Earlier text: The Centurion's SonNever since the great Napoleon have the politics of Europe assumed a more threatening aspect than at present; and never have the nations of that mighty continent been more convulsed with real and apprehended danger. France, humbled to the very dust before victorious Prussia; Prussia vaulting from the position of a third-rate power into the highest seat of military glory; Spain assuming the principles of freedom amid the throes of revolution, and Russia shaking off the restrictions which jealous treaties have heretofore imposed, and absorbing new provinces in the valley of the Oxus preparatory to a march, sooner or later, to Constantinople; all proclaim the presence of prodigious events, and foreshadow the coming of still greater catastrophes. The dissolution of the treaty of Paris effected by Russia, and the more recent absorption of Khiva in the valley of the Oxus, are initial steps in the execution of a plan which aims at the absorption of a continent. The ambition of Russia is boundless. Not content with an empire stretching from the Black Sea to the Baltic, and from the Baltic on through northern Asia to the Pacific, she is still ambitious of extending her dominions, and the shadow of this ambition falls ominously across Europe, and darkens all Asia. She dreams of a mighty empire which shall claim oceans for its harbors, and continents for its provinces. The plan which has long filled the outline of her imperial policy is to seize Constantinople, cross the Bosphorus, conquer Persia, and, passing the borders of Afghanistan, dispute with England for the possession of India. Her southern limits thus extended from the Bosphorus to the Ganges, the dominion of the continent becomes inevitable, and thus Asia is annexed as a foot-block to the throne of her empire. The memories of the Crimea, then, are not obliterated. England will yet feel, in the robbery of her most flourishing provinces, the vengeance of that ambition which neither the diplomacy of statesmen nor the arms of consolidated soldiers can foil or conquer. Nor does this plan involve simply territorial acquisition; it grasps at the greatest commercial advantages. Hitherto the commerce of England, France, Spain, and nearly all Europe, with India and China, has been subjected to slow and distant voyages around the Cape of Good Hope and the Indian Ocean. But since the opening of the Suez canal, a far more rapid and easy passage is found through the waters of the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. But give Russia, Constantinople, and Russian keels will soon guard the Straits of Gibraltar and the ports of Rosetta. Constantinople controls the Dardanelles; and this passage to the Mediterranean once secured, Russian fleets or policy would soon spread Russian mastery over all the Mediterranean. Thus fetter this important sea, and the commerce and broad markets of all southern Europe lie at the mercy of Russia. Thus Spain, France, Italy, Turkey, and Greece, would be compelled to pay tribute to an empire as much dreaded as its ambition is aspiring. Truly “Constantinople is the key to the world,” as Napoleon said at St. Helena. It was the fear of this plan that disturbed that illustrious warrior, and the fear of it to-day makes Europe tremble. Had Russia less power, the specter would seem less huge and formidable; but powerful as she is in numbers and resources, the apprehensions of Europe are well grounded. The only obstacle which has hitherto prevented the consummation of the scheme, has been the Turkish Empire, backed by the consolidated powers of Europe; and the maintenance of her territory unimpaired, is the only impediment which can prevent it now. For the preservation of Turkey, the resources of Europe must be pledged. Turkey herself can offer no successful resistance to Russia. For a long time her power has been waning, and nothing has kept her in existence but the jealousies of other nations, fearful of ambitious Russia. As soon as these nations cease to come to the rescue, the terrible doom of Turkey and of the dominion of the Mediterranean is sealed. Let the fleet of Russia once start for Constantinople, unimpeded by rival nations, and the Turkish Empire will be trampled into powder. It is true the valor of the Turks is historic, but valor alone cannot accomplish all things. It may be heroic and desperate, but without material resources it is powerless. But the valor of Russia is at a discount, her resources are well-nigh illimitable. The largest and best accoutered army, a rapidly increasing navy, and the most unmeasured means, when developed, of any nation in Europe, await her imperial nod to convert plan into execution and ambition into conquest. But it may be urged, if the plans of Russia are so formidable, why did she submit the Black Sea question to a congress of powers? Why did she not improve her opportunity when France and Prussia were grappling, and each was straining every nerve for mastery? Then if ever, it may be thought, her ambition could have been realized, for two of the most formidable nations of Europe were so disposed that, if they could not be her friends, at least they could not well become her enemies. And when the number and power of her adversaries were thus reduced and weakened, why did she not strike if she has intended to strike at all? Dear as this scheme is to Russia, it may well be supposed that she is too discreet, if not too humane, to unnecessarily forfeit the sympathies of all Christendom by setting Europe at defiance and plunging headlong into an aggressive war. “Peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must,” is doubtless the policy of the Russian Czar. The submission of the Black Sea question to a congress of powers was a master stroke of policy. No one can look at the position of Russia on the map, with a knowledge of her population, commerce, and resources, without instantly perceiving the vital necessity of unrestrained outlet to the Mediterranean. Nearly three-fourths of the commerce of that great nation must be shipped by sea, and the Baltic, the only sea over which she has free control, is open to navigation but little more than one-half the year. Hence the necessity of an outlet through the Dardanelles, which admits of constant commercial advantages. Russia has a large coast too on the Black Sea. But, by the treaty of Paris, her right to coast defense was grievously restricted. She was denied the right of maintaining in the Euxine a fleet of sufficient strength to protect her coast in case of “invasion.” With this restriction, literally binding her in the South, the Dardanelles in a military as well as a commercial point of view, became to her precisely what the lower Mississippi in the hands of a foreign power would become to the United States. Had Louisiana never been purchased from France, or had the Southern States succeeded in establishing a separate confederacy, the parallel between the Northern States and the Mississippi, and Russia and the Dardanelles, both in respect to self-defense and commerce, would be perfect. As long as Russia was denied the right of maintaining in the Euxine a navy sufficient to insure her safety, any European nation that might league with Turkey could at any moment sail up the Dardanelles with hostile navies, sink the Russian fleet almost at a broadside, and ravage her defenseless coast. Thus her most easily assailed parts were exposed to the assaults of foreign enemies. What nation would thus suffer its commerce to be subjected to the caprices of a foreign power, or would mildly permit its most easily assailed point to be in the hands of a hostile nation? The demands of Russia in this respect were not only wise, but just; and it was to call the attention of the nations to these facts and to press home upon them the justness of these demands, that this submission was resorted to. No policy could have been wiser, or more effective in riving the sympathies of enlightened nations to her cause. Russia was well aware that if her demands were refused, and war was invoked, that intrinsic justice would go far to shield her from the censure of the world. If they were acceded to, she was one step nearer the consummation of her plans. In either case, therefore, the policy pursued would be beneficial to Russia, and injurious only to her foes. But aside from these considerations, Russia is not yet ready for such a war. However strong her military armaments may be upon land, however rapidly her navy and other elements of strength may be rising into power, she is not yet ready for the threatened blow. The contest, when begun, will not be confined to land and the strife of armies. The sea will reëcho beneath the shock of navies, and her white foam redden at the broadsides of their squadrons. To-day, the combined fleets of England, France, Austria, and Turkey, could sweep the Russian banner from the seas. To oppose the navies of her adversaries with her present naval strength, would be to court irretrievable disaster. She would only repeat the story of the French at Trafalgar or the Turks at Navarino. But as soon as the fleet of the Baltic shall be strong enough to protect the coasts of Russia that lie along the sea (a consummation not impossible nor distant), and the fleet of the Euxine has grown to equal power, we may then believe that the decisive time has come. And it may be, notwithstanding these seeming impediments, sooner than this, England will hear the tread of her embattled legions in India. Slowly, but surely, the work of Russian absorption goes on east and south-east of the Caspian. The clutch of Russia is already upon Khiva. Nearer and nearer the Russian eagles approach the lines of Afghanistan and Beloochistan, which will soon be the only barrier on the west between Russia and India. With equal slowness, but with equal certainty, the borders of the Russian Empire in Asia enlarge toward China and Hindoostan from the north. Thus gradually the circle of Russian authority widens in Asia, as tribes and clans of semi-barbarous people, with their little States, are absorbed by the great empire. These absorptions justly excite the fears of European nations, for they well know they bring the hour of Russian supremacy nearer and nearer to their doors. It may be, too, that the annexation of Khiva and the provinces around the Caspian, which startled England to her feet ready to unsheath the sword, had for its real object the crumbling of Turkish authority in Asia, by surrounding it on every side by Russian territory and Russian influence. But it may well be supposed that Russia will never be allowed to absorb provinces along the Bosphorus, through the artful policy of surrounding Turkish power in Asia, without a desperate struggle; but that such a struggle is approaching is indubitable. To calculate the relations of the probable combatants, or the chances of defeat or victory, would be a matter of uncertain speculation. But whatever relations the crisis may necessitate, the world awaits with eager interest the solution of the question of Russian supremacy in the Mediterranean and Asia. The above appeared in the Pennsylvania School Journal in 1874; and the positions taken in regard to Russian policy is being demonstrated as true to-day. Russia still has her eye on Constantinople, and, under pretense of securing freedom for the Christian provinces now suffering under Turkish rule, is making vast preparations to attack and completely overthrow the Ottoman power in Europe, which would be a crushing blow to the entire empire. Should the other European powers, through jealousy or any other motive, be led to interfere, a struggle of nations such as we have never before witnessed may be expected, the results of which will be awaited with intense interest. Helps to Learn the Bible.
UNDOUBTEDLY the Bible, as such, is but little used in some Sunday-schools. Lesson-leaves and kindred helps supersede the one book. Good helps have their mission. They are means of opening up and enforcing the Scriptures. But they should never supplant the Bible in the classes. President Chadbourne, of Williams College, recently enunciated sound doctrine upon the point:— “There is danger, in the multitude of books and studies, that the Bible will be neglected. It is neglected sadly even in Christian families. When the Bible was the one book of the family many learned its truths as they are not now learned by the young. There is a demand that the Bible be banished from our public schools. All these efforts and this talk, which will poison the minds of our children, make it more important that the Bible should be exalted in every Christian school and college. And especially is it necessary that the Sabbath schools should do their work in the most efficient manner. They should teach the Bible, and not merely something about the Bible. The Bible will remain when the earth and the heavens pass away; and when the great white throne is set, it is one of the books that will be opened. Can such a book not be ignored in any system of education—a book that fits men for all in this life—for citizenship, for social life, for old age, for sickness, and for death—and for that other life for which this whole life is simply an education? Let us come to simple Bible truth!” “The Signs of the Times.”
The Reformed Presbyterians have, on the occasions of their annual assemblies, a regular committee on “The Signs of the Times.” Their assembly met here a few years since, and this committee made its report, of which the following is an abstract:— The committee on the Signs of the Times would respectfully report:— The Lord reigneth. He is executing the purpose of his heart with reference to our world in his providential rule of it. Upon a glorious high throne Immanuel sits, directing all things to the issues contemplated in the eternal counsels. 1. We behold a shocking, alarming destruction of human life by outright murder and assassination, and by the carelessness of builders and public carriers, etc. 2. A dreadful prevalence of drunkenness and all the causes which lead to impurity and divorce. 3. A wide-spread prevalence of the disregard of those civil laws which have a reference to moral conduct. 4. Our day witnesses a more thoroughly organized, and bold and persistent opposition to Christianity in all its ramifications. 5. We witness the persistent attempts of Romanism to establish itself more firmly in our land. 6. These are times of agitation in the church—agitation upon matters that seem to affect our vital interests. 7. A lowering of the tone of Christian consistency. 8. The advancement of the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9. We behold progress in the effort to move our nation to an acknowledgment of its proper relations to God. 10. The church of God in her various branches is coming together. Now our puzzles in contemplating this long array of “signs” are two in number, but one in kind. First, when we look at the preamble of this report and see the joyous and cheerful sentiment with which it begins, and then glance down at the doleful signs that follow, we are astonished; and, secondly, when we have read the first seven signs, which seem to intimate that everything is going to destruction, and then read the eighth sign, which asserts that “Christ’s kingdom is advancing,” we are fairly astounded. If the subject were not so solemn, these palpable contradictions would be amusing. As they are, they are terribly perplexing, and we wish the committee would make another report and show how to harmonize its conflicting signs, for we are sure we cannot “discern” them without their exposition.—Pittsburg Leader. Definition of Bible Terms.
A day's journey was thirty-three and one-fifth miles. A Sabbath day's journey was about an English mile. Ezekiel's reed was eleven feet, nearly. A cubic is twenty-two inches, nearly. A hand's breadth is equal to three and five-eighths inches. A finger's breadth is equal to one inch. A shekel of silver was about fifty cents. A shekel of gold was $8.09. A talent of silver was $538.32. A talent of gold was $13,809. A piece of silver, or a penny, was thirteen cents. A farthing was three cents. A mite was less than a quarter of a cent. An ephah, or bath, contains seven gallons and five pints. A hin was one gallon and two pints. A firkin was seven pints. The Future Destiny of Jews, Gentiles, and the Church
In one of our British exchanges in an article on “the future destiny of the Jews, Gentiles and the church of God,” by the Hon. W. Wellesley, a nephew of the celebrated Duke of Wellington, occurs this paragraph: “Our citizenship is in Heaven. We are in the world, but not of it. We have our part in it with the rejected Christ. We shall have to do with the world when he comes down in judgment on those nations that are now hastening to the crisis; but he will come first to receive us to himself, and we shall be caught up to be ever with the Lord.” The Second Advent.
By James White
CAN WE KNOW WHEN THE EVENT IS NEAR?
No TRUTH of inspiration can be more clearly stated than that God reveals his designs to his prophets, that men and nations may be warned before their accomplishment. “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.” Amos 3:7. Before visiting with judgments, God has sent forth warnings sufficient to enable the believing to escape his wrath, and to condemn those who have not heeded the warning. This was the case before the flood. “By faith, Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world.” Heb. 11:7. At a later period, when the nations had become sunken in idolatry and crime, and the destruction of wicked Sodom was determined, the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?” Gen. 18:17, 18. And due notice was given to righteous Lot, who, with his daughters, was preserved; and none, even in that guilty city, perished without due warning. Lot evidently warned the people; and, in thus communing with them, was “vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked.” 2 Pet. 2:7, 8. When he warned his sons-in-law, “he seemed as one that mocked.” Gen. 19:14. And when “the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter,” Lot warned them, and entreated them to desist from their wickedness. And they at once did that which all sinners, since the days of righteous Lot, have been disposed to do to those who faithfully warn them of their sins; namely, they charged him with being a judge. Before the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, a forerunner was sent to prepare the way before the Lord. Those who did not receive Christ were rejected, “because,” as he said to Jerusalem, when warning the people of the destruction of their city and temple, “thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.” Luke 19:44. We have on record the Lord’s prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem during the time of the generation that rejected him, which was fulfilled in less than forty years from the time of his crucifixion. And that the Christians in Judea might escape its impending doom, they were told that when they should “see Jerusalem compassed with armies,” or, as recorded by Matthew, “the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place,” they were to flee to the mountains. Luke 21:20; Matt. 24:15. They heeded the admonition, and escaped in safety to Pella. Such is the testimony of inspiration respecting the dealings of God with his people in past ages. And it cannot be supposed that he will change his course relative to the future when that future is to realize the crowning consummation of all prophetic declarations. We accept the Bible as a revelation from Heaven. What God has revealed in that book, let no man call a mystery, or a secret of the Almighty. “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever.” Deut. 29:29. If the Sacred Scriptures do not designate any period in particular for the second appearing of Christ, then men should at once abandon the search for proofs of his soon coming. But if prophecy, in a most harmonious manner, does point to the period of that great event, and if there is evidence that “it is near, even at the doors,” the subject at once assumes vast importance. Can anything be learned from the Bible relative to the period of the second advent is a question unsettled in many minds. This is a grave inquiry, and, from the nature of the subject, is worthy of close investigation and a candid answer. How did Christ himself treat the subject? When the disciples inquired, “What shall be the sign of thy coming, and the end of the world?” he did not reprove them for prying into that which was purposely hidden from all men. No, he answered them in the most definite manner. He even states that there should be signs of that event, and adds, “When ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.” The simple fact that the Lord mentions signs of his second advent is the best proof possible that his people were not to remain ignorant of the relative nearness of the event. Add to this evidence his declaration that when these signs should be seen, his people should know that it was near, even at the doors, and the case becomes an exceedingly strong one. The Resurrection.
By Dr. H. M. Laney
HOW SHALL THE DEAD BE RAISED?
The resurrection of the dead is not a doctrine peculiar to the New Testament Scriptures. While the objections of the Sadducees to the doctrine of the resurrection may have brought this subject more fully before the mind, giving rise to a more full and free discussion of it in the New Testament than in the Old, yet the ancient patriarchs and prophets were cheered in life and animated in death by the bright hopes which their faith inspired in the unfolding beauties of the resurrection morning. Indeed, so well was this article of faith established in the early history of the church, that the antiquity of the doctrine was not called in question. This has been the one perplexing question: How are the dead raised up, and with what body do they come? The philosophers and metaphysicians of the Greek and Roman schools, whose fame had gone throughout the earth, represented that it was an incredible thing that God should raise the dead; and to-day, the astute atheist, the ingenious materialist, the vapory spiritualist, and thousands of professing Christians seem to be stumbling at the doctrine of the resurrection. Now, with respect to the first part of this question, viz.: How are the dead raised up? the apostle answers by citing us to familiar examples of a similar character in nature, as for instance, the production of vegetable bodies, such as the blade of grass, the stalk of corn, and the fig-leaf, and then tells us that it is God who giveth them these new bodies as it pleaseth him. So will he give us bodies in the resurrection; we shall be raised up by the power and according to the pleasure of God. But the second part of the question involves the identity of the resurrected body, which lies at the foundation of all our skepticism respecting this great doctrine of the Scriptures: “And with what body do they come?” Let us then inquire what is meant by the identity of the body. Identity may be defined as sameness, or that peculiar arrangement of the particles of matter of which all bodies are composed, by which we distinguish and recognize the form and features of each individual. All bodies, to whatever genus or species they may belong, when reduced to their ultimate elements, are found to consist of the same substance, viz.: matter—the dust of the earth—and their different textures and forms and features depend, not upon the different material from which they are made, but upon the different arrangement of the same material. We know that water is converted into ice, snow, or steam—each differing from the others in appearance, but they are all the same in essence. A simple line may be so changed as to make a circle or a square, in short, every conceivable figure, simply by disposing the same line in different directions. Matter arranged after a given manner will make a solid rock; disposed differently, it makes the fertile soil; and by another arrangement it makes vegetable fiber; and still more thoroughly elaborated, it makes muscle of animal flesh. This is verified by the well known fact that the vegetable kingdom subsists on the mineral, the animal upon the vegetable, and the higher order of animals upon the lower orders of the same kingdom. Then, since it is plain that all bodies are derived ultimately from the same elements, the conclusion is irresistible that the identity of the body does not depend upon the matter of which it is composed, but upon the arrangement of it. I do not identify or recognize ice, snow, or steam, by the atoms of which they are composed, but by the arrangement of those atoms. I do not identify a circle or a square by the line that bounds it, but by the disposition of that line. Neither do I identify a blade of grass, an insect, or a human body by the matter of which they are composed, but by the arrangement of it. The arrangement being the same, there must always be the same form, features, and figure. A like arrangement, in the very nature of the case, must produce a like body; and this is all that is or can be meant by identity. Each order of creation, and each individual in that order, always takes on matter by an arrangement of its particles, in such way as to form a body exactly suited to its rank and condition in its scale of being; the vital principle which animates each order and individual of creation, always being the same at whatever time, and under whatever circumstances it takes on matter so as to form a body, the form and features of that body will always be the same; the individual being the same, the individuality will be preserved, and there will be no difficulty in distinguishing it from others, and there will be no more difficulty in distinguishing one from another in the morning of the resurrection than there is in this life. But, will it be the very same body that has laid down in the grave? It will be the very same body in that accommodated sense in which the body you inhabit to-day is the very same body that you inhabited ten or twenty years ago. You have not the same hair or nails, and the particles of your body have been changed many times, but your identity remains the same. Those who demand that the resurrected body shall be composed of the exact particles of dust that were laid in the grave in order to a recognition of the individual, know not what they demand. It is the identity of condition, and not the identity of matter, that such expect to witness in the resurrection. To see the body come up just as it was laid down—the cripple leaning upon his crutch, the aged tottering, in each hand a cane, the blind man groping with his educated touch, the gouty merchant groaning with his pain, the hapless youth with idiotic stare, the wounded soldier with his shriveled limb, the maiden with false teeth and hair, and the toothless crone with meeting nose and chin—in short, with every possible defect and painful deformity which seems to distinguish the individual in this life, although they actually disguised and concealed the real man. It is plain, therefore, that if these would-be-philosophers, who insist upon identity of condition, for which there is no warrant in Scripture or reason, as necessary to recognition after the resurrection, could have their way, they would defeat the very object and purpose of the resurrection, which is to sweep away every defect and correct every deformity which sin and the casualties incident to mortality have inflicted upon us. The body, marred, disabled, and deformed by sin, is unfitted for the high and noble purpose for which it was originally designed, and the decree has gone forth, “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return;” and then, in the resurrection morning, as in the morning of time, when death has been conquered and his scepter is gone, all obstructions to the harmonious and beautiful operations of God’s laws having been swept away, with the casualties incident to mortality, the same law by which we took on matter during the period of our mortality, will enable us to take on matter to form a body exactly suited to our immortal condition—perfect in every part, free from all defect and deformity; no idiot, no cripple, no madman, no deformed monstrosity will take shape in that day; but the body sown in corruption shall be raised in incorruption; sown in weakness and decrepitude, shall be raised in power; sown in dishonor, shall be raised in glory; sown a natural body, it shall be raised a spiritual body, with matter so exactly arranged, as it was in composing the natural body, that the identity will be maintained, and mutual recognition will be enjoyed.