We said that, "if the Sabbath-keeper can deliberately say to his partner, 'I agree that you shall work for me on the Sabbath,' he either flatly contradicts his religious profession, and says that to work on the Sabbath is no sin, or else deliberately makes up his mind to commit sin." Now we cannot believe, that any of our brethren are prepared for the latter alternative. For who wants to commit sin for the sake of sinning? A man may wish to do an act which is in itself sinful, but he wishes to do so, not for the sake of sinning against God, but because of some gratification it will bring himself; because it will increase his wealth—because it will build up his pride—because it will gratify his ambition—because it will promote his ease—because it will delight his animal appetites. And, for the sake of these gratifications, he wants to see that the act is not sinful. He listens readily to any form of argument which explains away the sinfulness of it; thinks it very plausible, nay, quite conclusive; and finally makes up his mind to conquer his misgivings, and do the thing.
When our brethren enter into Sabbath-breaking partnerships, the leading object is to make money. They do not mean to sin against God; it is not for the sake of doing what God has forbidden, that they form such relations; but money, money—that all-potent charmer—is the thing which fills the mind's eye, and runs away with the heart. Yet, as they cannot engage heartily in any money-making scheme about which conscience keeps up a continual clamor, one of their first objects is to prove that the thing is right; or, rather, that it is not wrong; for they are usually satisfied, if they can merely silence reproof. It takes but little to satisfy them, the love of money having already prepared the mind to be imposed upon by the most specious arguments.
They do not mean to sin against God; but do they mean to glorify him? Is this the motive, from which they enter into such partnerships? We believe we are safe in saying, that it is not. They often talk, it is true, about the great good which the profits of such partnerships will enable them to do. But this, we believe, is an after-thought—something put in, after the deed is done, by way of apology for it. It is not the primary object. But what is the value of this apology, at any rate? It proceeds upon the idea that money is the great instrumentality by which good is done in the world. But it must never be forgotten, that our power to do good is just in proportion to the moral influence we can bring to bear upon our fellow creatures. It is by employing that kind of moral influence which tends to make men better—holier—more like Jesus Christ, that we do them substantial good; and money is of use just so far as, and no farther than, it helps us to bring this moral influence to bear upon them.
Seventh-day Baptists believe that the Sabbath is a blessing to the human race. In accordance with this belief, they have undertaken to spread the knowledge of it, and to persuade men to keep it. What is wanted, infinitely more than money, to make their mission successful, is the moral influence of their own example. Thou that sayest a man should not break the Sabbath, dost thou break it? Thou that sayest his man-servant, or his maid-servant, should not80break it, dost thou hire thy servant to break it? But Seventh-day Baptists entering into copartnerships which involve the violation of the Sabbath on the part of one or more of the firm, servants, clerks or agents, do by that very act employ others to break the Sabbath for them; and in so doing their moral influence is against the institution. So far as the Sabbath is concerned, therefore, their power to do good is gone, because they have no moral influence to exert in its favor.
Now we take it for granted that, when our brethren talk of doing good, they have some reference to the promotion of the Sabbath cause, as well as to other things. We presume, that they do not suppose themselves called to sacrifice the Sabbath, and even to throw their influence against it, for the sake of other commanded duties. Indeed, we know our brethren to be not at all deficient in sectarianism; they want to see something of the Sabbath in almost every work of benevolence that they undertake. But they do most egregiously deceive themselves, if they suppose that their money will promote the knowledge and observance of the institution, without the accompanying influence of their own example.
But if their own example is not all that it should be, in order to the greatest amount of good, perhaps they mean by their money to enlist the labors of those, the moral influence of whose example will be of the most unquestionable kind. But what right has any man to throw away his own moral influence for the sake of increasing that of another? If I should hire a hundred others, and pay them well, to go out and advocate the cause of the Sabbath, he would still be responsible for the kind of influence he was daily exerting himself. He is useful, he answers the end of his existence, he most perfectly discharges his duty to God and man, when he so lives that his example is felt by all who know him to be on the side of truth and virtue. Giving his money to help others is not his duty, when in so doing he would be obliged to compromise his integrity.
Our Saviour was poor—worse off than the foxes and the birds of the air; for those had holes, and those had nests. But he had not where to lay his head. Could he have done more good, if he had been rich in the things of this world? It would be well for those who are always talking about money enabling them to do so much good, to consider what his example teaches. A pure example—a spotless life—was all that he had to consecrate to the work he was engaged in. Silver and gold he had none. Yet none that ever appeared in human form, has affected the amount of good that he did. And, as if to show the little value that God sets upon money for the promotion of his cause, the Apostles were all chosen from humble life; the primitive Christians were, for the most part, from the vale of poverty; and, in every age of this world, God has chosen the poor of this world; and, rendering them mighty by the inworking of his Holy Spirit, he has made them the agents of the most important revolutions ever accomplished, but with very little aid, comparatively, from the silver and gold of those who were rich.
The truth is, no man can accomplish any good in this world of sin without God's blessing. The opposing influences are everywhere too mighty to be overcome, unless God shall work with him, and give him the victory. He may reasonably expect God's blessing upon his labors, just so far as, and no farther than, they are directed in strict conformity to his word. The poor woman who cast her two mites into the treasury, was said to have cast in more than all the rich. We suppose that she cast in more, not merely in proportion to her ability, but because God, willing always to show his regard for the motives of the heart, connected his blessing with those two mites, and made them the means of accomplishing actually more than was accomplished by all the abundance of those who were less pure. In accordance with this view, we are firm in the persuasion, that a very small sum devoted by a few consistent—rigidly consistent—Sabbath-keepers, would do more for the advancement of the cause, than the thousands we are able to contribute as the result of the business of Sabbath-breaking partnerships.
The War in Europe.
By New York Tribune
THE die seems to be cast. The long repose of Europe and the generous consequences springing therefrom, will, in all probability, cease. For several centuries Europe has not enjoyed such a protracted peace, as from the conclusion of the Napoleonic wars to this time. The wars of Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Poland, and Hungary were carried on upon the outskirts of European civilization as concentrated in Germany, France and England. In these countries progress in the main was steadily onward. If liberal ideas failed to shape society to the extent of the wishes of ardent philanthropists, there was unquestionably a distinct advance in arts and humanities slowly through the centuries. But in regard to the war now bursting forth, according to present appearances, the end and object seem equally obscure as affecting civilization and progress—progress even viewed subject, as it has been, to temporary re-action. But the interests of the laboring and productive classes will surely be sacrificed in such a contest; and how is the war to be ended as regards balances of political power?
While economics have been applied to the arts of peace, they have not been wanting to the arts of destruction; if a railway carries civilians, it can equally carry soldiers; if steamboats bear business men and pleasure seekers, they can equally transport regiments and their arms. So, too, the same ingenuity that has made single saws and plows do the work of many saws and plows of former rude construction, has improved the arms of defense and destruction to an equal degree in their terrible machinery. The strategical movements of large bodies are also vastly facilitated over former operations in that way. The infantry does not carry on its back such heavy burdens as it once did, and moves with a rapidity unknown to the wars of the early part of this century. It is besides, armed with rifles reaching with deadly precision further than once the heavy ordnance could send its sixty times heavier balls. The field artillery, instead of being chained to the slow step of the foot soldier, is mounted on trains, rivalling the cavalry in speed, but not losing thereby steadiness and precision of aim. Conflagration and death are poured out with one shot in various ways and shapes: shells, bombs, incendiary rockets are now more destructively than ever, a part and parcel of the game.
On the sea, too, the means of ruin are immensely increased. Vessels running against winds and waves, with a rapidity deemed chimerical when Napoleon and the Institute pronounced Fulton a dreamer and a charlatan; vessels loaded, too, with arms uninvented during the revolutionary and imperial eras; with Paixhan guns hurling projectiles of immense size to immense distances, a single one of which is sufficient to destroy the largest man-of-war, or crush the rocks and walls of a fortress. All these refinements of a civilized epoch will now serve and support the dire action of savage-like hates betwixt colossal nations. The nation which can sacrifice most heaps of human bodies and inhuman gold will carry off the gory prize of triumph.
In the great battles of the first fifteen years of our century it was calculated that scarcely one single musket-shot in two hundred took effect. Even the fire of artillery was not more surely directed. Napoleon mentions battles in which the French ordnance fired one hundred thousand shots. In the present state of perfection in fire-arms of every kind, few shots in comparison with those lost in former years may be ineffectual. The mind is appalled at the waste of human life which will thus occur on sea and on land.
Not less mournful, however, will be the influence of a prolonged and general war on the state of society. Extermination and poverty materially, and man morally, will be brought back to rival the fiercest of brute creation, and the sparks of individuality and dignity which begin to warm the bosoms of the masses will be extinguished. All lofty aspirations will be suspended; for wars always impoverish the popular mind, and sink it into abject ignorance and servility, and their results are to create the vilest hero-worship in which stolid generations wallow, dead to the calls of elevated genius. Whole nations thus become the despised tools of individual pride and ambition, styled captain or sovereign—not that such a character is great, but that myriads of men are small. Wars, in fact, alone rear despots. Without them, all men would be free. Neither castes in Asia, nor serfs in Europe, nor native slaves in Africa, and their derivatives in America, could exist without wars. When huge Murder bares her arm and strikes down the strong men of a nation, the others, and chiefly the women, become slaves. The American savage, with whom war is the rule and peace the exception, treats woman as a slave; and the howl for annexation and war in the United States comes from among the masters of slaves.
In the big war upon which Europe now verges, we see havoc and tears and desolation; but its promises of popular wealth and self-reliance, and hence of liberty, where are they?—New York Tribune.
FOREIGN NEWS.
From the correspondence of the N. Y. Herald.
TURKEY.—At present Constantinople is the rendezvous of most of the revolutionists of Europe. Here Klapka, the hero of Komorn, with many of his revolutionary friends, has taken up his abode. Here Gen. Wysocki, with his Polish compatriots, now resides; and here a host of refugees, from all parts of Italy, have flocked together, each and all hoping to join the Turkish army, or in the event of a general war to return and light the torch of rebellion in their fatherlands.
The hopes of these refugees are daily becoming brighter, and they already see in the coming war the glimmering dawn of better days. As yet few of them have been admitted into the Turkish army, the Ottoman government having declined to accept their services until it was ascertained what part Austria designed to take in the coming contest. Should the latter side with Russia, the Hungarians, Italians and Poles will rally around the banner of the Prophet, and avenge under the crescent the injuries that they have so long suffered from the hands of their oppressors.
The Turks have thus far been victorious; Russia, however, has never failed after each battle to claim the victory. At Oltenitza the Russians were badly beaten, yet the Czar ordered a "Te Deum" to be chanted in the churches throughout his dominions, thanking God for the successes that had crowned his arms. At Techtene the Turks were again successful; nevertheless the Russian nation had the gratification of reading in their journals an account of the victory which they had obtained upon that occasion.
At Kalafat the Russians lost upwards of thirty officers and 2,000 men—were forced to retreat; and yet, by some strange process of reasoning, the Czar has convinced himself that his troops were victorious. If burning a number of unprotected villages and laying waste the adjacent country, be a victory worthy of the sword of a great power, then Russia may be allowed to enjoy the triumph to which she lays claim. Report, however, says that the Emperor is not altogether pleased with the manner in which Gen. Gortschakoff behaved upon that occasion, and that he intends substituting another in his stead. No correct news has reached Constantinople respecting the second battle which has taken place at Kalafat. Should the Turks be victorious, the arrogance of the Russians will be much diminished. If defeated, it will be difficult to infuse zeal into the breasts of their already dispirited troops. With money, the Turks may hold out until the middle of the summer, without the assistance of the foreign powers. Unless, however, they be enabled to obtain a loan, to liquidate the arrears already due the army, it will melt away before the end of spring.
In point of discipline, in subsistence, and clothing, the Turkish soldiers are much better off than the Russian. The latter, (those on the banks of the Danube) are badly fed, badly clothed, and in a bad state of discipline. This state of things will not long continue, as the well-organized armies of the north are fast marching to the Danube. It is for England and France to determine whether their progress shall be arrested or whether they shall be permitted to enter Constantinople. A few months delay, and the assistance of these Powers will be of no avail. The Turks are of the same opinion, and have already become heartily tired of the procrastinating and dilatory policy of the French and English governments.
The Greek Insurrection.
From the Vienna Correspondence of the London Times.
The last news relative to the insurrection came by the way of Orsova, and proceeded from a mercantile house in Salonica. By the letter we learn that the Albanian insurgents are in possession of the town of Arta; but this is, probably, a matter of little importance, as it is commanded by a large and strong castle, lying on a high hill. There is also another fortified place, called the Five Wells, not far from the coast, which, on the 13th, was still in the hands of the Turks.
Although the ferment in Macedonia is great, there has not yet been any open insurrection, but the districts of Arcania (Carn) and Antolico, in Livadia, and the circles of Ibessan and Delonia, (Delfino,) in Rumeli, are in a state of revolt. The Turks have quitted Jania—the place has a strong citadel—as was to be expected, the population of thirty thousand souls being almost exclusively Greek. Martial law has been proclaimed against the insurgents, and strong columns of troops are advancing from the centre of Albania.
Any further hesitation (says a Vienna paper) would be fraught with danger. If the great Northern Power is allowed time to cause the insurrection in the neighborhood of the Danube it will be extremely difficult to put it down. The Turkish troops would soon find themselves between two hostile camps. If ever promptitude was necessary it is at this moment. It is clear that a general insurrection, like that which took place when the war of liberation commenced, is aimed at.
Appointments.
By Joseph Bates
PROVIDENCE permitting, we will hold meetings in the following places: Battle Creek, Mich., March 29th, evening. Jackson, Mich., 31st, and April 1st and 2d. Sylvan, 8th and 9th, Sabbath and First-day. Milan or Orlena, Ohio, 14th, 15th and 16th. Green Springs, 21st 22d and 23d.
JOSEPH BATES.
Letters.
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NEW TRACTS.
By Editor
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