Earlier text: SABBATH REFORM AND SUNDAY LAWSTHE TESTIMONY CONFIRMED.
By H. C. Miller
In Spiritual Gifts, vol. iii, chap. vi, we have a short description of things before the flood. Among other things, is a description of the trees of that age, as follows: “The trees were vastly larger, and far surpassing in beauty and perfect proportions anything mortals can now look upon. The wood of these trees was of fine grain and hard substance—in this respect, more like stone. It required much more time and labor to prepare the timber for building than it requires in this degenerate age,” &c. Though this has all passed away, and now nothing but dwarfed specimens are generally to be seen, yet God has seen fit to preserve for the last days a few specimens of trees that immediately followed the antediluvian forest (or perhaps, as God by his power preserved a few of the trees of the period before the flood alive for future generations, they may be of that number), leaving them standing in a remote place on the verge of our vast continent, undiscovered by man until needed to confirm his word—lately discovered just as the testimony is being borne. In Albert D. Richardson’s late work, “Beyond the Mississippi,” we find the following description of the “Big Trees of Mariposa”: “The Big Trees are six miles from Clark’s and thirty from Yosemite valley. Six hundred of these mammoths are scattered among the pines of twelve hundred and eighty acres. Many of the pines are two hundred feet high. Elsewhere they would be kings of the forest; but among these hoary giants, they become puny, insignificant children. The Big Trees have been considered red wood—a species of cedar abounding upon this coast—but the botanists decide otherwise, and name them SEQUOIAS. They are the oldest and most stupendous vegetable products existing upon the globe. Already twenty groves have been discovered in California. The Mariposa is largest and finest, though the Calaveras, 50 miles to the northward, is better known. “Of the Mariposa sequoias, 200 are more than 12 ft. in diameter; 50, more than 16 ft.; and 6, more than 50 ft. The largest, called the Prostrate Monarch, now lying upon the ground leafless and branchless, is believed to have fallen fully one hundred and fifty years ago! Fire has consumed much of the trunk; but enough remains to show that with the bark on, it must have been 40 feet in thickness. Figures give little idea of such dimensions. Measure up forty feet on a house wall; then four hundred feet along the ground; and try to picture the diameter and height of the Prostrate Monarch as it stood a thousand years ago. “The tops of the largest trees are broken off, leaving their average height about 250 ft., though some range between 300 and 400 ft. We saw one with a branch—not a fork, but an honest, lateral branch—six feet in diameter, growing from the stem eighty feet above the ground. Into a cavity burned in the side of another standing tree, fifteen of us rode together. Without crowding, we all sat upon our horses in that black, novel chamber, though it occupies less than half the thickness of the immense trunk. “Through a stem lying upon the ground, fire has bored, like an auger. Our entire cavalcade, including all the tall men, all the fat men, all the ample skirts, rode through it from end to end, like a railway train through a tunnel. “One living trunk, which parts near the ground into two tall, symmetrical, perfect stems, is christened the Faithful Couple. Mr. Clark assured us, in a poetic gush quite unlooked for in a hermit and a backwoodsman, that they were “Two souls with but a single thought,
Two hearts that beat as one.” “The faithfulness of this forest Ingomar and Parthenia is like that of some human couples—neither can get away. “The largest standing tree is the Grizzly Giant. Its bark is nearly two feet thick. If it were cut off smoothly, fifty horses could easily stand, or sixteen couples dance upon the stump. If the trunk were hollowed to a shell, it would hold more freight than a man-of-war or a first-class ocean steamer, two hundred and fifty feet long! “One of the Calaveras sequoias was cut down by boring with augers, and sawing the spaces between. The work employed five men for twenty-five days. When fully cut off, the tree stubbornly continued to stand, only yielding at last to a mammoth wedge and a powerful battering-ram.” Think of building with such logs for timber. Well may we believe the Testimony, on page 61, vol. iii, that “it required much more time and labor, even of that powerful race, to prepare the timber for building, than it requires in this degenerate age, to prepare trees that are now growing upon the earth, even with the present, weaker strength men now possess.” The writer adds: “There seems to be no convincing or even plausible theory of their origin. I should rather say of their preservation; for they are children of a long-ago climatic era.” How full, yet how plain and simple is the reason given by the gift of prophecy! “God by his miraculous power preserved a few of the different kinds of trees and shrubs alive for future generations.”—Spir. Gifts, Vol. iii, p. 77. Through California and Oregon, stupendous redwoods are every where numerous; and on the summit of the Sierras, almost a mile above the sea level, grow sugar pines ten and twelve feet in diameter. Well says Holmes, “In fact, there’s nothing that keeps its youth—
So far as I know—but a tree and truth.” “But these monster sequoias are the world’s patriarchs. None estimate their ages at less than 1800 years. They were living when the father of poets, old, blind, and vagabond, sang his song; when the sage of Athens calmly drank the hemlock; when the Carpenter of Judea, from whom the whole world now computes its time, was a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, despised and rejected of men.”—Beyond the Mississippi, Chap. xxxvi, pp. 431–435. Reader, it pays to be a thorough Christian. It pays to repent and be converted. It pays to serve Christ. I do not tell you that it pays in money; I do not tell you that it will increase your income. But I do tell you that it pays in happiness, in peace and hope and inward comfort, it pays a thousand times over. The service of the world is utterly unprofitable. It is a service in which there are plenty of promises, and very little performance. No wonder that Paul asks the Romans, “What fruit had ye in the things whereof ye are now ashamed.” Rom. vi, 21. Be like the many around you, a thoughtless, careless, prayerless child of the world, and you will find one day that it does not pay at all. Be like the few who serve Christ, a humble, penitent, believing, praying, Bible-reading Christian, and you will most certainly find that it pays. Out of all the millions who have turned to God, and repented, and been converted, who ever repented of repentance? I answer boldly, not one. Thousands repent every year of folly and unbelief. Thousands mourn over time misspent. Thousands repent their drunkenness and gambling, fornication and neglected opportunities. But no one has ever risen up and declared to the world that he repents of repenting and turning toward God. The steps in the narrow way of life are all in one direction. You will never see in the narrow way the steps of one who turned back because the way was not good. All find it pays to serve Christ. I remember of reading of a remarkable event that occurred in a place of worship where a puritan minister, Mr. Doolittle was preaching, two hundred years ago. Just as he was about to begin his sermon, he saw a young man, a stranger, coming into his church. He guessed, by the young man’s manners, that he was anxious about his soul, and yet undecided about religion. He took a remarkable course with him, he tried a curious experiment, but God blessed it to the young man’s soul. Before Mr. Doolittle gave out his text, he turned to an old Christian whom he saw on one side of his church. He addressed him by name, and said to him: “Brother, do you repent of having served God?” The old Christian stood up manfully before the congregation, and said: “Sir, I have served the Lord from my youth, and he has never done me anything but good.” He turned to the left hand where he saw another Christian, and addressed him the same manner. “Brother do you repent of having served Christ?” That man also stood up manfully and said: “Sir, I never was truly happy till I took up my cross and served the Lord Jesus Christ.” Then the preacher turned to the young man and said, “Young man, will you take up your cross, will you this day begin to serve God?” The Lord sent power with these words; the young man arose and said in a humble tone, “Yes sir, I will.” Reader depend upon it, the two answers which Mr. Doolittle got that day, are the experience of all true Christians. Depend upon it, no man ever repented of repentance, no man was ever sorry that he had served the Lord. No one ever said, at the end of his days, I have read my Bible too much, I have thought of God too much, I have prayed too much, I have been too careful of my soul. Oh! no never. The people of God would say, Had I to live my life over again, I would walk far more closely with God than I ever have done. Reader, cast fear away and begin to be a true Christian without delay. There may be trials to be borne, and battles to be fought, in the way to Heaven, but it pays.—Selected. FASHION rules the world; and a most tyrannical mistress she is;—compelling people to submit to the most inconvenient things imaginable for her sake. She pinches our feet with tight shoes, or chokes us with tight neckerchief, or squeezes the breath out of our body by tight lacing. She makes people sit up by night, when they ought to be in bed; and keeps them in bed in the morning, when they ought to be up and doing. She makes it vulgar to wait on one's self, and genteel to lie idle and useless. She makes people visit when they had rather stay at home, eat when they are not hungry, and drink when they are not thirsty. She invades our pleasures and interrupts our business. She compels people to dress gayly, whether upon their own property or that of others, whether agreeable to the word of God, or the dictates of pride. She ruins health, and produces sickness, destroys life, and occasions premature death. She makes fools of parents, invalids of children, and servants of all. She is a tormentor of conscience, a despoiler of morality, and an enemy of religion, and no one can be her companion and enjoy either. She is a despot of the highest grade, full of intrigue and cunning, and husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, and servants, black and white, have voluntarily become her obedient subjects and slaves, and vie with one another to see who shall be the most obsequious. A soldier lay dying in the hospital. A visitor asked him, “What church are you of?” “Of the church of Christ,” he replied. “I mean of what persuasion are you?” then inquired the visitor. “Persuasion!” said the dying man, as his eyes looked heavenward, beaming with love to the Saviour: “I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.” DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE FIRST AND SECOND COMMANDMENTS.
By John Nevins Andrews
First Commandment.—“Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Second Commandment.—“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.” The church of Rome holds that these two precepts are but one commandment. And as there are ten commandments, they make up the number by making two commandments out of the precept that forbids covetousness. Of course we cannot justify this division of the last commandment, to make up for the union of the first two. But what is the distinction between the first and second commandments? To the careless reader there is no proper distinction. For while the first commandment forbids other gods (which really shuts out all false gods of every kind), the second commandment is supposed to forbid the worship of gods made by men's hands. If this be the true idea, then the second commandment would become only an appendage of the first, or a lesser prohibition concerning a part of the ground embraced in the first. In other words, it forbids such false gods as are made with hands, while the first commandment forbids false gods of every kind or class. But the second commandment is not comprehended in the first. It guards an important principle not embraced in the first commandment. It occupies ground peculiarly its own. The design of the first commandment is to forbid the worship of any being in the universe but the one living and true God. The design of the second commandment is to forbid the making any representation of this true God. If Satan cannot get men to openly choose some other object or being for their god beside the Lord of hosts, then he will be well satisfied if he can induce them to make a representation of the true God, and pay their homage to this, as something whereby they may greatly honor God. It does not appear that Aaron in making the golden calf, designed to lead the children of Israel to the worship of some other god, but to give them a representation of that God who had led them out of Egypt. Ex. xxxii, 4, 5. And so of the church of Rome in our day. She holds to the one living and true God, though she represents his existence as that of three persons. Not content with making both pictures and images of the Son of God, and professedly honoring him by paying religious adoration to these things, she also represents, by pictures at least, both the Father and the Holy Spirit, and before these she teaches all her members to bow in adoration. No wonder she is no friend to the second commandment, and that she belittles it all that she can, making it in such works as she allows it to appear in a part of the first, and so construing it that it shall simply forbid that class of false gods made by men's hands but shall not bear at all upon such images as are adored in honor of the true. It is, however, too expressive a precept to be freely read by the common people, lest it should open their eyes to the nature of their usual worship. So in almost every catechism of that church, and in most of the books which circulate among the Romanists, the second commandment as given above, is entirely omitted. It stands indeed in their Bible, but these books from which it is stricken, are used instead of the Bible for general circulation. Jeroboam and Ahab, kings of Israel, give us in their acts a very clear idea of the distinction between these two precepts. God rent the ten tribes out of the hand of Rehoboam, and gave them into the hand of Jeroboam. This man, deceived by the Devil, thought in his heart that he should soon lose his dominion if he suffered his people to go up to Jerusalem to worship in the temple as they had formerly done. He therefore made two golden calves, and placed one in the northern extremity of his kingdom, and one near the southern, and said, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.” 1 Kings xii, 28. It does not appear that he designed to introduce another god beside the true one, but to prevent the people from going up to Jerusalem, by making in his own dominion two representations of that God which they had ever worshiped. But this sin of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, was the foundation of the final ruin of Israel. When Ahab came to the throne of Israel, some sixty years after this, “It came to pass as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam.” “He went and served Baal, and worshiped him. And he did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him.” 1 Kings xvi, 31–33. Ahab was not content to provoke the God of Israel to anger by worshiping him under the representation of a golden calf; he must set him aside entirely, and turn the people to another god, even to Baal. Elijah brought things to a test between God and Baal. 1 Kings xviii. Afterward when Jehu was raised up to destroy the family of Ahab, and to exterminate the worship of Baal, he did both with the most thorough and unsparing hand, but when he had thus destroyed Baal out of Israel, he himself cleaved to the sin of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. 2 Kings x. The sin of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, was that of making a representation of the God that brought Israel out of Egypt. He set aside the second commandment. The sin of Ahab was that of choosing Baal in the place of the God of Israel. This was a still more Heaven-daring crime. He set aside the first commandment, and with it the one living and true God. Jeroboam laid the foundation of Israel's ruin; Ahab carried their sin to its greatest height of rebellion. It is likely that the idolatry of heathen lands began like the sin of Jeroboam. Without designing to take other gods, it is likely men were led to make representations of the true God, and that from this they began to worship these things which their own hands had made, as gods in reality. J. N. ANDREWS. RESULTS OF THE NEW COVENANT.
By John Matteson
The new covenant is made with the house of Israel. Every individual therefore, who would enter into this covenant must become a member of the house of Israel. Whether he is by birth a Jew or Gentile, makes no difference. The same conditions are placed before all. God is no respecter of persons. The conditions laid down in Hebrews viii, 10, are: 1. That we permit the Lord to put his laws into our minds, and write them in our hearts. We must repent of our past sins, seek the Lord daily, accept of pardon through the atoning blood of Jesus, trust in the Lord for salvation from sin and death, and tear away our affections from sinful inclinations and habits. Then wait upon the Lord. Daily study the truth. Look to Jesus. And expect that he will daily make a new and deeper impression on our minds by his holy and perfect law. Then we begin to say with David, “Oh! how I love thy law.” And when the day is past, we review our actions in the light of truth. Finding shortcomings and imperfections, we mourn. We are ashamed before Jesus. He loved us so exceedingly, he suffered, he died. He died for me. Oh! why do I love him so little? Then I long for more love, more grace. I know not but this is the last night I shall live. I commit all into his hands, who will kindly guard his children. Another morning dawns. With trembling we draw nigh the throne of grace. Many duties are before us. We renew our covenant with God. Jesus is our Mediator, his blood the blood of the new covenant. In mercy he looks down upon us. He makes a new impression upon our poor hearts, and the pure principles of the holy law are fastened a little deeper in our minds. Thus day by day may we be confirmed in the covenant that God will make with Israel. And we ourselves can become members of the house of Israel. 2. God becomes our God, and we his people. How plain the duty, that we should serve and obey our Creator. And how great the privilege, that he will be our God. Though we have rebelled against his government, though prone to wander, weak and failing, yet he will be our God, and we can become his people. Whether we be Jews or Gentiles, Americans or foreigners, white or black, young or old, rich or poor, well or sick, we can choose God for our God, and he will deliver us from the perils and corruptions of earth. He will make us partakers of his divine nature, and give us an incorruptible inheritance. Oh! that we could realize more these infinite privileges, and live for Heaven, for Jesus, and eternity. This covenant is the second covenant; verse 7. The first covenant passed away with the law of shadows and sacrifices. Chap. vii, 18; viii, 13. The second covenant is also called the new covenant. Chap. viii, 8, 13. It has been in force or existence ever since the death of Christ, when the first covenant passed away. Place was sought for the second, verse 7, and consequently found as soon as the first passed away. This is also proved by verse 10. “After those days,” can have reference to nothing else than the days of the old covenant. Therefore the new covenant has existed between God and his Israel, ever since the death of Christ. But what are the final results of this covenant? Is not the 11th verse an answer to this? It appears so to me. Verse 12 speaks about the blotting out of the sins and iniquities of God’s people, in so effectual a way that God will remember them no more. This can refer to nothing else than the final atonement in the most holy place. This is the foundation or cause of the condition spoken of in verse 11. Read carefully, “And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, . . . for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness.” The knowledge spoken of in verse 11, can consequently not be attained to before the iniquities of God’s people are forever blotted out. When the atonement is finished, probation ended, and redemption completed. The atonement is the cause, the perfect knowledge the effect. The cause must precede the effect. Therefore we believe that verse 11 represents the condition of things, and the perfect knowledge of God’s people in the world to come. “Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face; now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” 1 Cor. xiii, 12. Isaiah, speaking of the future glory of the New Jerusalem, when all her children shall have come home, says, “I will lay thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. . . . And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord. . . . Thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear, And from terror; for it shall not come near thee.” Isa. liv, 11-14. “The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” Chap. xi, 9. “As truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.” Num. xiv, 21. “Blessed be the Lord God. . . . And blessed be his name for ever; and let the whole earth be filled with his glory, Amen, and Amen.” Ps. lxxii, 19. O SIN, how you paint your face! how you flatter us poor mortals on to death! You never appear to the sinner in your true character; you make fair promises, but you never fulfill one; your tongue is smoother than oil, but the poison of asps is under your lips. HUNGERING AFTER RIGHTEOUSNESS.—
I wish for no other Heaven on this side of the last sea I must cross, than this service of Christ, to make my blackness beauty, my deadness life, my guiltiness sanctification. I long much for that day when I shall be holy. Oh! what spots are yet unwashed!—Rutherford. REPORT FROM BRO. MATTESON.
By John Matteson
July 14 to 19, I labored with the church of Fish Lake. The majority of the brethren are now living near Richford, where the meetings were held in a very convenient school-house. This was right in harvest, and consequently not so many from without attended as would otherwise have come. The truth has never been preached in the immediate vicinity. There are some who are interested to hear. Sabbath and Sunday, the meetings were well attended. The Lord did kindly bless and encourage all to go forward in the good work, and to be more diligent in the future than in the past. The brethren felt to some degree the importance of becoming fully awake in the message. A new clerk and treasurer was chosen. Bro. C. Wright was ordained a deacon. We think the Lord approved of this choice and trust that souls may be gained by the consistent walk and efforts of the brethren in that vicinity. Systematic Benevolence was reorganized amounting to about $160.00. We trust now that the several officers understand their duty, and will try to have everything in order for the coming year. Three were added to the church by letter. One sister was baptized. This little church is trying to live; and if they continue to be faithful, the Lord will bless and prosper their efforts. All feel sorry that their much-beloved elder, Bro. M. Dennis, is about to move to Michigan. He felt this to be his duty for several reasons; but the brethren unanimously expressed their desire to have him remain with them. The quarterly meetings of the church, were appointed until different arrangements should be made, to be upon the first Sabbath of each quarter beginning with October. On the 21st, I arrived at home, and feel thankful to the Lord for his kind protection of self and family. I intend to remain at home a while to rest and labor with my hands for the improvement of my health, until I shall be able to go out again. Dear brethren, pray for me that my faith fail not, but that I may be enabled to know and to do the will of the Lord, and at last meet you all in the kingdom. JOHN MATTESON. Busseyville, Jeff. Co., Wis. VISIT TO LAKEVILLE, CONN.
By J. S. Miller
On sixth-day, July 11, in company with Bro. Wild, I took the cars at Pleasantville, N. Y., and rode some seventy miles north to Millerton, and thence we went five miles on foot to Lakeville, Conn., where Sr. Addison resides, and under whose hospitable roof we found a home that would gladden the heart of the weary pilgrim. As soon as we had exchanged Christian greetings, we were informed that a sister living in the same house had recently embraced the Sabbath, as the result of reading some books left by Bro. Wild on his last visit at that place. This was truly encouraging. The Lord knows how to send the truth home to the hearts of those who will embrace it, and where the living preacher cannot be heard, the books and tracts will do the work. We had meetings on Sabbath and first-day, and on the evenings before and after the Sabbath. A first-day-Advent brother from New Milford, a village some forty miles south of Lakeville, attended these meetings, and acknowledged that he saw new light in our position, and decided to live out the truth as far as he saw. If he follow out what he already sees, he cannot well avoid embracing the Sabbath before long. May the Lord help him to walk in the light. Our hearts were also gladdened to hear Bro. Addison, the husband of the sister with whom we were stopping, declare that he had decided that the seventh day was the Sabbath; and that he should in future keep it according to the commandment. Had a thousand-dollar note been placed in the hand of Sr. Addison, she could not have expressed more joy than beamed forth from her tearful eyes. For a year past, Sr. A. and her daughter have been trying to keep the Sabbath, under difficulties, many of them caused by Bro. A.'s mistaken view of the Sabbath question. But if he, like a Saul of Tarsus, has been exceedingly zealous for the religion of his fathers, he is now equally anxious to keep the law of God strictly. Bro. Wild returned the following Wednesday, while I remained some three weeks, during which time I called on many of the people living in the region for several miles around Lakeville, offering the REVIEW and Reformer for their inspection, and distributing among them a large number of tracts. Under the blessing of God, the seed thus sown will yet spring up, and bear fruit. On Sabbaths and first-days, I held meetings with the little flock of Sabbath-keepers, of whom there are now some twelve or fourteen within a radius of ten miles. They are gathering courage and have decided to hold meetings once in two weeks at Lakeville, in future. The interest among the outside people seems to be good, and I think if one of the messengers could go there the coming winter, and give them a course of lectures, there would be some gathered in. But much depends on the manner in which the brethren and sisters conduct themselves. May the Lord help them to see the importance of obeying strictly the law which they preach to others. J. S. MILLER. KNOWING the interest with which our brethren will hail any news from the California mission, we take the liberty to insert the following, dated, San Francisco, July 23, 1868. DEAR BRO. ALDRICH: Here we are in California. After a good shaking on the Atlantic through the Gulf Stream off Cape Hatteras, and in a supplement to it in the Caribbean Sea, a pleasant trip over the Isthmus, and a delightful sail on the Pacific, we arrived in S. F. last Sabbath, 24 days less 2½ hours, from New York. We were glad to get here, although we do not find much house room among our people. We are not yet settled, but are boarding ourselves at Bro. St. John's. We find a great variety of fruit here. Ripe peaches, to-day, are less than $1.00 (specie) per bushel. Our tent, although shipped as slow freight, came as soon as it would if sent here by express. The charges on our tent from Rochester to this place did not exceed $40.00 in currency. I did not bring the small poles, but brought the irons that belong on them. The poles in Rochester were worth $3.00. The transportation (owing to their bulk) would have been about $11.00. I engaged a new set of poles to-day for $3.50; hence I made something in leaving the poles. I did not bring the ropes. On these I saved all the transportation and about 2 cents a pound in gold. So there are some favorable strikes we made, as well as on the fare. I am working as fast as I can, to get the tent rigged up. We design to strike out the first of the week to look a place to pitch the tent. There is considerable small pox in the place just now, and a good deal of excitement about vaccination. Most of the cases have been among the Chinese coolies. We learn there have been a few cases in Petaluma, where we had thought of going to look a site for the tent. Well, we think of you all every day, in your round of business at the Office. The last REVIEW we have seen was the closing number of the last volume. Bro. Bourdeau's copy of No. 12 of Reformer came to-day, but none for me. Of all the papers I have subscribed for, I have received but two copies, one of Battle Creek Journal, and one of Detroit Post. I am in hopes we shall get something by the steamer that is expected to-night. I send you a duplicate “bill of lading,” given me in New York, so that you can see some of the arrangements about sending freight to these shores. I learn, by other parties, that you have sent me another box of books. In order to claim a box of books, or goods, here, it is necessary for the consignee to have a bill of lading from the consignor. Otherwise it will go into the bonded warehouse; and when it gets there, it is some like a case in the court of chancery, “Easier got in than out.” I wish you to send me immediately, if you have not already, a receipt from the express company in Battle Creek for the box. Wishing and praying for the prosperity of the cause in all its departments in every State, and hoping to hear from you soon here, I remain your brother. THE WINGS.
By M. W. Howard
During my recent wanderings, to while away some unoccupied moments I took up the secular paper of the vicinity where I was then sojourning. Almost the first item on which my eyes rested was this: “A Second-Adventist preacher has set the 2nd day of October, as the last day of the world. Get your wings ready.” The thing might have been only a fabrication gotten up for effect, I thought, or it may have foundation; yet this satirical fling started me upon a reverie—a reverie profitable to me though I cannot now fully recall it. Nevertheless I will attempt to communicate a few of the leading thoughts. I mused upon the unprofitableness of setting definite time, and thus unnecessarily provoking sneers from the opposition. But this was only a passing thought, for the exhortation, “Get your wings ready,” took precedence in my mind. For wings, or what shall amount to the same thing, are to be furnished through Christ to all, whether alive to be changed in that day, or whether at the voice of the archangel they have come forth from their graves, as taught in 1 Thess. iv, 16, 17. And then I queried, Can good result from evil designs? God can make the idle word from the scoffer's lips or pen, carry conviction to a hitherto thoughtless heart. But must not the “hands be clean which bear the vessels of the Lord?” Paul refused to approve the promulgation of truth, coming from a disreputable source, when the damsel followed his company declaring, “These men be the servants of the Most High God, which show unto you the way of salvation.” Acts xvi, 17. Humanly speaking, or from a human stand-point, it might be argued that a class would have been directed to Paul, and perhaps benefited, who otherwise would have never heeded him. And so I left this an open question when perhaps I should not, for “Paul was grieved and turned and rebuked them.” And my mind reverted to the wings again: and I said, Oh yes! “Get ready the wings,” for that is synonymous with Christ’s “robe of righteousness”—that “holiness without which no man shall see the Lord” in peace. But with it we shall be counted worthy to attain unto the first resurrection, and “to stand before the Son of man.” Then, in that great day when “we that are alive shall not prevent them that sleep,” each can stand with arms outstretched towards our heavenly rest, and our Great High Priest,—our Redeemer, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, shall accomplish all the rest; and we “be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we be forever with the Lord.” Forever with the Lord. Oh! ecstatic hope. Let not “the voice of the wicked make us afraid.” Have the wings ready, and all will be well. But oh, how much is couched in that scoffing injunction. “Who can abide the day of his coming,” and “Who shall be able to stand?” Malone, N. Y., July, 1868. A Good Plan.
By Dudley Marvin Canright
The plan suggested by Bro. White for the distribution of the Testimonies I think a good one. As it has been, the very ones who needed them the most, are the ones who have not interest enough to send for them, or even to buy them. So let every one who loves and appreciates the Testimonies and wishes them to do the most good, send in immediately enough to pay for one for himself, and for one or more for those who need them, but do not want them. Remember that by this arrangement they will be sent to many who will never pay for them. We who love them must make this good. If I may be allowed to suggest, it seems to me that it is the duty of the elder or leader of each church to take hold of this matter, and see that all have a share in raising this fund. Also, it is clearly his duty to see that every family and lonely Sabbath-keeper has the Testimonies. If the elder does not see to this, who will? I enclose $3.00 for self and Mrs. Canright.