Mark 9:43, 44: “And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.”
Twice our Lord repeats this solemn sentence against the wicked, “Where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched.” Verses 46, 48. These passages are relied on with as much assurance, perhaps, as any, to prove the eternal misery of the reprobate. If this language had never been used by any of the inspired writers of the Scriptures, till it was thus used in the New Testament, it might be urged with some degree of plausibility, as an expressive imagery of eternal torment. But, even in this case, it might be replied that fire, so far as we have any experience with it, or knowledge of its nature, invariably consumes that upon which it preys, and hence must be a symbol of complete destruction; and that the expression, as it occurs in Mark 9:44, can denote nothing less than the utter consumption of those who are cast into that fire.
But this expression was one which was well known and understood by those whom Christ was addressing. Isaiah and Jeremiah frequently use the figure of the undying worm and quenchless fire. In their familiar scriptures the people daily read these expressions. Let us see what idea they would derive from them. We turn to Jeremiah 17:27, and read: “But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the Sabbath-day, and not bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath-day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.”
From this text we certainly can learn the meaning that was attached to the expression, “unquenchable fire,” by the Hebrew people. This fire was not to be quenched, therefore it was unquenchable. But it was to be kindled in the gates of Jerusalem, and devour the palaces thereof. It was therefore literal, natural, fire. But how could a fire of this kind, thus kindled, be supposed to be a fire that would burn eternally? They certainly would not so understand it. No more should we. Moreover, this threatening of the Lord by Jeremiah was fulfilled. 2 Chron. 36:19: “And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof.” Verse 21. “To fulfil the word of the Lord by Jeremiah.” Thus Jerusalem was burned according to Jeremiah’s prediction that it should be consumed in unquenchable fire. But how long did that fire burn? Only till it had reduced to ashes the gates and palaces on which it preyed. Unquenchable fire is therefore simply a fire that is not quenched, or does not cease, till it has entirely consumed that which causes or supports it. Then it dies out of itself, because there is nothing more to burn. The expression does not mean a fire that must absolutely eternally burn, and that consequently all that is cast therein to feed the flame must forever be preserved by having the portion consumed immediately renewed.
To the wicked the threatened fire is unquenchable because it will not be quenched, or caused to cease, till it has entirely devoured them. Ps. 37:20: “But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs; they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.” Mal. 4:3: “And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this saith the Lord of hosts.”
Ezekiel speaks of unquenchable fire in a similar manner. Eze. 20:47, 48: “Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree; the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein. And all flesh shall see that I the Lord have kindled it: it shall not be quenched.”
Though this is doubtless figurative language, denoting sore calamities upon a certain land called the forest of the south field, it nevertheless furnishes an instance of how the expression unquenchable fire was then used and understood; for that generation many ages ago perished, and those judgments long since ceased to exist.
Isaiah not only speaks of the unquenchable fire, but he couples with it the undying worm, the same as the language in Mark: Isa. 66:24: “And they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched: and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.” This is undoubtedly the language from which the expression in Mark is borrowed; but a moment’s examination of it will show that the worm is not the remorse of a guilty conscience, but that, like the fire, it is something external to, and distinct from, the objects upon which it preys; and moreover that those upon whom it feeds, are not the living but the dead: it is the “carcasses” of the men that have transgressed against the Lord. In Isa. 14:11, and 51:8, the prophet again speaks of the worm as an agent of destruction, but it is always in connection with death. It is thus evident that the terms employed by our Lord in describing the doom of the wicked would convey to the minds of his hearers the very opposite of the idea of eternal life in misery.
There is other evidence, though no other is necessary, to show that the idea which would be conveyed, and which the language was designed to convey, to their minds, was that of complete extinction of being, an utter consumption by external elements of destruction. The word translated, hell, in the passage under consideration is ge-enna. It is better to enter into life maimed, than to go, in full possession of all our members and faculties into ge-enna. Did those to whom Christ spoke know anything about this place, and what kind of a fate awaited those who were cast therein? A vivid picture of the place of torment to which our Lord refers was in constant operation before their eyes, near by Jerusalem. Greenfield defines the word thus: “Gehenna, the valley of Hinnom, south of Jerusalem, once celebrated for the horrid worship of Moloch and afterward polluted with every species of filth, as well as the carcasses of animals and dead bodies of malefactors; to consume which, in order to avert the pestilence which such a mass of corruption would occasion, constant fires were kept burning.”
Such was the fire of Gehenna; not a fire into which people were cast to be kept alive and tortured, but one into which they were cast to be consumed; not one which was designed to prey upon living beings, but upon the carcasses of animals and the dead bodies of malefactors. Hence we can see the consistency of associating the fire and the worm together. Whatever portion of the dead body the fire failed to consume, the worm would soon seize upon and devour. If a person had been condemned to be cast alive into this place, as the wicked will be cast into their Gehenna, what would have been his hope of escape? If the fire could have been speedily quenched before it had taken his life, and the worms which consumed what the fire left, could have been destroyed, he might have had some hope of coming out alive; but if this could not be done, he would know of a surety that his life would soon become extinct, and then even his lifeless remains would be utterly consumed by these agents of destruction.
This was the scene to which Christ pointed his hearers to represent the doom that awaits the wicked; that as they gazed upon the work of complete destruction going on in the valley of Hinnom, the worms devouring what the flames spared, they might learn that in the future Gehenna which awaited them no part of their being would be exempt from utter and complete destruction, one agent of death completing what another failed to accomplish.
As the definition of the word ge-enna throws great light on the meaning of this text, so the definition of two other terms used is equally to the point. The words for unquenchable fire, are pur (long u) asbeston, and this word, asbeston, primarily means simply unquenched, that is, not caused to cease by any external means; the idea of eternal, is a theological definition which has been attached to it. Ancient writers used it in this sense. Homer in the Iliad, xvi, 123, 294, speaks of the Trojans’ hurling “unquenchable fire” upon the Grecian ships, though but one of them was burnt by it. And Eusebius, who was a learned Greek, employs the same expression in two instances in recounting the martyrdom of Christians. Cronion and Julian after being tortured in various ways, were consumed in an “unquenchable fire,” puri asbesto. The same is also said of Epimachus and Alexander. “The pur asbeston,” says Wetstein, “denotes such a fire as cannot be extinguished before it has consumed and destroyed all.”
Such is the evident meaning of this passage, and the sense in which it must have been understood at that time. Yet commentators eighteen hundred years this side of that time presume to turn this whole representation upside down, and give to the terms a meaning exactly opposite from that which they were intended to convey. That sense alone can be the correct one in which they were first spoken; and concerning that there can be no question.
There is another text often urged to prove the eternal conscious misery of the wicked. It is one in which fire is mentioned as the instrument used for the punishment of the wicked; and this fire being called eternal is understood in the same sense as the unquenchable fire of Mark 9:43. It may therefore properly be examined in this connection.
Jude 7: “Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” This text when rightly understood, will, we think, like that in Mark 9, be found to convey just the opposite meaning from that popularly given to it. The first great error in the interpretation of this text, lies, as we view it, in a wrong application of the tense employed. It is claimed that the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, having been destroyed were committed to the flames of hell, where they are now (present tense) suffering the vengeance of that eternal fire. But a moment’s glance at the text will show that it is the example set forth, and not the suffering, that is in the present tense. There are other facts mentioned in the same tense with the suffering; thus, “giving themselves over to fornication,” “going after strange flesh,” “suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” If one of these expressions denotes something that is now going on, the others also denote the same. If they are now suffering the fire, they are now giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh; for all these declarations are in the same construction. But no one will claim that the Sodomites are now taking the course here described; neither, then, can it be claimed that they are now suffering the pain of fire.
The sense of the passage appears to be very evidently this: that the Sodomites giving themselves up to their wicked practices, and as a consequence suffering an eternal overthrow by fire rained down upon them from heaven, are thus set forth as an example to the ungodly of all coming ages, of the overthrow they will also experience if they follow the same course.
Peter speaks of the same event, as an example to the wicked, and tells what effect that fire had upon the cities of the plain. It did not preserve them in the midst of the fire in unceasing torture, but turned them into ashes. He says, 2 Pet. 2:6: “And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly.” This language is too plain to need comment. How are the Sodomites made an example? By being overthrown and turned into ashes for their open and presumptuous sins. It is God saying to the wicked in all coming time, Behold, how your sins shall be visited unless you repent.
But those fires are not now burning. Seek out the site of those ancient and abandoned cities, and the brackish waters of the dead sea will be found rolling their sluggish waves over the spot where once they stood. Those fires are therefore called eternal, because their effects are eternal or age-lasting. They never have recovered, nor will they ever recover while the world stands, from that terrible overthrow.
And thus this text is very much to the purpose on the question before us; for it declares that the punishment of Sodom is an exact pattern of the future punishment of the wicked; hence that punishment will not be eternal life in the fiery flame, but an utter consumption, even as Sodom was consumed, by its resistless vengeance.
Since the Camp-Meetings.
By George I. Butler
LEST the readers of the REVIEW should be at a loss as to my whereabouts, I will give a very brief account of my labors since my last report, which closed with the Indiana Camp-meeting, though I have nothing very remarkable to communicate.
At the urgent invitation of some of the friends of the cause in Battle Creek, rather than my own desire, I went to that place and remained three weeks, during which time I held meetings with the church, and labored for the prosperity of the cause in the Office and the school. Though no great results were perceptible, I trust no injury to the cause will be the consequence.
Upon returning home to Southern Iowa, I went by way of Waukon, in the northern part of the State, partially to dispose of my father’s farm, as he is quite feeble from age and infirmity, and resides in Battle Creek with my oldest sister. I succeeded in this, and while there had the privilege of meeting with the church of which I was formerly a member, and associating with those very dear friends of former years. But a handful are left, most having moved to other parts. I am glad to be able to say that Bro. Washburn, the elder of the church, who has held a license from the Iowa Conference for two years past, but who has been detained at home by temporal embarrassments, has now fully decided to give his strength to the work and prove his gift. Having long felt that this dear brother might be a blessing to the cause, we greatly rejoice at this. And if our going there at the time had any influence in bringing about this decision, we regard the visit as opportune. He is now teaching school, but will, at the close of it, be prepared, we trust, to give his whole time to the work.
Reached home Oct. 24, after an absence of three months. From labor in the camp meetings, and from other perplexities, felt somewhat the need of rest. The day following, Bro. Kilgore came, desiring me very much to go up to Hamilton County, where he had been laboring, to assist in organizing a church there. As he and the other ministers in Iowa had never had any experience in that kind of work, or witnessed it, I thought perhaps duty would require me to do as much as this. A brother from Richland also came the same day, desiring me to go there, as Mr. Goodenough of the Hope of Israel party had been there several weeks and created some confusion in the minds of some. This little church had shown their zeal by just completing a very neat house of worship. They were people to whom I have been much attached because of their love for the cause. I felt that I could not do less than to go, and set the truth before the people as we understood it. I went and gave seven discourses, taking up the subjects of the Messages, the Sanctuary, the Two-horned Beast, the Testimonies, &c. I gave the arguments for our positions, as well as noticing the positions of the opposing party. Bro. Kilgore has written, I suppose, some of the positions taken and the reply already for the REVIEW. I had no time to remain longer. What the final result will be, I have not ascertained, as Mr. G. remained to review my arguments. I think, however, he will fail to break down the faith of the friends of present truth in Richland.
Our friends in all the new churches might as well understand that this party seem determined to take advantage of their lack of experience to crowd their views upon them. They make no attempts in our old churches where the past history of this party is well known. There would be no use in trying it there. And when our people thoroughly acquaint themselves with the arguments for our positions on the messages, sanctuary, &c., we have no fears that anything they can bring will overthrow them. But here is the danger. Many do not study. They take merely what the minister says, without knowing the why and the wherefore, so that when they hear a plausible discourse they are not prepared for it with the strong arguments for our positions, and are easily shaken.
The Sabbath and Sunday following our meeting at Richland, we filled the appointment at Osceola. Here we met many of the firm friends of the cause in Southern Iowa. It seemed pleasant to greet them once more. There was a delegation from Knoxville, Sandyville, Coloma, Woodburn, Decatur City, and Afton. The church at Osceola seem to be trying to live, and we trust the cause in all that section is onward. Bro. Morrison was with us at this meeting. He went with me to Hamilton Co., where we met Brn. Kilgore, Nicola, and Mitchell; and while the labors connected with the organization of the church were going on, we had opportunity to talk over plans for the furtherance of the good cause in the State. We enjoyed a very precious season with these dear brethren, all of whom are determined to give their whole strength to the work, regardless of farms or worldly prosperity. We were much rejoiced that Bro. Morrison has of late felt the importance of this as never before. His health has troubled him some during the past, and we have had fears that the farm had also. But he has determined to cut loose from this, and cast himself fully into the work. We believe God will13greatly bless this dear brother’s labors. His health has much improved. I firmly believe God can help our weak heads and bodies when our whole hearts are in the work of the Lord. We shall expect to hear good reports from Bro. Morrison’s labors this winter.
During the meetings in Hamilton County the weather was quite cold, which rather interfered with the attendance. Still the friends came out well, considering the inclemency of the weather. I was much pleased to see the interest and zeal of some of those who had come out under the labors of Brn. Kilgore and Morrison with the tent. Evidently there is quite a field open in that section, from which, I trust, Bro. Kilgore will gather fruit when he returns from Nebraska to labor there through the winter. We held meetings there for six days, and took up such subjects as Testimonies, Systematic Benevolence, Health Reform, Tobacco, as well as other subjects of a close, practical nature, and organized finally a church of twenty-three members. Bro. Kilgore baptized eight candidates. Others will no doubt soon come into the church. (Organized, 8, amounting to $123.00.) Altogether, I felt glad I went up there.
From there I returned home and remained two weeks, meeting with the church Sabbaths; and from thence came to this place. Having of late had time to reflect on the past and upon the great work before us of warning the world, which I believe rests upon us as a people, and the duty of being awake and alive in the cause of God, I can say I never felt a stronger desire to be in earnest, than now. It seems to me I have done but very little thus far. I must therefore have a greater spirit of sacrifice, and more devotion to this great and solemn work. May God help me to be truly in earnest in discharging the duties committed to my hands.
GEO. I. BUTLER.
Civil Bend, Mo., Dec. 9, 1872.
Men and Things.
By Dudley Marvin Canright
PEACE! PEACE!
This is the cry now on all hands. Ministers preach it, editors write about it, and politicians hold conventions to promote it. Yet, strange to say, the reverse is just what is actually being done by all nations. Manifestly, fate is against them. They are crying peace, when there is no peace. Read the following from the Christian Union of Nov. 20, 1872:—
“Austria raises her army burden nine millions sterling because Count Andrassy insists that peace may not last a year if there is any weak spot in Austrian preparation for war. It comes upon finances which are convalescent rather than healthy, and may work mischief. But the ministry want to be able to meet war with an effective army of 800,000 men, and demand for this a peace effective of a quarter of a million, and that recruits be kept in service three years. Meanwhile, Germany, under Bismarck, with coffers full of French money, is going to buy 3,000,000 rifles of a new pattern, to get a gun which will outshoot and downshoot every other gun in Europe. France, too, affords eighteen millions sterling to be sure of a very large army, into which hundreds of thousands of men must be swept, that some day France may get even with the people who have lately got the better of her so terribly. Such is the peace of Europe at this hour!”
In another article, the same paper says:—
“An ‘Eastern Question,’ of a compass and issue the foremost men in the political and diplomatic world have not comprehended, is about to surprise and agitate the nations. The slow and almost imperceptible processes by which divine Providence shapes their being, progress, and destiny, are now bringing them face to face with a fact that will astonish them.”
ANIMALS DO REASON.
Here is another interesting article, showing conclusively that brutes do reason. Still, none claim that they are immortal, while they argue man's immortality, from his power to think and reason. If it proves it in one case, why not in the other? It is from the Virginia City Montanian:
“A remarkable instance of the sagacity (is it not reason?) of a horse came to our notice. Mr. John Fletcher, of Norwegian, owns an unbroken cayuse mare which runs in a pasture adjoining his house. The mare which is very wild, has a young colt at her side. A few nights since, after Mr. Fletcher had retired, he was aroused by the mare coming to the window of his house, and by pawing, neighing, and in every way possible trying to get his attention. This continuing for some time, he got up and went out and drove her away, and returned again to bed; but she immediately returned, and if possible increased her demonstrations. He again went out, when she came up to him and rubbed her nose against him, although before she had been very shy of allowing any one to come within reach of her, then ran on a few yards before him, continuing her neighing; then, as he did not follow her, she returned to him, rubbing against him in the most demonstrative manner. He attempted to drive her off, struck her with a stick, and followed her a few yards to frighten her away. As soon however, as he turned toward the house, she returned and tried in every way to prevent him from doing so. He then remarked that her colt was not with her, a fact he had not noticed before, as it was quite dark. It occurred to him then to follow her, which he did. As soon as she saw he was doing so, she ran off before him, stopping every few yards, turning around to see that he was still following, then again running on, keeping up her calling, until she reached a distant part of the field, where she stopped at an old “prospect hole.” On coming up with her, she again commenced rubbing against him, and drew his attention to the hole, where he soon discovered the colt. It appeared it had slipped into it and was unable to get out, and the mare had taken this method to obtain assistance. Being unable to get it out alone, Mr. Fletcher went for some of his neighbors, and with them returned. While they were taking the little fellow out, the mare manifested the most intense delight, and seemed almost beside herself with joy; and afterward, when the men had got the colt out of the hole, she came up to Mr. Fletcher, and placing her nose on his shoulder, gave every sign of gratitude that a human mother might under similar circumstances. Who will say that the horse does not reason?” D. M. Canright.
Bits of Time—How to Use Them.
By Dudley Marvin Canright
Few persons realize the value of the odd bits of time which are constantly occurring in every one's life. You have to wait at the office half an hour for a man, at the depot twenty minutes, in another place ten minutes, &c. This time is so short it seems hardly worth while to undertake to do anything. When we have more time and a better chance, then we will do what we have in mind. So it goes, day after day, and week by week, and still we find ourselves waiting for that “convenient season” of a whole day or week in which to read a coveted book, write an article, or something of the like.
How much precious time is lost in this way. Let us reckon up, a moment. One hour per day, that is small, easily made up; twenty minutes before breakfast, twenty at noon, and the balance at evening, this would be 313 hours for the working days in one year. In ten years, 3150 hours, or at eight hours a day, which is a good day's work for hard study, 391 days, or sixty-five weeks of six working days each. Just think of it! one year and a quarter of steady reading! What an immense sight one could learn in that time! All this by catching a few minutes only each day!
I once knew, years ago, a young man of about thirty years of age, who was trying to preach some. I asked him if he had read Rollin? No. Gibbon? No. Josephus? No. Mosheim? No. He said the fact was he had never had time. He was raised a poor boy, and always had to work hard for a living, teaching school, &c. He hoped sometime to read all these and others too, when he had time. I soon saw what the trouble was. Odd minutes, and even hours, he did not think were worth economizing. “When he could get a whole week, or month, then he would do all these things. There is where he failed.
I knew another young man of about the same age and occupation, much poorer, and laboring under greater disadvantages. When too poor to buy books, he borrowed them, and, while working by the day and by the month, even in harvest, would catch a few moments every day to read a little. In this way he learned to read, to write, learned geography, and astronomy, without any teacher, and has read extensively both in history and in general reading. Nor has he neglected his daily work to do this.
Much time may be, and generally is, lost while traveling. Suppose a man has to walk in all three miles a day in going to and from his work, or in visiting from house to house. It will take him an hour to walk that. If the thoughts are left to wander here and there, to flit from one object to another, without carefully considering anything, this time is worse than lost, so far as mental improvement is concerned. A slack, loose habit of thought is formed, which is very detrimental to any one.
These hours can be turned to great profit. It is the very best time for strong, vigorous thought. It is said of Erasmus, Edwards, and other great men, that they did their best thinking while walking or riding. As soon as they stopped, they would write down the result of these thoughts. I have seen many a hard lesson in Greek learned in this manner, without a teacher too. I sometimes think that it is not so much in the ability of the individual as it is in his steady, intense application, that makes the man. D. M. CANRIGHT.
The Triumph of the Gospel.
By R. F. Cottrell
YES, the gospel will triumph. It will accomplish the object for which it was sent. See Isa. 55:11. The object of the gospel is to save them that believe. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. God sent not his Son to condemn the world. They were condemned already; and he made it possible that they might be saved. Yet the gospel is a savor of death to them who do not believe. While it is true that he that believes and obeys shall be saved, it is also true that he that believes not shall be damned. The gospel is not a failure, though it does not save those who do not believe.
Some think the gospel a failure, if it does not save all. Others think it must save a majority, or it is a failure. Say they, “If Satan gets the greater number, he has succeeded and God has failed.” They should know that God does not estimate the value of men by their number, but by their worth. A bushel of wheat is worth more than ten bushels of chaff. He does not intend to lose a grain of the wheat, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. The eight persons that were in Noah’s ark were of more value in the sight of God than all the millions that perished in the flood. If we would be esteemed of God, we must believe and obey him. If we do this, he will not let us be lost.
After the gospel was rejected by the rulers of the Jews, it was sent to the Gentiles. The object of sending the gospel to the Gentiles was “to take out of them a people for his name.” Acts 15:14. This object will be accomplished. A great multitude of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, will be saved. Rev. 7:9. So the gospel will not prove a failure, but will triumph gloriously.
But it is claimed that the gospel will certainly triumph in the last days. So it will; but what is that triumph? Will all be converted in the last days? The gospel in its purity, as preached by the apostles and primitive church, did not convert all then living. Will an adulterated gospel, as preached by sects and factions, in these days, do more? The whole world were not converted by the preaching of Noah; and the very last days—the days when the Son of man will come—will be like the days of Noah. The earth then was filled with violence; so it is now. They were warned of the coming danger; so this generation is being warned—warned of the approach of the great day of wrath. At that time, the unbelieving “knew not till the flood came and took them all away;” even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.
While others ask, “Where is the promise of his coming?” we ask, “Where is the promise that the gospel must first convert the entire world, and that then his coming cannot take place in a thousand years, at least?” The text says, “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come”—an end like the end of the antediluvian world.
The gospel indeed shall triumph. In what shall its triumph consist? It shall accomplish the object which the Father and the Son had in view in the gift of the Son, and the voluntary offering of the Son for us. The object is plainly stated in the following text: “Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” Titus 2:14. The people that the gospel is to benefit are a peculiar people, zealous of good works. A peculiar people must differ from all other people. If all were converted to God in any age, there would be no peculiar people. All would be alike; therefore there could be no peculiarity with those that are zealous of good works. All would be zealous of good works. Therefore the object in view in the gift of the Son—the purifying to himself of a peculiar people—will be attained, and the gospel will triumph in the purification of a part, and not in the salvation of all.
The gospel will indeed triumph in the last days. The last message of probation, Rev. 14:9-12, will develop a people who will keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. The dragon will be wroth with them on this account. Rev. 12:17. They will be persecuted; an effort will be made to compel them to worship the beast, in preference to keeping the commandments of God. Rev. 13:15. This effort will fail, and they will be delivered from the persecution, and be found with the Lamb upon Mount Zion. Rev. 14:1-5. They will be guileless and without fault—a peculiar people.
Hence the triumph of the gospel in the last days will be, not the conversion of all, but the perfect purification of the people of God, in the midst of the general apostasy and corruption of the last days. This is truly a great work. But the gospel will triumph in its accomplishment. The gospel will do just what it proposes to do, namely, it will save those that believe and obey it.
R. F. COTTRELL.
Hidden Thoughts and Sins Before God
GOLD-FISH swimming about in a glass bowl, or bees in a glass bee hive, may as easily screen themselves from observation by the bystanders, as our inward thoughts and sins can hide themselves from the sight of God.
The Editor and His Flock.
By Editor
People sometimes receive their paper year after year without considering the relationship which all the time is growing up between them and the editor. He is in one part of the land and they in another, he sees their names in the mailing list, but does not know how they look or what their surroundings, and yet he is always selecting the news which he thinks they ought to hear, and setting forth the truths which he deems they ought to consider. His connection with them is a vastly important one, for it affects their judgments, their principles, and their hearts. There are no distractions of architecture, or audiences, or music when he speaks to them; no living voice divides their attention by its cadences or modulations, but as they sit by the fireside after the turmoil of the day, when none but home's own familiar faces are near them, the editor's words come with their facts and suggestions for the household. It is impossible for one thus to commune in silence and sacred privacy with thousands of others, without a feeling of responsibility for them. The Christian editor prays for his unknown flock, they become a concern to him as those for whom he must give account—and when suddenly the notice comes that a subscriber is dead, that the name must be taken off, the thought at once arises, has that soul been honestly and truly dealt with in these pages? Has it been led to Jesus by its weekly visitor?
These reflections came into our minds as we read the following beautiful passage from a late number of the San Francisco Occident. We thank our brother editor for his touching words:—
“Stop Miss.——’s paper. She is dead.” She has been a subscriber for two or three years. Whether she loved Christ, we know not. Whether she was old or young; whether she was rich or poor; whether she took the paper in order to help us, or that we might help her; or whether she commenced from curiosity and continued from interest in our work, of all that we are ignorant. But she is dead. A friend and helper is gone, to whom we can come no more with the words of genial cheer—with the words of gospel hope. The day somehow seems darker since we have heard of her death. Perhaps she prayed for us; perhaps as our folds weekly greeted her eyes, her heart was strengthened by some of our utterances, and her sympathies were awakened toward Christ's cause.
“Have we performed our duty toward her and toward our thousands of readers? Our paper is not up to our standard, by far. We toil under frequent and oppressive discouragements. We have not therefore the spring, vivacity, power that we could wish. But we have done our best that no unchristian sentiment, no mean covert, unkind suggestion toward any denomination of the Church or any person, should get into these columns. We have been anxious that every number should serve Christ and point out the way of salvation.”
Our turn will speedily come. We had expected it earlier. Yes, dear reader—for never do we send out a paper but it is prayed for, that it may serve Christ in your hearts. With tears and impassioned entreaties we beseech God for you, ministers and people, in the thronged city, or the lonely field or forest, that our Saviour may enrich with all grace, and enable us to help you in your work and way to the kingdom.—Union Advocate.
A New Discovery.
By A. S. Hutchins
Our friends who claim that the first day of the week should be observed as the Sabbath instead of the seventh, present quite a variety of reasons in defense of this position. Some maintain that Christ changed the Sabbath; others, that it was changed by the apostles; while there is another class who think this day has so long been observed as the Sabbath that no further warrant is needed, even though no requirement for its observance can be drawn from the Bible.
Now, as “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works,” it is reasonable to conclude, if Christ or the apostles made so important an amendment or alteration of the law of God, as the change of the Bible Sabbath, that this volume would contain the record of it.
But right here a new discovery has been made. Said a minister in this State, not long since, to a Sabbath keeper, You are wrong on this point. I have light on the subject which I am to present in a sermon. The sermon was preached, and the promised light looked for. And when it came, it was as follows:—
Christ changed the Sabbath, and it is evident the apostles so understood the matter, yet there is no record of the fact, as this stands in the catalogue of the “many other things which Jesus did,” which are not written. John 21: 25.
Now, who can possibly conceive why a transaction of so great magnitude, one which was to affect the future course of the entire church of God, to the end of time, and more or less the whole world, should be passed in silence by the pen of inspiration? What an inexcusable turning of things upside down, and of putting light for darkness, and darkness for light! But really, there is one redeeming feature here. The scriptural record is relieved from all responsibility in vindicating the first-day Sabbath, nothing but assumption being claimed in its behalf, while those who hallow the Sabbath of the decalogue can say, “It is written,” “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.”
“O thou holy book divine,
Precious treasure, thou art mine.”