Verse 17. He shall also set his face to enter with the strength of his whole kingdom, and upright ones with him; thus shall he do: and he shall give him the daughter of women, corrupting her; but she shall not stand on his side, neither be for him.
Bishop Newton furnishes another reading for the verse, which seems to express more clearly the sense, as follows: “He shall also set his face to enter by force the whole kingdom.” Verse 16 brought us down to the conquest of Syria and Judea by the Romans. Rome had previously conquered Macedon and Thrace. Egypt was now all that remained of the “whole kingdom” of Alexander, not brought into subjection to the Roman power; which now set its face to enter by force into that country.
Ptolemy Auletes died B. C. 51. He left the crown and kingdom of Egypt to his eldest son and daughter, Ptolemy and Cleopatra. It was provided in his will that they should marry together and reign jointly; and because they were young, they were placed under the guardianship of the Romans. The Roman people accepted the charge and appointed Pompey as guardian of the young heirs of the throne of Egypt.
A quarrel having not long after broken out between Pompey and Cæsar, the famous battle of Pharsalia was fought between the two generals. Pompey being defeated, fled into Egypt. Cæsar immediately followed him thither; but before his arrival, Pompey was basely murdered by Ptolemy, whose guardian he had been appointed. Cæsar thereupon assumed the appointment which had been given to Pompey, as guardian of Ptolemy and Cleopatra. He found Egypt in commotion from intestine disturbances, Ptolemy and Cleopatra having become hostile to each other, and she being deprived of her share in the government. Notwithstanding this, he did not hesitate to land at Alexandria, with his small force, 800 horse and 3,200 foot, take cognizance of the quarrel, and undertake its settlement. The troubles daily increasing, Cæsar found his small force to be insufficient to maintain his position, and being unable to leave Egypt on account of the north wind which blew at that season, he sent into Asia, ordering all the troops he had in that quarter to come to his assistance as soon as possible.
In the most haughty manner he decreed that Ptolemy and Cleopatra should disband their armies, appear before him for a settlement of their differences, and abide by his decision. Egypt being an independent kingdom, this haughty decree was considered an affront to its royal dignity, at which the Egyptians, highly incensed, flew to arms. Cæsar replied that he acted by virtue of the will of their father Auletes, who had put his children under the guardianship of the Senate and people of Rome, the whole authority of which was now vested in his person as consul; and that, as guardian, he had the right to arbitrate between them.
The matter was finally brought before him, and advocates appointed to plead the cause of the respective parties. Cleopatra, aware of the foible of the great Roman conqueror, judged that the beauty of her presence would be more effectual in securing judgment in her favor, than any advocate she could employ. To reach his presence undetected, she had recourse to the following stratagem: Laying herself at length in a bundle of clothes, Apollodorus, her Sicilian servant, wrapped it up in a cloth, tied it with a thong, and raising it upon his Herculean shoulders, sought the apartments of Cæsar. “Claiming to have a present for the Roman general, he was admitted through the gate of the citadel, entered into the presence of Cæsar, and deposited the beautiful Cleopatra at his feet. Cæsar was far from being displeased with the stratagem, and, being of a character described in 2 Pet. 2:14, the first sight of so beautiful a person, says Rollin, had all the effect upon him she had desired.”
Cæsar at length decreed that the brother and sister should occupy the throne jointly, according to the intent of the will. Pothinus, the chief minister of State, having been principally instrumental in expelling Cleopatra from the throne, feared the result of her restoration. He therefore began to excite jealousy and hostility against Cæsar, by insinuating among the populace that he designed eventually to give Cleopatra the sole power. Open sedition soon followed. Achillas, at the head of 20,000 men advanced to drive Cæsar from Alexandria. Skillfully disposing his small body of men in the streets and alleys of the city, Cæsar found no difficulty in repelling the attack. The Egyptians undertook to destroy his fleet. He retorted by burning theirs. Some of the burning vessels being driven near the quay, several of the buildings of the city took fire, and the famous Alexandrian library, containing nearly 400,000 volumes, was destroyed.
The war growing more threatening, Cæsar sent into all the neighboring countries for help. A large fleet came from Asia Minor to his assistance. Mithridates set out for Egypt with an army raised in Syria and Cilicia. Antipater, the Idumean, joined him with 3000 Jews. The Jews who held the passes into Egypt, permitted the army to pass on without interruption. Without this the whole plan must have failed. The arrival of this army decided the contest. A decisive battle was fought near the Nile, resulting in a complete victory for Cæsar. Ptolemy attempting to escape, was drowned in the river. Alexandria and all Egypt then submitted to the victor. Rome had now entered into, and absorbed, the whole of the original kingdom of Alexander.
By the “upright ones” of the text, are doubtless meant the Jews, who gave him the assistance already mentioned. Without this, he must have failed; with it, he completely subdued Egypt to his power B. C. 47.
“The daughter of women; corrupting her.” The passion which Cæsar had conceived for Cleopatra, by whom he had one son, is assigned by the historian, as the sole reason of his undertaking so dangerous a campaign as the Egyptian war. This kept him much longer in Egypt than his affairs required, he spending whole nights in feasting and carousing with the dissolute queen. But, said the prophet, she shall not stand on his side, neither be for him. Cleopatra afterward joined herself to Antony, the enemy of Augustus Cæsar, and exerted her whole power against Rome.
Verse 18. After this shall he turn his face unto the isles, and shall take many: but a prince for his own behalf shall cause the reproach offered by him to cease; without his own reproach he shall cause it to turn upon him.
War with Pharnaces, king of the Cimmerian Bosphorus, at length drew him away from Egypt. “On his arrival where the enemy was,” says Prideaux, “he without giving any respite either to himself or them, immediately fell on, and gained an absolute victory over them; an account whereof he wrote to a friend of his in these three words: veni, vidi, vici, I came, I saw, I conquered.” The latter part of this verse is involved in some obscurity, and there is difference of opinion in regard to its application. Some apply it farther back in Cæsar’s life, and think they find a fulfillment in his quarrel with Pompey. But we think that preceding and subsequent events, clearly defined in the prophecy, compel us to look for the fulfillment of this part of the prediction between the victory over Pharnaces, and Cæsar’s death at Rome as brought to view in the following verse. A more full history of this period might bring to view events which would render the application of this passage unembarrassed.
Verse 19. Then he shall turn his face toward the fort of his own land: but he shall stumble and fall, and not be found.
After this conquest, Cæsar defeated the last remaining fragments of Pompey’s party, Cato and Scipio in Africa, and Labienus and Varus in Spain. Returning to Rome, the “fort of his own land,” he was made perpetual dictator; and such other powers and honors were granted him, as rendered him in fact absolute sovereign of the whole empire. But the prophet had said that he should stumble and fall. The language implies that his overthrow would be sudden and unexpected, like a person accidentally stumbling in his walk. And so this man, who had fought and45won five hundred battles, taken one thousand cities, and slain one million one hundred and ninety-two thousand men, fell, not in the din of battle and the hour of strife, but when he thought his pathway was smooth and strewn with flowers, and when danger was supposed to be far away; for taking his seat in the senate chamber, upon his throne of gold, to receive at the hands of that body the title of king, the dagger of treachery suddenly struck him to the heart. Cassius, Brutus, and other conspirators, rushed upon him, and he fell, pierced with twenty-three wounds. Thus he suddenly stumbled and fell, and was not found.
Verse 20. Then shall stand up in his estate a raiser of taxes in the glory of the kingdom; but within few days he shall be destroyed, neither in anger, nor in battle.
Augustus Cæsar succeeded his uncle Julius, by whom he had been adopted as his successor. Being in a distant province engaged in the study of rhetoric and eloquence, when he heard of his uncle’s tragical death, he displayed marked ability in returning to Rome, placing himself at the head of the army, and establishing himself the successor to Julius, according to his design. He publicly announced his adoption by his uncle, and took his name, to which he added that of Octavianus. Combining with Mark Antony and Lepidus, to avenge the death of Cæsar, they formed what is called the Triumvirate form of government. Having subsequently firmly established himself in the empire, the senate conferred upon him the title of Augustus, the other members of the Triumvirate being now dead, and he being supreme ruler.
He was emphatically a raiser of taxes. Luke, in speaking of the events that transpired at the time when Christ was born, says: “And it came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Cæsar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.” Luke 2:1. That taxing which embraced all the world, was an event worthy of notice; and the person who enforced it has certainly a claim to the title of “a raiser of taxes,” above every other competitor.
And he stood up in the glory of the kingdom. Rome stood in his days at the pinnacle of its greatness and power. The “Augustan Age” is an expression everywhere used to denote the golden age of Roman history. Rome never saw a brighter hour. Peace was promoted, justice maintained, luxury curbed, discipline established, and learning encouraged. In his reign the temple of Janus was for the third time shut, since the foundation of Rome, signifying that all the world was at peace; and at this auspicious hour, our Lord was born in Bethlehem of Judea. After a reign of forty-four years, long according to human computation, yet seeming but a few days to the distant gaze of the prophet, Augustus died, not in anger nor in battle, but peacefully in his bed, at Nola, whither he had gone to seek repose and health, A. D. 14, in the 76th year of his age.
The Antediluvians.
An article from Prof. Taylor Lewis, in one of our exchanges, gives the following striking description of the lawless race destroyed by the flood. As it was in the days of Noah, so, says Christ, it shall be in the days of the Son of Man. And that the picture finds in a great degree its counterpart in our own times, Mr. Lewis bears good testimony, when, in another part of his article, he speaks of “our own age,” as an age of “civilization, and crime, and blood, and boasting, and nominal religion, and impious, God-rejecting self-sufficiency.”
Physical degeneracy now prevents the production of corporeal monsters; but alas! a man with the frame of a pygmy, may be as huge and hideous an embodiment of sin, as if he could boast the strength and stature of the mightiest giant. In moral obliquity, the men of this generation are fast rivaling their renowned prototypes; and the leprosy of sin is striking so deep into this fallen world, that the waters of a flood would not now be sufficient to “wipe out the stain.” Nothing will do it short of those purifying fires to which it is reserved, before whose intensity, even the elements themselves shall melt.
Of the antediluvians Mr. Lewis says:—
Their great crimes had been a predominant lawlessness, a contempt of divine authority, and a consequent dissolution and subversion of all conserving human institutions whose life and strength are derived from it. The primitive ordinance of marriage, with its sacred oneness, had been utterly broken down. “They took them wives (women of all whom they chose.” Sense ruled. “Free love,” free lust, were everywhere predominant. It was the universal passion, held in check by no law, human or divine. Red-handed murder followed, as it has always done. “The earth was filled with violence,” its cup of evil was full to the brim, and flowing over. “There were giants in those days”—nephilim—strange men, monsters, as it should be rendered, monsters physically and morally, giants in wickedness, of vast abnormal strength, it may be, arising from a precocious or unnatural development, yet tending fast to a bodily as well as a spiritual deformity, demanding their extinction in mercy to a future race. Such was the result of individualism, that lawless spirit (anomia, as the apostle so significantly styles it), acknowledging no higher rule than its own consenting will, no righteousness in the Heavens, no social power regarded as the delegated representative of any divine authority upon earth. God suffered man to try the awful experiment of government founded solely on human impulses, that is, no government at all. The inevitable catastrophe came at last. The long, long suffering justice could no more endure the sight. Crime unpunished was fearfully tainting the universal moral atmosphere. God said, I will wipe out man from the face of the earth.” The original word denotes the effacing of a stain, of a pollution that can no longer be endured. Hence it has been called a baptism, a washing, or cleansing of the earth. This thought of sin as a taint, or of crime unpunished as a foul contagion, a spiritual nuisance, ever breeding a moral and social death, ever increasing in malignity, and therefore insufferable, or to be extirpated at any sacrifice, is fallen out of our emasculated modern ethics. The loss of it is sadly enfeebling our jurisprudence. We need, therefore, to study the Scriptures, and especially the contemned Old Testament, to recover the tone and vigor of the idea. The world has not yet got beyond the spirit of that old book. We should beware, too, how we speak of it as obsolete, even in the letter. “Heaven and earth,” says the merciful Saviour, “shall pass away, but not one jot or tittle of the law shall fail.” In the very beginning of revelation, this awful example is presented to us. Christ came not to change or weaken the impression. In language most terse and solemn does he speak of it as a just judgment upon a lawless and irreclaimable race: “The flood came and swept them all away.”
The Great Practical Question.
REV. A. D. MAYO, of Cincinnati in an article on “Religion in Schools,” as published in “Old and New,” makes the following remark:—
“The real practical question, the impending danger, we repeat, is the proposition to divorce republican government in the United States from all acknowledgment of religious origin or obligation and that presents a crisis in American politics which goes deeper than even the question of liberty and union, which convulsed the people for five years in civil war.”
Casting Lots for the Picture of Jesus.
The reader will probably be not a little shocked at the following narrative of what recently took place under the auspices of the professed followers of Christ. It is bad enough for the vilest and lowest wretches of the land to gamble; it is as much worse for Christians to do it as their profession is higher than that of others. The moral sense of the world condemns and legislates against it. If the churches countenance, and permit their members to practice it, are they not behind the world? It is bad enough to gamble for the sordid treasures of earth; it is as much worse to gamble for things of a sacred character as the Heavens are higher than the earth. When, then, the church puts up at lottery the image of her divine Master, what language can fitly portray the impiety of her course? Were he now upon earth, would he receive any better treatment at her hands than he did from the Jews, who looked unfeelingly on, as the soldiers cast lots for his garments at the foot of the cross? Nothing could more clearly show how terribly the moral sensibilities of professed Christians have become blunted by the pernicious practice of church fairs, than the facts herewith presented.
The following from a correspondent to an eastern paper, gives us a fearful picture of what lotteries are leading us to. How long, oh! how long shall these things be?
I went to a fair, last night. It was for a good cause. My sympathies were enlisted in it, and I contributed according to my ability, in money and effort, to make it a success.
On entering the room, I was instantly solicited to “take a chance” for a black silk dress. As I do not belong to the Woman’s Suffrage party, and had no occasion for a silk dress, I declined, with an expression of regret that the lottery was in use.
“But what can we do?” asked the lady who made me the offer; “we could not sell these things: we must get rid of them some way.”
I replied that it was wrong in itself to gamble; it is also against the laws of the State of New York, and is pronounced by the verdict of civilization to be injurious to public morals. This was altogether too deep for the lady’s comprehension. She could not see. She made answer precisely in these words: “Yes, I do not like lotteries my self; I never could draw anything!”
We passed on: there was gambling to the right of us, and gambling to the left of us. There was gambling before us, and behind us. The atmosphere was full of it. Sweet, pretty girls with book and pencil, would put their faces into the faces of strangers, and, with winning smiles, would say, “Take a chance. Oh! do, now, please take a chance for this beautiful thing.” Aside from the nature of the business, it seemed to me that this was a bad school for the girls, and that their manners and morals would not be improved by such an experience. Soon we came to a picture of Jesus, the man of sorrows. The picture was neatly framed, and over the head of the Saviour, where Pilate put the inscription, “The King of the Jews,” was now written,
A DOLLAR A CHANCE.
A painting of Jesus Christ set up in a lottery, by religious people, in a Charity Fair, in the city of New York!!! I thought of that scene when He who is here delineated was hanging on the cross, and the soldiers were dividing his raiment among them and for his coat they cast lots. They disposed of his vesture by a lottery. These pious women dispose of the Master’s image by the same means. If there were any degree of wrong in the matter, I would say that the scene which was now before my eyes was more shocking to the moral sense of a Christian people, than the gambling going on at the foot of the cross on which the Son of God was hanging for us. There the Roman soldiers did not know, and did not care, who or what the sufferer was. They were ignorant pagans. It had not come to the mind of one of them that the victim in the midst of the two thieves was any better than they. They cared more for his garments than they did for Him who lately wore them. We feel pity for them, rather than indignation, when they are gambling for the Master’s vestures at the foot of his cross. The Jews knew better, or might have known better; and when they pass by, wagging their heads, their conduct forcibly represents the Christian women in this fair, who treat the blessed Saviour with such contempt that they set up a picture of the dear Redeemer to be raffled for, as if it were nothing more to them than a doll or silk dress. I am not an idolater, and do not worship pictures. They are not objects of such veneration, even if the idea of the infinite Saviour is embodied in the canvas. But I admire them, and the power of a great painting is quite equal to that of verbal eloquence. The one addresses the soul through the eye; the other reaches the soul by the ear.
It is a mortal man’s attempt to realize the idea of the Son of God incarnate. That is all. It is nothing but a picture. But it would be profane in me to spit upon it. I would not bow down to it; that were idolatry. But I would not treat it with contempt. Nay, I would prize, admire and cherish it just in proportion to its power to represent the idea of the Saviour, as a sermon or a poem.
To set up a picture of Jesus with an inscription over his head, A DOLLAR A CHANCE, shocked me, disgusted me, filled me with indignation unspeakable. They were not pagan Romans now casting lots for a picture of Jesus. Christians gambling for an image of Christ! Was there ever a scene of such shame since the Jews mocked him as he hung?
The Sabbath in Politics.
It is coming to be quite generally understood that the Sabbath is to occupy, for coming time, a prominent place in politics. A Michigan paper has the following item:—
Rev. B. S. Taylor, Methodist, preached a powerful sermon on “Political Corruption” on Thanksgiving Day, giving in plain and unequivocal language his views on the situation as now existing. He claimed that Catholicism, the liquor interest, and the Sabbath-breakers (the latter found mostly among our foreign-born citizens) were in virtual coalition, and the two great political organizations were both bidding for the votes thus controlled, and that the Democratic party would succeed in securing them, because it would bid highest and was ready to bow down in complete subserviency to this new element in politics, and that by its aid it would obtain the supremacy. He showed the entire corruption of the Democratic party, claimed that the Republican party had greatly degenerated, and that a new organization was inevitable and necessary to redeem the country. The sermon was delivered to a large congregation, and the argument was listened to with the deepest attention.
Cost of the U. S. Government.
A COMPILATION from the tables that will accompany the Treasury Report, shows the total net receipts and expenditures of the Government of the United States, from March 4, 1789, to June 30, 1870, as follows:—
Total receipts, $11,673,167,100.08
“ Expenditures, 11,523,664,628.48
Bal. in Treas., June 30, 1870, $149,502,471.60.
Obituary Notices.
By Editor
We have received several notices of this kind, the subjects of which have been dead some six months or more. We can hardly see the propriety of giving them after so long a time has elapsed. Those who wish the death of their friends noticed in the paper, should put such facts in as few words as possible, and send them on without delay.
To Correspondents.
By Editor
A. THAYER: We cannot intelligently notice your strictures on 1 Cor. 14:34, 35, till we know your views of that scripture.
C. A. BAKER: We do not think it consistent for a Sabbath-keeper to partake of the sacrament with those whom he regards as violating the commandments of God.
J. D. CRAMER: For an explanation of Mark 9:44, 46-48, and Isa. 66:24, see Which? Mortal or Immortal? pp. 97-100.
My Mother.
By James White
BEFORE me is the old family Bible, printed in 1822. I open to the family record and there read, in my father's good old-fashioned, plain handwriting, “Betsey White, born February 14, 1788.” Another has very recently added to that record—“Died, January 9, 1871. My mother lived nearly eighty-three years. My father yet lives, at the age of nearly eighty-six years. My parents at the time of my mother's death, had been married more than sixty-one years.”
But our very dear aged, godly mother sleeps. We have buried her in Oak Hill Cemetery, beside our noble Henry, who died in the love of Christ at the age of sixteen years, and our infant Herbert, torn from his mother’s arms when but three months old. These all rest in hope. That burial place is hallowed by precious memories of the past, and bright hopes of the future. These, so dear to us by the strongest natural ties, made doubly dear by the hope of the future life through Christ, will not always sleep. Death and the grave will not always triumph. No! “The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.”—JESUS. “The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible.”—PAUL. “For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise.”—PAUL. “Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” Wake the sleeping just, and give us back our friends again, changed to glorious immortality.
There is nothing in death, alone considered, that is beautiful. No; the apostle speaks of it as man's last enemy, to be vanquished at the resurrection of the just. It enters our dwellings, and its shadows fall heavily about us. We follow our very dear friends to their graves, and strew this sad path as we go with our tears. Who that has the heart of man but feels then, and finds relief in pouring out tears of grief and mourning. Oh! the anguish of that last anxious, agonizing look, as the precious casket, by strong hands, is being lowered to the depths of its final resting-place! Christian, you may weep now. Jesus, at the grave of beloved Lazarus, found relief in tears. “Jesus wept.”
But there is hope and consolation in Christ. Triumphant faith and hope in the crucified, risen, ascended, and coming Lifegiver, bids us dry our tears, gird on the armor anew, and haste our steps to the final goal of applause and reward, where we shall greet lost friends again.
My mother was granddaughter of Dr. Sam'l Shepard, one of the first and ablest Baptist ministers of New England. By those who knew her moral excellences, and her consistent Christian life, words of commendation will be regarded unnecessary; while those who knew her not, could not fully appreciate them. During her very last sickness, she had her reason, and leaned fully on the staff of faith and hope quite down into the valley of death. When apparently unconscious of all else, the voice of prayer, or the name of Jesus, would awaken her fainting powers, and call forth a sweet response.
Mother, my dear mother! when a few more battles for truth, and for God, are fought, and the storms of life cease, and the shades of the night pass before the glorious light of the morning, when the Coming One shall descend to gather all the just to their final rest and reward, then, mother, by the grace of God, we will meet again.
JAMES WHITE.
Battle Creek, Mich., Jan. 1871.
Meetings in Michigan.
By Joseph Bates
SABBATH and first-day, Dec. 24 and 25, we held four interesting meetings with the church in Wright, and celebrated the ordinances. Notwithstanding the very cold and stormy weather, the brethren and sisters manifested a good degree of interest in their attendance at the meetings.
Monday, the 26th, Bro. Root took me to Blendon, eleven miles, where we held two meetings in the Cook school-house, and visited the scattered families. Here the brethren are endeavoring to keep up their Sabbath meetings, and press together. I also met with the church in Allendale, a few miles distant from Blendon. Some things have had a tendency to discourage the brethren here; but we trust they will rise above it, and move unitedly forward, and get ready for the coming of the Just One.
Bro. Wyatt brought me ten miles, to Cooperville, and Bro. Driver met me at Lansing, and took me to Alaiedon. Here, Sabbath, Dec. 31, I held two interesting meetings, and attended the ordinances. Sunday, Jan. 1, 1871, Bro. W. H. Littlejohn, who was invited to attend the funeral of Bro. Barr at Bunkerhill, the day before, met with us, and preached two interesting discourses. During the week, we held nine meetings. The Lord blessed and encouraged his people.
Jan. 3 and 4, held meetings with, and visited, the brethren and sisters in Leslie. Jan. 5-8, held six meetings with the church at Bunkerhill, and celebrated the ordinances. There were some outside of the church much interested to hear. The church were encouraged and strengthened to press onward. The Lord help his remnant people to walk in the light. JOSEPH BATES.
Monterey, Mich., Jan. 17, 1871.
Shelby, Michigan.
By Philip Strong
Since my last report, Nov. 1, I continued the meetings in Shelby, till Dec. 7. The house was full most of the time. Many admitted that we have the truth, but show by their actions that they are not willing to obey it.
Much opposition was manifested by the ministers. One discourse was given against our view of the nature of man, by a Spiritualist, and three, by three different ministers, against the Sabbath.
I reviewed two of them; but the third did not need a reply, as the man preached till every one left the house in disgust, those that sent for him going first. They now have regular Sabbath meetings, and Sabbath-school, eight meeting together, with their children.
While holding meetings there, I also continued to meet with the brethren in Claybanks. As soon as I left this place, the M. E. minister gave out that he would preach, at his regular appointment, three sermons on the Christian Sabbath.
I thought it duty to return and hear him. The most of the first was an excellent discourse on the perpetuity of the Sabbath in all ages, and to all nations. But in referring to Isa. 56: 6, and Ps. 118: 24, he said that “Christ took a common day and made a sanctified day of it.” And that since that time, we are therefore commanded to keep holy the first day of the week.
The elder hoped that they would be no more “taunted with,” “Where is the text for the Christian Sabbath?” Certainly the Lord has spoken of such teachers, Eze. 22: 26: “Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things; they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they showed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.”
In his second discourse he promised to bring forward testimony from the New Testament, that the first day of the week is the Sabbath; but he failed on every point. Matt. 9: 14, 15, was pressed into service. His argument on this, was, that Christ rested in the tomb over the last Jewish Sabbath that was to be kept, and that then his disciples fasted. (It could not have been a very lengthy fast.) But when the first day of the week came, they kept a festival day, or the day that he had made and sanctified as a Sabbath.
He did not tell them that not one of his disciples believed that he was raised till the close of that day, and therefore could not be keeping it. But he closed with declaring his arguments unanswerable.
I gave out that I would preach the next evening, and review the discourse the next Sunday.
Monday evening, on going to my appointment, I found the house locked, and quite a large congregation gathered at the door for meeting. Every lawful step was taken to get in, but failed; and as there was a beautiful moon, though somewhat chilly, I spoke to them by moonlight on the green from this text, 2 Cor. 13: 8: “For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.
I had the house to review his discourse the next Sabbath, and found in his unanswerable arguments, forty-two palpable contradictions.
This opposition has caused some of the halting ones to decide for the truth. Others are interested; but we now have no place for meetings but a private house. PHILIP STRONG.
Writing for the Paper.
By Angelia J. Edmunds
We should do all we can to make the pages of the REVIEW interesting, by furnishing original contributions for its columns.
It is not a small matter to write for our papers. They have been dedicated to the service of God. They are winged messengers of life, silently passing east, west, north, and south, bearing the last solemn warning, the third angel's message, to the people of this world, entreating them to prepare for the soon coming of our dear Saviour, by keeping all the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
We should be very careful to put every sin away from us, and live every day and night as it becomes Christians to live. If we do not, and our names appear in print, we shall be the means of bringing a great reproach upon the cause we profess to love; for those with whom we associate will expect our lives to correspond with the truths we teach.
Our motives must be right. We cannot work for Jesus without a preparation of heart; and every time we write we should feel how dependent we are, and that unless we have help from above, it will be in vain for us to attempt to write anything that will meet with the approving smile of our heavenly Father, and be blessed by him to the good of others.
The more we strive to get right before God, the greater anxiety we feel for those around us. We see the great day fast nearing when all that do wickedly shall be destroyed. Oh! how we long to raise the warning cry. We go to God in prayer. We ask that his Holy Spirit may help us to write, and that some word written by us may find a place in some heart, that perchance one soul may be saved by our efforts. Brethren and sisters, in the last great day we shall not be sorry we used some of the precious time allotted to us in this way. But how the enemy works to keep us from doing our duty. When we feel that we must write, then our work presses, or we suffer the various cares of this life to hinder. This should not be so. May the Lord forgive, and help us to faithfully perform every duty.
ANGELIA J. EDMUNDS.
Johnstown, Mich.
ONLY A MOMENT.
By M. J. Cotterill
“It is only a step between us and that place of infinite felicity.
Courage, brethren in the Lord. A brief moment of cross-bearing
and anguish, and we shall be there.”
Only a moment of cross-bearing, brother,
Only a moment of toiling and pain,
Only a moment in which to grow weary;
Think not thy efforts are fruitless and vain.
Courage and patience, for soon there is resting,
Resting forever, oh! think what a change;
Only a moment in darkness to wander,
Then ’mid eternity’s brightness to range.
Only a moment of anguish, my sister,
Only a moment of sadness and tears,
Only a moment’s temptations and wrestling;
Cling to thy faith, then, and quell those dark fears.
Only a moment, and Jesus will call thee
Home to those mansions which he has prepared;
He sees every conflict, he knows all thy weakness,
And even thy sorrows thy Saviour has shared.
Only a moment our foes to encounter;
Only a moment, then “stand like the brave;”
Yield not one point, for the moment is precious;
Jesus will aid thee, he’s mighty to save.
Only a moment, and if we are faithful,
Jesus will take us to mansions of light,
Soon he is coming to gather his tired ones,
Crown them, and clothe them in garments of white.
Only a moment for thee, burdened sinner,
Only a moment, improve it, I pray;
Flee for thy life ere this moment shall vanish,
Danger awaits thee; oh! do not delay.
Only a moment will sweet mercy linger,
Oh! heed thou her warning, and come while
there’s room,
Jesus will save thee e’en now; for he loves thee;
Come ere this moment forever has flown.
M. J. COTTERILL.
Yatton, Iowa.
By R. M. Kilgore
In consequence of a quarterly and protracted meeting, by the Methodists, I have just closed meetings near Yatton, Iowa. I began here Dec. 30, 1870, in a country school-house, with about thirty listeners the first evening. Because of the lives of some who had lived in the neighborhood, reproach was brought upon the Advent cause, and much prejudice existed. Yet the congregation increased until the house was filled, numbering on one occasion, one hundred and twenty. Good order and attention was manifested throughout.
In all, seventeen discourses were given. At the close, those who believed that the seventh day was the Sabbath of the Lord, were requested to rise, when twenty-five arose. The same was requested of those who believed that the first day was the Sabbath. None responded.
One has commenced to keep the Sabbath. Several others, I think, will in a short time. May the Lord help them.
By a unanimous vote, I was requested to return as soon as possible, and resume the meetings. With the blessing of God, and the assistance of an efficient laborer, much good can be accomplished among this people. R. M. KILGORE.
Washington, Iowa, Jan. 16, 1871.
Mannsville, N. Y.
By C. O. Taylor
LAST Sabbath and first-day was monthly meeting for Jefferson Co.; at Mannsville. For some reason, there were only three from the Adams Center church. Our hearts were made glad at the meeting Brn. Edson and Treadwell. They came to us in love. Their testimony was very encouraging. Bro. E. still maintains a lively and firm faith in the soon coming of the Lord, and that we are near the close of the night of watching. He rejoiced in the sacrifices of the past, and was willing to continue them.
In the evening after the Sabbath, we met to attend the ordinances, and the Master met with us. The falling tear, and the repeated expressions of praise to God, told plainly that Jesus, by his sweet melting Spirit, was there. For a while, we lost sight of the earthly, and got a view of the heavenly. We all took new courage to overcome and stand complete in Jesus, ready to work for him here, and be ready for the refreshing when it shall come. C. O. TAYLOR.
Adams Center, N. Y.
Washington, Iowa.
By H. Nicola
The quarterly meeting at Washington was well represented by nearly all the church from Pilot Grove. One load came from Brighton, one from Talleyrand, and Bro. Jacob Hare, and two others, from Mt. Pleasant. As these nearly all met in good season on Friday evening, with the little church at Washington, we felt that surely these had not forgotten the apostle's injunction to forsake not the “assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is;” and we felt the Spirit of the Lord was present at our first meeting, and that it was good for us thus to assemble for God's worship.
Seeking God and self-examination were the principal themes during the meetings. Notwithstanding these were every-day duties, yet we felt that it was our privilege on these special occasions, when we could leave our home burdens and cares for a time, to make a business of this work, and gain a point in our experience that would be a benefit and strength to us in the every-day walks of life.
Our good meetings closed on first-day, the last being one for celebrating the ordinances of the Lord's house. The sweet, melting influence of the Spirit of God was present. As we separated, we felt that we had gained new strength for the duties that lie before us.
H. NICOLA.
Dispatch and Method in Business
DISPATCH is the soul of business, and method is the soul of dispatch.