p. 19 | Review and Herald, Vol. 46, No. 3. (7/15/1875)

Emotional Religion.

Genuine religion is not so much a matter of feeling as of principle. It begins in right thinking, develops itself in right acting, and ends in a condition of love to God and good will toward men. The attempt to violate this order and to jump at once into the enjoyment of results which are only to be reached by long and patient labor, is a mistake which causes most of the discredit into which religion and its advocates have fallen with the world at large. The transient excitement produced by singing, praying, and impassioned exhorting, which multitudes esteem the chief element of religious experience, is found in practice to be of so little avail in making men honest and good that it has ceased to command the respect of sensible people, and the real article of which it is a counterfeit comes to be despised along with it.

Whatever gushing orators and sensational preachers may say to the contrary, it is no more possible, in the ordinary course of things, to pass directly from a state of sinfulness into a truly religious state than it is for a confirmed invalid to be at once restored to health. There have, it is true, been cases of miraculous spiritual, as of miraculous corporeal, healing, but they do not occur often. The only means that can be relied on, as a rule, to effect a radical and permanent cure requires time for its application. The spiritual teacher who promises instant salvation to his followers is as much of a quack as the self-styled physician who advertises to cure diseases by simply giving his pills, without change of diet or interference with business. Both may succeed in giving temporary relief; but both in the end are sure to leave their patients worse off than they found them.

In religion, as in the management of bodily health, the one great point to be steadily kept in view is abstinence from sin. Every physician of experience knows that if men would only refrain from improper eating, drinking, and exposure, nine-tenths of the sickness of the world would immediately cease; and the remaining tenth would not be slow in passing away likewise. The science of medicine is every day becoming less one of drug-giving and more one of regimen. To find out the cause of sickness and put a stop to it, is seen to be a much more sensible proceeding than to let the cause go on working, and only try to remedy its effects. When the teachers of religion come to the same conclusion, they will have reason to expect success in their efforts to reform the world, and not before.

Christianity, the prevailing religion of this country, is, as we all know, based upon Judaism. Its founder emphatically declared that he did not come to abrogate the Jewish law, but to explain and amplify it. The basis of that law is the ten commandments, which both Jew and Christian accept as still binding, and which, indeed, are an integral portion of every religion in the world. Of these ten commandments, all but one point out sins which are not to be committed, without saying anything of church-going, revivals, prayer-meetings, or hearing sermons. We are commanded not to worship other than the one true God, not to take his name in vain, not to labor on the Sabbath day, not to steal, nor tell lies, nor murder, nor commit adultery, and, finally, not to cherish even the desire of doing such things. It requires no argument to show that if men would only faithfully follow these few simple precepts, there would be an end of sin, and earth would become like Heaven.

The difficulty is that, simple as these laws appear to be, they are amazingly hard to obey in practical life, and all sorts of expedients have been invented to get around them. In devising these expedients none have been more zealous than the ministers of religion themselves. One fiction which they have popularized is that it is impossible to obey the commandments, and that, therefore, obedience is not necessary. As if God would trifle with his creatures by enjoining upon them an impossibility! Another fiction is that membership in certain ecclesiastical organizations is a protection against the consequences of disobedience—a kind of insurance policy, as it were, against hell fire. Another is, that no matter what sins we commit, Jesus Christ has suffered our punishment for us, and therefore we shall escape. To come fairly and squarely out with the scriptural doctrine, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die,” is the last thing that seems to be thought of.

Of course it has been found that none of these devices are successful in producing that peace and joy and contentment which are the fruits of a truly religious life, and further measures have had to be resorted to to supply the deficiency. To continue the parallel of the body and the soul, the glow of health being wanting, its absence has been supplied by stimulants; just as the glutton takes brandy to relieve his indigestion, or as opium is administered to destroy the sense of pain. It is not too much to say that nine-tenths of the existing machinery of religion has had its origin in the effort to produce a semblance of genuine fervor in breasts which are so filled with natural bad passions that there is no room for heavenly affections. The corporeal titillation of exquisite music and architecture, the thrill of oratory, and the rousing fervor of congregational singing, are made to do duty for the nobler and higher earnestness that results from a life of strict obedience to the law of God. And the consequence is that, with millions, religion, as we have said, has come to be regarded as an affair of the emotions alone, without any necessary connection with honesty and virtue. It is seen that there is no incompatibility between the most fervid religious experiences and thorough scoundrelism in every-day life. Eminent church-going Christians and eloquent talkers about their love to Jesus, their sweet outpourings of soul, and their ecstatic enjoyment of heavenly contemplation, are found to be none the less corrupt politicians, dishonest merchants, tricky lawyers, and bad husbands, fathers, and citizens generally. If abstinence from sin, in obedience to the divine laws, were made, as it ought to be, the chief and prominent element of religious life, all this would be avoided. If the world saw that the professors and ministers of religion were careful not to lie, defraud, indulge in revenge and adultery, nor in any way to wrong their fellow-men, they would respect them accordingly; and their display of religious emotion, instead of exciting contempt, as it now too often does, would lead to a desire to share in its enjoyment.—Sel.

“Search the Scriptures.”

The simplicity of Scripture is a theme of frequent encomium; nor is there any danger that it will be too highly appreciated; but there is a danger that it may be too exclusively appreciated. The Bible is so simple that he who runs may read; but it is so difficult that only he who sits long and thoughtfully over it may most profitably study it; it yields its ripest and best fruit only to the student. It is like a fruitful field which gives a rich yield even to the hoe, but best repays the deep ploughing; or like a gold country, where the more superficial traveler may pick up shining particles of precious metal in the sands, but where only the miner with pick and hammer, breaking up the hard quartz, gets the best nuggets.

We give three reasons why you should make the Bible not merely a reading book, but also a study book.

1. It does not present truth built into systems, but in fragmentary and isolated forms, which leaves us to gather and to put together. There is a system in it, as there is a house in the forest which the wood cutter and carpenter must construct. If the Apostles’ Creed were the whole of Christianity it would be easy to commit Christianity to memory. But God has not given us truth thus in epitome. Moses comes bringing it in law; David comes singing it; Isaiah comes bringing the glorious vision of it; Paul comes preaching it; Christ lives it. If one asks what are the essential principles of our American government, he must go to the founders, and read and compare the words of Washington and Jefferson and Madison and Hamilton; and if one would know what are the essential principles of the Christian religion he must go to the Book and cull and compare the various utterances of its various writers. He no more gets the true meaning of the Bible who merely reads without such a process of comparison and construction than he knows astronomy who merely looks at the stars.

2. The Bible is a book of seed thoughts. It is not God’s substitute for thought, but God’s inspiration to thinking. There are two full-fledged birds in it that sing like the twenty-third psalm; but there are also nests of eggs, like the book of Proverbs, that need our incubation. It abounds with apothegms, parables, proverbs, and paradoxes, which do not reveal their meaning at a glance. The sermon on the mount is a model of simplicity in preaching. So it is. But there are verses in it which do not disclose their meaning without much pondering and comparison with other scriptures. Take, for example, the precept, “Judge not that ye be not judged.” It is but a superficial view which sees in this command only a warning against censorious judgments. What more does it mean? Take your concordance, examine every passage where the verb “judge” appears, and decide for yourself.

3. The themes of which the Bible treats are the grandest in the realm of thought. They transcend the reason; they transcend the imagination. It deals with experiences which defy description, with a heart-life which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor the imagination of man conceived. It deals with the invisible world, in which every new discovery opens boundless fields for further discovery still beyond.

Take the simplest and most fundamental truth in the Bible, the existence, character, and attributes of a living, personal, present God, a God regnant in nature, a God dwelling in the hearts of those that will humbly receive him. The utmost study never can fathom the depths of the Divine Being; never can measure the length and breadth and depth and height of the love of God. The mere reader of the Bible is like the mere traveler on the ocean, who sees the surface of the waves. The student of the Bible is like one who takes measuring instruments and sounds the ocean depths and studies its hidden currents, and brings from its depths its secret treasures. It is only by the study of the Bible that its teachings concerning the character of the incomprehensible God can ever be understood; and no study can ever exhaust the theme.—Sel.

God's Work.

The great Temperance Revival is God's work—not man's or woman's. If it is God's work it must be done in God's way. We have heard the cry now and then, “Let us have more temperance and less religion.” You have had “more temperance and less religion” for years. Give us rather a baby's finger held fast in God's right hand than all the stout arms in the world without him. This work will utterly perish, it will be a morning fog chased away from the hill-tops by the winds of heaven, unless the men and women who are engaged in it know their weakness and their strength; their utter weakness in themselves; their omnipotence when, as little children, they lean on God.

“Child of My love lean hard; And let me feel the pressure of thine hand.” —The Morning, a new monthly journal.

God Wants You.

By D. T. Taylor

O men and women, God wants you! A mighty conflict is in progress. It is the war of the centuries between truth and falsehood, holiness and sin, good and evil, God and the devil. This conflict deepens. There is not a soul on earth who does not bear a part in it. Each and every one is for or against; neutral positions in this war, there are none. He or she that is idle is against God; and to be against him is to be in peril of irretrievable loss, for Jehovah will at last certainly win. There is so much to do and so short a time in which to do it, that to do nothing is a crime of the deepest dye. Besides, to sit down and sit still is personally perilous. Resist, or be swept away. All may, and should work. Wisdom cries, Work well. Some can do much; others but little; each can do something; all can do more than they dream.

Mankind are treading the verge of a wonderful age. Mighty foes heave and toss society. Mighty activities accelerate its masses to a pitch of speed absolutely headlong. Rest or calm there is none. Hurry, hurry, haste, haste, goads on all men. A trumpet-call sounds, “To arms!” Under a blood-stained banner or beneath a black flag all are ranging. What are you doing? Where is your place? Come out of your hiding, come into the light. Report for active service. You are wanted in the King’s grand army. Cling to the evil, and you will go down in the swift-coming struggle. Awake! Bestir thyself. Fold not your arms in lazy lock. At the foe. Dare to do right, dare to be true. Do your own work. No other can do it for you. The conflict intensifies as the age’s end approaches. It is the last age of sin’s reign on the earth. The sinful cherub rages, and his dragon voice roars hideously. His day of doom is fast nearing. Men may well be alarmed at his fury and power, but God is not alarmed. God’s hour of eternal victory cometh. The storm will end in glorious, ceaseless calm; all that sin has disjointed and marred shall return sweetly into its assigned place, and be restored to its old-time beauty. The conqueror shall rest from toil, and wear the laurels of the hard-won fight.

Once more I charge you that you are wanted in this sacred war. Again, I say, Do something for God. Do it, even though it is but a little. Enlist, not for a day nor an hour, but for life. Join the thinned ranks of the holy. Inquire reverently, “Lord what more can I do?” Do nothing rashly nor impetuously, but in the calmness of assured hope and conscious salvation. “Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.” To the warriors on Time’s battle fields, Eternity’s day will be long, its throne will be sure, and its rest will be sweet. The King cries, “Behold I come quickly, to give to every man according as his work shall be.” Then work, O reader, work for your Lord; he wants you!—D. T. TAYLOR, in The Christian.

The Rights of Home.

By Sid

OUR homes have certain rights, of which, by a strange inconsistency in this age of fierce clamor for rights, individual and universal, they are often defrauded. In the first place, they have a right to us. Not only to our presence in the household room or at the dinner table, but to our presence as an influence within them. Everybody is aware of that dual quality of the mind which gives it a sort of double aspect, and makes it quite possible for a person to be in two places at a time, apparently; for example, Mr. Jones has returned from business, it being five in the afternoon. His coat and hat are hanging in the hall; he has put on the dressing-gown and slippers carefully laid out for him by his wife, and he is sitting in his easy chair listlessly holding the evening paper. “Hush, children, pa is tired,” whispers Mrs. Jones as the little ones make a noise in their play, and she casts a compassionate glance at the tired face. It would not be so tired, if Mr. Jones himself were there. The fact is, that for the time he is really absent, within calling distance it is true, but so far as his true self is concerned, he is in the Stock Exchange. The things that occupied him at noon, occupy him now; he hears a babel of voices, and sees anxious, hurried faces, and rouses with a start and coming-back feeling to the fact that he is in his own parlor, only when the bell rings for tea.

Hundreds of men do this every day. They have no time to get acquainted with their children. They see, in a general way, that they are clean and wholesome-looking; they pay quarterly school bills, and they grudge no expense in the matter of shoes and overcoats. They dimly remember that they once courted their wives, and said tender things in pleasant parlors, where the cheerful gas-light shed its glow, or on moonlight evenings under rustling leaves. The time for that has quite gone by, and they would feel as bashful as a school boy reciting a piece were they to essay a compliment now to the lady at the other end of the table. They have forgotten that home has its inalienable rights, and among them first and chiefest, the right to their personal presence. Nothing rests a man or woman who has been busy about one set of things, better than a total change of employment or feeling. A nap on the lounge is all very well; but, after a half-hour of it, if the most tired man will shake off dull sleep, and have a romp with the children, or a game of bo-peep with the baby, he will be rested much more thoroughly than if he drowse away the whole evening, as too many business men do.

Our homes have a right to cheerfulness. There is no skeleton in the closet worse than a gloomy temper. We have known households which were always under an eclipse, because some one member chose to consider herself a continual martyr. It was not a slip of the pen that made use of the feminine pronoun here; for, we say it with all deference to the gentle sex, women are given to the sulks far more generally than men. A man flames up, and is done with it, if he happen to have an irascible temper; but a woman nurses her wrath to keep it warm, and smoulders away like a fire that means to be a long time going out. Now, neither men nor women belonging to a family have a right, however they enjoy it themselves, to wear long faces, and injured looks, and funeral aspects, in the privacy of their domestic circle. Be cross, if you please, anywhere else, but at home be cheerful, patient, and considerate.

OUR homes have another right, too, which is sometimes lost sight of. They are our castles, of course; but, unlike the castles of the Middle Ages, they are not surrounded by moats, and approached by drawbridge and portcullis. They have only a thin door between themselves and the outer world, and it is well that the magnetic tide of communication between the world and them should not be interrupted. To this end, let them be flooded with good reading. There is no extravagance in taking several newspapers, in having new books, and in buying pictures and chromos. When these shall be thought necessities, and some of our present necessities in the way of dress and food shall be called luxuries, our homes will be perceptibly elevated.—Sid.

Meeting on the Rock of Christ

If Christians meet on the Rock Christ as Christians, they will be happy with each other; but if on the sands of disputation, they raise a troublesome dust.

The Sparta, Wis., Camp-Meeting.

By Uriah Smith

This was the second Wisconsin camp-meeting of this season, yet it was decided by those who have labored in the State to be the largest camp-meeting ever held in Wisconsin. Twenty-one tents were up, and four hundred or more different Sabbath-keepers were present during the course of the meeting. These were largely new converts from churches in the northern part of the State, recently raised up by a few men, mostly young in both years and experience, who have gone forth with our publications and found many noble hearts who have cordially received, and fervently love, the glorious present truth. Probably not more than half a dozen who attended the southern Wisconsin meeting at Monroe were present at this meeting. By means of the two meetings, therefore, between seven and eight hundred Sabbath-keepers in that State have had the privilege of enjoying the blessings to be derived from a camp-meeting.

We have never seen together a company of the friends of the cause who seemed to prize the truth more highly, or who were more joyful in the light they had received. Their testimonies were fervent, intelligent, free from discouragement, and cheerful in the Lord. Some of the best social meetings were enjoyed on this occasion that we have attended at any of the camp-meetings.

Fifty-two came forward for prayers. After the service Sunday afternoon, thirty-one were baptized in the pleasant stream that skirted the camp-ground. This was a scene long to be remembered by those who witnessed it. The river here forms a half circle, and from the edge of the camp-ground down to the water, the bank was twenty or twenty-five feet in hight. Probably not less than twenty-five hundred persons were present, lining all the circular bank, and having a fine view of the baptismal ceremony. They maintained the best of order and decorum, while Bro. Sanborn administered the ordinance to the happy candidates. Considering the occasion it was a scene most pleasant to behold. The blessing of the Lord rested upon the place.

At this meeting was seen the advantage of being able to devote all the time to religious exercises, no business sessions coming in to occupy the time or divert the attention. And we heard from many what we too seldom hear, the announcement made with joy and gladness that the Lord had blessed them, that they had exchanged darkness for light, and bondage for victory and freedom. They rejoiced in the privilege of attending so good a meeting.

At the parting meeting, Monday morning, Bro. John Atkinson was set apart to the work of the ministry, the occasion being, like others of this kind, very precious on account of the blessing of the Lord.

Thus closed the last of this series of camp-meetings, being in all respects as good as any, and in some the best of them all. As we look back over the series of the five meetings just closed, at which some fifteen hundred or more Sabbath-keepers in all have been present, we feel especially grateful to God for his blessing that has been bestowed on each occasion. Those who have spoken the word have enjoyed great freedom in speaking; and while they have endeavored to help and encourage others, they have themselves been greatly encouraged by what they have seen on the part of the people. In some cases, we have been led to marvel at what the truth has wrought, and to feel that scarcely any limit could be placed to the possibilities of the work in the future. God's providence is opening ways, and his Spirit is preparing minds and hearts, for a rapid spread of the truth at a point not far distant.

And now we shall be pardoned for adding to these lines a note of a personal nature. It has been a pleasure as well as a privilege to us to attend these meetings in company with Bro. and sister White. In all our long association with them, it has never chanced to be our lot to thus be with them in such a series of consecutive meetings from State to State. Hence, well as we have heretofore been acquainted with their labors, in a general way, we have never been in a position to realize so fully as now, nor so fully prepared as now to testify to, the value of their labors, and the benefit of their counsel to the different Conferences and the cause at large. God has given them a testimony for the people, both without and within the church; and his providence has so ordered that they have had an experience in this work from the very beginning, nearly the whole of their public labors being identified with it, and all their interest now centering in it. Hence they are prepared, as from the nature of the case no others can be, to give counsel in regard to the different enterprises, and to at least assist in devising ways and means for the further advancement of this cause. We have been happy to see their testimony received and prized as it was entitled to be. In this the brethren have done well. They have thereby in many instances been relieved from embarrassing perplexities and discouragements. And so long as the evidence presents the same showing that it presents to-day, we can but believe that he is recreant to the best interests of this cause who refuses to co-operate with them, and stay up their hands, in a work to which their whole life has been and is so unselfishly devoted, and to which their whole past record, and their present labors, show them both to have been, and to be, so unwaveringly true.

U. S.

Calls for Help.

By John Norton Loughborough

[The following, which we find in the Signs of the Times, shows that the calls for help are numerous and urgent upon the Pacific Coast as well as in the Atlantic States. We join with the writer in the important question, “Where are the men who will dedicate themselves with their all to God, and labor to help famishing souls?”]

Although the Signs of the Times has but just closed the first year of its existence, still we learn from various parts of the country that it is awakening a deep interest in the truths of the Bible, which is followed by calls for the living preacher. This is encouraging to those who are “lifting at the wheel” to make it a success.

From files of letters received at this Office, we quote a few words. One letter from the director of district No. 6, speaks of twelve persons, heads of families, in Lassen Co., who have commenced to keep the Sabbath by reading. They wish to know if it is “not possible for the Adventists to send them help in the shape of a living preacher.”

A regular appeal comes from Washington Territory saying, “There are a few here that are trying to keep all the commandments of God. There are four of us, all heads of families, who have covenanted together to keep the commandments of God, and we feel very anxious that a living preacher should be sent this way. We think that much good might be done. We meet together every Sabbath, and are trying to spread the truth as much as is possible. Send us one to feed the sheep and lambs that are here, before it is too late. Is it not possible to have a minister sent this way? We desire an interest in the prayers of God’s people.”

Another letter comes from Butler Co., Mo., saying: “It is with feelings of much gratitude that I write this note. I have been receiving your most interesting, instructive, and valuable paper for a long time at some person’s expense, and am very thankful. I am not the only person receiving your paper here, and the influence is greater than you might imagine. Some others besides myself are almost persuaded to be Christians; and I would to God we had some way of getting pure light on religion in this country, for surely we are in the midst of Egyptian darkness. So soon as our crops are made, we will pay for our paper. May God bless and prosper you in your good work is my prayer.”

Our hearts are greatly moved by such earnest appeals. Oh! where are the men who will dedicate themselves with their all to God, and labor to help such famishing souls? May the Lord move them out. Let these seekers for light and truth share our prayers. J. N. L.

The Key of Knowledge.

By Joseph Clarke

“And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of Heaven.” Matt. 16:19. “Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge.” Luke 11:52.

What is meant by the key of knowledge which the Lord gave to his apostle and through him to his church and people? The papist would reply that power is here granted to the popes of Rome. May we not praise God that he sent a Luther, and a host of reformers, to destroy that false claim to the keys here alluded to? But what are the keys given to Peter and the church, and which had been taken away by the lawyers of the Jewish age in its latest closing scenes? May we not suppose that the word “key” here means power, or ability to unlock the entrance to the celestial regions, the word key being used figuratively?

To chosen ministers, especially, is this power given, by their deep devotion, and humility, and zeal, to save their fellow-men from the second death, and to see them reinstated in the favor of God. And in a greater or less degree, every true follower of Christ, who has learned of him to walk in lowliness and meekness, has this power. By prayer and supplication, and by every other lawful and praiseworthy means, he labors to convert souls to God.

He who has this power makes converts to righteousness; but without this power, he only makes proselytes; and thus it was with the apostle Peter and his associates. They made converts to God, while the Jewish lawyers only made proselytes, who, when made, turned out to be ten times worse than the men who had the credit of bringing them in as converts. Proselytes do no good to the cause of God; they do not get the key; they are blind, like the Jewish lawyers in Christ’s age who only wore religion as a cloak, while their hearts were full of evil.

It is a sad mistake to think of opening Heaven’s door without the true key. Heaven’s door has a lock which cannot be picked by the burglar; it is of no use; nothing will do but the key. There is no such thing as a Presbyterian key, or a Baptist, or a Methodist, or a Congregationalist, a Papal, Universalist, or a Lutheran key; nothing will do but the genuine key. All these churches have among their numbers godly men and women who have used this key, that is, repentance towards God, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Without this, profession is vain.

Sin, sin is the burden of the good man, and he cannot rest till he is free from its weight; and he humbles himself continually, lest it again weigh him down in the dust. The lawyers in Christ’s day, and many in our time, by failing to do this, fall into the error of formalism; while true penitence and brokenness of heart is exchanged for pride, and severity, and hardness of heart.

The example and teachings of Christ both contributed to form a whole system of life; and this system his followers accepted and adopted as theirs, and, with the sweet good spirit accompanying the same, have handed it down to us. But alas! the viperous race of Rome, came near exterminating the good from the earth by their errors, by their policy, by their craft, and by their power. The influence of Romanism in corrupting the nations, and thus bringing dishonor upon Christianity, and also labor and sorrow and affliction, and darkness upon the humble people of God, is now felt everywhere. From north to south, from east to west, this influence is felt in some form or other.

Luther and his associates only began the work of reform; there was a coarseness, and a severity, and a tinge of bigotry, in most of the early reformers, which they seemed incapable of throwing off at once; they had formed characters more or less affected by the church which had first nourished them, and the rough and tumble of debate with brutish papal doctors, such as Eck, and Tetzel, only aggravated the difficulty. It seemed almost impossible to retain the sweet spirit of Christ in such councils and debates as were held in those times.

It was no marvel that the reformers were severe. It seems a miracle that they did so well; but it is lamentable that the Protestant churches, instead of following out the love and zeal of the reformers, have, to so great a degree, kept up the bigotry and the heat of ecclesiastical debate and exclusiveness, to the loss of spiritual power over the heart, a power to soften and subdue men by the cross of Christ, a power to unlock the gates of Heaven for themselves or others.

Few can agonize in prayer, or labor for the salvation of men as did the early reformers. Instead of going with their Lord in prayer for one hour in Gethsemane, they rush with one accord to a place in the temple, where the money-changers are, to learn the prices of bonds and merchandise. Instead of abiding in the upper room in prayer with the disciples, they are too often in the market-place, not to scatter light, but to mingle in trade.

All this secularization of Christianity is from Rome, who, seated on her seven hills, gave law, secular and ecclesiastical, to the world, for a thousand, two hundred, and threescore days (or years) and now her power is greater than ever. Why? Because it comes to us in many very many dangerous and subtle forms. To say nothing of the apparent power of Rome, in her bigoted membership, we have a legion of errors and influences on every hand, which have been handed down from sire to son, from the sun-worshipers of Persia in Ezekiel’s time to the errors, superstitions, and habits, which were adopted from the heathen systems of the age of Constantine, and baptized into the most ancient Catholic church of Rome. And here we are; and where are the keys of knowledge? Has Rome retained them? Let the martyrs answer this question. Let the dungeons of the prisons of all Roman Catholic countries answer as the groans of a Huss and Jerome go up to Heaven.

To regain the keys of knowledge, as the church had them in the time of the apostles, the church must be as pure and as free from error as then. Then, the man of sin had not been revealed. Then, the influence of the popes and their minions had not been felt. Like some foul bird, swooping down upon its prey with terrible power, Romanism has alighted upon the earth, and good and bad have felt her influence. While the bold have fallen by the hand of cruelty, the weak and timid have been affrighted and panic stricken. Partial reforms have been effected, but the leaven of error has been everywhere at work, the Spirit of God has been grieved away, and the various sects seem weak and powerless. So long has the form of Christianity passed for the power that the gifts originally in the church have most of them been withdrawn, and the poor deluded people think it a matter of course and in the order of Heaven. Perhaps China has been more wise. See REVIEW of Feb. 18, 25, 1875.

To regain the keys, all the errors of the papacy which have corrupted Christianity and the world must be hunted out and corrected. Not an iota of papal doctrine (strictly such) can enter Heaven, for it is an abomination in the sight of God. Doctors of divinity may talk of doctrines that are non-essential; there are no such doctrines in the Bible. You might as well talk of non-essential signs in algebra or non-essential characters in arithmetic. All those doctrines which the Romish harlot has defiled by her impure touch must be restored as they were in the days of the apostles, and the church must be in the same attitude as then. While the Saviour lay in the tomb, holy women kept the Sabbath, according to the commandment; so must God’s people now keep the Sabbath. Paul preached on the Sabbath to Sabbath-keepers; so now it must be. Peter preached that David had not yet ascended into Heaven; so now must men teach that the reward is yet in the future. All the Bible authors, without any exception, wrote of the second coming of Christ, and we must now look for him; for the man of sin has now been fully revealed in all his hideous deformity, and then when all errors are corrected and all are humbly praying, and waiting, and working, then the keys, will be given as in apostolic time. See Acts 3:19–21.

JOSEPH CLARKE.

Methodism Then and Now.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

REV. EDWARD EGGLESTON, in a recent historical sketch of Methodism, makes the following suggestive remarks:—

“One of the most forceful of the backwoods preachers that I knew in boyhood used to complain that though he had carried, for six months, an English grammar in his hat he never could get it into his head; and Cartwright could never speak properly. It is said that Allen Wiley, at the close of one of Russell Bigelow’s most overwhelming camp-meeting sermons, said to that other great orator, Strange: ‘I counted fourteen grammatical errors in that sermon,’ upon which Strange thundered at him: ‘Cold work, sir, under such a sermon as that!’ Orators, these men were, of the most magnificent type, but not scholars. Some of them, as Allen Wiley, John P. Durbin, John Dempster, and others, became, by incessant study men of ripe scholarship, but in exact proportion to the increase of their scholarly pursuits and habits was the abridgment of their usefulness as evangelists among the masses. The Methodist ministry in the towns is rapidly approaching a high standard of scholarship, culture, and refinement. This is a true and excellent development, the general uplifting of the people in the care of Methodism is involved in it. What then? Is there to be a new wave of evangelism that shall reach the masses? or will Methodism be able to continue the two functions? If a new movement should take the form of a sect it is to be hoped that the Methodist Church will not treat it in the inhospitable fashion that the older churches did the young Methodism.”

He sees and realizes that Methodism has lost its power, and that some church should be raised up to take its place. He gives good advice as to the manner of treating such a sect. But, alas for religious blindness! Now that God has raised up such a people, he is the very man to ridicule and persecute them just as the Methodists were persecuted by the popular, learned, but hypocritical, ministers of a century ago. He has written a novel called “The End of the World,” on purpose to ridicule Adventism. “Physician, heal thyself.”

D. M. CANRIGHT.

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