (the very idea of which is an absurdity), or gave any law on an independent basis, that is, by his own sole authority, he could not mediate in respect to that law, for “a mediator is not a mediator of one.” Doctrine Is Not Stuffed Skin
IN a recent address before the Union Theological Seminary, Mr. Cuyler said, “My brilliant neighbor, Beecher, has unwisely said that ‘doctrine is only the skin of truth set up, and stuffed!’ Just imagine St. Paul writing to Timothy, ‘Give attendance to—stuffed skin of truth.’” GLANCE for a moment at the increase in population and material resources on this continent. In the year 1700 the total population of the Anglo-American colonies was 262,000. In 1749 and 1750 the population was a million. In 1775, upon the eve of an open rupture with Great Britain, it became necessary to ascertain the numbers of the people, and the result of the most careful estimates that could be made, as the basis of taxation and raising armies, was that the total population then amounted to only 2,389,300. In 1789, the year in which the Constitution went into operation, the total property valuation for taxes was $519,977,259; the number of dwellings at that time, 276,659. In the year 1860 our population had reached to 31,443,321, while, according to official and individual returns, the real and personal property of the country in that year was in value upwards of nineteen thousand millions of dollars. In the year 1870 the inhabitants of the Union had risen in numbers to forty millions, with, by estimate, six millions of comfortable abodes. The crop of bread-stuffs in that year having reached 1,200,000,000 bushels, valued at $1,000,000,000, the country possessing fifty thousand miles of railway, with a domestic trade over six times the amount of our national debt. The increase in the power of labor and improvements in machinery have been equally wonderful. Engines of colossal size and amazing strength and intricate contrivance have been multiplied beyond precedent or conception. These iron giants, moved by the agency of steam, upon sea and land, yield instantly to the command of man, dashing on with impetuous fury or pausing at his touch. The capacity of these engines of power is far in excess of the manual strength of the human race; they traverse the railways and water-courses of the globe, crossing oceans and visiting distant seas. The elements of life are breathed into them from the coal fields, which in the United States have a discovered area eight times the extent of the whole of the coal fields of Europe, besides extensive regions of like material, yet but partially developed between the Mississippi and the Pacific Ocean. Now, gentlemen, turning from these great mechanical results, look at our own great State, stretching leviathan-like along the bold shores of the Pacific, and covering a surface of 189,000 square miles. In less than a quarter of a century she has risen to the full proportions of a majestic State seven hundred miles in length, with an average width of over two hundred. Her vast industrial, agricultural and mineral resources are beyond estimate. In skilled labor and every department she is rapidly advancing to a prominent rank in the industries of the country. She has contributed to the metallic circulation of the globe nearly a thousand and four hundred millions of dollars. Her commercial capital is adorned with massive edifices in finishing style of architectural taste. The number of vessels annually arriving is 3,400, with a million one hundred thousand tons. She is united by railway to the great railroad system of the Republic, and by the electric telegraph to all important points at home and on the globe. Splendid steamers run from San Francisco to all prominent points on the coast, to the Islands of the Pacific, to Japan, China, New Zealand, and Australia. In the near future this State will command the Asiatic commerce, will be the great mart of trade, distributing it over the wide surface of the Union, turning the tide of wealth to our shores, and placing us in enviable relations to our common country, with whose interests we are linked for all time, by an inevitable destiny.—From an Address by Hon. M. S. Latham of California. Grant Center, St. Clair Co., Mich.
By Joseph Harvey Waggoner
Bro. Lamson and myself commenced meetings in this place Oct. 21. Though the way at first seemed nearly hedged up, we felt strongly inclined to open the work here if possible. It is three and a half miles south of the Sanilac County line. The school-house is large and well finished, but preaching, prayer-meetings, and class meetings filled so much of the time that we stood some time in doubt as to our duty. After holding a couple of meetings we found an interest to hear, and the prayer-meetings gave way, so that we occupied every evening except Friday and every other Sunday evening. The director of the district is a Catholic, and was opposed to our meetings soon after we commenced. After nearly four weeks, he arose and announced that the house would thereafter be closed against us. Knowing that his action was illegal, that there was a great interest to hear, and that he would not be sustained by the rest of the board, we felt it duty to announce our appointments as usual, which greatly increased his anger. He ordered the teacher to lock the house, which, of course, he was obliged to do, but it was opened by the other members of the board in time for meeting the next night. The Methodist and Christian ministers then joined their forces with the Catholics, and the excitement produced is such as we have rarely seen. All their appointments were renewed, and thus we are cut down to three nights in the week. Fortunately we have the truths relating to the third angel's message fully before the people, having preached nearly five weeks, the house being crowded nearly all the time. It was our intention, and so we announced, to spend this week in examining the immortality question; and we think the concerted movement was intended to prevent this. As we had arranged to close up with this week, it is impossible for us to present that subject under present circumstances. We held a Sabbath meeting yesterday. Nearly thirty attended. Several confessed the truth, and more would have done so, but were hindered from speaking by the course of a man who came in with the evident intention to break up the meeting. He has been turning from one church to another to get a chance to preach, but without success. He now belongs to the Methodists (Protestants), and his course disgusted all who were present. How many have decided to keep the Sabbath we cannot tell. Between fifteen and twenty have told us they should, and others are deeply interested, of whom we have hopes. We shall visit all we possibly can this week. And Bro. Lamson will leave an appointment to meet with them soon again. I hope to return to this section as soon as I can make some preparation for winter, which seems to be fully set in. During our meetings, the weather has been unusually favorable; not a single appointment lost on account of storm, and no mud to trouble. The Lord has signally blest us in these meetings. Our association in this labor has been very pleasant, and we hope to resume work together for the winter, probably going farther up the Lake Huron coast when we leave this neighborhood. We are not discouraged by the opposition. Although unusually violent, it has manifested itself in such bitterness and in such an unreasonable manner that it has opened the eyes of many of the candid to the position of some who ought to be leaders “in every good word and work.” They have proved the truth of what we have preached in regard to the present times. And we are confident that it will all turn to “the furtherance of the gospel.” Yesterday the district director circulated a petition to shut the house against us, leaving it open for others! Of course that cannot be done lawfully, and as there is no other good place in heart which to hold meetings in the neighborhood, we have no fear that it will be closed. If it is, it will be shut against all, and they will lose more than we can. The other two members of the board deserve our thanks, and the thanks of the community for the manly stand they took in favor of justice and freedom of speech. May the Lord reward them. Brethren, pray for us. Grant, Mich., Nov. 22, 1874. To the Lonely Ones.
By J. A. Rhoades
I CAN sympathize with lonely ones as I seldom meet with those of like faith. God is my strength and wisdom. He has known my heart and purpose and his strong arm has kept me from falling. It is sweet to shut ourself away from the world and all its sorrows and cares, and commune alone with God, who knows all our troubles. I am aware that unless I make religion my great and engrossing theme I shall be a stranger to all peace and enjoyment. I have at times some enjoyment, and comfort when I resolve to have no will of my own separate from God's. I feel assured that this renunciation of self and entire devotion to God's service would give a simplicity and grandeur to my existence—would throw an unclouded sunshine over all my ways—would raise me above the cares and provocations of life, and hold forth to my acquaintances the example of righteousness, conform me to the gospel economy under which I sit, that as Christ died for my sin, I may die to it; that as he rose again, I may rise to newness of life, and feel that it is my meat and drink, to do his will. J. A. RHOADES. Protestantism and Popery.
CROLY, in the preface to his work on the Apocalypse, sets forth in very striking contrast the influence of Protestantism and popery upon a nation’s prosperity, in an epitome of the history of England for the past three hundred years. During this time, more or less, Protestants and papists have ruled alternately, the administration being sometimes Protestant and sometimes papal; and it is a matter of wonderful interest to mark how under papal rule England invariably sunk in national rank, and under Protestant rule as invariably recovered herself. There is an impressive lesson in this. We quote from Mr. Croly’s work above referred to, pp. 1–14, as follows:— The original Revelation declared the one true God; paganism was its corruption, by substituting many false gods for the true. The second Revelation, Christianity, declared the one true Mediator; popery was its corruption, by substituting many false mediators for the true. Both paganism and popery adopted the same visible sign of corruption, the worship of images. The Jewish history opens to us a view of the acting of Providence with a people appointed to the preservation of the faith of God. Every tendency to receive the surrounding idolatries into a participation of the honors of the true worship, every idolatrous touch was visited with punishment, and that punishment not left to the remote working of the corruption, but immediate, and by its directness, evidently designed to make the nation feel the high importance of the trust, and the final ruin that must follow its betrayal. A glance at the British history since the Reformation must show how closely this providential system has been exemplified in England. Every reign which attempted to bring back popery, or even to give it that share of power which could in any degree prejudice Protestantism, has been marked by signal misfortune. It is a striking circumstance that almost every reign of this popish tendency has been followed by one purely Protestant; and, as if to make the source of the national peril plain to all eyes, those alternate reigns have not offered a stronger contrast in their principles than in their public fortunes. Let the rank of England be what it might under the Protestant sovereign, it always sank under the popish: let its loss of honor, or of power, be what it might under the popish sovereign, it always recovered under the Protestant, and more than recovered; was distinguished by sudden success, public renovation, and increased stability to the freedom and fortunes of the empire. Protestantism was first thoroughly established in England in the reign of Elizabeth. Mary had left a dilapidated kingdom; the nation worn out with disaster and debt; the national arms disgraced; nothing in vigor but popery. Elizabeth, at twenty-five, found her first steps surrounded with the most extraordinary embarrassments; at home, the whole strength of a party, including the chief names of the kingdom, hostile to her succession and religion; in Scotland a rival title, supported by France; in Ireland, a perpetual rebellion, inflamed by Rome; on the Continent, the force of Spain roused against her by the double stimulant of ambition and bigotry, at a time when Spain commanded almost the whole strength of Europe. But the cause of Elizabeth was PROTESTANTISM; and in that sign she conquered. She shivered the Spanish sword; she paralyzed the power of Rome; she gave freedom to the Dutch; she fought the battle of the French Protestants; every eye of religious suffering throughout Europe was fixed on this magnanimous woman. At home, she elevated the habits and the heart of her people. She even drained off the bitter waters of religious feud, and sowed in the vigorous soil, which they had so long made unwholesome, the seeds of every principle and institution that has since grown up into the strength of the empire. But her great work was the establishment of Protestantism. Like the Jewish king, she found the ark of God without a shelter; and she built for it the noblest temple in the world; she consecrated her country into its temple. She died in the fullness of years and honor; the great queen of Protestantism throughout the nations; in the memory of England her name and her reign alike immortal. Charles I. ascended a prosperous throne; England in peace, faction feeble or extinct; the nation prospering in the full spirit of commerce and manly adventure. No reign of an English king ever opened out a longer or more undisturbed view of prosperity. But Charles betrayed the sacred trust of Protestantism. He formed a popish alliance, with the full knowledge that it established a popish dynasty. He lent himself to the intrigues of the French minister stained with Protestant blood; for his first armament was a fleet against the Huguenots. If not a friend to popery, he was madly regardless of its hazards to the constitution. Ill-fortune suddenly gathered upon him. Distracted councils, popular feuds met by alternate weakness and violence, the loss of the national respect finally deepening into civil bloodshed, were the punishments of his betrayal of Protestantism. The sorrows and late repentance of his prison hours painfully redeemed his memory. Cromwell’s was the scepter of a broken kingdom. He found the reputation and influence of England crushed; utter humiliation abroad; at home, the exhaustion of the civil war; and furious partisanship still tearing the public strength in sunder. Cromwell was a murderer; but in the high designs of Providence, the personal purity of the instrument is not always regarded. The Jews were punished for their idolatry by idolaters, and restored by idolaters. Whatever was in the heart of the protector, the policy of his government was Protestantism. His treasures and his arms were openly devoted to the Protestant cause in France, in Italy, throughout the world. He was the first who raised a public fund for the support of the Vaudois churches. He sternly repelled the advances which popery made to seduce him into the path of the late king. England was instantly lifted on her feet, as by the power of miracle. All her battles were victories; France and Spain bowed before her. All her adventures were conquests; she laid the foundation of her colonial empire, and of that still more illustrious commercial empire, to which the only limits in either space or time may be those of mankind. She was the most conspicuous power of Europe; growing year by year in opulence, public knowledge, and foreign renown; until Cromwell could almost realize the splendid improbability that “before he died, he would make the name of an Englishman as much feared and honored as ever was that of an ancient Roman.” Charles II. came to an eminently prosperous throne. Abroad it held the foremost rank, the fruit of the vigor of the protectorate. At home all faction had been forgotten in the general joy of the Restoration. But Charles was a concealed Roman Catholic. He attempted to introduce his religion; the star of England was instantly darkened; the country and the king alike became the scorn of the foreign courts; the national honor was scandalized by mercenary subserviency to France; the national arms were humiliated by a disastrous war with Holland; the capital was swept by the memorable inflictions of pestilence and conflagration. James II. still more openly violated the national trust. He publicly became a Roman Catholic. This filled the cup. The Stuarts were cast out, they and their dynasty forever; that proud line of kings was sentenced to wither down into a monk, and that monk living on the alms of England, a stipendiary and an exile. William was called by PROTESTANTISM. He found the throne, as it was always found at the close of a popish reign, surrounded by a host of difficulties; at home the kingdom in a ferment; popery, and its ally Jacobitism, girding themselves for battle; fierce disturbance in Scotland; open war in Ireland, with the late king at its head; abroad the French king domineering over Europe, and threatening invasion. In the scale of nations England nothing! But the principle of William’s government was Protestantism; he fought and legislated for it through life; and it was to him, as it had been to all before him, strength and victory. He silenced English faction; he crushed the Irish war; he then attacked the colossal strength of France on its own shore. This was the direct collision, not so much of the two kingdoms as of the two faiths; the Protestant champion stood in the field against the popish persecutor. Before that183 war closed, the fame of Louis was undone. England rose to the highest military name. In a train of immortal victories, she defended Protestantism throughout Europe, drove the enemy to his palace gates, and before she sheathed the sword, broke the power of France for a hundred years! The Brunswick line were called to the throne on the sole title of Protestantism. They were honorable men, and they kept their oaths to the religion of England. The country rose under each of those Protestant kings to a still higher rank; every trivial reverse compensated by some magnificent addition of honor and power, until the throne of England stands on a height from which it may look down upon the world. Yet in our immediate memory there was one remarkable interruption of that progress; which, if the most total contrast to the periods preceding and following can amount to proof, proves that every introduction of popery into the Legislature will be visited as a public crime. During the war with the French Republic, England had gone on from triumph to triumph. The crimes of the popish Continent had delivered it over to be scourged by France; but the war of England was naval; and, in 1805, she consummated that war by the greatest victory ever gained on the seas. At one blow, she extinguished the navies of France and Spain. The death of her great statesman at length opened the door to a new administration. They were men of acknowledged ability, some of the highest, and all accustomed to public affairs. But they came in under a pledge to the introduction of popery soon or late into the Legislature. They were emphatically “The Roman Catholic Administration.” There never was in the memory of man so sudden a change from triumph to disaster. Defeat came upon them in every shape in which it could assail a government; in war, finance, negotiation. All their expeditions returned with disgrace. The British arms were tarnished in the four quarters of the globe. And, as if to make defeat more conspicuous, they were baffled even in that service in which the national feeling was to be the most deeply hurt, and in which defeat seemed impossible. England saw with astonishment her fleet disgraced before a barbarian without a ship on the waters, and finally hunted out of his seas by the fire from batteries crumbling under the discharge of their own cannon. But the fair fame of the British Empire was not to be thus cheaply wasted away. The ministry must perish; already condemned by the voice of the country, it was to be its own executioner. It at length made its promised attempt to bring popery into the Constitution. A harmless measure was proposed, notoriously but a cover for the insults that were to follow. It was met with stern repulse; and, in the midst of public indignation, perished the popish ministry of one month and one year. Their successors came in on the express title of resistance to popery; they were emphatically “The Protestant Administration.” They had scarcely entered on office, when the whole scene of disaster brightened up, and the deliverance of Europe was begun, with a vigor that never relaxed, a combination of unexpected means and circumstances, an effective and rapid success, that if a man had ventured to suppose but a month before, he would have been laughed at as a visionary. Of all countries, Spain, sluggish and accustomed to the yoke of France, with all its old energies melted away in the vices of its government, was the last that Europe could have looked to for defiance of the universal conqueror. But if ever the battle was fought by the shepherd’s staff and sling against the armed giant, it was then. England was summoned to begin a new career of triumph. Irresistible on one element, she was now to be led up step by step to the first place of glory on another; and that Protestant ministry saw, what no human foresight could have thought to see, Europe restored; the monarch of its monarchs a prisoner in their hands; and the mighty fabric of the French Atheistic Empire, that was darkening and distending like an endless dungeon over the earth, scattered with all its malignant pomps and ministers of evil into air! It is impossible to conceive that this regular interchange of punishment and preservation has been without a cause and a purpose. Through almost three hundred years, through all varieties of public circumstance, all changes of men, all shades of general polity, we see one thing alone unchanged, the regular connection of national misfortune with the introduction of popish influence, and of national triumph with its exclusion. They say this life is barren, drear, and cold,
Ever the same sad song was sung of old,
Ever the same long, weary tale is told,
And to our lips is held the cup of strife;
And yet—a little LOVE can sweeten life. They say our hands may grasp but joys destroyed,
Youth has but dreams and age an aching void,
Which Dead Sea fruit long, long ago has cloyed,
Whose night with wild, tempestuous storms is rife,
And yet—a little HOPE can brighten life. They say we fling ourselves in wild despair
Amid the broken treasures scattered there
Where all is wrecked, where all once promised fair,
And stab ourselves with sorrow's two-edged knife;
And yet—a little PATIENCE strengthens life. Is it then true, this tale of bitter grief,
Of mortal anguish finding no relief?
Lo! midst the winter shines the laurel leaf;
Three angels share the lot of human strife,
Three angels glorify the path of life. Love, Hope, and Patience cheer us on our way
Love, Hope, and Patience form our spirit's stay,
Love, Hope, and Patience watch us day by day;
And bid the desert bloom with beauty vernal
Until the earthly fades in the eternal. Northern Iowa Tent.
By C. A. Washburn
At the time of our last report, the tent was pitched in Rockford. We continued meetings there about two weeks, but then decided there was not sufficient interest to remain longer. The people used their best argument against the truth, viz., the “stay-away” argument. At the close of this meeting, Bro. M. Miller was called home by sickness in his family. We next pitched the tent in Frankville, Winneshiek Co., and commenced meetings Aug. 28, and continued with good interest till Sept. 20. The weather then being too cold for meetings in the tent, we occupied the school-house in closing our meetings. Many were willing to admit that we have the truth, though but two voted to obey it. Bro. E. W. Farnsworth was with me till the close of this meeting. He is now engaged in school teaching for the winter. At this place books and tracts were taken quite freely, and we obtained a few names for the REVIEW. C. A. WASHBURN. Waukon, Iowa, Nov. 8, 1874. Kankakee and Iroquois Cos., Ill.
By R. F. Andrews
THE cause here is steadily gaining. The friends in Kankakee and St. Anne continue to love the truth and seem to prize it more and more. I am now holding meetings three miles east from St. Mary's, in Iroquois Co. The people seem to be much interested. Some attend who have not been to meeting before in six years. The evidences in favor of God's holy law and Sabbath have been presented, and the people generally acknowledge that it is the truth. Last night we asked for all who believed that the word of God enjoined the observance of the first day of the week as a holy day, to arise to their feet. Not one arose. Then we called for all who believed that the ten commandments were obligatory upon us just as God spoke and wrote them, the Sabbath not excepted, to arise to their feet. The entire congregation arose, with the exception of two or three boys who were too young to understand. We have good hopes of raising up a small church here. The Lord gives us some of his blessing, and we feel his help as we stand in defense of his truth. Brethren, pray that the truth may be made a “savor of life unto life.” R. F. Andrews.
Beaverville, Iroquois Co., Ill., Nov. 18, 1874. Hardin County, Kentucky.
By Bettie Coombs
Perhaps the reader of the REVIEW would like to know what is being done for present truth in this State. Brother Osborn came to our county Nov. 8, 1874, with the expectation of lecturing at Locust Grove, where he organized our little church about twenty months ago. The Disciples had the house; so he commenced at Glendale the 10th, and spoke three nights with considerable interest. Last Sabbath we met at Bro. Barr’s at Locust Grove, and had our social meeting. Also on Sunday evening, celebrated the ordinances of the Lord’s house; and it was a precious season to us each. Truly, the Lord blessed us with some of his Spirit. Praise his name! Yesterday Bro. Osborn returned, and spoke last night with much freedom. He designs holding meetings as long as the interest continues. I was brought to the verge of the grave last March. Had dyspepsia in its worst form. Was nothing but an emaciated invalid; could neither eat nor take drugs. My father, being an eclectic physician, had no faith in the hygienic way of treatment. But as I was an only daughter, and he thought there was no possible chance for my recovery, he finally gave his consent for me to go to the Health Institute at Battle Creek. I remained almost six months. And through the providence of our dear Lord, the kind physicians were able to send me away with my health much improved. I believe my restoration at the Institute has had much to do with the removal of prejudice. Some of my friends during our meetings scarcely recognize me with the reform dress on. The Lord has done a great work for me. I pray to be more humble; that I may have a saving influence over my former associates. Rome-Ward Tendencies of the Children of the Reformers.
By J. E. TITUS
WE are frequently told of the onward march of progress, and of the destruction which it is destined to work in every thing Catholic; but the observance—even the outward observance—of Christmas, and other signs, betoken something different. We are reminded now of a sermon we heard preached by a Catholic priest on Christmas day. “The world,” said the preacher, “knows how, three centuries ago, ‘reformers’ went into the churches, mutilating the statues, destroying the paintings, pulling down the altars, stripping the priests of their sacred vestments, changing the name of the Sunday and calling it the ‘Sabbath,’ the name that properly belongs to Saturday, and abolishing by force the observance of any festival that would release the mind or uplift the heart of the pilgrim, weary with the cares of the world.” “How different is it to-day! The simple meeting-house which these ‘reformers’ set up, as a protest against our magnificent churches, is passing away in fact and in name; and the descendants of the ‘reformers’ borrow the forms of our architecture from those Catholic ages that they call ‘dark’; they spend their wealth upon the construction of those churches, they embellish them with statuary and painting, and try to heighten the effect of their religious worship by elaborate music and all other sorts. They are foregoing the use of the word ‘Sabbath’ as applied to Sunday, and are re-learning to call things by their proper names.” “At the same time they are claiming our priestly privileges, they are imitating our ritualistic forms, and even adopting our titles. Let our Protestant friends take notice that all this is an acknowledgement that the work of the ‘Reformation’ was one of mad destruction, and that itself needs to be repaired.” The above, copied from the Freeman’s Journal, originally from the Boston Pilot, both Catholic papers, is a just and fair statement of facts. The Baptist minister in this place, a few Sundays since, stated, that the word “Sunday” was good enough for him, and the term “Sabbath” he freely gave to the S. D. A. friends, as he had no use for it.