Earlier text: General ArticlesThoughts on Daniel—Chapter XI.
By Uriah Smith
THE historian thus describes this great religious change:— "It was not enough, they said, for a regenerate nation to have dethroned earthly kings, unless she stretched out the arm of defiance toward those powers which superstition had represented as reigning over boundless space."—Scott's Napoleon, vol. i, p. 172. "The constitutional bishop of Paris was brought forward to play the principal part in the most impudent and scandalous farce ever enacted in the face of a national representation. . . . He was brought forward in full procession, to declare to the convention that the religion which he had taught so many years was, in every respect, a piece of PRIESTCRAFT, which had no foundation either in history or sacred truth. He disowned, in solemn and explicit terms, the EXISTENCE of THE DEITY to whose worship he had been consecrated, and devoted himself in future to the homage of Liberty, Equality, Virtue, and Morality. He then laid on the table his Episcopal decorations, and received a fraternal embrace from the president of the convention. Several apostate priests followed the example of this prelate. . . The world for the FIRST time, heard an assembly of men, born and educated in civilization, and assuming the right to govern one of the finest of the European nations, uplift their united voice to DENY the most solemn truth which man's soul receives, and RENOUNCE UNANIMOUSLY THE BELIEF AND WORSHIP OF DEITY."—Ibid., vol. i, p. 173. A late writer in Blackwood's Magazine says:— "France is the only nation in the world concerning which the authentic record survives, that as a nation she lifted her hand in open rebellion against the Author of the universe. Plenty of blasphemers, plenty of infidels, there have been, and still continue to be, in England, Germany, Spain, and elsewhere; but France stands apart in the world's history as the single State which, by the decree of her legislative assembly, pronounced that there was no GOD, and of which the entire population of the capital, and a vast majority everywhere, women as well as men, danced and sang with joy in accepting the announcement." But there are other more striking specifications still fulfilled in this power. VERSE 37. Nether shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god; for he shall magnify himself above all. The word for woman and wife are in the original the same; and Bishop Newton observes that "the desire of wives." This would seem to indicate that this government, at the same time it declared that God did not exist, would trample under foot the law which that God had given to regulate the marriage institution. And we find that the historian has, unconsciously perhaps, and if so, all the more significantly, coupled together the atheism and licentiousness of this government in the same order in which they are presented in the prophecy. He says:— "Intimately connected with these laws affecting religion, was that which reduced the union of marriage—the most sacred engagement which human beings can form, and the permanence of which leads most strongly to the consolidation of society—to the state of a mere civil contract of a transitory character, which any two persons might engage in, and cast loose at pleasure when their taste was changed or their appetite gratified. If fiends had set themselves at work to discover a mode of most effectually destroying whatever is venerable, graceful, or permanent, in domestic life, and obtaining at the same time an assurance that the mischief which it was their object to create should be perpetuated from one generation to another, they could not have invented a more effectual plan than the degradation of marriage into a state of mere occasional cohabitation or licensed concubinage. Sophie Arnoult, an actress famous for the witty things she said, described the republican marriage as the sacrament of adultery. These anti-religious and anti-social regulations did not answer the purpose of the frantic and inconsiderate zealots, by whom they had been urged forward."—Scott's Napoleon, vol. i, p. 173. "Nor regard any god." In addition to the testimony already presented, to show the utter atheism of the nation at this time, the following fearful language of madness and presumption is to be recorded:— "The fear of God is so far from being the beginning of wisdom, that it is the beginning of folly. Modesty is only an invention of refined voluptuousness. The Supreme King, the God of the Jews and the Christians, is but a phantom. Jesus Christ is an impostor." "In August 26, 1792, an open profession of atheism was made by the National Convention; and corresponding societies and atheistical clubs were everywhere fearlessly held in the French nation. Massacres and the reign of terror became the most horrid."—Smith's Key to Revelation, p. 323. "Herbert, Chaumette, and their associates, appeared at the bar and declared that God did not exist."—Alison, vol. i, p. 150. At this juncture, all religious worship was prohibited, except that of liberty and the country. The gold and silver plate of the churches was seized upon and desecrated. The churches were closed. The bells were broken and cast into cannon. The Bible was publicly burned. The sacramental vessels were paraded through the streets on an ass, in token of contempt. The Sabbath was abolished, and death was declared, in conspicuous letters posted over their burial places, to be an eternal sleep. But the crowning blasphemy, if these orgies of hell admit of degrees, remain to be performed by the comedian Monvel, who, as a priest of Illuminism, said:— "God, if you exist, avenge your injured name. I bid you defiance! You remain silent. You dare not launch your thunders! Who, after this, will believe in your existence? The whole ecclesiastical establishment was destroyed."—Scott's Napoleon, vol. i, p. 173. Behold what man is when left to himself, and what infidelity is when the restraints of law are thrown off, and it has the power in its own hands! Can it be doubted that these scenes are what the omniscient eye foresaw and noted on the sacred page when it pointed out a kingdom to arise which should exalt itself above every god and disregard them all? VERSE 38. But in his estate shall he honor the God of forces; and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honor with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things. We meet a seeming contradiction in this verse. How can a nation disregard every god, and yet honor the god of forces? It could not at one and the same time hold both positions. But it might for a time disregard all gods, and then subsequently introduce another worship and regard the god of forces. Did such a change occur in France at this time? It did. The attempt to make France a godless nation produced such anarchy that the rulers feared the power would pass entirely out of their hands, and therefore perceived that, as a political necessity, some kind of worship must be introduced; and they did not intend to introduce any movement which would increase devotion or develop any true spiritual character among the people, but only such as would keep themselves in power, and give them control of the national forces. A few extracts from history will show this. Liberty and country were at first the objects of adoration. "Liberty, equality, virtue, and morality," the very opposite of anything they possessed in fact or exhibited in practice, were words which they set forth as describing the deity of the nation. In 1794 the worship of the Goddess of Reason was introduced, and is thus described by the historian:— "One of the ceremonies of this insane time stands unrivaled for absurdity combined with impiety. The doors of the Convention were thrown open to a band of musicians, preceded by whom, the members of the municipal body entered in a solemn procession, singing a hymn in praise of Liberty, and escorting as the object of their future worship, a vailed female whom they termed the Goddess of Reason. Being brought within the bar, she was unvailed with great form, and placed on the right hand of the president, when she was generally recognized as a dancing girl of the opera, with whose charms most of the persons present were acquainted from her appearance on the stage, while the experience of individuals was further extended. To this person, as the fittest representative of that reason whom they worshipped, the National Convention of France rendered public homage. This impious and ridiculous mummery had a certain fashion; and the installation of the Goddess of Reason was renewed and imitated throughout the nation, in such places where the inhabitants desired to show themselves equal to all the heights of the Revolution."—Scott's Napoleon. In introducing the worship of Reason, in 1794, Chaumette said:— "Legislative fanaticism has lost its hold; it has given place to reason. We have left its temples; they are regenerated. To-day an immense multitude are assembled under its Gothic roofs, which, for the first time, will re-echo the voice of truth. There the French will celebrate their true worship—that of Liberty and Reason. There we will form new vows for the prosperity of the armies of the Republic; there we will abandon the worship of inanimate idols for that of this animated image, the masterpiece of creation. "A vailed female, arrayed in blue drapery, was brought into the Convention; and Chaumette, taking her by the hand— "Mortals," said he, "cease to tremble before the powerless thunders of a God whom your fears have created. Henceforth acknowledge no DIVINITY but REASON. I offer you its noblest and purest image; if you must have idols, sacrifice only to such as this. . . . Fall before the august Senate of Freedom—Vail of Reason. "At the same time the goddess appeared personified by a celebrated beauty, Madame Millard, of the opera, known in more than one character to most of the Convention. The goddess, after being embraced by the president, was mounted on a magnificent car, and conducted amidst an immense crowd to the cathedral of Notre Dame, to take the place of the Diety. Then she was elevated on the high altar, and received the adoration of all present. "On the 11th of November, the popular society of the museum entered the hall of the municipality, exclaiming, 'Vive la Reason!' and carrying on the top of a pole the half-burnt remains of several books, among others the breviaries and the Old and New Testaments, which 'expiated in a great fire,' said the president, 'all the fooleries which they have made the human race commit.' "The most sacred relations of life were at the same period placed on a new footing suited to the extravagant ideas of the times. Marriage was declared a civil contract, binding only during the pleasure of the contracting parties. Mademoiselle Arnoult, a celebrated comedian, expressed the public feeling when she called 'marriage the sacrament of adultery.'"—Ibid. Truly, this was a strange god, whom the fathers of that generation knew not. No such deity had ever before been set up as an object of adoration. And well might it be called the god of forces; for the object of the movement was to cause the people to renew their covenant and repeat their vows for the prosperity of the armies of France. Read again a few lines from the extract already given:— "We have left its temples; they are regenerated. To-day an immense multitude are assembled under its Gothic roofs, which, for the first time, will re-echo the voice of truth. There the French will celebrate their true worship—that of Liberty and Reason. There we will form new vows for the prosperity of the armies of the Republic." In nothing is real manhood better seen than in right choice. This quality embraces many others. It embraces faith such as Abraham's, that staggers not at the promise of God but stands calmly, as he did on Mount Moriah, and with clear eye looks down on the ages and comprehends the grand unfolding of Messiah's kingdom. Without such a broad, extensive view of human affairs, how could he have risen to the grandeur of his choice to slay his son,—even his only son Isaac, the child of promise, from whom the Messiah was to descend—rather than to doubt the truth or deny the authority, of what he knew to be the divine word? This quality, of choosing great ultimate ends, those ends which determine character, embraces temperance and sobriety, even spirituality of life; it involves the subordination of all selfish, earthly and low appetites and passions to spiritual ends. How could Daniel have risen to such heights of character in the choice he made, if he had not first "purposed in his heart, not to defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank;" and subsequently, to say to the bribing spirit of Belshazzar, "Let thy gifts be to thyself and thy rewards to another, yet I will read the writing unto the King and make known to him the interpretation?" It costs something to make noble choices in life; for they run counter to all the lower and more animal tendencies of our nature. It takes courage and fortitude—real bravery—negatively and positively, to take such moral ground as our higher nature is capable of and as God calls us to occupy. It takes great fortitude and patience to submit to some things—more bravery than it does to fight them. See Job with calamities raining upon him—family swept away, flocks destroyed, friends arrayed against him and mocking him in an affectation of friendly interest, his body a nauseous, ulcerous mass; and yet from the spirit of the afflicted man there arises no curse against God. His lips are a barred and bolted gate against ungodly murmurs. I think he is the greatest hero in the ancient world. Your Cæsars, and Pompeys, and Hannibals, and Alexanders are a band of red-handed cravens beside this one pure, brave spirit who sings from out his living sepulcher, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust him." Then see those three young men in Babylon, who, upon the plain of Dura, before the flashing glory of Nebuchadnezzar's idol dare to stand alone under the fiery, jealous scrutiny245 of a whole kingdom, and see their way leading directly to the open door of a gleaming sevenfold heated furnace, rather than deny the God of Israel. Surely no man can surmount the summit of their moral choice, without courage sublime enough to bring wandering angels from the seventh heaven to behold the sight, and the Son of God, from the throne of the Eternal to share with them their furnace throne and make of the very crackling flames the gleaming robes of their coronation day. Talk of manhood! What is this of which men become possessed when they are able to subordinate all the powers of the lower nature and all the fury of the elements, all the vengeance of heathen princes and all the jealous rage of Satanic opposers, and put it all under their feet, and thus posited calmly rise into the very companionship of the Son of God. The moral altitude of such men is grander than that of the angel whom John saw in the apocalypse, who "stood upon the sea and upon the earth and lifted his hand to heaven and swore by Him that liveth forever and ever, that there should be time no longer;" and yet the Old Testament—the book which some wise souls fancy they have outgrown,—abounds in its instances of men who have subordinated everything, even life itself, that they might rise to the grandeur of such a choice. There is Abel, and Enoch, and Noah, and Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Joseph, and Moses, and Joshua, and Gideon, and Barak, and Samuel, and David, and Elijah with his seven thousand companions who did not bow the knee to Baal, and multitudes of whom, in that ancient time, they were the mere representatives, "who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens;" these all "obtained a good report through faith." They are simply our elder brethren in the same great fight, our companions before whom was put the same moral option, of gaining this world or the world to come.—Rev. H. C. Mabie, in Hebrew Student. The Sabbath-School.
By Steel
When the believer enters upon the life of faith, he is animated and encouraged by the hope of reward. This meets him at the very outset of his Christian career, and gives a peculiar character and aim to all that he does. He is in a "race," and looks for the "prize." With singleness of aim, he "runs" that he may "obtain;" and can say, with the apostle, "This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." He is in a conflict, and hopes to gain the reward of the conqueror, to whom are given so many promises of honor, or of privilege, or of power—as of a right "to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God;" or to receive "the white stone;" or to sit with Christ upon his throne. He has a trust of "few things," and is encouraged to be faithful by the hope of being rewarded with the rule of "many things." He sows seed, with the expectation of a harvest to remunerate his toil. He reaps that he may receive wages. He surrenders present advantage, as Moses, having "a respect unto the recompense of reward." He endures the "light affliction which is but for a moment" that he may have wrought out for him "a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." He sojourns in tents here as a stranger, that he may reach "the city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." "Through faith and patience" he endeavors to "inherit the promises." He suffers, that he may reign with Christ. He labors, that he may "enter into rest." He prepares for meeting with Christ, and looks for his appearing, that he may receive the crown of glory. He makes his earthly experience anticipative of the reward of Heaven. These rewards, and the expectations founded on them, have been encouraged by God himself. The industrious pursuit of them is not, therefore, unbecoming; it is the fulfilling of the law. Of course the mercenary aim is not the ruling motive of the true believer. He labors from love; but so long as he is constituted as he is, he is susceptible of the hope of reward, and is stimulated by the prospect. There is nothing sinful in the desire. Our Lord himself felt its influence support him in his darkest, sorest, heaviest hour. "For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame." The apostles felt the power of the promised reward. St. Paul entered into it with ardor, and was moved by it to more devoted action. Even at the last he could say, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day." The illustrations afforded in Scripture show that there is a reward for services done to the Lord and to the needy in his name. The alabaster-box has its constant fragrance, the widow's mite has its perpetual value, and the cup of cold water given to a disciple in the name of a disciple, shall in no wise lose its reward. He that converteth a sinner from the error of his way, not only saves a soul from death, and hides a multitude of sins, but receives his reward, and is glorified among those who have "turned many to righteousness," and on that account "shine as the stars for ever and ever." Sabbath-school teacher! your work has its record in the court of the All-observant and Just. It will have its reward also from him. Your teaching and your usefulness to others will not stand in lieu of regeneration of heart. You cannot purchase Heaven by works of righteousness. You are not more fit for glory because you labor in the school and train the young in the way they should go. You must be saved by faith in Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and by the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. But your faithful, prayerful efforts to do good, for the love you bear to Jesus and your desire to save souls, will not be lost sight of, or passed over, or be unrewarded.—Steel. TRUTH is most interesting to children when illustrated by striking examples, because they then see the whole force of it in its practical bearing. Certainly we have in the records of our Saviour's teaching, a variety of inimitable specimens of the mode of giving the most effective instruction in this way. Let the teacher try the experiment, and see which affects his class most seriously—a solemn lecture on the love of God to sinners, and their obligation to love him in return, or the story of the "prodigal son," or of the "woman which was a sinner," and who met our Saviour in the house of Simon. The manner of illustrating lessons may be such as entirely to destroy the force and pungency of the truth they contain. The child may be amused, and even instructed, by the illustrations, while he loses sight of the truth itself, or is entirely unaffected by its exhibition; while, on the other hand, truths and principles may be enforced with great sincerity and zeal, and yet with such a cold and uninteresting manner as to weary and disgust the child's mind; and his ear becomes accustomed to sounds which, like those of the whistling of the wind, or the distant waterfall, only lull him to sleep. It is the way of some teachers to state incidents, biographies, etc., from the Bible, in more common language than is used in the Scriptures; preserving the entire truth of the inspired narrative, adding nothing to it, nor derogating from its dignity by low or trifling language. One of the best modes of impressing Scripture incidents is to ask the scholars to repeat them in their own language. As we before remarked, every one knows how many simple facts narrated in the Bible are misunderstood or overlooked, until a more emphatic way of reading them suddenly sets them forth in an intelligible manner. Illustration, in the manner of the parables, will sometimes be very useful; but it needs to be simple, short, clear, and founded on familiar things. Facts also strongly enforce truth, particularly if they have fallen under our own observation. The first question a child usually asks is, Is that true? The next, Did you see or know it? Anecdotes of children, especially of those about the age of our own scholars, showing different characters under various circumstances; permitting the children to bring written answers to questions proposed by the teacher; getting them to prove or disprove certain points from Scripture; appealing to their observation; and especially the constant use of a reference Bible, will all be found useful auxiliaries in teaching. Finally, simplify and repeat—repeat and simplify. The best mode is to give your instructions in the plainest language, and to question the child much on every point. There is no mode of urging the mind to effort like that of putting to it a plain question; and there is no way so good as this for ascertaining what part of our instructions have not been understood.—The Teacher Taught. A WELL KNOWN educator says, that if you want to influence the young, you must get near them. Just as it is in the world of physics, the force of attraction varies inversely as the square of the distance. That accounts for the fact that often the inferior in capacity and attainments exert a greater influence than their superiors. They get near to the person to be moved. He who desires to act on a child's heart must not have his head among the stars. He must come down into the child world. He must put himself into the child's place in order that he may be able to speak effectively. To get into a boy's heart, as some one has well said, you must get the boy-heart into you. Then you can bring him up with you into the thoughts and feelings of a man.—National Teacher. Teaching by Example
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The teacher should remember that he teaches as much by his actions and his daily life, as by his words. Prepare this lesson carefully. OXFORD S. S. TEACHERS' BIBLES.
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THIS is marked on the margin of a paper sent to us by a friend. The paper is printed in Kansas, by “holiness believers,” who ignore all ordinances as carnal, and interpret Scripture, according to their own claim, by the light of the inspiration within them. And, as is quite too usual with that class, they make sad havoc with the word of God, “following their own spirit and have seen nothing.” Eze. 13. The article marked to be noticed is an effort to prove that Christ did not command baptism in water, but that, to the contrary, baptism was one of the carnal ordinances which Christ took out of the way. Now, really, we see very little use of noticing such vagaries. The careful and reverent reader of the Bible cannot be affected by them, and we fear their authors have too little regard for sober argument to be influenced by any reason drawn from the sacred pages. However, being requested, we will briefly notice the article. The writer says that “water means Christ himself.” It might be satisfactory to him to read Acts 8, when the evangelist acted under the immediate direction of the Spirit of God, thus: “And the eunuch said: ‘See, here is Christ; what doth hinder me to be baptized.’” “And they both went down into Christ, . . . And when they were come up out of Christ.” And so in other places. But we are not prepared to accept such travesties of the word of the Lord. And this is but a specimen of the manner in which Scripture terms are wrested from their evident intent. “Christ here excludes all ceremonial rites. For when he says there is no man who has left all—wife, father, mother, children, etc., but who shall receive in the world to come eternal life, he certainly gives us to understand that it required no additional ceremonies to make us perfect.” There is no method of exposition which more shamefully abuses the holy Scriptures than that here adopted. It is true that baptism would be excluded from the list of Christian duties, by such a construction of the text, and so would scores of other requirements found in the Scriptures, but not found in this text. Such a use of the words of Christ is worse than childish—it is irreverent. It would shut out the Lord’s supper, also, which Christ certainly instituted and commanded. To justify his expositions against the undeniable practice of the apostles, the writer says:— “But I am told the Apostles baptized with water and commanded it. “The apostles had very much to contend with ancient prejudices. It was very hard to believe that Christ’s kingdom should be an entirely spiritual kingdom, revealed by the Spirit [Eph. 3:3-6], and that the new dispensation should wipe away ‘the law of commandments contained in ordinances,’ and that Christ reconciled both Jew and Gentile ‘unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.’ [Eph. 2:15, 16.] It is therefore not to be wondered that the apostles sometimes, when in their opinion there could be no harm, gave way to the belief and weakness of the people, and even were sometimes themselves very stubborn to leave the ancient customs and commandments, and break the bonds that separated the Jew from the rest of the people.” This is neither more nor less than to deny the inspiration of the apostles, and to discredit the direct leadings of the Holy Spirit. Philip was told by the Spirit to join himself to the chariot of the eunuch, and under the leading of the Spirit he preached unto him Jesus, and baptized him in water. An angel of God told Cornelius to send for Peter, saying he would tell him what he ought to do. By the direction of the Spirit, Peter went with the messengers, and commanded Cornelius to be baptized. Not baptized by the Spirit, as this writer says the commission given to the apostles means, for the Spirit was already fallen upon them; but he said: “Can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized, who have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?” Cornelius was a Gentile by birth; and so far from Peter here conforming to Jewish prejudices, the Lord by a vision corrected or removed his prejudices that he might with a free mind discharge his duty to the household of Cornelius. And so of Paul at Ephesus. To say that he was mistaken in his calling, or acted in conformity to his own prepossessions, and not in harmony with the gospel of Christ, is reproachful to his apostleship and his ministry, and so of other instances which might be cited. When people become so very holy or spiritual-minded (in their own conceit) as to set themselves above or against the plain precepts of the Lord, or to assume positions which are subversive of those precepts, we then say to all, Beware of them. Be not deceived by their profession; they are Pharisees, and not disciples.