Earlier text: Who Are the False Teachers?THE MEMORY.
By Joseph Clarke
“For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass; for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.” James 1:23–25. So it appears that the memory is helped by doing the will of God, while it is destroyed (at least in this direction) by hearing and neglecting to do his will. How much the memory and all the powers of the mind are affected by habits of living and principles of action, is well known to enlightened persons. The Bible is a rule of life; it affects our every act. “Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” It is surprising to witness the failure of memory upon those subjects upon which there is felt no interest, and its power, on the other hand, to retain those things upon which affection and interest demand place and attention. The man who loves this world will retain his memory of his favorite objects of pursuit; but the words of the Lord are forgotten or seem distant and mystical. On the other hand, the man who loves and fears God, and obeys him in every respect, will retain religious impressions and facts, and at the same time his memory will be good on other points, necessary to this life yet not religious in their nature. Dear reader, if you would retain your memory, live out all the principles of reform and live near to God. See John 14:26. DISPUTE BETWEEN THE BIBLE AND THE DOCTRINE OF THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.
By A. W. Cone
Bible.—In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Gen. 2:17. Doctrine.—Ye shall not surely die, for God has made your real being immortal; therefore ye cannot die. B.—The soul that sinneth shall die. Eze. 18:4. D.—The soul that sinneth can never die, but must live eternally in torment. D.—Man does not die. He is only separated from the body in which he has been staying, to be sent either to Heaven or to the place of torment. B.—For yet a little while and the wicked shall not be; yea thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. Isa. 37:10. D.—That is not true, for both the wicked and their place of torment shall always exist. B.—And the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away. Ps. 37:20. D.—They shall not consume away into smoke, for they are indestructible. B.—The day cometh that shall burn up all the wicked so that they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet. Mal. 4:1-3. D.—No; it will not do that. It will burn them eternally; but they never can become ashes. B.—For while they be folden together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry. Nah. 1:10. D.—They shall never be devoured as stubble fully dry, but shall learn to live forever in the fire, like the fabled salamander. D.—Oh! yes they do. They know more than all the living. B.—Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. Isa. 26:19. D.—Not so. Men are not dwelling in the dust, but in Heaven or hell, from whence they must come to be judged, and then be sent back again. D.—A part of the dead praise him; and the rest curse him in hell, which will be their employment to all eternity. B.—His fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into his garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. D.—He may purge the floor, and gather the wheat (the righteous), but he can never burn up the chaff (the wicked). B.—Fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Matt. 10:28. D.—There is no one able to destroy the soul, therefore there is no one to be feared. B.—But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead,— D.—The real man is not dead, and therefore he cannot have a resurrection; nor is there any use for one; for, at the separation of the real man from the body, he goes right to Heaven in full possession of all his faculties. What use of thrusting him back into that old clog? B.—Marvel not at this; for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice. John 5:28. D.—There are none in the graves to hear his voice; all are gone to their everlasting reward beyond the bounds of time and space. B.—For David is not ascended into Heaven. Acts 2:34. D.—David did go to Heaven at his separation from the body—at death. D.—The wages of sin is eternal life in misery. B.—The King of kings and Lord of lords, who only hath immortality. 1 Tim. 6:15, 16. D.—Not so, for all mankind have immortality. I conclude that a doctrine that so squarely contradicts the word of God must be false. A. W. Cone. I pray, “Thy will be done!”—my own
I strive to do:
I talk about the narrow way,
The broad pursue. “As I forgive, forgive me, Lord,”
This is my cry;
While in my heart unpardoned wrongs
Unburdened lie. I call myself a friend to him,
The Crucified;
I lead a life of selfish ease;
He toiled and died. When I should bear the heavy cross,
I lay it down;
Yet eagerly I long to grasp
The promised crown. My good resolves, like blighted buds,
Drop from Life’s tree;
The fruit that should my garden grace,
I do not see. And still, with noiseless tread, the years
Glide swift away;
And near and nearer do they bring
The reckoning day. What record will these fleeting years
Bear up to Him
Who dwells in glory ’mid the saints
And seraphim? Is it of high and holy aims,
By weakness crossed?
Of striving after better things
Too quickly lost? Of struggles ’gainst the tempter’s wiles
When oft assailed,
Those conflicts where my sinful heart
Has basely failed? Alas! and is it yet too late
The prize to win?
Must I still yield myself to be
A slave to sin? I lay my heavy burden down
At Jesus’ cross;
The gain and honor of the world
I count as dross. “Thy will be done!” again I pray;
O Father hear!
Thou know’st all my weakness, and
I need not fear. “IN THAT FORM.”
By R. F. Cottrell
When a minister of the gospel says he thinks the ten commandments are not now binding in that form in which they are given in the Old Testament, does he not know that he is quibbling? When he pretends that the Saviour, in Matt. 5, made them either more or less than they ever had been, don't he know better? Does he really believe that those “of old time” could hate a brother and not be a murderer, or look upon another's wife with impure desire and not be an adulterer in heart? If the ancients, as he pretends, might indulge hatred and lust, and yet not be murderers and adulterers in God's sight, as judged by his law, the decalogue, then there will be two classes in Heaven, one with the heart all unconverted, living in hatred, lust, and covetousness, though not committing the very acts of murder, adultery, or theft, and the other class living under the new “form of the law,” as given by Jesus, which demands that the heart itself be cleansed from every sinful desire, made holy and pure, like Jesus and the angels, whose society they are fitted for by this genuine and thorough conversion. If such two classes of character are to be admitted there, it will necessitate a partition more formidable than the Chinese wall. But if none but the truly converted are saved, then the law of God was just as broad as it is now, when David said by the Spirit, “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul;” and those who argue that Christ enlarged or diminished that law are either self-deceived, or wicked deceivers. The truth is, Cain was a murderer before he shed his brother's blood, and David was an adulterer when he formed his design in regard to the wife of Uriah. And our friends might know, if they would, that all such silly evasions of the law of God, as it is, would never have been resorted to had not “the church” (of Rome) “put in place of the Sabbath the day we now call Lord's day.” But to sustain this change of “times and laws” by the “man of sin,” no one would now argue that Jesus changed the decalogue in the least. Say What Is Well, But Do What Is Better
Say what is well, but do what is better. THE SANCTUARY.
By Uriah Smith
Forty-first Paper.—The Binding of Satan.
Among the evidences presented last week to show that the scape-goat was a type of Satan, were some extracts from a work entitled, The Redeemer and Redeemed, by Chas. Beecher. It is but just to Mr. B. to remark that while he thinks that Azazel is the name for Satan, he does not regard the goat as representing Satan, but looks upon the ceremony as performed in some sense in reference to Satan. This he thinks implied in the words engraved on the lots which the high priest drew for the goats on the day of atonement; one, La-Yehovah, for Jehovah, the other, La-Azazel, for Azazel, for the devil; and he takes the transaction to signify that subjection of Christ to Satan which is implied in the sentence that the serpent should bruise the heel of the seed of the woman. But as this was done at the crucifixion, it can have no reference to the ceremony of the scape-goat, a ceremony not performed till the work in the sanctuary is finished. And inasmuch as the goat upon which the lot fell for the Lord typified Christ himself, so the goat upon which the lot fell for Azazel would typify Azazel, or Satan himself. Another reason for considering the scape-goat165 a type of Satan is the very striking manner in which the ceremony of sending away the goat into the wilderness harmonizes with the events to transpire in connection with the cleansing of the Heavenly sanctuary, so far as revealed to us in the scriptures of truth. Thus in the type we see the following acts performed: 1. The sin of the transgressor is imparted to the victim. 2. That sin is borne by the priest in the blood of the offering into the sanctuary. 3. On the day of atonement the priest with the blood of the sin offering for the people removes all these sins from the sanctuary, and lays them upon the head of the scape-goat. 4. The goat is then sent away into a land not inhabited. Answering to these several events in the type, we have in the antitype the following: 1. The great offering for the world was made on Calvary. 2. The sins of all those who avail themselves of Christ’s shed blood by faith in him, are represented in that blood, with which he entered into the sanctuary on high, Heb. 9:12, and are through that transferred to that sanctuary. 3. After Christ the minister of the true tabernacle, Heb. 8:2, has finished his ministration, and by the atonement has released the sins of his people from the sanctuary, he will lay them upon the head of their author, the antitypical scape-goat, the devil. 4. The devil will then be sent away, loaded with these sins, into a land not inhabited. And we apprehend that we find a description of this latter event in plain terms in Rev. 20:1-3: “And I saw an angel come down from Heaven having the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled.” This is just such a movement in reference to Satan as we might expect to occur on the supposition that he is the antitype of the ancient scape-goat. Looking upon him as such antitype, we watch for some transaction which will correspond to the sending away of the goat anciently, loaded with sins, into the waste wilderness. At length we see an angel come from Heaven, lay hold upon him, bind him, and cast him into the bottomless pit for a thousand years; and we involuntarily exclaim, Here it is: this is it. With this view, the scene described in Rev. 20:1-3 can show its connections and the reason why it occurs. Without this, it comes in abruptly; and who can tell why just this disposition, instead of some other, is at this time made of the devil? This scene occurs at just the right time to fulfill the antitype; for it is immediately after Christ has finished his work as priest. Secondly, the right agent is employed. The goat anciently was not led away by the high priest, but by the hand of another person. So here it is not Christ, our great High Priest, who casts Satan into the bottomless pit, but an angel; which admirably answers to the type. Thirdly, he is cast into the right place. Anciently, the goat was sent away into a waste wilderness, a land not inhabited. The devil is cast into the bottomless pit, corresponding most fittingly to the former, as we shall see. This word, bottomless pit, in the original signifies an abyss, bottomless, deep, profound. Its use seems to be to denote any place of darkness, desolation, and death. Thus in Rev. 9:1, 2, it is applied to the barren wastes of the Arabian desert, and in Rom. 10:7, to the grave. In Gen. 1:2, the same word is rendered “deep” in the declaration that “darkness was upon the face of the deep;” and here it must apply to the whole earth in its state of primeval chaos. And we have reason to believe that it means precisely this in Rev. 20:3, when it is made the dreary prison-house of Satan. At this time, let it be borne in mind, the earth is a vast charnel-house of desolation and death. The voice of God has shaken it to its foundations, the islands and mountains have been moved out of their places, the great earthquake has leveled to the earth the mightiest works of man, the seven last plagues have left their withering and blasting foot-prints over all the fair face of nature, the burning glory attending the coming of the Son of man has borne its part in accomplishing the general desolation, the wicked have been given to the slaughter, and their putrefying flesh and bleaching bones lie unburied and unlamented from one end of the earth to the other. Thus is the earth made empty and waste, and turned upside down. Isa. 24:1. Thus is it brought back again to its original state of chaos. See Jer. 4:19-26. And what better term could be used to describe it rolling on in its disorganized condition of darkness and desolation for a thousand years, than the term abyss or bottomless pit, which was used to describe it in the beginning? Here is a desolate wilderness, or “land not inhabited,” well befitting the great antitypical scape-goat. And what more fitting retribution could at this point overtake the author of all our woe, than that he should, through all these slow-circling thousand years, be confined amid the ruin which his own hands have indirectly wrought, unable to flee from his habitation of woe, or to repair in the least degree its hideous wretchedness. While Satan is passing his thousand years upon this desolate earth, bound, that is, restrained from carrying forward his nefarious work, the righteous being in Heaven, and the wicked in their graves, and so all being beyond his power, the saints are accomplishing the work of judgment they perform in connection with Christ in Heaven, 1 Cor. 2:2; Rev. 20:4, that is, apportioning to the wicked the punishment due to each one, to be inflicted upon them at the end of the thousand years. This work being accomplished, the thousand years expire, the wicked dead are raised, Satan is loosed, for he now has something to do, and he goes out to deceive those wicked multitudes that are brought out of their graves. Having gathered them around the holy city, which has then come down out of Heaven, fire descends from God and devours them all, root and branch, Satan and all his followers. Here the wicked receive in their own persons the punishment due to their sins, while Satan suffers under the accumulated load of the sins of all the righteous, which, at the beginning of the thousand years, were laid upon him as the antitypical scape-goat. A MAN IN A MAZE.
By C. W. S.
“Editors Review and Herald, Dear Sirs: I have seen, at various times, articles in your paper, which I read every week, advocating an entirely different doctrine from the one I was brought up to believe. You say, for one of the points of difference, that I have been keeping the wrong day on which to worship, and rest from the labors of the week. That, my dear sirs, is a very bold assertion, unless you have an abundance of proof on your side. I see by the discussion in Kansas, in paper No. 17, Vol. 48, that you bound the opposite party by strict rules to the Bible. Now then, I ask you to prove by the Bible that the Sabbath was ever changed. If you can find where the Sabbath was changed in the Bible, you are all right, if not, all wrong. Proof is what I want, from the Bible, not from history; for if you allow no history on one side, you must discard it on the other. I am respectfully yours,” “Forest, Livingston Co., Ill.” Our friend Ketchum asks us to prove from the Bible that the Sabbath was ever changed. We are very happy to admit that we cannot do it; and we state further that we don’t think anybody else can do it either. He says, “If you can find where the Sabbath was changed in the Bible, you are all right; if not, all wrong.” Our friend seems to be perplexed. The fact is, our opponents have been laboring for a quarter of a century to “find where the Sabbath was changed in the Bible;” but they have never found it. It is not there. If it were to be found, we should then be “all wrong.” We state for the information of our friend that we think the Sabbath has never been changed. It was instituted at creation. On the seventh day, God rested from all his work which he had created and made. After resting upon the seventh day, God blessed it. It is a blessed rest-day. He then sanctified it. To sanctify is to set apart to a holy or religious use. “The Sabbath was made for man,” our Saviour says. Then God set it apart for man’s use. Man was created the day before the Sabbath, and was present at the dedication of the Sabbath. It could have been sanctified, set apart for his use, for him to use in a holy, religious manner, in only one way, and that was this: God must have informed Adam and Eve, the representatives of the race, at the close of the first Sabbath, that they might do their work upon the next six days, but that when the seventh should come, they should remember that it was blessed, that it was his rest-day, and that they should not do any of their work thereon; and that as often as the seventh day should come, they should remember it to keep it holy. This is the only way it could be set apart. God could not set it apart without telling man; for if man did not know it he would use it just the same as the other days, and in that case it would not be set apart, would it? Pass down to the time when God had selected Abraham from a wicked world, and raised up a nation to be his peculiar people. The time came when he would impress them more deeply with their obligation to obey him. He spoke his moral law with a voice that they all heard. He wrote it upon stone, that the people might be taught it. Ex. 24:12. He designed that his people should become better acquainted with his law by making it a matter of study. In that law he says, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Ex. 20:8, 9. Remember. God was not instituting some new thing. He commenced by commanding them to remember something that they already knew,—“the Sabbath of the Lord,” the Lord’s day, “the seventh day,” which he sanctified at creation. His following words make this more clear: “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore [for that reason] the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it [set it apart for holy or religious use].” This tells when the seventh day was sanctified,—after God had worked six days and rested upon the seventh. It refers to the very act recorded in Gen. 2:2, 3, and shows that the seventh day was hallowed way back there. Some claim that the Sabbath was not binding upon anybody till after the giving of the law at Sinai; but this idea is thus shown to be false. We briefly state the argument again: In speaking the Sabbath law at Sinai, God said that he made all things in six days, and rested on the seventh; and that for that reason he hallowed the seventh day. This working, this resting, and this sanctifying, are all recorded in Gen. 1 and 2 as having taken place twenty-five hundred years before; and that sanctifying consisted in God’s informing man that the seventh day was God’s holy day, and in commanding him to use it in a holy and religious manner. Now we agree with our friend, that this holy Sabbath of the Lord has never been changed. God claims it as his holy day. Isa. 58:13. The holy women “rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment,” which shows it had not been changed then. The prophet on the Isle of Patmos recognized the Lord’s day long years after the crucifixion. Rev. 1:10. As the seventh day is the only one the Lord has ever called his day, the Sabbath had not been changed in the last days of the apostles. In the last chapter in the Bible is recorded the Saviour’s benediction upon those who do God’s commandments, and his assurance that they shall “have right to the tree of life, and enter in through the gates into the city.” Rev. 22:14. And the Lord says by the prophet Isaiah that the Sabbath shall be kept by the nations of the saved on the new earth forever. Isa. 66:22, 23. So, my friend, we rest with you in the conclusion that it cannot be proved by the Bible that the Sabbath was ever changed. Now what about the statement that you are keeping the wrong day on which to worship? If you are keeping the first day of the week, are we not right in our “bold assertion”? You agree with us that the Bible authorizes no change. Where, then, does the observance of the first day of the week originate? Who is its author? God does not claim it. He never blessed it, never sanctified it, never commanded any one to observe it as a day of worship, and, finally, he never gave but one command concerning it, and that was a command to work upon it. “Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work”—that includes the first day of the week; for he continues, “the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” But the Bible does speak of a blasphemous power (Dan. 7:8, 21, 25) that should arise, and that should “think to change times and laws.” Dan. 7:25. All Protestants are agreed that that power is the Roman Catholic Church. The prophecy says that he shall think to change times and laws, indicating that this power should try to do something a little beyond a possibility for it to accomplish. The laws spoken of could not, therefore, be the laws of men or nations, for the Roman Church has borne despotic rule over the world, crowning and deposing kings, and putting her foot upon the neck of emperors. The laws spoken of are God’s laws; and the times, his times. Has the Catholic power thought to change God’s laws? Yes. It has left out the second commandment, divided the tenth to make the number good, and changed the fourth so as to command the first day of the week instead of the seventh. For proof, read any Roman Catholic catechism. The Bible says that a certain power should do this, and the Catholic Church has done it; and it comes right forward and says it has. Has it thought to change times? Yes. God’s time. God made the sun to rule the day; and he has said, “From even unto even shall ye celebrate your Sabbath.” Lev. 23:32. The day begins at sunset. “The evening and the morning were the first day,” “fourth day,” and “sixth day.” Gen. 1. God has fixed that matter, but this Roman power has thought to make the day begin at midnight. It has thought to change the time of commencing the day, the time of the Sabbath, and the laws of the Almighty; and in the exercise of this unwarranted power, it is unwittingly acknowledged by a large majority of the Protestant world. Are you willing to rest your observance of a day of worship on such authority? The prophetic word has given us warning of this in advance. It has also indicated that there would, in the last days, be a rallying among God’s people to repair this breach that has been made in the law of God, and a grand reform upon the observance of God’s holy day. “Thou shalt be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in, if thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable.” The Catholic Church has made a breach in the law, taking out the fourth commandment and putting in one of her own; and she, with her Protestant daughters, has her feet on the Sabbath. Take it off, says the Lord, “and thou shalt be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in.” These, my friend, are some of the reasons why we observe the seventh day. We have many more. May the Lord bless you in your search for truth. With one or two testimonies we close. “The law of the Lord is perfect.”—David. “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”—Jesus. The seventh-day Sabbath is in that law, and no man can get it out. c. w. s. REPORT FROM SWITZERLAND.
By John Nevins Andrews
My last report to the REVIEW, accompanied by a report from Bro. Ertzenberger, having never appeared, has, I suppose, been lost. The readers of the REVIEW, however, know that we have commenced the publication of a paper in the French language. We have just completed and placed in the mail the fifth number of our paper. We send to about four hundred families located in Switzerland, Italy, France, Germany, Holland, Poland, England, Scotland, Canada, and the United States. This is indeed but a small list, but we thank God that it is even so large. Each issue of our paper has been sent to a considerable number of new names. Letters have come from Paris and Lyons in France, from Geneva and other places in Switzerland, and from several persons in England, all of whom are entire strangers, asking for our paper. We have no certain knowledge in the most of these cases how they learned that such a paper is in existence. A few state, however, that they have seen a copy in the hands of some one, and that they desire to receive it regularly. This work has been entered upon with no spirit of vain confidence, but in fear and trembling and with much prayer. We believe that the angels of God have aided in this work, and that the Spirit of God has been present to direct in the preparation of the matter for each number. We have joined prayer with severe labor. We have labored to the utmost extent, that our part of the work might be done in the best manner possible, and we have cried to God that he would bless the feeble and imperfect effort that we have made. And thus laboring God has added his blessing. The services of brethren Bourdeau and Aufranc have been laborious and invaluable. I gratefully acknowledge their assistance which to me has been indispensable. Besides what has been already published of Bro. Bourdeau’s translations, we have several tracts which he has translated for publication. He has now removed with his family to southern France, and so we are permanently separated in our labors. From his letters we are led to hope that he will meet with great success in his new field of labor. Our prayers ascend daily to God in his behalf. Bro. Aufranc devotes a considerable part of each day to teaching, but he takes much time to render service in the preparation of the paper. As we are situated at a considerable distance from our Swiss brethren, they cannot render us personal assistance; and so everything connected with the publication of the paper comes upon three or four persons. With the disadvantages under which I have had to labor, this work has consumed all my time and strength, and it has even been difficult to keep up with the most necessary work. I hope that the Lord will raise up help for us, that I may be able to spend a portion of my time in the field. Should Bro. Willie C. White come to Europe, it will be a great accession to our strength, and will be the occasion of joy to us in the Lord. Bro. Ertzenberger is laboring with unwearied patience and with ardent zeal. He has to struggle with disadvantages, but the work in Germany is all the time gaining strength. It is now a matter of great interest to me to reach the point of time when in the providence of God it will be possible to have a German edition of our paper. This will be a great advance in our work, but we hope with God’s blessing that it will be accomplished at no distant day. Could our brethren know what disadvantages we experience in the publication of our paper in having no office nor printing press of our own, they would realize the importance of what Bro. White has said concerning an office to be owned by our people. I do not know that there are more than half a dozen printing presses in this city that are large enough to print our paper. Of these I have had to try four. Our third number is the poorest specimen of printing that we have had. Yet on no number have I bestowed so great pains. I stood over the power press all day and had to stop it at least fifty times. Now we are able to print in the same office where our type is set, and this will save much trouble to us. I do not like to write of such matters, but I know that our friends wish to know what we are doing, and that they have a right to know. It can seem very interesting to them to know that we are struggling to master French and German, and that our work is composing, translating, reading proof, looking after the details of all sorts, mailing papers, etc., etc. Yet this very work must be done, and on its faithful execution depends our success. We hope the Judgment will show that we have done what we could. J. N. Andrews. At a meeting called for that purpose on Tuesday evening, Nov. 14, Bro. James Sawyer was solemnly set apart to the work of the ministry. Bro. White spoke to the people for the last time, as he expects, for two winters. His closing remarks were very touching. He spoke of the great freedom that he had enjoyed in preaching the word since coming east of the Rocky Mountains last spring, and especially in speaking to the church at Battle Creek. He remarked that he had talked plainly to them, but that he had done it for their good. He expressed his confidence in this church and said that there is no people on earth that has his confidence more fully than they have. He exhorted them to faithfulness, and assured them that he would remember them at the throne of grace. Bro. Smith responded in a few appropriate words. He said that his heart was in unison with the feelings of Bro. White; that as Bro. and Sr. White should go upon their journey westward, his prayers should go with them that God might sustain them and bless them in their labors for the good of the cause. He then called upon all in the house who wished to express like feelings to manifest it by arising. The hearty, full response from the rising congregation gave the recipient of those kind wishes a pleasure which he said he should treasure up in his memory as long as life should last. The hurried packing of the forenoon was done, and the company, composed of Bro. and Sr. White, Sr. Hall, Bro. S. H. King and wife, Bro. O. B. Jones and son, Alice and Ida Canfield and Della Frisbie, three young ladies who have been faithful hands in the REVIEW Office, and several others whose names we do not know, were taken to the depot just in season for the western-bound train. At 1:17, P. M. we heard the rumbling of the wheels, and filling the windows in the south end of the three Office buildings, where we could watch the departing train, our corps of helpers waved their handkerchiefs with many a good wish for the dear friends and servants of God who were rapidly being borne from our sight. Our prayers go with them. May they safely arrive in Oakland, where a welcome greeting has long been awaiting them; and from that sunny coast, may the servants of God be able to send out words of warning, reproof, and good cheer, to all parts of the wide harvest-field, until in the providence of God it shall seem good to them again to visit us. C. W. S. THE LORD'S SUPPER.
By Albert Stone
In the Scriptures the sacred institution of the communion, or Lord's supper, is well attested and sacredly enjoined. Its object is to memorialize the death of Christ. It is a church ordinance spanning the gospel dispensation, and designed for the encouragement and edification of the people of God. It should be intelligently and piously observed by Christians. Its prerequisites should be carefully ascertained, and none should approach the table of the Lord but by the path pointed out in the Scriptures. The ordinance is simple in its original organization, yet nothing has been more darkened by superstition, or corrupted by the fancies of men. It passed through a terrible ordeal in the Dark Ages, and has been made the instrument of sin and blasphemy against God. Our limits will not permit us to give its history in this place. Suffice it to say, it has been paganized and papalized, and the efforts to reform its abuses have been successful only in part. Christians and churches of the nineteenth century are divided, they do not see alike in this matter. True, the ordinance itself is relieved from most of its abuses, but its prerequisites are not rightly understood by all. The apostolic platform has not been reached by all since the rise of the man of sin. Demoralization will inevitably continue till that platform is reached, and all stand upon it. To attain such a position the New Testament is the only safe guide. If we go back to primitive times, we may behold a model church, called into being under the immediate supervision of our Lord and his inspired apostles. To ascertain the characteristics of the apostolic church would be to ascertain the prerequisites to a participation of the Lord's supper. Evidently the apostolic church consisted of a body of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel, observing the ordinances of Christ, and governed by his laws. But the uniform faith and external fellowship that characterized the churches in the days of the apostles, and gave validity and blessing to the ordinance in question, is wanting in the churches of our time. Primitive unity needs to be restored. Then the external fellowship will follow as a matter of course. The exhortation of the apostle to “stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel,” if heeded as it should be, would accomplish this desirable end. St. Paul, in the 4th chapter of Ephesians, has laid open the subject of church unity, and points directly to the only means by which it can be secured. It is there shown that it is the office of the Spirit, through its special gifts, to unify the church, not in the apostolic age only, but to the end of the world. Verse 8 states the fact that gifts have been bestowed on the church. Verse 11 enumerates and names them as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Verse 12 tells what they are given for: “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” Verse 13 tells how long they were to continue: “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” Some of these gifts are appreciated and acknowledged by the Christian world, others are denied and neglected. The spirit of prophecy is not allowed by the sentiment of Protestants to come this side of the apostles. By what authority are these gifts divided? They must all have ceased with the apostles, or they must all have been continued. See Matt. 28:19, 20; Mark 16:15, 18. To whatever imputations a strict adherence to the teachings of Christ may subject us, it is better to suffer them than to sin. A deviation in deference to modern error, however conscientiously maintained, is neither charity nor Christian wisdom. ALBERT STONE. OUR QUOTA.
By H. A. St. John
It was the judgment of the General Conference in its recent extra session, that diligent and earnest efforts should be made immediately; to extend greatly the circulation of our periodicals, especially the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, and HEALTH REFORMER. To bring this about, a committee was appointed to apportion the work to the different Conferences according to their membership. The following is the quota assigned to Ohio: The SIGNS OF THE TIMES, 467; HEALTH REFORMER, 467. To obtain this number of new subscribers, very active and persevering efforts must be made by many persons. We may not be able to reach the stated number, but perhaps it is well to set the standard high. Let every member resolve that with the Lord’s blessing he will obtain at least one subscriber for the SIGNS OF THE TIMES at $1.50, and one for the HEALTH REFORMER at seventy-five cents; and the work is then more than half done. Let the elders of all our churches get this work in operation at once. Sabbath-keepers are expected to pay $2.00 for SIGNS, and $1.00 for REFORMER. We expect to get agents in this work who will go entirely away from our churches. The territory within reach of churches should not be occupied by canvassers, but left to the brethren and sisters generally. Let the good work begin at once and all through the Society. Pass the money and names with address into the hands of your director. Now who will be the first to respond with their quota?