Earlier text: MENTAL CULTURE IN THE PULPITHow Much Is the Bible Worth?
By T. D. Talmage
The next bill I find on the table is a book bill. How much is your Bible worth? Scientific men are trying to show us, through the newspapers, and through philosophic papers, that our race is descended from the monkey. But we who believe in God’s word, read there that God made man in his own image, and not in the image of a monkey. Get out of my way with your miserable Darwinian theories! Scientific men cannot understand the origin of this world. We open our Bibles, and we feel like the Christian Arab, who said to the skeptic when asked by him, why he believed there was a God: “How do I know that it was a man instead of a camel that went past my tent last night? Why I know him by the tracks.” Then, looking over at the setting sun, the Arab said to the skeptic: “Look there! that is not the work of a man. That is the track of a God.” We have all these things revealed in God’s word. Dear old book! My father loved it. It trembled in my mother’s hand when she was nigh fourscore years old. It has been under the pillow of three of my brothers when they died. It is a very different book from what it once was to me. I used to take it as a splendid poem, and read it as I read John Milton. I took it up sometimes as a treatise on law, and read it as I did Blackstone. I took it as a fine history, and read it as I did Josephus. Ah! now it is not the poem; it is not the treatise of law; it is not the history. It is simply a family album that I open, and see right before me the face of God, my Father; of Christ, my Saviour; of Heaven, my eternal home. “How precious is the Book Divine,
By inspiration given!
Bright as a lamp its doctrines shine,
To guide our souls to Heaven. “This lamp throughout the tedious night
Of life shall guide our way,
Till we behold the clearer light
Of an eternal day.” As I take up your family Bible to-night, bright with promises and redolent with boyhood memories, and mighty with principles that are to regenerate the world, I ask you, ye men who are descended from those who fought until they died in their tracks, for the defense of this book; ye sons of the Covenanters, who were hounded among the Highlands of Scotland for this grand, glorious triumph, and God-given Book, “How much owest thou to my Lord?”—T. D. Talmage. Go and tell Jesus your trials. To whom as a tried Christian but to Jesus can you go? Oppressed and sorrowful as our humanity is, there is wanting in each and all the tender disciplined feeling that exactly harmonizes with our own chastened and pensive spirit. We take our sorrows even to a sorrowing believer, and we find his heart so charged with his own personal trial, his mind so perplexed with his own anxieties, or his spirit so bowed under its own concealed dejection, that we shrink from adding one drop to his brimmed cup by pouring into his sad heart the sadness of our own. He is silent of his own grief, but that silence, oh! how expressive! But there is One to whom you may go, whose sorrows now are all over, and who is prepared to make yours his own. You are tried in your spirit, tried in your principles, tried in your faith, tried in your worldly calling, tried in your spiritual history, tried in your domestic circumstances, tried in those near and dear to you. Whither, son or daughter of trial, can you turn, but to Jesus? Have you pondered this sacred and precious privilege? Has it ever bethought you to arise in your grief and go and tell Jesus? He was as you are, a child of sorrows, a man of grief. Smitten, wounded, traduced, belied, foully accused, bruised and heart-broken, and is fitted, as no other being in the universe is, to listen to the story of your trial, to succor, soothe, and sanctify it.—Sel. The complaint is quite universal that in our American life we overstrain the muscle, over-wear the brain, and over-burden the heart. Men at the hottest point of enterprise give out, and consumption takes the body, lunacy the mind, avarice the affections. Prominent men drop suddenly here and there, when they are all aglow with perspiration, and dilated eye, and absorption of success. The epitaph is “Died of overwork.” It should be, “Died of mismanaged work.” That wheel on the car is not hot because it rolls faster than the other wheels, nor because it is weaker or stronger; but because its journal was not packed as well—because some unusual friction has heated it. Here is a sewing machine with which a woman has flung thread enough to baste the two hemispheres together at the equator, and reach to the north pole, and make a spool of it. And yet it has needed little repair as it has sung the dollars together with its monotonous buzz. Here is another that is returned, broken in pieces and radically injured. Lack of lubrication, misguiding in feeding caused an injury, and then it has been up-hill work ever since, till it has become absolutely worthless. Gleaners in the Lord's Harvest Field
By Talmage
WHERE are the gleaners of my Lord's harvest field? Who is there willing to do small work for God? There are plenty who would be willing to preach at Pentecost, plenty who would feel competent to speak on Mars' Hill, plenty willing to drive a load of golden sheaves into the barn, but where are the Ruths who would consider it a privilege to gather up a handful of grain for the eternal garner?—Talmage. We find in Scripture that most of the great appearances which were made to eminent saints were made when they were busy. Moses kept his father's flock when he saw the burning bush; Joshua is going round about the city of Jericho when he meets the angel of the Lord; Jacob is in prayer, and the angel of God appears to him; Gideon is thrashing and Elisha is plowing when the Lord calls them; Matthew is at the receipt of custom when he is bidden to follow Jesus; and James and John are fishing. The Almighty Lover of the souls of men is not wont to manifest himself to idle persons. He who is slothful and inactive cannot expect to have the sweet company of his Saviour. A young man named Parks, from Worcester, entered the store of the Lawrences in Boston, and found Amos in the office. He represented himself as having just commenced business, and desired to purchase a lot of goods. He had recommendations as to character from several influential citizens of Worcester, but none touching his business standing or capacity. The merchant listened to his story, and at its close shook his head. I have no doubt, he said kindly, that you have full faith in your ability to promptly meet the obligations you would now assume; I have no knowledge of your tact or capacity, as you are just launching out on the sea of business, and should be doing you a great injustice to allow you to contract a debt which I did not feel assured you could pay at the proper time. But Mr. Lawrence liked the appearance of the young man and finally told him that he would let him have what goods he could pay for at the cost of manufacture, about ten per cent less than the regular wholesale price. The bill was made out and paid, and the clerk asked where the goods should be sent. I will take them myself, said the purchaser. You will find them rather heavy, suggested the clerk, smiling. Never mind; I am strong, and the stage office is not far away, and besides, I have nothing else to occupy my time. But, said the clerk, expostulating, it is hardly in keeping with your position to be shouldering such ponderous bodies through the city. There you mistake, replied the young man, with simple candor. My position just now is one in which I must help myself, if I would be helped at all. I am not ashamed to carry anything which I honestly possess, nor am I ashamed of the strength which enables me to bear this heavy burden. Thus speaking, he shouldered a large bundle and had turned toward the outer door when Mr. Lawrence, who from his office had overheard the conversation, called him back. Mr. Parks, I have concluded to let you have what goods you want on time. Select at your pleasure. You have the true pride for a successful merchant, sir, pursued Lawrence, and I shall be much disappointed if you do not prosper. Amos Lawrence was not disappointed. Within fifteen years from that time Samuel Parks was himself established on Milk street one of the most enterprising and successful merchants in Boston. THE LILY OF THE VALLEY,
By H. N. E.
I THANK my God, I feel that not alone
On mountain peaks His blessed sunshine glows,
And dews drop sweetness; even here, far down
In meads, a lily grows. I am His work who made the evening star;
Wherefore I lift to him my flow'rets bright.
They die to-morrow, but to-day they are
Beautiful in his sight. I look upon the hills, and sometimes dream
How they rejoice in morning's earliest light;
And how serene, and strong, and still they seem
To guard the valleys all the gloomy night. 'Tis said the heights are cold—it may be so;
That winds are keener there, and winters drear.
I know not how it is: I only know
My God has placed me here— Here in this little nook of earth—my own—
And sent a sunbeam—mine—to cheer my heart;
He bids me bloom—perhaps for Him alone;
Is there a better part? I bloom—stars shine—we bloom and shine for Him;
We give our best—grand world and humble flower—
A light through ages never growing dim—
The fragrance of an hour. So then He smiles, and takes with equal love
Our equal gifts, nor knows or great or small;
But in his infiniteness reigns above,
And comprehends us all.
—H. N. E. in Independent. A PASTOR was in his study, absorbed in preparing for the Sabbath, when he heard little feet patter up to the door, and try to knock. At first he took no notice, but by-and-by, thinking there might be some important message, he arose and opened the door. “What do you want, my little boy?” The little fellow looked up and faltered out, “I came,—to be in.” Who could resist that plea? The door was opened wide, the little boy climbed into an easy chair, and nestled down quiet, and unobtrusive, perfectly contented “to be in,” in his father’s presence. There are Christians, whose delight it is to be in the company of Jesus. Like the child, they come to Jesus wanting “to be in”—in his spirit, in his presence, constantly. Happy they whose contentment is undisturbed because they abide with him they love.—Christian Messenger. “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit; by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.” 1 Pet. 3: 18–20. The advocates of natural immortality are not long in finding their way to this passage. Here, it is claimed, are spirits brought to view, out of the body; for they were the spirits of the antediluvians: and they were conscious and intelligent; for they could listen to the preaching of Christ, who by his conscious spirit, while his body lay in the grave, went and preached to them. Let us see just what conclusions the popular interpretation of this passage involves, that we may test their claims by the Scriptures. 1. The spirits were the spirits of wicked men; for they were disobedient in the days of Noah, and perished in the flood. 2. They were consequently in their place of punishment, the place to which popular theology assigns all such spirits immediately on their passing from this state of existence. 3. The spirit of Christ went into hell to preach to them. These are the facts that are to be cleared of improbabilities, and harmonized with the Scriptures, before the passage can be made available for the popular view. But the bare suggestion of so singular a transaction as Christ’s going to preach to these spirits, immediately gives rise to the query for what purpose Christ should take pains to go down into hell, to preach to damned spirits there; and what message he could possibly bear to them. The day of their probation was past; they could not be helped by any gospel message; then why preach to them? Would Christ go to taunt them by describing before them blessings which they could never receive, or raising in their bosoms hopes of a release from damnation, which he never designed to grant? These considerations fall like a mighty avalanche across the way of the common interpretation. The thought is felt to be almost an insuperable objection, and many are the shifts devised to get around it. One thinks that the word, preached, does not necessarily mean to preach the gospel, notwithstanding almost every instance of the use of the word in the New Testament describes the preaching of the gospel by Christ or his apostles; but that Christ went there to announce to them that his sufferings had been accomplished, and the prophecies concerning him fulfilled. But what object could there be in that? How would that affect their condition? Was it to add poignancy to their pain by rendering their misery doubly sure? And were there not devils enough in hell to perform that work, without making it necessary that Christ should perform such a ghastly task, and that too, right between those points of time when he laid down his life for our sins and was raised again for our justification? Another thinks these were the spirits of such as repented during the forty days’ rain of the flood; that they were with the saved in paradise, a department of the under world where the spirits of the good are kept (the elysium, in fact, of ancient heathen mythology), but that they “still felt uneasy on account of having perished [that is, lost their bodies] under a divine judgment,” and “were now assured by Jesus that their repentance had been accepted.” Such resorts show the desperate extremities to which the popular exposition of this passage is driven. Others frankly acknowledge that they cannot tell what, nor for what purpose, Christ preached to the lost in hell. So Landis, p. 236. But he says it makes no difference if we cannot tell what he preached nor why he preached, since we have the assurance that he did go there and preach. Profound conclusion! Would it not be better, since we have the assurance that he preached, to conclude that he preached at a time when preaching could benefit them, rather than at a time when we know that it could not profit them, and there could be no occasion for it whatever? The whole issue thus turns on the question, When was this work of preaching performed? Some will say “While they were in prison; and that means the state of death, and shows that the dead are conscious and can be preached to.” Then, we reply, the dead can also be benefited by preaching, and led to repentance; and the doctrine of purgatory springs in full blossom into our creed. But does the text affirm that the preaching was done to these spirits while they were in prison? May it not be that the preaching was done at some previous time to persons who were, when Peter wrote, in prison, or, if you please, in a state of death? So it would be true that the spirits were in prison when Peter makes mention of them, and yet the preaching might have been done to them at a former period, while they were still in the flesh and could be benefited by it. This is the view taken of the passage by Dr. Clarke. He says:— “[He went and preached] By the ministry of Noah one hundred and twenty years.” Thus he places Christ’s going and preaching by his Spirit in the days of Noah, and not during the time his body lay in the grave. “The word πνεύμασι, spirits, is supposed to render this view of the subject improbable, because this must mean disembodied spirits; but this certainly does not follow; for the spirits of just men made perfect, Heb. 12:23, certainly means righteous men, and men still in the church militant; and the Father of spirits, Heb. 12:9, means men still in the body; and the God of the spirits of all flesh, Num. 16:22, and 27:16, means men, not in a disembodied state.” The preaching was certainly to the antediluvians. But why should Christ single out that class to preach to, about twenty-four hundred years afterward, in hell? The whole idea is forced, unnatural, and absurd. The preaching that was given to them was through Noah, who, by the power of the Holy Ghost (1 Pet. 1:12), delivered to them the message of warning. Let this be the preaching referred to, and all is harmonious and clear; and this interpretation the construction of the original demands; for the word rendered in our version, “were disobedient,” is simply the aorist participle; and the dependent sentence, “when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah,” limits the verb “preached” rather than the participle. The whole passage might be translated thus: “In which also, having gone to the spirits in prison, he preached to the then disobedient ones, when once [or at the time when] the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah.” But how were they in prison? In the same sense in which persons in error and darkness are said to be in prison. Isa. 42:7: “To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.” Also Isa. 61:1: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.” Christ himself declared, Luke 4:18–21, that this scripture was fulfilled in his mission to those here on earth who sat in darkness and error, and under the dominion of sin. So the antediluvians were shut up under the sentence of condemnation. Their days were limited to a hundred and twenty years; and their only way of escape from impending destruction, was through the preaching of Noah. So much with reference to the spirits to whom the preaching was given. Now we affirm further that Christ’s spirit did not go anywhere to preach to anybody, while he lay in the grave. If Christ’s spirit, the real being, the divine part, did survive the death of the cross, then 1. We have only a human offering for our sacrifice; and the claim of the spiritualists is true that the blood of Christ is no more than that of any man. 2. Then Christ did not pour out his soul unto death and make it an offering for sin, as the prophet declared, Isa. 53:10, 12; and his soul was not sorrowful even unto death, as he himself affirmed. Matt. 26:38. 3. The text says Christ was quickened by the Spirit; and between his death and quickening no action is affirmed of him; and hence any such affirmation on the part of man is assumption. There can be no doubt but the quickening here brought to view was his resurrection. The Greek word is a very strong one, ζωοποιέω, to impart life, to make alive. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit. Landis, p. 232, labors hard to turn this word from its natural meaning and make it signify not giving life, but continuing alive. It is impossible to regard this as anything less than unmitigated sophistry. The verb is a regular active verb. In the passive voice it expresses an action received. Christ did not continue alive, but was made alive by the Spirit. Then he was for a time dead. How long? From the cross to the resurrection. Rom. 1:4. So he says himself in Rev. 1:18, I am he that liveth and was dead. Yet men will stand up, and for the purpose of sustaining a pet theory, rob the world’s Offering of all its virtue, and nullify the whole plan of salvation, by declaring that he never was dead. The word quicken is the same that is used in Rom. 8:11: “But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead, shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” God brought again our Lord from the dead by the Holy Spirit; and by the same Spirit are his followers to be raised up at the last day. But that Christ went anywhere in spirit, or did any action between his death and quickening, is what the Scriptures nowhere affirm, and no man has a right to claim. Mr. Landis, p. 235, argues that this preaching could not have been in the days of Noah, because the events narrated took place this side the death of Christ. Why did he not say this side the resurrection of Christ? Oh! that would spoil it all. But the record shows upon its very face that if it refers to a time subsequent to Christ’s death, it was also subsequent to his resurrection; for if events are here stated in chronological order, the resurrection of Christ as well as his death comes before his preaching. Thus, 1. He was put to death in the flesh. 2. Was quickened by the Spirit, which was his resurrection, as no man with any show of reason can dispute; and 3. Went and preached to the spirits in prison. So the preaching does not come in, on this ground, till after Christ was made alive from the dead. Some people seem to treat the Scriptures as if they were given to man that he might exercise his inventive powers in trying to get around them. But no inventive power that the human mind has yet developed, will enable a man, let him plan, contrive, devise, and arrange as he may, to fix this preaching of Christ between his death and resurrection. If he could fix it there, what would it prove? The man of sin would rise up and bless him from his papal throne, for proving his darling purgatory. Such a position may do for Mormons, Mahometans, Pagans, and Papists; but let no Protestant try to defend it, and not hang his head for shame. Mr. Landis says that “Mr. Dobney and the rest of the fraternity conveniently forget that there is any such passage [as 1 Pet. 3:19] in the word of God.” But we cannot help thinking that it would have been well for him, and saved a pitiful display of distorted logic, if he had been prudent enough to forget it too. Hints to Writers No. 2: The Diphthongs EI and IE
THE DIPHTHONGS EI AND IE. Some people are frequently at a loss how to spell words containing these diphthongs, when they have the sound of long e; for in some words the e comes before the i, as in receive, and in others, the i comes before the e, as in believe. A careful writer would not like to be caught spelling receive, recieve, nor spelling believe, beleive; and to tell in what words of this class, e comes before i, and in what ones the i should be written before the e, without looking them up, is often quite a matter of perplexity. Nor will it satisfy all minds to do as we once heard a teacher direct, that is, make both letters like i and put a dot midway between them, so that it may be taken to belong to either. No one should be satisfied with less than making every letter distinct, and then putting the right letter in the right place, every time. The following general rule may be given in reference to these words which will perhaps assist some minds to remember their proper spelling. 1. After s, and c having the sound of s, e always comes before i; as, receive, deceive, perceive, conceive, receipt, deceit, conceit, ceil, seignior, seine, and seize, with their derivatives and compounds. To this there is one exception in the word, siege, in which, following s, the i comes before e. 2. In all other words of this class, i always comes before e; as, believe, belief, relieve, relief, mischief, handkerchief, fief, field, fiend, fierce, frieze, grief, mien, niece, piece, pier, pierce, priest, reprieve and yield, with their compounds and derivatives. To this there are two exceptions: leisure, and teil, a tree. DOUBLING FINAL CONSONANTS. The words revel and rebel, each end with a single l; but when another syllable is added, the l in rebel is doubled, but the l in revel remains single; thus rebelling, reveling. Why is this? The rule is that all monosyllables ending in a single consonant preceded by a single vowel, double that consonant on taking an additional syllable; and words of more than one syllable ending in a single consonant preceded by a single vowel, if accented on the last syllable, double that consonant on taking an additional syllable, but if the accent is not on the last syllable, the consonant is not doubled. Thus: plan, planned, planning; hot, hotter; begin, beginning. The consonant is doubled in such cases to preserve the short sound of the vowel; as, for instance, planed would naturally be pronounced with the long sound of a instead of the short; and then it would be a very different word from planned. Take the words first introduced: revel has the accent on the first syllable, so does not double its final consonant; but rebel has the accent on the last syllable, and therefore does double it. The word traveling has but one l because the word travel is accented on the first syllable, and the word worshiping but one p for a like reason. The rule is a simple one, and if the reader will fix it firmly in his mind, he will find that it will enable him to master thoroughly a numerous class of words, which otherwise he will be liable to misspell. ABBREVIATIONS. In writing for the press, use no unnecessary abbreviations. Never write “Sab.” for Sabbath, nor “10 com.” for ten commandments; for (1) it makes additional work for us here at the Office to write them out; (2) it seems like abusing the noble institution of the Sabbath and the royal law of which it is a part; and (3) it looks shiftless in the manuscript. Never write “tho” for though, “thro” for through, &c. Write such words out in full, just as they should stand in print. Never abbreviate the name of a State, unless some place, county, town, city or district, in the State is named in connection with it. Thus, it would be proper to say, I spent a week in Chicago, Ill.; but not to say, I labored so long a time in Ill., and then in Wis., and then in Minn., &c. In such cases the names of the States should be written in full. So we should not say, The Mich. Conference, The Vt. Conference, &c., except in statistical or index work, where the shortest abbreviations are allowable. To the Brethren in Indiana.
By Joseph Harvey Waggoner
TRUSTING that you all feel an interest in the success of the cause in this State, I address you a few words. You have seen by the REVIEW that the Brn. Lane were appointed to labor in Michigan this season. By my urgent request, Bro. E. B. Lane came to Indiana to spend a few weeks. This, I feel assured, was a right move. The situation of the cause and the wicked and malicious nature of the opposition raised against us, made it advisable for him to spend a short time here. Consulting with Bro. Lane, I found that our tent is too old and frail to be depended on for a long and important meeting. But it is not possible to remedy this the present season; we have neither time nor means. By this you will see that if effectual labor be done here another year, considerable means will have to be raised. In giving support to the cause, the brethren in this State are just beginning to take hold, and care must be had or there will be a failure in this respect. Some make pledges but neglect to keep them paid up. In such cases we frequently find that, after getting far behind, their pledges seem large and they lose their interest. They are the losers. “By liberal things shall he stand.” Proverbs. And some have abundance wherewith to aid the cause, but their calculations are mostly made in reference to accumulating more, and they are not able or willing to withdraw their means from their business5 to help the cause of God. Such will either become poor men, or go with their treasure in the day of destruction. We expect to use the tent to the best possible advantage the present season; though we hazard something in calling the people together in such condition. It will not afford the protection we need. But we will trust, and ask the brethren to unite their prayers with ours that the Lord may send prosperity. Some have property in their hands, which is only an incumbrance to them; a source of trouble and care, a means of taxation; but bringing no return. I am glad to find that some such are realizing the utter folly of keeping it, as a burden and no profit, till the time of trouble shall make possessions useless. We cannot shut our eyes to the fact that the friends in Indiana, except those in the extreme northern part of the State, have been too slow to take hold of this part of the work. The laborers have grown discouraged; also those who continued to send them. Let us now “redeem the time.” The Lord’s work must and will be done. Will we have a part in it? or, shall we, because of neglect and unfaithfulness, be set aside, and let others take our crowns? Rev. 3:11. “We desire that every one of you do show the same diligence, to the full assurance of hope unto the end; that ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” Green Co., Ind., June 2, 1872. TO THE FRIENDS IN INDIANA
As the foregoing article was about going to press, the following was received from Bro. Waggoner just in season to appear in connection with it. TO THE FRIENDS IN INDIANA.
I again address a few words to you to inform you of the state of the work. Bro. Lane and myself, after we decided that the tent was not to be depended upon for a long meeting, went to Jefferson township, near the south line of Owen County, about three miles from Farmer’s Station, where Bro. Sands H. Lane held meetings last winter, and where I spent a short time in April last. We were offered a situation in a grove near the meeting-house from which Bro. S. H. Lane was excluded. The place selected was so well protected from winds, that we thought we could safely pitch there for a meeting of a couple of weeks. We found, as the news of our operations spread abroad, that the interest to hear was deep and general, and on every side we heard the hope expressed that we would remain longer than we intended. Also, invitations came from several places to visit them. Under these circumstances, we congratulated ourselves over the favorable opening presented. But on Friday afternoon, June 7, the wind struck our tent and left it a complete wreck. One breadth was almost entirely taken out of the circle, from the top to the wall, and several others badly torn. It was impossible to mend it, and it was so rotten that it would be of no service if mended. We continued meetings till Sunday night, when we felt it duty to close. The weather in that part of Indiana has been very stormy for some time past; heavy rains and high winds; and we could not take the responsibility of calling the people together under a tent which offered no protection, and which, by reason of so large openings, was completely at the mercy of the winds. We closed up there with much regret, but our action was of necessity. I regret that the cause in Indiana is not prepared for such an emergency. The Scriptural system of raising funds has been but recently adopted by most of the friends, and many have not learned to be prompt or do not realize the necessity. It is now too late to remedy the difficulty for this season, and tent labor in Indiana will have to be abandoned this summer. Bro. Lane will immediately return to the tent in Michigan, for which he was engaged. There is in Ohio a good tent with plenty of means in the treasury to keep it running, and they have been earnestly pleading for help to run it. My mind has been to go and start that tent, if no more urgent duty calls in another direction. Our prayers are still for the cause in Indiana. Our interest has not abated in this work in your midst. There are excellent openings, and urgent calls in many directions. But without a tent these calls can be better answered at another season of the year. It is our earnest hope that another season may open with a good tent in Indiana, and a spirit of consecration with the brethren to sustain it. Howard Co., Ind., June 12, 1872. Men and Things.
By Dudley Marvin Canright
EVERYTHING that is of God, everything that is good, is simple, natural, and easy to understand: but men, especially theologians, are never content to leave things as God has made them. On no subject have men so taxed their imagination and the credulity of the people as in their descriptions of the future world. They have made it of immateriality, filled it with ether, and peopled it with spirits and with ghosts! All that is real, natural, and lovely, they have utterly banished from it. How refreshing now and then to find such sensible remarks as the following from Rev. W. H. H. Murry:— “It is not peopled with ghosts and specters, shadows, and outlines of being, but with persons and forms palpable to the apprehension. Its multitudes are veritable, its society natural, its language audible, its companionships real, its loves distinct, its activities energetic, its life intelligent, its glory discernible. Its union is not that of sameness, but of variety brought into harmony by the great law of love; like notes, which, in themselves distinct and different, make, when combined, sweet music. Death will not level and annul those countless differences of mind and heart which makes us individual here. Heaven, in all the mode and manner of expression, will abound with personality. There will be choice, and preference, and degrees of affinity there. Each intellect will keep its natural bliss; each heart its elections. Groups there will be, and circles; faces known and unknown will pass us; acquaintance will thrive on intercourse, and love deepen with knowledge; and the great underlying laws of mind and heart prevail and dominate as they do here, save in this; that sin, and all the repellance and antagonism which it breeds, will be unknown, and holiness supply in perfect measure the opportunity and bond of brotherhood.” See here, my sister, you who have always a very confidential word, spoken in a low tone, too about every sister you meet concerning some report about your brother or sister, here is a little scrap for you. This means you—you who are very ready to tell what you heard about this one or that, though you are very conscientious to say that you will not vouch for the truth of it, only you “heard so.” Poor hypocrite! the Judgment will show that you loved and helped to nurse lies:— “—A good finished scandal, full-armed and equipped, such as circulates in the world, is rarely the production of a single individual, or even of a single coterie. It sees the light in one; is rocked and nurtured in another; is petted, developed, and attains its growth in a third; and receives its finishing touches only after passing through a multitude of hands.” Here is a very short description of a noble man, or a woman either:— “It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion, it is easy in solitude to live after your own; but the great man is he who, in the midst of the crowd, keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.”—Emerson. We are glad to see our Methodist friends, some of them at least, waking up to the evils of Freemasonry as the following will show:— “A number of petitioners requested the General Conference to require the members of the church to withdraw from all connection with Freemasonry, and to subject them to discipline if they refused. They thus state their reasons: “Dear Brethren: We, your petitioners, being members of the church which you represent in your Quadrennial Assembly, beg to represent that many of the ministers and other members of our church are also members of Masonic lodges, and other secret combinations whose obligations and teachings are essentially and designedly anti-Christian; that Masonry, the parent and promoter of such combinations, professes to be a religion; has its priest, its ritual, its worship, and its laws, and professes to raise its members to holiness here and to Heaven hereafter; and all this while it rejects the only Saviour, Jesus Christ; that these ministers and other members of our church who adhere to Christ and his gospel alone, and have no fellowship with such unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them, feel much aggrieved by the contradictory and unholy connections here specified, and are becoming more and more dissatisfied therewith, and especially so with regard to ministers who have entered into such unholy and anti-Christian associations.” “This petition was referred to the Committee on Revivals.” INFIDELITY IN HIGH PLACES.
The great Dr. M. D’Aubigne in a late letter says:— “There are now in Christendom two adversaries which menace the religion of the gospel: Romanism, on the one hand; Infidelity and Rationalism, on the other. The latter is in the midst of us, intra muros, and it shows itself with increasing energy. This system denies the supernatural; rejects the facts and the doctrines of Christianity—especially the fall of man and the divinity of Christ, and redemption by his blood, which Roman Catholicism itself upholds. There are now in Switzerland, in France, in Holland, in Germany, and in other countries, many Protestants, ministers, professors, sincere in their opinions, men of talent, who look upon the Lord Jesus as a simple man, possessing greater wisdom than other men; but whose resurrection is a fable, and who only rose again in the souls of his disciples.” Yes, this refined skepticism and infidelity are rapidly spreading everywhere and infecting the church. It is a mighty proof that Babylon has fallen indeed. Jesus foresaw this when he said, “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” Very little, if he tarries much longer. As soon as the truth on the Sabbath, the nature of man, &c., is presented in a place for a few days, a general cry goes up that the people must wait till the other side can be presented. Very generally, the man to do this is not soon nor easily found. But stop a moment! Which side have these people been hearing all their lives? Verily, it has been no other than that same “other side.” They began to hear it on their mother’s knee, then in the Sunday-school, and they have read it in all their books; and, finally, what have these “heaps of teachers” been about for the last fifty years, if they have not been teaching them the “other side?” Strange, isn’t it, that one man, a stranger, all alone, with everybody against him, with all the prejudices of the people to oppose, with all their worldly interests to overcome, can, in a few days, by plainly giving this “side of the question,” so overturn all these things that the ablest minister in all the region about must be sent for to re-give the other side again! The fact is, the people have been hearing “the other side” all their lives, and now common justice would say that we should have a fair chance unmolested to give this side of the case. Yet we are glad to have the other side presented, and the oftener the better, as it will only expose its weakness.