DEAR BRO. WHITE:—Since I have been a reader of the Review, I have many times had a feast of fat things in reading the letters therein contained; and I look forward rejoicing in the hope of soon meeting the writers with all the sanctified in the kingdom of God. The little flock in Salem, that have manifested their belief in the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus, by being buried by baptism in the likeness of Christ's death, truly appear to be of40one heart, and one mind, and we have enjoyed some heavenly meetings, since our dear brethren Case, and Waggoner left here; for our blessed Saviour deigns to meet with us by his Spirit. And though our names are cast out as evil since we have been trying to keep all the commandments of God, yet we rejoice that we are counted worthy to suffer reproach for the word of God.
Your unworthy Sister, striving for the kingdom.
LYDIA M. LOCKE.
COMMUNICATIONS.
By O. Davis
As Communications of esteemed Brethren sometimes contain expressions which we choose not to use, and sentiments which we would not advance, we would say, that we are not responsible for what appears under this head.
From Bro. Davis.
DEAR BRO. WHITE:—My mind has been led back to contemplate that work which God would keep in remembrance by his holy institution, the Sabbath. The earth appears in all its loveliness a fitting production of the work, or creative power of God. Not a tree that is desirable to the eyes or good for food, but what it bears. Man created in the image of his Maker, given the dominion over, and receiving it for his inheritance;—this it appears to me is what the Sabbath truly commemorates. This was a rest or state of blessedness having with it a kingdom and a dominion; as did also that entered by the literal seed of Abraham, through Joshua, in the type.
Some few weeks since while speaking of the Sabbath as a memorial of the first creation, or of the creation antecedent to the curse, I quoted Isa. lviii, 12, 13, 14, and while reading the 12th verse—thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath &c. The idea came very forcibly across my mind that if by turning away our feet from the Sabbath would raise up the foundations of many generations they must in some way rest upon it. And it seemed to me that the Sabbath did commemorate that which was the hope, the original inheritance, the paradisiacal state, of the many generations who like Abraham looked for a city whose maker and builder is God; which foundation or consummation of hope has been overlooked, as its memorial has been trampled upon in these latter days.
If this view be correct, the Sabbath is a seal of faith from its own character. For instance: Baptism being a memorial of the resurrection of Christ, or sign of it, becomes a seal of faith in the resurrection, when rightly received. The Sabbath, then, being a memorial of the first creation, that which was lost in Adam, (and it commemorates nothing else except the rest, and that being a consequent upon labor they are inseparably connected) or a sign of it; for God said it was a sign to the Israelites; (it must have been a sign of the first kingdom covenanted again to man in the seed, although they did not clearly see it while the veil was over their face,) becomes a seal of faith, even the seal of the living God, to those whose faith receives that kingdom of which it is a memorial as the promised inheritance through the seed. Now is not a part of the design of the Sabbath to preserve the remembrance of this holy kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world.
While reading the excellent article from Bro. Andrews headed "Objections to the Saturday Sabbath Considered" I was led into the following reflections on the first objection. The objection admits that the obligation of a commemorative rest-day is moral and eternal. Then if commemoration is a moral and eternal obligation the thing commemorated must be signified. But the first day of the week does not commemorate the thing signified, which was finished in the first six days: therefore the moral and perpetual obligation remains unfulfilled. Is not this one reason why the true inheritance has been lost sight of? Its commemorative institution having been supplanted by another it brought with it another hope than the kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world.
We had a very agreeable visit from Bro. Wheeler and was truly comforted and refreshed. May the Lord bless him in his labors of love.
Those that are advocating the new time for the coming of our Lord, are very active in New Bedford and Fairhaven. Most of those who left the churches in 1844 who are not in the third angel's message, have embraced it. They appear very positive that the Lord will come this year. I attended a Bible class with them a few evenings since, and received a very powerful (so far as head was concerned) exhortation to give up the view of there being two places in the antitypical Sanctuary. The speaker appealed to the Father to show me by the Holy Spirit the truth; and at the same time he denies that its influence is an evidence of truth, as he did when I referred to the work of 1843 which he had called mainly an excitement. I think his heart was better than his head in that case. I gave them a short discourse on the Sabbath question; and they admitted almost without a dissenting voice, that there was some truth there; but they are so absorbed in the new time that it is almost impossible to get their attention to anything else.
May the Lord help us to be ready when he comes and meet for the inheritance of the saints in light.
Those that dwell in God dwell in love. Do I dwell in love? Ah that hideous self! how it appears beside the blessed Saviour! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? But God has purposed it, and I fast to try to win the prize.
Your Brother in Christ. O. DAVIS.
ANSWERS.
1. We find in the above this expression: "If the first day has no divine example for its observance it is not enjoined upon us. This then is the first point to be settled." That is the very point we consider settled. It remains to be shown that we are wrong in this, or it is admitted that the first day is not enjoined upon us.
2. "Did Luke's calling the seventh day the Sabbath make that day a permanent Sabbath," &c.
Luke's calling it the Sabbath did not make it the Sabbath to be sure; for it was the Sabbath before; permanently established; and Luke speaks of it as such.
3, "Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink," &c. The remarks which follow this quotation above are to the point. If the supplied word, days, is omitted, it must be rendered sabbaths; for the word is in the plural; and the fact that it is plural is an important consideration; for it fixes its reference, not to the Sabbath of the Lord, but to the ceremonial sabbaths of the Jews. We find that the Jews had four ceremonial sabbaths. Lev. xxiii. God foretold by the Prophet that these should cease. Hos. ii, 11. This is what Paul is speaking of as is evident from the context. Col. ii, 14-17. This passage, therefore, has no reference to the Sabbath of the fourth commandment; and if this is all that one "can find in the epistles" in favor of First-day, it is as groundless as the "baseless fabric of a vision."
4. The next quotation is 1 Cor, xvi, 2, and the conclusion is drawn that the first day was permanently set apart for church or congregational duties. The duties there enjoined are just the opposite of congregational duties. It is n' place in the congregation to take a review of business matters to see what can be devoted to purposes of charity, and the Lord says, Do not your alms before men. And certainly this is not the work for the Sabbath. Neither the Acts nor the epistles can determine what day is meant in Rev. i, 10. The Lord himself decided that, when he affirmed, The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath. Mark ii, 28.
New Believers Embrace the Sabbath
By O. D. Eastman
From Bro. Eastman.
DEAR BRO. WHITE:—The Review has been received for some time past by Bro. John Noyes, Landoff, N. H. He wishes me to say for him that he is much interested in the truths presented. He believes, that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord our God, according to the word which God has given for all men. He is endeavoring to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, hoping to have immortality and eternal life at the coming of Christ with all his saints; which is now near even at the doors. We have recently been examining the Scriptures for the truth connected with the Sabbath, and believe the seventh day is the Lord's appointed Sabbath. We believe that Christ will soon come to the joy of all his people, and restore all things promised by the mouth of all his holy Prophets.
Yours in hope, O. D. EASTMAN.
Landoff N. H., Feb. 8th 1854
Warning Against Spirit Manifestations
By Albert Avery
From Bro. Avery.
DEAR BRO. WHITE — When I see how completely calculated the Spirit Manifestations are to deceive, I feel truly, that we are living in the last days, when satan is to work with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, and when if it were possible, he shall deceive the very elect.
If there ever was a time when God's people should be awake, it is now. O that those who profess the third Angel's message may truly realize the awful time in which we live, and wake up to faithfulness and to duty, realizing that probation will soon close, and sweet mercy will be clean gone forever, when the awful decree will go forth, he that is filthy let him be filthy still, and he that is holy let him be holy still. Then destruction will come like a mighty whirlwind, and who shall be able to stand. We need to put on the whole armor of God, that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. O the awful danger of living half-hearted, as some do who profess to be in the third angel's message. I feel the importance of stepping fast, and getting ready to withstand in the evil day against all the workings of satan, and having done all to stand.
Yours in hope of victory, ALBERT AVERY.
Locke, Ingham Co., Mich., Feb. 7th, 1854.
NO SABBATH.
In a "Prize Essay on the Sabbath," written by a journeyman printer in Scotland—which for singular power of language and beauty of expression has never been surpassed—there occurs the following passage. Read it, and then reflect for awhile what a dreary and desolate page would this life present if the Sabbath were blotted out of our calculations:
"Yokefellow! think how the abstractions of the Sabbath would hopelessly enslave the working classes, with whom we are identified. Think of labor thus going on in one monotonous and continuous and eternal cycle—limbs forever on the rack, the fingers forever playing, and eyeballs forever straining, the brow forever sweating, the feet forever plodding, the brain forever throbbing, the shoulders forever drooping, the loins forever aching, and the restless mind forever scheming.
"Think of the beauty it would efface; of the merry heartedness it would extinguish; of the giant strength it would tame; of the resources of nature that it would exhaust; of the aspirations it would crush; of the sickness it would breed; of the projects it would wreck; of the lives it would immolate; and of the cheerless graves that it would prematurely dig! See them, toiling and moiling, sweating and fretting, grinding and hewing, spinning and weaving, strewing and gathering, mowing and reaping, razing and building, digging and planting, unloading and storing, striving and struggling—in the garden and in the field, in the granary and in the barn, in the factory and in the mill, in the warehouse and in the shop, on the mountain and in the ditch, on the roadside and in the wood, in the city and in the country, on the sea and on the shore, on the earth, in the days of brightness and of gloom. What a sad picture would the world present if we had no Sabbath."—Ad. Herald.
Evangelistic Tour Through Northern Counties
By Horace W. Lawrence
From Bro. Lawrence.
DEAR BRO. WHITE:—I have just returned to this place from a tour of two weeks mostly in Lewis and Jefferson counties. Visited new fields mostly, with publications, holding meetings as the weather would permit. Found several in Watson that love the truth and are anxious to have the traveling brethren visit them. Was enabled to speak once to the people in Le Roy at the Union meeting-house of that place. There was good attention, and the friends expressed a desire for further effort in that vicinity. Several in Adams and Antwerp were urgent in their requests for a public presentation of the present truth.
We could only furnish reading for the present in several places we visited, hoping some one would soon pass and teach the truth to those anxious to know our present position.
The brethren in St. Lawrence Co. are now rising in union and strength; feeling the importance of obeying the whole truth. It seems as though the loud cry was just upon us. The brethren here are getting into the best state for the Lord to work, that they ever have been in. The necessity of walking by faith in the third message experience is being understood better than heretofore. My prayer is that those desiring a place with the remnant may realize the much tribulation to be patiently endured, and remember Lot's wife.
Yours striving for the Kingdom.
HORACE W. LAWRENCE.
Madrid N. Y. Feb. 2d, 1854.
There will be no Night there.
No night, with its gloomy darkness and fearful raging tempest. How it howls about our casement and tears in fury among the leafless branches. The thunder mutters its fearful anger, and the ghastly lightning glares vividly about us. But there no storms will sweep over the soul. All will be serene and pure; as the morning sun bursting in beauty over the tranquil lake; as the midnight sky gazing silently and solemnly upon the repose of nature, when the wind has hushed its breath and the little stars hold converse in gentle whispers.
No night there! with its long tedious hours of anxious care, of restlessness and pain. Ah! who cannot recall them; when we sat by his bedside, and bathed his fainting temples, and heard the knell of the lazy hours as they crept slowly by. And then the morning came, but not to our souls; for the spirit of the beloved had gone and left us desolate.
No night there! with its unconscious stupor; with its forgetfulness of the past and unconcern for the future; with its dreams of terror, and sudden alarm. The faculties of the soul will be all awake there. We will tell it in the diamond starlight showered upon our pathway; we will read it in the solemn cycles of the rolling planets. The flowers of Paradise will whisper it to our souls, and its gentle waters and healing streams all will speak of it.
No night there! and therefore no darkness; no darkness and therefore no fear. He will wipe away all our tears. His banner over us will be love; and we will think of the days gone by; of the toils and conflicts of old earth, and it will be like the thoughts of the weary mariner, when he has clewed up the sails for the last time; and now from his mountain home gazes o'er the fretful, roaring waters on which he has suffered and toiled.
Religious Liberty and Church Fallibility
By Editor
THE New York Universe says:—It is curious to notice the change that has taken place within the last few years in the minds of religious propagandists of whatever denomination. Time was when for a minister of the orthodox stripe—whether Presbyterian, Baptist or Methodist—to swerve “one jot or tittle” from the old time-honored views concerning the existence of the literal “lake which burneth with brimstone and fire,” and the efficacy of a particular creed to preserve erring mortals therefrom—time was, we say, when such a course on the part of a clergyman would be considered “such perdition as nothing else could match;” but it is not so at present, as every day’s experience abundantly proves—there is more freedom of thought—more liberality of sentiment—more effort to develope the love principle as the chief element to the inception of pure religion. On Sunday last, the Rev. Isaac Westcott, delivered a discourse in the Baptist church, on the corner of Varick and Laight streets, which in some degree bears us out in this opinion. His discourse was upon the infallibility of the church of Rome, which the Rev. gentleman, of course, considered as fallible as any other church, and he considered them all fallible, his own included. He admitted that one good Christian of any other evangelical denomination than his own, was better than a host of bad Baptists, and scouted the idea that all Baptists must be saved. He gave it as his opinion that while there were thousands of Baptists whose names were not recorded in the book of life, there were thousands not in the Church, whose names were written in heaven. He did not believe that God had connected the salvation of souls with any church—the Bible, he said, had made the salvation of a soul to depend on its relation to Christ, not to a Church. Such sentiments, if uttered but a few years since, thus boldly from the pulpit, would have brought down upon the speaker’s head the condemnation of his entire flock, and some of the more conservative believers of evangelical orthodoxy at the present day, will no doubt regard it in the light of rank heresy.
Pray Without Ceasing.
When the heart rests in God, how precious is the communion of the soul with its Maker. The worship of spirit and truth continually ascending in thanksgiving and praise, is the breath of prayer that ceases not. This is oneness with Christ, and the heart thus filled with his presence flows out in spontaneous love to every child of God. This is life, and joy, and peace, and accompanies perfect submission and confidence in Jesus. The tempest may gather, the nations rage, and the earth tremble, but the soul thus united to the divine and the eternal, abides in the secret pavilion of the Most High.
Back Numbers Available to Subscribers
By Editor
To many of our new subscribers we have not sent the back numbers of the present Vol., because our edition did not prove sufficient to supply the demand aside from what we reserved for books. We have, however, concluded to reduce the number of book papers, and supply subscribers. Will those who are not supplied inform us and we will furnish them.
Appointments.
Providence permitting there will be a Conference of four days at the house of Bro. S. Gillett, in Green Vale, Jo Daviess Co., Ill., to commence on Thursday, March 2d, at 2 o'clock P. M., and continue to the evening of the 5th. Also a Conference of three days at Plumb River, Jo Daviess Co., Ill., commencing March 10th, at 2 o'clock P. M., and continue over the Sabbath into the evening of the 12th. The brethren coming on the Galena and Chicago Union R. R., will stop at Nora, four miles east of the terminus of the road, and six miles north-east of Brn. S. Gillett and W. Bates', via Green Vale P. O. Nora is sixteen miles north-east of Plumb River.
If any of the Sabbath brethren in this region wish for a general meeting, if they will give me notice by the 10th of March, I will endeavor to serve them if it is practicable.
My Post Office address for the present will be Green Vale, Jo Daviess Co., Ill., care of Wm. Bates. JOSEPH BATES.
WE were very sorry to disappoint the brethren at Lorain, by not filling our appointment there the 7th. At the close of the Oswego meeting, we were so hoarse that we could speak but little above a whisper. Other circumstances connected compelled us to give up visiting them.
JAMES WHITE.
Publications.
By Editor
The Sanctuary and Twenty-three Hundred Days—76 pages—price 7 cents—postage 1 cent.
Review of O. R. L. Crozier on the Sabbath—48 pages—price 5 cents—postage 1 cent.
A Refutation of the Claims of Sunday-keeping to Divine Authority; also, a lengthy extract from the History of the Sabbath—40 pages—price 4 cents—postage 1 cent.
Signs of the Times—124 pages—price 8 cents.
Our collection of Advent and Sabbath Hymns—144 pages—price 30 cents—postage 5 cents.
Time and Prophecy—a Poem—120 pages, well bound—price 25 cents—postage 5 cents.
A Word for the Sabbath—a Poem—price 6 cents.
The First Day of the Week Not the Sabbath—32 pages—price 3 cents—postage 1 cent.
Volume I, II and III of the REVIEW, bound in paper covers—price 40 cents for Vol. I and II, and 80 cents for Vol. III.
Youth's Instructor, Vol. I, in paper covers—price 25 cents.
THE CHART—A Pictorial Illustration of the Visions of Daniel and John and their Chronology—price $2.
Tracts of 16 pages each can be sent by mail for one half cent an ounce, in packages not less than 8 ounces. We will send 50 and pay the postage, to one address for 50 cents.
Letters.
G. E. Bell, R. G. Lockwood, S. T. Cranson, J. Hamilton, S. H. Peck, G. T. Smith, A. H. Robinson, N. N. Lunt.
Receipts.
By Editor
J. Ayers, F. J. Owen, L B, Lockwood, S. Monroe, E. B., A. Hart, A. B. Morton, S. North, G. Lowree, J. Green, E. Wilcox, D. Williams, L. H. Prisst, M. N. Dunham, L. P iest, J. McClenan, H. Hilliard, P. Cox, S. Kingston, each $1,00.
J. Lewis, G. W. Sheldon, M. T. Wiswall, N. G, J. Aldrich, J. C. Below, each $2,00. J. W. Wilsie, E. Churchill, each $3,00. S. Benson $4,00.
H. Anderson, L. Fitch, M. Hutchins, E. A. Averill, each $1,50. D. Ferren $0,75. C. Bank, L. Witter, N. H. Satterlee, each $0,50. M. J. Noyes $0,46.
The Christian's Weapons.
"A meek and heavenly spirit," says the Christian Era, "will often vanquish where intellectual power fails." Discard carnal weapons—wrath, bitterness, ill-feeling, of every kind. They will injure your cause. The Bible is full of wise maxims for God's servants. "Fret not thyself because of evil-doers; neither be thou envious at the workers of iniquity." "Do nothing through strife and vain glory." "Neither give place to wrath." "In your patience possess ye your souls." Indulge no desire to wound the feelings of an opposer, and you will have your reward in eternal peace. Thus get the victory over yourselves—it must be done by prayer and faith—and then you may vanquish others. If any have reason to be calm and unruffled, it is those who are conscious of having God and truth and right on their side. If any can find it easy to love their enemies and opposers, and pray for them that despitefully use them, it is those who are struggling in the cause of compassion for the suffering.
Opinions Do Not Refute Arguments
By Editor
Our adversaries think they refute us when they re-iterate their own opinions without paying attention to ours.