Earlier text: The SermonCHAPTER IV, verse 15. And the Lord said unto him, Therefore, whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. ADAM and Eve had very many more children than are mentioned in this brief narrative; principally intended to record a few important particulars, and to trace the history, from the beginning to the time of Moses. And if, as is generally thought, Abel was murdered but a short time before the birth of Seth; the human race might be exceedingly increased in the space of 130 years.—Scott. Patrick mentions a couple in England, from whom sprung, in the course of 80 years, 367 children. Dodd says, if Adam and Eve were married A. M. 19, they might easily have had eight children, in the 25th year; in the fiftieth year there might proceed from them, in a direct line, 64 persons; in the 74th, there would be 572; in the 98th, 4,096; in the 122d, 32,768. If we add the other children descended from Cain and Abel, their children and their children's children, we should have in 128 years, 421,164 men, without reckoning the women, or any under the age of seventeen. But Dr. A. Clarke thinks the accuracy of this calculation may be disputed, and adds: If, at the age of 130, Adam had 130 children, which is quite possible, and each of these a child at 65 years of age, and one in each successive year, the whole in the 130th year of the world would amount to 1,219 persons; a number sufficient to found several villages, as extensive as Cain's city.—Jenks. CHAPTER V, verse 5. And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died. 'Josephus well observes, The patriarchs being men much beloved of God, and newly made by him, with a strong constitution, and excellent temper of body, and using better diet, the vigor of the earth serving at the first for the production of better fruits: all these things, joined with their temperance, constant exercise and labor, a sweet temper of air, their knowledge in the nature of herbs and plants, &c., might well contribute very much to as long a life as is here mentioned; for the sooner peopling of the world, and more certain propagation of religion and knowledge, arts and sciences. Herein Moses hath the testimony of all the Greeks and Barbarians also, who have wrote about ancient affairs; Manetho, who wrote the Egyptian history, Berosus, who wrote the Chaldean; Mochus, Hestiaeus, &c., who wrote the Phoenician; with a great number of Greek writers whom he mentions: who all say men anciently lived a thousand years. None indeed came up to that full sum, but some so near it, that they, who were not exactly acquainted with the sacred story, might well speak in that manner.' Patrick ‘The Brahmins have a tradition that human life once lasted a thousand years.’ Burder. Many would attribute the shortness of life since the flood to ‘a change in the hygrometric character of the circumfused atmosphere:’ others to a change in the quantity of oxygen contained in the atmosphere, and its corruption by the mephitic exhalations of decayed animal and vegetable substances, since these were destroyed by the flood.—Jenks. Verse 24. And Enoch walked with God; and he was not; for God took him. God took him.] ‘The Kalmucks,’ says Von Strahlenberg, ‘worship the idol Xacamuni, who, they say, was only a sovereign prince of India 4000 years ago: but, on account of his unparalleled sanctity, God had taken him up to Heaven alive.’—Burder. REPORT FROM BRO. WHITE.
By James White
We left home to fill our appointment at Monterey, April 18, and at one P. M. stopped at our old hotel; viz. by the roadside in an oak grove, and fed our team, and partook of our simple, healthful fare. We then drove to Bro. Hilliard's in Otsego, and tarried for the night. And, oh, how sweet was sleep. We slept more that night, than in a week, one year since. We heard the clock strike two, and then slept till five. One year since we usually heard the clock strike twenty-four times in each twenty-four hours. Then nights seemed to be weeks, while now they often pass too soon. None but those who have suffered as we have, can understand fully the terrible effects of going six months with not more than an hour's imperfect sleep in a night. Bro. and Sr. Hilliard were among the first to embrace the message in Northern New York. They have seven children all subjects of hope. How beautiful the sight. Nine bowing at the altar of prayer, is one more than were rescued in Noah's ark. May they all live for God, and share eternal life. Here we saw Bro. and Sr. Leighton. This family have long been afflicted. Sr. L. is, and has been a great sufferer, yet is patient in tribulation, and joyful in hope. Several brethren have moved to Otsego, and they now think of immediately building a brick house of worship, about thirty by forty-four. Other churches will doubtless assist these few faithful brethren in their noble enterprise. In the morning of the 19th, we drove to Allegan, and called on Bro. Foster where we were kindly entertained. The little church in this place is seeing better days. Several brethren have moved to this thriving village. Among them is Bro. and Sr. Burnham, and Bro. Isaac C. Snow and family. Bro. B. presented us a cane used by the rebel who shot Gen. Lyon, but the cane has been in loyal hands long enough to be thoroughly loyal, as it was brought from rebeldom when Bro. and Sr. Burnham fled from Missouri in a row-boat, in which they lived, we think about a week before they reached free soil. May they make as good an escape from the bondage of this mortal state, and safely arrive in the land of eternal freedom from sin and Satan. We formed a happy acquaintance with Bro. W. Littlejohn, only son of Judge Littlejohn of Allegan. His conversion is truly wonderful. Providence has seemed to overrule his partial blindness to his good. Though his outer vision be dim, he sees more, and enjoys more, of the clear light of Heaven in the truth, than many whose sight is perfect. This dear brother is one of the active working kind of Christians. May God bless him and keep him until that glad day when with immortal sight he shall view the glories of the earth made new. Here in Allegan we also met our very dear friends, Bro. and Sr. Jones, who conducted us to their house where we spent three nights. In all the numerous visits to this place we have ever stopped with them. They have both been patients at a health institute; and when we first saw Bro. Jones, he was bleeding at the lungs, and our friends had also given us up to die. He was then a Methodist. Perhaps the feebleness of us both was the means of a strong union being formed between us. Here we must relate a circumstance of great interest to us and Bro. and Sr. Jones. The first time we met was on the cars in the depot at Rochester, N. Y., in the spring of 1855. They occupied the seat behind us. Sr. Jones held in her arms her eldest son, then an infant, and Mrs. W. held our infant Willie, about the same age. We freely spoke of poor health. We decided in our own mind that our friend would not live one year, and he had us buried in imagination in six months. The train sped on, and we chatted sympathizingly, and Mrs. Jones, and Mrs. White enjoyed a good visit. When the train reached Suspension Bridge, we all shook hands and bid each other good bye. Of course we were invited to the new home of our friends should we ever visit Allegan county. And now came the rush for good seats on the next train which was to pass over the long, weary, dreary route through Canada West to245 Detroit. We succeeded well. And what was our astonishment to find our friends seated behind us. And now we conversed with greater interest than before. We showed them the new Hymn Book, by which they soon found that we were a Seventh-day Advent minister. They had lived among the Age-to-come Adventists of Victor N. Y., and were disgusted with everything bearing the Advent name. But said Bro. Jones to his wife, as he has since told us, “That man is a Christian, if he is an Adventist.” When we reached the station at Windsor, C. W., we bid each other an affectionate farewell, and now the rush for the boat, and omnibus, and hotel. And as we passed up the stairs, we looked back and saw our friends pressing close to us. They had not noticed us till that very moment. Heavy rains had broken the M. C. Rail-road, so that none had passed over it for forty-eight hours. And we were told that there were more than a thousand persons in Detroit bound west who could not go on that train. Soon a boisterous Vermonter entered the sitting-room and called about twenty-five of his company around him, and assuming the position of chairman, got a unanimous vote of his party en route for Kansas, that the train should not leave the depot unless every one of them got a seat. It was sixth-day and we had an appointment at Jackson the seventh day, and we felt that we must go. So as soon as breakfast was over we went to the depot. Here stood a long train of closed cars, and more than five hundred waiting for seats an hour before the time. Soon a man appeared with a bunch of keys in hand, and the crowd rushed after him. We trod close to his heels, and found a good seat. Our new Methodist friends were anxious to get to their home, and made the same effort to reach the train. Before we left the hotel we again said farewell with moistened eyes, expecting to meet no more on earth. But to our utter surprise we found them again in the seat behind ours. Bro. Jones, in caring for a female friend put in his charge, in looking for her trunk, lost his breakfast, so we invited him to share what remained in our traveling basket. He thanked us, and we talked of our providential meeting, and of the Advent faith; but were soon broken off by the conductor's hoarse voice as he cried, Jackson! The good bye was said with mutual feelings of tenderness, and away went the train and we went to the hospitable home of Bro. D. R. Palmer. All that spring and summer we struggled with disease, and in the autumn left the care of settling business and moving to Michigan to others, and alone came to Battle Creek, where we found rest and help from God. The next winter Bro. M. E. Cornell lectured in Otsego, Allegan, and finally in Monterey. He returned to Battle Creek, and while relating that forty had come out in Monterey, said, “Do you remember coming in the cars with”—Yes! yes! we exclaimed—and are they Sabbath-keepers? Bro. C. continued—“a man and woman from Rochester, N. Y., and of your providential meetings and partings? They are real good Sabbath-keepers.” We wept for joy. Bro. Jones now says that the only thing that helped him to climb over his prejudice and get out to hear Bro. Cornell, was the hope that the Advent preacher in town was the sickly man he saw on the cars, whom he wished to see again and hear. Bro. Cornell referred to us in two successive lectures, and his statements agreed with ours on the cars; so brother Jones came out again and again until he became established. Twelve years in June we met them in the tent at Monterey, and with them wept again and rejoiced. And all the trials of those twelve years have only made our bond of union stronger. On the Sabbath forenoon we spoke half an hour, and Mrs. W. spoke an hour and a half. In the afternoon we spoke three-fourths of an hour, and Mrs. W. an hour and a half. The brethren from Allegan, and some from Otsego were present. It was a blessed Sabbath. We never had a better one in Monterey. On first-day forenoon we spoke an hour with freedom and Mrs. W. filled her hour and a half. Our subject was, Five things which the Health Reform takes from us which many suppose of great value, but which we can spare to profit. 1. It takes from us tobacco, tea and coffee, which are expensive, hurtful, and one of them extremely filthy. We stated our convictions that tobacco was more injurious to health than alcoholic drinks. That while there were three creatures that could be made to love spirits; viz., man, the bear, and the swine, but one loves tobacco, and that is man. Bro. Buck suggested that the tobacco worm lived on the green plant; but that loathsome worm could not be induced to touch it when dried in the condition in which man rolls it as a sweet morsel beneath his tongue. He also stated that you might deceive the swine and get him to drink but once, while men would get drunk every day. 2. Health reform takes from us flesh as food, which is not necessary to sustain life and strength. And while it is not healthful, it contains no more nutrition in three pounds which cost fifty cents, than there is in one pound of corn meal, which costs two cents. 3. It takes from us bolted flour, and gives us bran and all, which is sweeter and contains more nutrition pound for pound. 4. It takes from us the third meal, which almost every one says they need to work on. But it is a fact that most laboring men labor on two meals, and sleep on the third. This they are better off without. 5. It is said that it takes modesty from our mothers, sisters, and daughters, in giving them the short dress. We appealed to the congregation, and called on them to show a single fault in the short dress practically illustrated by Mrs. W. and many others in the assembly. We affirmed that it was the only modest dress, properly covering the female form, worn by women. Hoops often disgrace the wearer. Long skirts have to be held up, frequently are on our public thoroughfares held up a foot higher than the short dress. A lady with the reformed dress may go up and down stairs, get into omnibuses, cars, and stages without the least care or anxiety concerning her dress. Not only many of the sisters in Monterey are adopting the dress, but others, among them the school-teacher. When our people have the moral courage to do right in this respect they will see others following their example, and then will popular prejudice against that which is healthful, convenient, and modest cease to exist with rational men and women. The youth of that church, as is the case almost everywhere, are crazed with the spirit of the world. We were pained to learn that under the name of a concert, which passed for innocent amusement, a sort of a young theater had been held, in which the world and Sabbath-keepers joined, some with blackened faces. If these things are right, then all our past teachings and experience are wrong. Mrs. W. appealed to the church old and young to stand aloof from such things, and we both entered our protest against them. Rather go to a full grown theater; for there you will see the evil undressed of a profession of innocent, religious sport. We do not argue for a grave, sad, cast-down monotony. This is good for neither health nor growth of grace. It is even the individual's privilege to be cheerful in hope, making the best of this world, and all of the next. We called on Bro. Day who has been cast down and afflicted. The meetings and interviews have done him much good. As we parted we said to him: Look up; be strong. He replied, “I will.” God bless him. We returned to Bro. Hilliard's and tarried for the night, and the next day returned home in a snow and rain storm, stopping by the roadside for refreshments. To-morrow, providence permitting, we leave for Windsor and Greenville, where our friends will please address us till further notice be given. Anathema, that is, a curse, a ban, signifies properly something set apart, separated, devoted. It is understood principally to denote the absolute, irrevocable, and entire separation of a person from the communion of the faithful, or from the number of the living, or from the privileges of society: or the devoting of any man, animal, city or thing to be extirpated, destroyed, consumed, and as it were annihilated. Lev. xxvii. Thus Jericho, Josh. vi, 17–21, and Achan were accursed. Josh. vii. Another kind of anathema, very peculiarly expressed, occurs, 1 Cor. xvi, 22, “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema, Maranatha.” This last word is made up of two Syriac words, signifying, “The Lord cometh,” that is, the Lord will surely come, and will execute this curse, by condemning those who love him not. At the same time, the opposite is also implied, that is, the Lord cometh also to reward those who love him.—Bible Dictionary. Blossoming Thoughts.
By H. W. Beecher
THE sunlight makes the violet blossom. No surgeon's instrument can make flowers blossom, and no hammer can drive them forth. But the sweet, persuading sun can call them out. A seed is planted. The sun looks, and kisses the place again, and a green plant appears above the ground! It looks once more, and kisses the place once more, and a beautiful white blossom unfolds itself! And thus it is with the soul. No logic can pry out these devout aspirations. No philosophy can drive them forth. But let God's sweet persuading soul rest upon ours a while, and they come up and blossom. The soul is the garden of the Lord.—H. W. Beecher. Repeated Folly Becomes Sin
Men often escape lightly from the first imprudence, and suffer terribly from its repetition, for folly repeated becomes sin, and sin is always punished. There is no variableness in the government of God. Faithfulness in Little Duties
By Miss. Sewell
Never be afraid of doing little because you cannot do much. Take the first duty that comes before you, and put your heart into it, and it will lead to a second. Try to put a spirit into old ways before you chalk out new ones. Never let your conscience be troubled by the claim of duties that do not belong to you. Miss. Sewell. Gold is the only idol that is worshiped in all lands without a temple, and by all sects without hypocrisy. An eastern friend writes: “We are all aiming at the same thing.” Is it so? It is undoubtedly so in part; but I would divide the religionists of the day into two classes, who are something like two men, who, with fire arms, are aiming at a mark. One has a gun in first rate order, well charged, and calculated to do good execution; the other has a gun, which may appear as well, but is entirely empty, and consequently every exertion of his to hit the mark will prove abortive. My friend means, that all have a desire to exchange this world of sorrow for one of joy at death. This is as most persons would have it; but as it is not the Lord’s way, and as many of us, at the present time, think that the Lord’s way is altogether the best, i. e. that eternal life or immortality will be conferred upon the Christian at the coming of Christ, therefore we do not agree, and in this matter are not “aiming at the same thing.” If our religion consists mainly in a desire to get to Heaven, we are worshiping the idol self, and not the “God who made the heavens, the earth, and seas, and all things therein.” The greatest object which the true Christian has in view, is to love and obey God. The love of God in sending Jesus into the world, fallen, and ruined by sin, to rescue us from impending destruction, will lead the Christian to destroy all his idols, and worship (not self, but) Him “who is a Spirit, in spirit and in truth!” I have heard some ask, “How in the midst of so many diverse opinions, or religious creeds, can we decide which is the right way?” Such persons are referred to the “testimony of Jesus,” “My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me; If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine.” John vii, 17. Is it not the will of God that we keep his commandments? Although all may be aiming at the attainment of eternal happiness in another state of existence, yet in the preparation for it, there is a disagreement worthy of our consideration. There is but one way which is marked out in the word of God, and a mistake here will prove fatal. If with the light we have, our walk and conversation is not in strict conformity to the “testimony of Jesus,” all our efforts to obtain eternal life, will be of no avail. How often the people are told, “We are to walk by faith alone.” In Isa. ii, 20, it is said, “faith without works is dead, being alone.” The true convert from sin to holiness, will just as surely inquire “Lord what wilt thou have me to do,” as did the apostle Paul. He will dig for the truth, as for hid treasure, and having found it, will follow its teachings. He is not a Christian because he does good deeds, but he does them because he is a Christian. He will “fear God and keep his commandments,” because he loves him supremely, who first loved us. He possesses a martyr’s spirit; and neither “death, life, angels, principalities, powers, things present, nor things to come, height, depth, or any other creature, can separate him from the love of God,” or keep him from walking according to his law. The professed church, at the present time, numbers its antinomians by the thousand, and the number is increasing rapidly, and wherever the doctrine of the Second Advent of Jesus is proclaimed, and the preparation necessary for that event, the great mass of religionists of every name, reject the law of the Lord; and although many are convinced that we have the truth, they fall back upon their old creeds, and follow those, who “teach for doctrine the commandments of men.” The spirit of God leaves them, and their religion becomes one of dry forms and ceremonies; the love of the world, its fashions and follies predominate, and unless a miracle of mercy shall interpose to save them, they are forever lost. If we are not aiming aright, in the preparation for meeting our Saviour at his coming, shall we have any share in his kingdom? If we would be saved from sin and from the wrath to come, we must aim at, and labor for, that “holiness, without which, no man shall see the Lord.” It is those who keep the commandments of God, who have “a right to the tree of life.” A SENSIBLE writer says a good sharp thing, and a true one, too, for boys who use tobacco. It has utterly spoiled and utterly ruined thousands of boys. It tends to softening and weakening of the bones, and it greatly injures the brain, the spinal marrow and the whole nervous fluid. A boy who smokes early and frequently, or in any way uses large quantities of tobacco, is never known to make a man of much energy, and generally lacks muscular and physical as well as mental power. We would particularly warn boys who want to be anything in the world to shun tobacco as a most baneful poison. It injures the teeth. It produces an unhealthy state of the throat and lungs, hurts the stomach and nerves. The following article by Eld. A. H. Lewis, Seventh-day Baptist, was written for the N. Y. Independent. The Editor of that paper rejected it, saying, “We cannot afford space for the discussion which your article proposes and invites.” We copy from The Sabbath Recorder, of April 18, 1867. The crisis of which Bro. L. speaks, we think, is nearer than he intimates. To the Editor of the Independent: Your correspondent, Rev. John P. Gulliver, in the Independent of March 28th, says, “Nothing is settled which is not settled right.” It is a great truth. We have proven it sadly in our late national struggle—perhaps I should rather say, are proving it true in our unfinished struggle. Despite this experience, we are in danger of making the same error in our efforts at Sabbath Reform. This question is becoming every day more prominent. Men see how we are running into no-Sabbathism, and are startled. They tremble, as the barriers which they have deemed impregnable go down before free thinking, skepticism, and growing immorality. They say, “It is because the Sabbath is desecrated; we must build it up—must sustain it.” The civil arm is therefore sought to sustain the Sunday. This is seeking to do the right thing in the wrong way. Sunday is not the Sabbath! I weigh my words carefully; I speak soberly. Every careful reader of the Bible knows that Mr. Bushnell is right when he says that Baptists, with little scruple, “accept the Lord’s day, even against a specific command of the Decalogue, and let the ancient Sabbath go, when it is only by the faintest, most equivocal, or evanescent indications, they can make out a shadow of authority for the change.” (Christian Nurture, page 157.) Every careful student of Church History knows, that the Sunday was never deemed a Sabbath, by virtue of the fourth commandment, until the time of the Puritans. It came into the Church, (in common with Wednesday and Friday,) as a weekly festival. The first authentic reference to its observance is found in the writings of Justin Martyr, about the middle of the second century. The earliest and main reasons given for its observance were vague and fanciful, not even claiming to be scriptural. Its first character as a rest-day came from the civil enactment of Constantine the Great, A. D. 321. This law recognized it only as the “venerable day of the sun,” a heathen festival. The law was made while Constantine was yet a heathen. Puritanism rejected the dogma of Church authority, and, with higher desires after holiness, recognized the validity of God’s law. But it was still weak on this question. It claimed the right to apply the law to a day not named in the law. Little effort was made to prove this position. It was rather assumed. The trial of Puritanism in America has fully developed this weakness. With everything in its favor, the “Puritan Sabbath” has steadily lost ground. Its unwarranted rigidity could not give real strength. To-day we see society going to pieces on this question and seek to save it by binding the raft together with the cords of legal enactment. It will not do. The structure is inherently weak, because wrong. Any temporary success which may be gained will not be a settlement of the question. So far as these efforts promote the cause of temperance and good order, I heartily endorse them. But the success must be short-lived. It seems to be not so much the cause of temperance, as of the so-called Sabbath, which the law seeks to honor. If the Excise Law can not be enforced on all days, I grant it is better to enforce it on one day in each week. But let it be done under no false pretense. God has made only one day the Sabbath. “The seventh-day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” God has never left the Christian church without those who have obeyed this law in full. There is a chain of Sabbath-keepers from the time of Christ to the present hour. He will not leave his day unvindicated in the future. All the efforts of the present will only drive us nearer the real point at issue. As the compromises, and opposition, and calumny of the early days of the “anti-slavery reform” drove us steadily toward the bloody settlement from which we are emerging, so all efforts to legalize and uphold the Sunday, will drive us nearer to the true Sabbath. Years may pass before the masses will heed the question. The crisis may seem to be distant, but it will come. The American church must choose—no-lawism, no-Sabbathism, Churchism, Ritualism, and Infidelity, or the truth that law is supreme, and that God’s Sabbath given as our great moral safeguard and hope, is binding, through all time, on all peoples. AN APOLOGY.
By J. H. Waggoner
As I found letters at home to which the writers may have looked for answers, I wish to make a brief statement. I labored far beyond my strength while in Northern Michigan, but supposed, as usual, that I should soon recover when I ceased to work. But, on the contrary, I continued to run down after I left Oakland until I was entirely prostrated. I have not written so much as a letter since my return home, and am not able to do the necessary writing preparatory to Conference. For the present I am stopping at the most pleasant place the worn pilgrim can find: the Western Health Reform Institute. It has been a great fault with me in past years to work beyond my power of endurance; and I am trying to correct this with other errors of living, but the247 force of habit is strong, and often rules the judgment. My present condition is rather discouraging, but during the past year by the blessing of God and some conformity to the laws of life, I have been enabled to do at least three times as much as I ever expected to do in one year; so I hope by carefulness and obedience to be able to do something in the good work of present truth. No one has stronger temptations to err by overworking, than the minister who may have appointments to fill after a failure of health, or be led by the necessities of a church to work on in an exhausted condition. I hope I may yet learn what is duty in such cases. Battle Creek, April 28, 1867. SABBATH, April 27, was a good day for the church here. Eighty testimonies in about an hour were borne at our Sabbath forenoon meeting. The principal object before all minds seemed to be the great impending day and the necessary and immediate work of preparation for its eternal issues. It was a most encouraging season. In the afternoon, to a congregation so large as to scarcely be able to find comfortable seats in the house, Bro. Andrews spoke on the text, “What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” The more than folly of such a bargain was vividly portrayed. It was shown, 1. That a man to gain the world must barter away his soul; but 2. After he has done this, he is not sure of gaining the world. All he seeks after, may elude his grasp, and he obtain no object of his desire, even in this life; but 3. Even if he does gain all the world, he has then got only three things, summed up by the apostle as follows: “The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life.” This is absolutely all the world has to give. 4. When this is all gone, for the world and the lust thereof pass away, and the sinner discovers the woful cheat of which he has been the victim, then he finds that he has nothing to give in exchange for his soul; he has nothing with which to buy it back, or secure a title to eternal life. All is lost. The way to save our life also consists, as set forth by the Saviour, of three things. 1. To deny self. 2. To take up our cross. And 3. To follow him. The first step, self-denial, is the carrying out of the great doctrine of temperance, now engaging our attention as a people, in all its bearings in every department of life. To take up our cross is not simply to bear our testimony in meeting though it includes this, but it has reference to our whole Christian life, exhibiting and sustaining in all our relations, the character of the true Christian. To follow the Saviour, is to ever keep him in view, watch carefully for his footsteps, consider how he would act, were he here in our circumstances, and act accordingly, and to place our feet, as near as we can determine, in the very place where he would place his, if he were traveling the same path. Pursuing this course, we maintain a character exactly the opposite of that sustained by the world, as exhibited in the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life; and pursuing this course to the end, the promise is sure of endless life and eternal glory at the last. None who listened to the discourse, professors or not, could fail to get new impressions of the infinite folly of seeking the world at the fearful price at which alone it can be obtained, and on the other hand, the wisdom of renouncing this evil world, in favor of the life which is to come. Those already in the way, felt quickened to fresh zeal, and new exertions in the heavenly journey; and those who have not yet started, we trust will be induced to make no longer delay. QUITE A SAVING.
By L. E. O.
[THE following article we clip from the April number of the Health Reformer, as we wish such of our readers as have not yet become subscribers to that journal, to know what a “Saving” the Health Reform is.—ED.] “The Health Reform is quite a saving,” I heard a friend remarking the other day. Oh yes, thought I, indeed it is, if rightly lived out. It saves an amount of bad feelings that we otherwise would experience, and many a hasty dispatch after the village doctor; and our stomachs it saves from the pills, powders and potions that he would administer. It saves us from the foolish idea that Nature’s Laws can be transgressed at pleasure, and we suffer no penalty. It saves wearisome labor in preparing delicacies for our tables that are absolutely hurtful. It saves mothers getting the extra meal that their families are better off without. It saves our kitchens and cookshops from the odors of flesh pots. It saves us from thinking as the fatted swine comes in from the street, or wallows forth from the pen, that God has embodied in such a creature for us, superior strength and sustenance. It saves us from the sickening sensations of tobacco and tobacco smoke. It saves us from stimulants of every kind. It saves our time and money. It saves us sound bodies, pure hearts, and clean consciences. Indeed! what could save us more? The nodding wheat and tasselled corn, the luxuriant vegetable, the fruitful bough and rambling vine, make for our tables, earth’s most bountiful and best provision; upon these will we ask the blessing of Heaven. The limpid brook, the bubbling spring, the sparkling fountain, from these we may drink. Water! water! shall quench our thirst and cool our brows! Friends! and all ye people! the Health Reform is a saving. God speed the Health Reform! ARE YOU READY TO BE BLEST?
By R. F. COTTRELL.
ARE you waiting for the Lord to bless you with the outpouring of his Spirit? Are you all ready and waiting for the latter rain? Why, then, are you not blest? Is the Lord slack concerning his promise? does he withhold the blessing, when you are ready for it? No; he is more willing to bless you than you are to be blest. You are not waiting for the Lord; he is waiting for you; as soon as you are ready to be blest, he will pour the blessing upon you. He is blessing you all you can bear, till you seek him more earnestly in the way of well-doing. When an individual is ready to enjoy the smiles of Heaven, he has them; and when the church is prepared for the refreshing, it will come. Then let us not deceive ourselves by thinking that we are waiting for the Lord, while the truth is, he is waiting for us. It is the blessed Jesus that is waiting—he it is that stands at the door and knocks. If we will open the door, he will not fail to come in and sup with us. Who will open the door—who will be exceedingly blest of the Lord? He is ready. Are you? “Be zealous and repent.” BE OF GOOD CHEER.
By A. S. Hutchins
THESE are words of encouragement spoken by our compassionate Redeemer; and to every soldier in the Christian warfare, they must be peculiarly comforting and precious, especially, when surrounded with trials and temptations. We may thus regard them, 1. Because they were uttered just prior to his betrayal and apprehension. They are a part of his farewell address to his dear disciples, or were spoken in his last interview of this kind with them, previous to his ignominious death upon the cross. In the book of John, chapters xiv–xvi, are recorded many words of comfort and consolation spoken to them on this occasion. In the most tender and affectionate manner he commences his address to them. He had eaten the last supper with them, taught them who would betray him, and told Peter that he would thrice deny him, when he says: “Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, ye may be also.” How well adapted are the closing words of this interview, to inspire love to him, and zeal and fortitude in his service. Let us read them and reflect upon them. And may they beget within us that tranquillity of mind, that holy boldness, firm trust, and Christian perseverance to do his will, that they should. “These things,” says he, “I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” 2. The exhortation, “Be of good cheer,” is the more precious from the consideration, that One thus exhorts, who well knew the manifold temptations, trials, and dark discouragements, that every child of God would have to encounter on his journey to Mount Zion. Well-meaning and good people often fail to render that comfort and consolation to the afflicted and bereft, that they fain would, because they know not how to sympathize with them. They are strangers to their grief and sorrow. But here, we recognize the voice of the good Shepherd. He speaks, who had overcome the world, and who knows well what temptations mean, “for we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” Heb. iv, 15. “For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted.” People sometimes have not the sympathy for others that they should have. We naturally love sympathizing spirits, but we do not always find them. Again, we may find those who sympathize with us and feel our woes, but they have not the power to relieve our wants. But here is a friend, the blessed Saviour, in whom are blended both sympathy for all his followers and power to redress their wants. In laying down his life for us, he has manifested the strongest possible love toward us. And the apostle says of him, “He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.” Heb. vii, 25. “In the world ye shall have tribulation.” Observe, that he has not told us that our pathway would be decked with flowers of pleasure, or that we should be borne away to the mansions of rest on the tide of public opinion, as the bubble floats on the surface of the water. No; far from this. We must suffer with him, if we would reign with him. “I have overcome the world.” Dear reader, it is for you and me now to overcome as he has; and to such he holds out the cheering and soul-inspiring promise “I will grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.” Rev. iii, 21. Are you poor? Are you tempted? Are you sad and sorrowing, and scoffed at? Remember that all this, yea, and much more grief, mental anguish, and bodily suffering, than we can conceive of, was the Master’s lot; and he well knows how to pity and sustain us; and he will soon appoint each faithful, humble, follower of his, a place in the everlasting kingdom. There we shall meet all the loved and dear saints. The grave will give up its dead, and we shall embrace our friends again, to part no more. Then “be of good cheer.” Yes, Christian, “Cheer up, cheer up, the day breaks o’er thee,
Bright as the summer’s noon-tide ray,
The star-gammed crowns and realms of glory
Invite thy happy soul away.
Away, away, leave all for glory,
Thy name is graven on the throne,
Thy home is in that world of glory
Where thy Redeemer reigns alone.” Wolcott, Vt., April 9, 1867.