p. 43 | Review and Herald, Vol. 48, No. 6. (8/3/1876)

WHO ARE THE MASSES?

The Interior, in dealing with the question of how to reach the masses with the gospel, has the following:—

Who are the “masses,” so snobbishly referred to? One unfamiliar with the latest literature of cant might suppose “the masses” to be some sort of soulless, unintelligent creatures, not approachable by the ordinary avenues of language and reason. It would not naturally be inferred that reference was made to the great body of self-respecting artisans, laborers, merchants, and professional gentlemen, who are not church members. If there is any difficulty in reaching them, sufficient to embarrass the philanthropist, we do not know in what that difficulty consists.

“How shall we reach the masses?” Of course, the perplexed questioners are not themselves of the masses, otherwise there would be no chasm to bridge. If there is a great gulf between the gospel and the people, who created it? God did not, certainly; because he made of one flesh all nations, and provided the gospel for all who would accept.

Imagine Paul scratching his head with the tip of the pearl handle of his gold pen, so as not to disturb the graceful architecture of his barber, and writing to his fellow-apostle: “My Dear Reverend Doctor Simon Peter: How shall we reach the masses?” How such a question shrinks to its proper proportions when quoted by the side of the majestic words of the Master, deep and grand: “Go ye into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.”

CARNAL MONEY-GETTING DEVICES.

A BROTHER writes thus: “I wish that you would again have something published on church festivals. During the last year there have been three or four festivals held in churches on this charge, to pay for organs etc.; and our minister has, I believe, attended each one of them, even leaving his protracted meeting to go to them.”

“I understand that they put forward two of the young ladies present, and voted to give the nicest cake to the young lady who was declared the handsomest. That question is decided in favor of the one who gets the most votes. The votes are sold for a certain sum each, and every one has the right to vote as often as he pleases, or as he has money to buy votes with. In that way a large amount is often raised. For my part, I never could see any religion in these acts, and oppose them as best I can. But the greater part of the church members here attend them. This, however, is not to be wondered at, when ministers countenance such doings by attending them.”

The wickedness of our modern church entertainments of the character mentioned by our brother, has become popularized, and the evil has grown almost into a nuisance, and, in some cases, into an outrage against common decency. We read not long ago of a similar church entertainment in which a lady permitted herself to be publicly kissed by all present who would pay a certain fee for the privilege! So the story was told in one of our exchanges. We felt no surprise in reading it. The whole business, from beginning to end, in our humble estimation, is of the world, worldly, of the flesh, fleshly, and of the devil, devilish.

Good people in the churches (by good people we mean those who are truly spiritual, or sanctified), being always largely in the minority, cannot so successfully withstand the evil as to prevent it. It is simply the outshowing of the worldly and carnal spirit that is not only in the church, but predominant therein. Our brother is right in objecting to and resisting the sin against which he writes. But perhaps all he can do or say will not have the effect to convict his church or his preacher of this sin, or put an end to the abomination.

And the same is true, generally, throughout Christendom; for the evil is as wide as Christendom. We are in the dispensation of sham and shoddy (sham and shoddy religion), and the high carnival of carnality will go on. Christians who are such in deed and in truth, in conscience and in life, must and will protest against such wickedness in the church. And perhaps this is all they can do—only to wash their hands of all stain of complicity, and, with tears and prayers, plead with their wayward pastors and churches, and with God for the discontinuance of the evil.—Banner of Holiness.

BE PEACE THY AIM.

Crave not for wealth. There is sorrow in gold; A canker corroding the bloom of the heart; Love in its presence grows selfish and cold, While pride and display their fevers impart.

The cares that preserve it, the fears of its loss, O'ershadow the pleasures that spring in our way; A thousand temptations attend on the dross, Alluring the soul from its bright bourne away.

Enough for our comfort is all we require, How small is the portion we truly enjoy! The owner of millions does not acquire The toil of the factor whom others employ.

Seek not for power. Ambition's galling crown But racks with pain the brow of high estate. Who grasps the pageant bauble of renown Lays bare his breast to shafts of envious hate.

Seen from afar, the mountain's lofty crest, With seeming glories woos the wanderer there, Till, faint and weary, robbed of peace and rest, He finds the frozen summit bleak and bare.

Woo not with fevered pulse the world's acclaim— With puppet will the rabble shout or rave. Why crush life's flowers to win—disputed fame? Thou canst not feel thy honors in the grave.

Be peace thy aim!—that peace of heart and mind Which conscious rectitude alone can give, Thy hopes, thy joys to virtue's realm confined— Thy wealth, content—thy pride, to purely live.

Brief is our sojourn here. The haughtiest head Must, like the peasant's, own the conqueror's sway. No wealth can save thee from the narrow bed— No fame obtain a single hour's delay.

What mocking lures will pomp and power appear When earth reclaims its suffering kindred clay! What holy hope the dying soul will cheer, That, living, strove for an immortal day.

—Sel.

AN APPEAL.

By E. A. Cogswell; C. N. Franklin; J. L. Franklin

In Review of July 13, 1876, under the heading, “God Bless New England,” we find these words: “But let this people become thoroughly awakened to the importance of the last solemn message, and they will manifest a power before which the world will have reason to tremble.” The writer has expressed the sentiments of our hearts.

Though we are only three in number, yet we have the promise: “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” And we would like to inquire through the REVIEW if there are not more in New England who are willing to come up to the help of the Lord. We purpose to meet every morning for prayers at 5:30, and from the present time, July 17, till Aug. 29, the close of our camp-meeting, we will earnestly wrestle with God in prayer for his blessing upon New England. We want to hear of New England that her reproach has been taken away. We want to know that the hearts of the tried servants of God have been cheered as never before in this so-called hard field of labor. Who will arise early, and join us in earnest prayer? We all have dear friends who are out of the ark of safety. Dare we let the present time pass without making an effort for them?

When the Children of Israel marched around the city of Jericho and blew the trumpet, the last day they compassed the city the walls fell flat. Let us march around New England by prayer. Let us wrestle like Jacob till the morning breaketh. Oh! let us come before God and in brokenness of heart pour our prayers into his ears. He will never turn us away empty. Do not forget the hour, half past five in the morning. God always told Moses to come up early in the morning; let us follow his example.

To prayer, to prayer; for the morning breaks, And earth in her Maker’s smile awakes; His light is on all below and above, The light of gladness and life and love! Oh! then on the breath of this early air Send upward the incense of grateful prayer!

E. A. COGSWELL, C. N. FRANKLIN, J. L. FRANKLIN.

WHAT IS THEIR NAME?

We never refer to the branch of the Baptist Church of which Alexander Campbell was the primitive bud as “Campbellites,” because we do not think they are Campbellites, and, further, because they refuse the name. But long as we have known them, we do not yet know how to designate them. We cannot call them, by way of distinction, “Christians,” because, 1. that is a generic title, and therefore is liable to mislead the reader; and 2. because the “New lights,” so-called, claim that distinctive appellation—though they do not believe in the divinity of Christ.

The Oskaloosa Evangelist speaks of its church—the one of which Alexander Campbell was a leading minister, as “The Church of Christ,” using the phrase to the exclusion of all other denominations. But that is a new kink, and it would not generally be understood. We usually employ the name “Disciples,” as one which Mr. Campbell seemed to prefer, but it is not current.

Now there are plenty of names lying around loose, and that large and respectable body of Christians ought to have one. Let them adopt something of their own, and come to us and we will baptize them in it. We cannot conscientiously “plunge, dip, submerge, bury” them, but we will undertake to give them satisfaction as to the amount of water used, even if it is necessary to call out the united fire departments of Chicago and St. Louis. It shall be a sprinkle, but we are willing to make it a boomer!—Interior (Presbyterian).

Church Membership and Commitment

“How large a membership has your church?” asked a minister of the deacon with whom he stopped over Sunday. “Well, I tell ’em they’ve got about ten that can be depended on to do anything; but there are more’n a hundred names on the church books, if that’s what you want to know.”

HARD TIMES.

By James White

Our remarks last week under the caption, Hard Times, related principally to our periodicals and books. We designed to impress upon the minds of our patrons the fact that the harder the times the more active and faithful they should be in the work of sustaining our houses of publication. And we promised something this week touching the support of the ministry and missions in these hard times.

We are happy to know that the existing hard times is not without a single redeeming feature. With the hard times come also cheap times. Yes, prices have been getting down upon their very knees in the presence of that stern old gentleman, hard times. Clothing, food, and labor have alike been bending down as hard times has been straightening up. And these facts must have a practical bearing upon the support of our missions and the ministry generally, especially when our treasuries are low, and the demands for means to support the cause in new fields greatly increase.

As the field of our operations extends, it is our policy to organize new Conferences as early as possible. At first, the General Conference gives these new Conferences some pecuniary support. But it is necessary to leave them upon their own resources at as early a period as possible, in order to save the funds of the General Conference to extend the work to still other new and distant States and Territories. Hence our more local ministers, who are forming their characters as speakers and laborers in these new Conferences, have to make a very small weekly allowance meet their wants, which are made small by rigid economy.

But the cause is one, and our ministers of the older Conferences should sympathize with those of the feebler ones, and with those who breast difficulties of no small magnitude in entering new fields with little or no support. Our ablest ministers received twelve dollars per week at the close of the American war in 1865. Ten dollars will give more support in these hard, cheap times, than twelve dollars would eleven years ago. Nine dollars will hire as much work from the mechanic and common laborer as twelve dollars would eleven years since. These facts are worthy of notice by our ministers and auditing committees, especially in our stronger Conferences.

The General Conference treasury is low, and more labor is being put forth outside our organized Conferences than usual. Our older Conferences should economize, so as to be able to help the General Conference treasury more liberally than at any former year. And it is of no use for young men to enter the ministry of the last message with the expectation of receiving from the treasury anything like what they might command as mechanics or teachers. This is a work of sacrifice on the part of both people and preachers; and in order that missionary labor be put forth in every place where the providence of God opens the way, ministers must set the example of sacrifice.

We are fully acquainted with the sacrifices and privations of missionary labor of the last message. More than a quarter of a century since we entered upon this work with neither means, publications, nor friends; but rich in promises. God helped us to make both friends and publications, while leaning on the blessed guarantee of the Son of God that he who would leave father, mother, children, and lands for the gospel, would have a hundredfold even in this life, beside the eternal weight of glory indicated by the dazzling stars of an immortal crown.

We have known hunger and cold from want of food and clothing in the early history of the cause. We have had friends turn against us by the influence of fanatics and impostors, leaving only a small fraction of those who professed to believe the present truth to give us the least sympathy for a time. We have known the dark passages in the humble way in which God chose to lead his people in the commencement of the great work, and have felt the power of discouragement such as language cannot express. Was the Lord in his providence giving an example of sacrifice, suffering, faith, endurance, and vigilance for the benefit of those who should at a later period enter upon the work? God save us!

Faith, sacrifice, earnest labor, and the blessing of God go together in this cause. Those who first entered the work with that perfect faith, which was as good to them as knowledge, could afford to sacrifice time, means, and strength, in the cause of truth. And God greatly blessed their labors. The reason why so many of our preachers are doing so very little is want of that faith which makes the truth of God a living reality, and leads the man of God out to sacrifice time, means, and strength, to save perishing sinners.

Such men will go out leaning upon the promises of Christ, that he will be with his ministers, even to the end of the world, and that for all their privations they will have in those persons who are the fruits of their own labor a hundredfold. “Take neither purse nor scrip” does not mean to lean wholly upon the Conference treasury, and run up bills at the hotel. Some ministers carry too long a fish-pole. Jesus came near and touched the afflicted in his day. He taught his disciples to cast themselves upon the charity of the people where they preached his gospel. “The laborer is worthy of his hire.” Amen!

The man of God who has such love for poor sinners, as dwelt in the heart of Christ, will ardently desire to come close to the people at once. And in this will be his power to convert and save them. And the sooner honest men and women take stock in the cause, by lodging and feeding the minister, in getting him a change for that dusty and worn suit, and helping to bear current expenses, the sooner they are brought near the kingdom of heavenly grace.

Save the treasuries of the church, brethren in the ministry, by retrenching expenses. Changes must take place, so that the people shall bear a part, or we shall have to abandon either our present plan of Systematic Benevolence, or our plans to send the last message to the nations, kindreds, and tongues. J. W.

THE SANCTUARY.

By T. S.

Thirty-first Paper.—The Priesthood of Christ.

We rest with all confidence upon the great fact now fully proved in the course of these articles, that there is in Heaven a real, literal, sanctuary, the antitype of the earthly building, called the temple, the temple of God, and the temple of Heaven; and that Christ when he ascended up on high, opened his grand work of priestly ministry in the first apartment of that Heavenly tabernacle, in accordance with the work of the earthly priests, who, ministering unto the example and shadow of Heavenly things, began their round of service in the first apartment of the earthly building.

And this fact established, is a nail in a sure place. Other conclusions of overwhelming importance to the church and the world, follow inevitably and in quick succession, as we shall presently see.

We pause a moment, before passing, to notice one more query, the only remaining one now coming to mind as pertaining to this subject previous to the opening of Christ’s ministry in Heaven.

The work in the typical sanctuary virtually came to an end when the real sacrifice was offered upon the cross, and the veil of the temple was rent in twain from top to bottom. It was of no account for the sinner to present, any longer, his victims there. But Christ did not ascend for forty-three days after this, and of course could not commence his ministry before his ascension. And the question is asked what the condition of the world was during that time. With no service of any virtue here upon the earth, and the work in the Heavenly sanctuary not yet commenced, is there not a perplexing break of at least 43 days and probably of three years and a half to the end of the 70 weeks, during which the sinner was left without a mediator?

In answering this, we might go back to the time before the earthly tabernacle was erected, and before a regular order of priesthood was instituted, even to those offerings in reference to which Adam and Eve were instructed, when sin had forced them to turn their backs on holy Eden in the world’s earliest infancy. No priests were then ordained; the sinner presented his offering in his own behalf. There were no holy places laid open, and no priestly work in Heaven. Yet the offerings there made, if offered in a proper manner, were as efficacious as any offered at any time previous to Christ. The great offering was not made, but these all looked forward in faith to it; and faith in the Redeemer to come gave them all their virtue.

It may be said that during these antecedent ages, though there was no ministry in Heaven, men had effectual sacrifices which they could offer, which they could not do after the veil of the temple was rent and its services ceased. Very true; but that very moment they had a sacrifice provided for them, the merits of which they could present to God in their behalf. There was really no break in the work. The two systems, typical and antitypical, touched each other upon the cross. There the shadow, all the way from Eden down, met the substance, and there was no blank between the two. So as men by their sacrifices could manifest their faith in a Redeemer to come, though there was no ministration going on in Heaven, and as those offerings were efficacious up to the cross, so from that very moment men could manifest their faith in a sacrifice which had been offered, though the actual commencement of Christ’s work as priest might still for some years be delayed.

The way thus being all cleared up to this important division of the subject, let us consider a moment the nature of that priesthood upon which Christ now entered. The work in the earthly tabernacle was performed by mortal men, subject to disease and death, and was hence cumbered with such imperfections as were inseparable from the defective instruments by which it was performed. The priesthood of Christ is a superior priesthood, in which the imperfections of the earthly system find no analogy. This may be stated in a few particulars:

Christ is a priest after the order of Melchisedec, and not after the order of Aaron. Heb. 5:6.
Perfection was not of the Levitical priesthood; for if it had been, says Paul, what further need was there that another priest should arise after the order of Melchisedec, and not after the order of Aaron. Heb. 7:11.
Those priests were many; because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death; but this man continueth ever, and hath an unchangeable priesthood. Verses 23, 24.
It was necessary for the priests of the house of Levi, to offer up sacrifices daily, embracing all the various offerings that were made by those who had transgressed. But all this Christ did by one act when he offered up himself. Heb. 9:25, 26, 28; 10:10, 12, 14.
The round of service in the earthly tabernacle was many times repeated; but the ministry of Christ is accomplished once for all. Heb. 9:11, 12, 24, 25; chapter 10.
All the blood which was offered in the former dispensation, was offered for past transgressions only, and made no provision for the future; while the merits of that blood which was shed on Calvary applied not to the past alone but to the future also. Heb. 9:14, 15.
As the blood of Christ is the only blood ministered in connection with the Heavenly sanctuary, whether by actual presentation or by virtue of its merits, is immaterial, the same blood must be ministered in both apartments.
As long as Christ fills the office of priest, so long he is mediator between God and man.

The chief difference, then, between the priestly work of Christ and that of the Levitical order, results from these facts: that Christ has but one offering to make for his entire ministry; that he ever lives and hence need not repeat his work, but perform it once for all, that his offering pertains to the future as well as to the past; and that it does make perfect, or take away really and absolutely, the sins of those who avail themselves of its merits. There is nothing in the fact that Christ is a priest after the order of Melchisedec and not after the order of Aaron, to show that he does not perform a work exactly like that performed by Aaron, as near as the perfect things of Heaven may resemble the imperfect things of earth. And Paul assures us that he does perform just such a work; for he says that the Aaronic priesthood in their work were simply acting out the shadow of the work performed by Christ in Heaven.

The conclusion becomes evident, therefore, that as the sins of the people were borne into the earthly sanctuary in type through the blood of beasts, they are now borne into the heavenly sanctuary in reality through the blood of Christ. A comparison of Leviticus and Hebrews will make this plain.

The blood of all the offerings, it appears, was not borne into the sanctuary by the priest, and sprinkled before the veil. It was the blood of some of the offerings called sin-offerings which was thus treated. Of these offerings, Wm. Smith, in his Dictionary of the Bible, says:

“The sin-offering represented that covenant as broken by man, and as knit together again by God’s appointment, through the ‘shedding of blood.’ Its characteristic ceremony was the sprinkling of the blood before the veil of the sanctuary, the putting some of it on the horns of the altar of incense, and the pouring out all the rest at the foot of the altar of burnt offering. The flesh was in no case touched by the offerer; either it was consumed by fire without the camp, or it was eaten by the priest alone in the holy place, and everything that touched it was holy. This latter point marked the distinction from the peace-offering, and showed that the sacrifice had been rendered unworthy of communion with God. The shedding of the blood, the symbol of life, signified that the death of the offender was deserved for sin, but the death of the victim was accepted for his death by the ordinance of God’s mercy.”

Accordingly we find (see quotation from the Mishna in Outr. De Sacr. i. c. xv., § 10) that, in all cases it was the custom for the offerer to lay his hand on the head of the sin-offering, to confess generally or specially his sins, and to say, “Let this be my expiation.” Beyond all doubt, the sin-offering distinctly witnessed that sin existed in man, that “the wages of that sin was death,” and that God had provided an atonement by the vicarious suffering of an appointed victim.”

Provision was made for all to present this kind of offering, the blood of which was borne into the sanctuary, and sprinkled before the veil. First, for the priest. Lev. 4:3–12. Secondly, for the whole congregation, collectively. Verses 13–21. Thirdly, for the ruler. Verses 22–26. And, fourthly, for any one of the common people. Verses 27–35.

In Lev. 6:30, we read: “And no sin-offering whereof any of the blood is brought into the tabernacle of the congregation to reconcile withal in the holy place, shall be eaten. It shall be burnt in the fire.” Now it appears from Paul’s testimony to the Hebrews, that of all the offerings, those sin-offerings, the blood of which was carried into the sanctuary, and their bodies burned without the camp, especially prefigured the offering of our Lord. He says, Heb. 13:11: “For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.” Of these offerings Christ was especially the antitype. And as by these the sins of the people were anciently transferred to the sanctuary (for Paul says their blood was borne in there for sin), so through the blood of Christ, which is ministered wholly in the sanctuary above, our sins are transferred to that heavenly temple. T. S.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

By Uriah Smith

Is it proper for a brother not an ordained elder to dismiss a meeting with the benediction?

L. A. G. of N. Y.

ANS. We think not.

The six following questions are asked by H. H. B. of O.

1. If the living wicked are destroyed at Christ's second coming, and the living righteous changed and with the resurrected righteous go to Heaven. Where are the nations, Rev. 20:8, that Satan shall go out to deceive at the end of the thousand years?

ANS. They are the wicked who are raised from the dead at the end of the thousand years.

2. A Disciple says that a prayer cannot be heard nor answered before baptism. A reference is wanted.

ANS. The case of Saul, Acts 9, and the case of Cornelius, Acts 10, show that prayers are heard and answered before baptism.

3. Rom. 13:1, 2; 1 Peter 2:13, 14 are quoted as an objection or excuse for not keeping the Sabbath.

ANS. Paul and Peter both speak of such rulers as enjoin “good works,” and to obey whom would be “well doing.” When they enjoin upon us duties contrary to the will of God, Acts 4:18, 19, tells us how we should act.

4. It is urged that our nation could not have prospered as it has, had it not been right to observe the first day as a Sabbath.

ANS. Ps. 37:35; 73:3–8; Acts 14:22, and ten thousand other like statements. Strange that any one should be so foolish as to urge temporal prosperity in proof of the truthfulness of an unscriptural doctrine or practice.

5. If the dead sleep until the day of Judgment, who compose the present inhabitants of Heaven?

ANS. The angels.

6. How do you harmonize the word end in 1 Peter 4:17 with Psalm 37:37?

ANS. End does not always mean termination of existence. The result of a life of transgression, and a life of righteousness is stated in Rom. 6:21, 22. The “end” of the one is “death,” the “end” of the other is “everlasting life.” So in Ps. 37, the end of the righteous is peace, but in Peter, the end of the wicked is death.

Please explain John 21:22, 23.

J. L. L. of Minn.

ANS. Jesus did not say that John should tarry till he should come, but only rebuked the propensity of some of the disciples to meddle in the affairs of others. But the verses show that the disciples did not understand death to be the coming of Christ, but just the reverse. Any Christian who should tarry, or remain to the

coming of Christ they understood would not die.

P. R. DE FORD: There is no Sunday law in Canada, Europe, or other foreign country that we are aware of. We think Isa. 66:17 refers to sinners of that time, not to those of the present.

A. H.: We understand Heb. 8:10–12 to teach that the law is written in the heart of the believer when he is converted, and thus brought into covenant relation with God.

What did Christ mean by the expression, “Let the dead bury their dead,” in Matt. 8:22?

J. W. S. of Illinois.

ANS. The comment of Dr. Clarke on this verse is as much to the point as anything we have ever seen. He says:— “It was usual for the Jews to consider a man as dead who had departed from the precepts of the law; and on this ground every transgressor was reputed a dead man. Our Lord’s saying, being in common use, had nothing difficult in it to a Jew. Men who live in sin are dead to God. Leave the spiritually dead to bury their naturally dead. All the common offices of life may be performed by any persons; to preach the glad tidings of the kingdom of God is granted but to a few, and to these only by an especial call; these should immediately abandon worldly concerns and employments, and give themselves wholly to the work of the ministry.”

It is not considered by commentators, so far as we have examined, that this man had a dead father at home whose burial was to be immediately attended to, but that his father was advanced in years, and he had the care of him; and he asked to be excused from following Christ, till in the natural course of events, this special duty should be off his hands. And Christ by his reply teaches that those who are not called to special service in spiritual things, should attend to matters that pertain so wholly to this life.

What is the meaning of Luke 23:31: “For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?”

Id.

ANS. The contrast presented is between a green tree and a dry. The green tree still has life. The dry tree is dead and withered. The Jews were not yet rejected of God; their cup of iniquity was not yet quite full. And if they would condemn the innocent to death now, to what lengths would they not go, when entirely cut off from God they had become a withered and lifeless tree? Then they would call down upon themselves the judgments mentioned just before.

ANSWERED BY LETTER. J. B. Goodrich, R. A. Dunbar, C. H. Chaffee, E. G. Rust.

U. S.

Centennial Talk.

By Roswell F. Cottrell

Our nation has become of age. The hundredth anniversary of the birth of our republic has been celebrated. The corner-stone of our free institutions was laid in the statement of equal human rights set forth in the Declaration of Independence, in harmony with which our national Constitution was afterward framed. Never had human wisdom devised a better foundation upon which to establish government, and hence has arisen the unparalleled success and progress of these United States. Freedom from oppression, civil and religious, has invited from all lands those who have sought an asylum from proscription and persecution, from the time of the pilgrim fathers to the present. Equal civil rights, and the impossibility of religious persecution under our free Constitution, have caused the unprecedented growth of the nation.

Let us survey the past. Since the days of the apostles, the great apostasy in the church came as they had foretold. Acts 20:29, 30; 1 Tim. 4:1; 2 Thess. 2:3; 2 Pet. 2:1, 2. The “man of sin,” the Roman popedom, was the early result of this apostasy, but not the last; for it will finally result in the extreme wickedness, the strong delusion, the open denial of the Lord, and scoffing at the doctrine of his second coming, which were predicted of the last days. Matt. 24:12; 2 Thess. 2:11; 2 Pet. 2:1; and 3:3, 4. As the days of the bloody reign of the popedom were drawing to a close, the Reformation of the sixteenth century arose to hasten its doom and take away its dominion.

But the Reformation had inward foes to pervert it. Kings and queens professedly espoused the cause and lent their aid; but it was to set themselves up as the head of the church in their own dominion. The several national churches was the result, and dissenters—those who would reform and seek the truth more perfectly—were everywhere oppressed and persecuted. If they were not put to death, an established church would not let them pursue the cause of reformation, worship God according to the demands of their own conscience, and walk in the increasing light which was continuing to shine from the Scriptures. But the new world had been discovered, to which they might flee to enjoy their God-given rights. And, to make the United States emphatically a land of religious liberty, it was laid down, as a fundamental principle, that “Congress shall make no laws in regard to an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

This principle is good. It has built up and increased the nation. But is it not possible that this very principle, adhered to, may work the ultimate overthrow of our free institutions? Heathenism and infidelity have equal rights here with Christianity. And the “mother church,” the sworn and ever-persistent enemy of Protestantism and religious toleration, can come in for its share of religious rights, till by its power and influence it may take matters in its own hands, revolutionize our free government, and establish itself on the ruins of our once free republic.

May not this be the possible result of the religious freedom of our national Constitution? And since our religious freedom exposes us to the wicked assaults of infidelity and Catholicism, foes that would take away the Bible from our schools, is it anything strange that there should arise a demand for religion in the Constitution—in other words, that a party should arise demanding a “religious amendment of the Constitution,” as is the case at the present time? Is it not natural that a “Christian party in politics” should now arise to rescue the religion of the pilgrim fathers, especially to save “our American Christian Sabbath?” How else can our free Protestantism be saved from the foreign, aggressive elements that threaten to overthrow that freedom for which our fathers bled? Well, the “American Association” is organized; the ball is in motion. That church which has ever sought to control the civil law, and so secure its creed, is to be met with civil law here, to repel its odious and aggressive aims.

But will not the measure sought result in the union of church and State in our own country, the very thing which we hate and would avoid, the very thing we condemn in the Catholic church? Would not our government, thus modified, be a perfect image of the Roman popedom? The advocates of the measure say they do not seek a union of church and State, that is, they do not wish any one of the Christian sects established by law. “These amendments,” say they, “agree with the faith, the feelings, and the forms of every Christian church or sect; the Catholic and Protestant, the Unitarian and the Trinitarian, profess and approve of what is here proposed. Why should their wishes not become law?”

But let us look into the “sure word of prophecy.” Some five hundred years before the full establishment of the Roman popedom, it was described in prophecy as a terrible beast, opening his mouth in blasphemy against God, making war with the saints and overcoming them, and this power was to be in his hand for forty-two months, or 1260 year-days. Rev. 13:1–10. This is a description of the Roman papacy; and it has been fulfilled. But another government was to arise, subsequent to the “first beast,” the prophetic description of which can apply to no other power that has arisen in the history of the world, but the United States. Verses 11–18. It is described as having two horns like a lamb, a symbol of mildness and youthful innocence, yet he is to speak as a dragon, a thing contradictory of its lamb-like appearance.

For one hundred years our government has been the mildest, the freest and best, that the earth ever saw; but, according to the prophecy, it will yet speak out—its dragon voice will be heard. And now that it has become of age, and is elated with the idea of its manhood or majority, is it not time to expect it will soon speak? And while the great Centennial Exposition is in progress to celebrate the one-hundredth anniversary of our national birth, the religious-amendment party hold a convention at Philadelphia to forward the interest of their cause and press their claim for a virtual union of church and State, in fulfillment of prophecy, “Saying to them that dwell upon the earth that they should make an image to the beast,” before described, the popedom.

Is it not time to awake to the fact that the last scene in the drama of the great controversy of earth is about to be enacted? The actors have conned their several parts and are on the stage. The curtain will soon be raised, and the closing scene displayed. For more than a quarter of a century has the warning voice of the final message been sounding to prepare the people of God to stand in the hour of temptation that is just before them. On the other hand, the demand for the image is being pressed; and this centennial year will doubtless mark the progress of the movement. Our safety is in obeying the message, in keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Is it not time to make a business of proclaiming the warning to save our fellow-men? R. F. Cottrell.

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