The S.D.A. Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 8, 1880
JOURNEYINGS OF THE ISRAELITES.
By Ellen G. White
BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
After leaving the Red Sea, the children of Israel, guided by the cloudy pillar, journeyed through the wilderness. Although the scenery around them was most dreary, composed of solemn-looking mountains destitute of vegetation, barren plains, and the sea stretching far away behind them, its banks strewn with the bodies of their enemies, they were cheerful in the consciousness of their freedom, and for a time every thought of discontent was hushed.
But for three days they journeyed without finding any water to quench their thirst, having that only which they had been commanded to take in their vessels. Moses and Aaron were acquainted with this route, and knew that after traveling several days in the way in which they were then going they would find only bitter water. With what intense anxiety, therefore, mingled with forebodings, did they watch the leading of the pillar of cloud. And how the heart of Moses ached as the people gave the glad shout, Water! water! and it was echoed all along the line. Men, women, and children in joyous haste rush to the water, when lo, what a moan of anguish breaks forth from that vast company,—the water is bitter.
In their grief and disappointment, they reproach Moses for having led them in such a way, and do not consider that the Divine Presence in that mysterious cloud had been leading Moses and Aaron as well as themselves. Filled with sorrow as he saw the suffering of the people, Moses did that which the people should have done: he prayed earnestly to God, and he did not cry in vain. The Lord showed him a tree to which had been imparted healing properties, so that on its being cast into the fountain, the water became pleasant to the taste.
God here made a covenant with his people, through their leader:—If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee.”
From Marah the people journeyed to Elim where they found “twelve wells of water and three-score and ten palm trees.” In this delightful spot they remained several days before entering the wilderness of Sin. When they had been a month away from Egypt, they made their first encampment in this wilderness. Their store of provisions had now begun to fail. There was scanty herbage in the wilderness, and their flocks also were fast diminishing. Famine seemed to be staring them in the face, and as they followed the cloudy pillar over the desert wastes, doubts filled their hearts, and again they murmured, even the rulers and elders of the people joined in complaining against the leaders of God’s appointment: “Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh-pots, and when we did eat bread to the full! for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” The children of Israel seemed to possess an evil heart of unbelief. They were unwilling to endure hardships in the wilderness. When they met with difficulties, they would regard them as insurmountable obstacles. Their confidence would fail, and they would see nothing before them but death.
They had not really suffered the pangs of hunger. They had food for the present necessities, but they feared for the future. They could not see how the hosts of Israel were to subsist, in their long travels through the wilderness; and in their unbelief they saw their children famishing. The Lord was willing that their supply of food should be cut short, and that they should meet with difficulties, that their hearts might turn to Him who had hitherto delivered them. He was ready to be to them a present help. If, in their want, they would call upon him, he would manifest to them tokens of his love and continual care. But they were unwilling to trust the Lord any further than they could witness before their eyes the continual evidences of his power. If they had possessed true faith and a firm confidence in God, inconveniences and obstacles, or even real suffering, would have been cheerfully borne, after the Lord had wrought in such a wonderful manner for their deliverance from bondage. The Lord had promised that if they would obey his commandments no disease should rest upon them, and it was criminal unbelief in them to anticipate that themselves and children might die of hunger. They had suffered greatly in Egypt by being overtaxed with labor. Their children had been put to death, and in answer to their prayers of anguish, God had mercifully delivered them. He had promised to be their God, to take them to himself as a people, and to lead them to a large and good land. But they were ready to faint at any suffering they should have to endure in the way to that land. They had suffered much while in bondage to the Egyptians, but now they could not endure hardships in the service of God. They were ready to yield to gloomy doubts, and to sink in discouragement when they were tried. The sinful course of the Israelites is recorded as a warning to the people of God now upon the earth. Many look back to them, and marvel at their unbelief and continual murmurings, after the Lord had given them such repeated evidence of his love and care. They think that they would not have proved so ungrateful. But some who thus think, murmur and repine at things of far less consequence. They do not know themselves. God frequently proves them, and tries their faith in small things; and they endure the trial no better than did ancient Israel.
Many have their present wants supplied, yet they will not trust God for the future. They manifest unbelief, and sink into despondency and gloom. Some are in continual trouble lest they shall come to want, and their children suffer. When difficulties arise, or when they are brought into strait places—when their faith and their love to God are tested—they shrink from the trial, and murmur at the process by which God has chosen to purify them. Their love does not prove pure and perfect, to bear all things. The faith of the people of the God of Heaven should be strong, active, and enduring—the substance of things hoped for. The language of such will be, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name; for he hath dealt bountifully with me. Self-denial is considered by some to be real suffering. Depraved appetites are indulged. And a restraint upon the unhealthy appetite would lead even many professed Christians now to start back, as though actual starvation would be the consequence of a plain diet. And, like the children of Israel, they would accept slavery, diseased bodies, and even death, rather than to be deprived of some hurtful indulgence. Bread and water is all that is promised to the remnant in the time of trouble.
God was not unmindful of the wants of his people, and in his wisdom he provided the needed supply. He said to their leaders; “I will rain bread from Heaven for you.” The Lord designed to prove them, and by indulgence through miraculous provision for their wants to test them to see whether they would keep his commandments or no. The Lord promised to supply them through Moses with abundance of food. By his power he would give them flesh to eat in the evening and in the morning bread in abundance. Moses told them that their murmurings were not against him, but against the Lord. He that was enshrouded in the pillar of cloud heard all their murmurings and bitter complaints. While Aaron was speaking to the congregation there was a remarkable change in that pillar of cloud.
The Lord designed to give the Israelites evidences of his presence that they might be held in restraint and subordination as they knew the presence of the Lord, not merely the man Moses, was guiding them. Evidences of this kind were the books of knowledge opened to their senses that they should learn in regard to God, and his fear be before them. The greatest changes were to be wrought in the characters of these demoralized people. God was working by his power to lift them up through a knowledge of himself. Thus a visible manifestation of the glory of God was given them; a splendor which they had never witnessed, which symbolized the Divine presence. While the people were greatly terrified at this revelation of God, and feared his judgments, an audible voice came from the glory commanding Moses and Aaron to draw near to the cloudy pillar in which his glory was manifested. And the Lord talked with Moses and Aaron, and the Israelites heard his voice, saying that he had heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, and repeated his promise of flesh in the morning and bread in the evening. There God gave them evidence that he would supply their necessities, protect and preserve them, if they would be obedient to his commandments. In the evening the quails covered the ground about the camp. And in the morning the ground was covered with a strange substance, in small, white grains of the size of coriander seed, hard, and pleasant to the taste. The children of Israel knew not what it was, so they called it manna, which means, What is it? Moses said to them, “This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat. This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded, gather of it every man, according to his eating, an omer for every man according to the number158of your persons; take ye every man for them which are in his tents.”
The people gathered the manna, and found that there was a sufficiency for the entire company. They “ground it in mills, or beat it in a mortar, and made cakes of it; and the taste of it, was as the taste of fresh oil.” We are also told that “the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.”
According to the direction of Moses they were to gather an omer (about five pints) for every person; and they were not to leave of it until the morning. Some attempted to keep a supply until the next day, but what they laid by bred worms and became offensive. The supply for each day was to be gathered each morning; for as the heat of the sun increased, the substance melted and disappeared.
STEP BY STEP.
By J. G. Holland
Heaven is not reached by a single bound;
But we build the ladder by which we rise
From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies,
And we mount to its summit round by round.
I count these things to be grandly true:
That a noble deed is a step toward God,
Lifting the soul from the common sod
To a purer air and a broader view.
We rise by the things that are under our feet;
By what we have mastered in greed and gain,
By the pride deposed and the passion slain,
And the vanquished ill we hourly meet.
We hope, we resolve, we aspire, we trust,
When the morning calls to life and light;
But our heart grows weary, and ere the night
Our lives are trailing in a sordid dust.
Wings for the angels, but feet for the men!
We must borrow the wings to find the way;
We may hope, and resolve, and aspire, and pray,
But our feet must rise or we fall again.
Only in dreams is the ladder thrown
From the weary earth to the sapphire wall!
But the dreams depart and the visions fall,
And the sleeper wakes on his pillow of stone.
Heaven is not reached at a single bound;
But we build the ladder by which we rise
From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies,
And we mount to its summit round by round.
—J. G. Holland.
UNITED STATES IN PROPHECY.
By Uriah Smith
BY ELDER U. SMITH.
AN IMAGE TO THE BEAST.
Let us look a moment at the fitness of the material furnished by the Protestant churches for the image of the beast. We are not unmindful of the noble service these Protestant churches have rendered to the world, to humanity, and to religion, by introducing and defending, so far as they have, the great principles of Protestantism. But they have made a fatal mistake in stereotyping their doctrines into creeds, and thus taking the first step backward toward the spiritual tyranny of Rome. Thus the good promise they gave of a free religion and an unfettered conscience is already broken. For, if the right of private judgment is allowed by the Protestant church, why are men condemned and expelled from that church for no other crime than honestly attempting to obey the word of God, in some particulars not in accordance with her creed? This is the beginning of apostasy. Read Chas. Beecher's work, “The Bible a Sufficient Creed.” “Is not the Protestant church,” he asks, “apostate? Is not the apostasy which we have reason to fear already formed?” But apostasy in principle always leads to corruption in practice. And so Paul, in 2 Tim. 3:1–5, sets forth the condition of the professed church of Christ in the last days. A rank growth of twenty heinous sins, with no redeeming virtues, shows that the fruit of the Spirit will be choked and rooted out by the works of the flesh. We can look nowhere else for this picture of Paul's to be fulfilled except to the Protestant church; for the class of which he speaks maintain a form of godliness, or the outward services of a true Christian worship. And is not the church of our day beginning to manifest to an alarming degree the very characteristics which the apostle has specified? Fifteen clergymen of the city of Rochester, N. Y., on Sunday, Feb. 5, 1871, distributed a circular, entitled “A Testimony,” to fifteen congregations of that city. To this circular the Rochester Democrat of Feb. 7, made reference as follows:
“The ‘Testimony’ sets out by stating that the foregoing pastors are constrained to bear witness to what they ‘conceive to be a fact of our time; viz., That the prevailing standard of piety, among the professed people of God, is alarmingly low; that a tide of worldliness is setting in upon us, indicating the rapid approach of an era, such as is foretold by Paul in his second letter to Timothy, in the words, ‘In the last days perilous times shall come.’ These conclusions are reached, not by comparisons with former times, but by applying the tests found in the Scriptures. They instance as proof, ‘the spirit of lawlessness which prevails.’ The circular then explains how this lawlessness (religious) is shown. Men have the name of religion, but they obey none of its injunctions. There is also a growing disposition to practice in religious circles, what is agreeable to the natural inclinations, rather than the duties prescribed by the word of God. The tendency to adopt worldly amusements, by professed Christians, is further stated in evidence.”
This testimony is very explicit. When men “have the name of religion, but obey none of its injunctions,” they certainly may be said to have a form of godliness, but to deny the power; and when they practice in religious circles what is agreeable to the natural inclinations, rather than the duties prescribed by the word of God, they may be truthfully said to be “lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.” And Rochester is not an exception in this respect. It is so all over the land, as the candid everywhere, by a sad array of facts, are compelled to admit.
That the majority of the Christians in our land are still to be found in connection with these churches, is undoubtedly true. But a change in this respect is also approaching. For Paul exhorts all true Christians, in his words to Timothy above referred to, to turn away from those who have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof; and those who desire to live pure and holy lives, who mourn over the desolations of their Zion, and sigh for the abominations done in the land, will certainly heed this injunction of the apostle. There is another prophecy which also shows that when the spirit of worldliness and apostasy has so far taken possession of the professed churches of Christ as to place them beyond the reach of reform, God's true children are every one of them to be called out, that they become not partakers of their sins, and so receive not of their plagues. Rev. 18:4.
From the course which church members are everywhere pursuing, it is plain to be seen in what direction the Protestant churches are drifting; and from the declaration of God's word it is evident that all whose hearts are touched by God's grace and molded by his love, will soon come out from a connection in which, while they can do no good to others, they will receive only evil to themselves.
And now we ask the reader to consider seriously for a moment what the state of the religious world will be when this change shall have taken place. We shall then have an array of proud and popular churches from whose communion all the good have departed, from whom the Holy Spirit is withdrawn, and who are in a state of hopeless departure from God. God is no respecter of persons nor of churches; and if the Protestant churches apostatize from him, will they not be just as efficient agents in the hand of the enemy as ever pagans or papists have been? Will they not, then, be ready for any desperate measure of bigotry and oppression in which he may wish to enlist them? After the Jewish church had finally rejected Christ, how soon they were ready to imbrue their hands in the blood of his crucifixion. And is it not the testimony of all history that just in proportion as any popular and extensive ecclesiastical organization loses the Spirit and power of God, it clamors for the support of the civil arm?
Let, now, an ecclesiastical organization be formed by these churches; let the government legalize such organization, and give it power, (a power which it will not have till the government does grant it) to enforce upon the people the dogmas which the different denominations can all adopt as the basis of union, and what do we have? Just what the prophecy represents: an image to the papal beast, endowed with life by the two-horned beast, to speak and act with power.
(To be Continued.)
The Two Covenants
By Eld. J. G. Matteson
BY ELD. J. G. MATTESON.
God has made a covenant with his people in the last days. All that enter into this covenant obtain forgiveness of their sins, and eternal life. But those who are strangers to it must bear their own sins and at last reap corruption. Gal. 6:8. It is of the greatest importance to become acquainted with this covenant; therefore we will listen to the testimony of the Scriptures on this point, for they alone are able to make us wise unto salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 2 Tim. 3:15. And these testimonies are so plain that no one can misunderstand them, if he will weigh the evidence carefully and honestly before God.
The two covenants, the old and the new, are fully and clearly presented in Jer. 31:31–34, and Heb. 8:6–12. In Heb. 8, the Holy Spirit testifies by the apostle of the ministration of Christ, as our high priest in the heavenly sanctuary. Verses 1, 2. Then he speaks of the priests under the old covenant, whose ministration only served unto the example and shadow of the ministration of Christ in Heaven. Verses 3–5. But of Christ he says: “But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.” Verse 6.
It is this new and better covenant which we desire to understand and to enter into; for it is founded on better promises than the old. And Christ, whose ministry is more excellent than that of the earthly priests, inasmuch as he is more excellent than they, is our divine mediator in this new and better covenant.
The Scriptures speak of several covenants before Christ. But to avoid all misunderstanding, the Lord shows clearly, first, what covenant he calls the old and first covenant; and then describes the second in unmistakable terms. And this second covenant he calls “a better covenant” and “a new covenant.”
THE OLD COVENANT.
“For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.” Heb. 8:7–9.
THE NEW COVENANT.
“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” Heb. 8:10–12.
“In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.” Verse 13. The old covenant has utterly vanished away. There is no more any good reason to say, that any man, even though he be a Jew, can obtain any temporal or eternal blessing by the promises contained in that old covenant.
We will now consider, first, *THE OLD COVENANT: what it was; and how it was established and sealed; and, second, THE NEW COVENANT: wherein it is like and unlike the old; how it was made and ratified; and what it contains.*
1. THE OLD COVENANT. The covenant which is here presented, and denominated old, is that covenant which God made with the ancestors of the Jews in the day when he took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. Heb. 8:9.
The word diatheke, which is rendered covenant, means any disposition, arrangement, institution, or dispensation; hence a testament, a will, a covenant, i. e., mutual promises on mutual conditions, or promises with conditions annexed: meton., a body of laws and precepts, etc.—Greenfield.
The old covenant, now under consideration, was not the ten commandments; for it was that covenant which the Lord made with the house of Israel when he led them out of the land of Egypt. And this no one can deny who believes the text quoted.—Heb. 8:9. It was a voluntary agreement between two parties, and not an unconditional law.
This truth is further proved by the statements of the Bible concerning the old covenant in Ex. 19 and 24. Here we do most certainly find the159first mutual agreement, or covenant, which the Lord made with the house of Israel after the time when he “took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt.”
*1. What the old covenant was.*** This old contract contained a promise from the Lord to make the Jews a favored people above all other nations on the earth, on the condition that they would obey his voice and keep his commandments.
Moses went up on Mount Sinai where the Lord spoke to him, and told him to remind the people of their deliverance from the Egyptians, and then present unto them the covenant which the Lord proposed to make with them. Ex. 19:2–4.
THE OFFER OF THE LORD.
“Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob.” Verse 3.
The condition: “Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant.”
The promise: “Then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people; for all the earth is mine; and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.” Verses 5, 6.
THE ANSWER OF THE PEOPLE.
“And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the Lord commanded him, and all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord.” Verses 7, 8.
God’s holy commandments and laws, and among these the Sabbath, existed before they were publicly proclaimed on Mount Sinai. Abraham obeyed the commandments and laws of God. Gen. 26:5. The Lord proved the Jews before they came to Sinai, whether they would walk in his law or no. Ex. 16:4. And it was the Sabbath by which he proved them. Verses 27–30. The world also was full of sin before the law was publicly proclaimed on Sinai. And when there is sin, there is also law; for “sin is the transgression of the law.” 1 John 3:4. Besides this, the Sabbath was instituted at creation. Gen. 2:3. Thus it was a part of God’s holy law from the beginning of the world.
These considerations show how the Lord could present obedience to his holy law (or commanded covenant) as a condition of the old covenant, before the law was publicly proclaimed.
Then was not obedience to the law of the Lord, the ten commandments, a condition of the old covenant? Certainly.
Has not this law, then, vanished away with the old covenant?
This question is best understood by considering what the new covenant contains. We have no desire to introduce anything more in the second covenant than the Lord himself has brought in; neither do we wish to draw back from a single point which the Lord has written in it.
*2. How the old covenant was established and sealed.*** When the people had promised to enter into the covenant, the Lord was not in a hurry to seal it. They must first be informed of many points relating to this covenant, in order to understand fully what they were doing.
In the next chapter (Ex. 20) we read how the Lord himself proclaimed the ten commandments in the hearing of the people. Then follows, in chaps. 21, 22, and 23, those civil and ecclesiastical laws which the Lord gave Moses to make known unto the people.
In the twenty-fourth chapter we read that “Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord, and all the judgments [or commandments]; and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the Lord hath said will we do.” Verse 3.
This was the second time the people promised to obey the Lord. It would seem to us that this was enough; but it was the will of God that this important agreement should be made still plainer and more sure before it was sealed.
Then Moses wrote all the words of the Lord in a book. Verse 4. This book is called the book of the covenant. “And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people; and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient.” Verse 7.
This was the third time the people promised to obey the Lord. And this time everything was recorded, that it might not afterwards be forgotten or changed. Thus the old covenant was finished, and then sealed with blood.
The young men had offered burnt offerings of oxen unto the Lord, and half of the blood was left in basins. Verses 5, 6. “And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words.” Verse 8.
Thus the old covenant was established according to the plainest Scripture testimony. We have considered how it was made, and what pertained to it. There were two parties that mutually entered into it; a mediator who brought it about; one condition and one promise contained in it; and a seal that made it of force. We will now name these things in order:—
a. The first party: The Lord, Creator of heaven and earth.
b. The second party: The house of Israel. And this term signifies in the old covenant all the Jews, both believers and unbelievers. This cannot be misunderstood.
c. The mediator: Moses. He laid before the people all the words of Jehovah, and returned answer to the Lord, wrote the book of the covenant, and transacted the whole business between the two parties.
d. The condition: To obey the voice of the Lord and keep his commandments.
e. The promise: That the Lord would bestow great blessings on the Jews in preference to all other nations.
f. The seal: The blood of animals that were offered.
And what was the object of all these things?
That they should “serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things,” and to develop a people who would preserve the word of God in the earth. The house of Israel was a type of the true “Israel of God.” Moses was a type of Christ, the Mediator of the new covenant, “the Apostle and High Priest of our profession,” “who was faithful to Him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.” Heb. 3:1, 2.
The covenant itself was a type of the new covenant, and the blood pointed to the precious blood of Christ, whereby the second covenant should be sealed when the first vanished away.
2. THE NEW COVENANT. This we have already quoted as it is found in Heb. 8:10–12. It was not made with the Gentiles, but with the house of Israel. The Jews are preferred in the new covenant as well as in the old.
Many try to throw contempt on those who keep the Sabbath of the Lord by calling it Jewish. They forget that the new covenant was made with believers among the Jews. Christ himself was a Jew according to the flesh. The prophets and apostles were all Jews, and the first Christian church consisted of Jews. If we ask, What advantage, then, have the Jews? The Scripture answer is clear and unmistakable:—
“Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.” Rom. 3:2. And again the apostle testifies, that he could wish himself to be accursed from Christ for his brethren, his “kinsmen according to the flesh: who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants [this signifies at least two covenants], and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.” Rom. 9:3–5.
We Gentiles have nothing to boast of. We were by nature “aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.” Eph. 2:12. Truly, unto us belongs only confusion of face.
How, then, can the new covenant be of any benefit to us?
By the blood of Christ we may be made members of the Israel of God. Eph. 2:13. Through Christ, both Jews and Gentiles “have access by one Spirit unto the Father.” Verse 18. “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.” Verse 19.
The Jews are represented by the natural branches of the olive tree, which is an emblem of the church of God, but the Gentiles are wild branches. “Thou standest by faith. Be not high-minded, but fear; for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.” Rom. 11:20, 21.
Thus we see that the new covenant is made with the house of Israel, or the believing Jews, and that the Gentiles can be made partakers thereof by faith and obedience.
Considering the new covenant carefully, we find the following points:—
a. The first party: The Lord of Heaven and earth.
b. The second party: The house of Israel, or believing Jews.
c. The mediator: Christ, our Saviour.
d. Two conditions: 1. To love the commandments of God, and 2. To know the Lord.
e. Two promises: 1. Those who are members of this covenant are the people of God, and 2. Their sins are forgiven.
f. The seal: The precious blood of Christ. Heb. 9:12.
(To be Continued.)
THE GREAT COMMANDMENT.
By Jos. Clarke
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.” Luke 10:27.
This precept is connected in the Old Testament with some of the most precious promises which are to be found in the Bible; and in almost every case, it is found so connected. Please turn to the above-mentioned references, and read the context in each case.
In almost all pursuits, there is some leading idea which, when fully understood and comprehended, seems to lie at the foundation of all good moral action, impelling and guiding the whole; and it is this, Love to God; not a mere friendship, but a love, passionate and warm, undying and true, and constant as the sun; it must be the ruling passion of the soul, and hold control of every thought, and word, and act.
Nothing short of this strong and constant flame of love will purify the heart; it must be so strong as to hold every other lawful love in the most complete subjection, and so full as to purge out every impure and unholy passion.
Such love will quickly purify, not the life and words only, but the motives; it will permeate the whole man, and create him anew; and lacking this, all “the moral machinery is out of order.”
Jos. Clarke.
THE JESUITS.
VERY clearly the Jesuits have been hoisted by their own petard. Instead of accepting Article 7, which prohibited them from teaching in the schools and universities, they would have none of it and defeated it. And then they thought they had won a triumph. They have won many such triumphs! And now the news comes that they are to be expelled from France under the laws of the first Empire, passed in 1804. Why should they not be expelled?
There is nothing whose nature seems more misunderstood than the Jesuits. They are often spoken of as a religious body, but they are no more such than is a baseball club composed of Protestants and Roman Catholics. The idea of Loyola in organizing them was that of an educational, political and commercial character: indeed, Loyola was himself a soldier, and his organization was established on a military basis. Under its second general, Laynez, it doffed its monkish apparel, put its missionary work in the background, and thenceforth addressed itself to the maintenance of the absolute dominion of the Pope against Protestantism, kingdoms, universities, councils, bishops, anything and everybody showing an independent tendency. Since then it has fought for the Pope, intrigued for the Pope, burnt men at the stake for the Pope, waged wars and deluged countries with blood,—all in the service of the Pope. And it in time grew so strong and imperious that it did not hesitate to quarrel with and threaten the Pope. It is 300 years since Pascal exposed the immorality of the lives of the Jesuits, their selfishness and the falseness of their actions. They never recovered from that blow, and yet they have at various times been a power—always a dangerous power in any State—and with what a record! At one time and another they have been expelled from every country where they have had a foothold. They were condemned by the Paris Sorbonne 1554, expelled from France 1594, re-admitted 1604, again expelled and their property confiscated 1764; again expelled in 1831 and 1845; expelled from England five times between 1579 and 1829, the last expulsion being final. Expelled from Venice 1607, from Holland 1708, Portugal 1759 and 1834, Spain 1767, 1820 and 1835, from Belgium 1818, Russia 1820, Sardinia and Austria 1848, Italy and Sicily 1860. They were abolished by Pope Clement XIV. in 1773 and restored by Pius VI. thirty years later. During the last thirty years the Jesuits have succeeded in penetrating every European country, existing in the dominions where they are forbidden, secretly, resorting to every form of intrigue for extending their power and increasing the influence of Vaticanism. They are dangerous to the peace and welfare of society, antagonistic to the sentiment of the age and opposed to every phase of individual liberty, except the liberty to obey the commands of the Roman Curia. It will be a red-letter day for sunny France when she shall banish from her dominions these conspirators against her government, these disturbers of the peace and safety of her people.—Christian at Work.
Critique of Methodist Pulpits: Sermons Lacking Christ
A REVEREND gentleman, writing in a recent number of the Courier Journal of Louisville, arraigns the preachers of the whole Methodist Church in the most sweeping terms. Among other things, he says: “Forty or fifty years ago, ‘Christ and him crucified’ was the constant theme of almost every clergyman in the land. Now, sermons are tolerated in which the name of Christ never enters, even by indirection. . . . The sermons are largely political speeches, with a text hung loosely at one end. Think of a Protestant pulpit devoting its discourses to the election of Gen. Butler in the orthodox city of Boston!”
Pride Hath Two Seasons
PRIDE hath two seasons: a forward spring and an early fall.