Earlier text: OUR FAITH AND HOPE;In Malachi 4:5, we read, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” For some years past there have been found individuals to argue from this prediction, that Elijah the prophet was literally and personally to appear among men just before the opening of the great day of the Lord. It could easily be foreseen that the result of such teaching must be evil; and its bitter fruit is beginning to appear in a vigorous crop of impostors who are rising up and claiming to be the august personage in question. We charge this result upon the doctrine before mentioned, for no one would ever be in danger of being left to put forth the conceited claim that he was Elijah the prophet, unless he had first been led to believe that that prophet was to appear literally and personally among men. But these individuals are very apparently overdoing the matter. The supply is greater than the demand. Granting for a moment that Elijah is personally to appear, the prediction must be fulfilled in some one person, not in any two, three, or more. If, therefore, more than one person shall rise up and claim to be the prophet, we have just that number too many. Now there are quite a number of rival claims to this illustrious honor. We have in mind, at this moment, three individuals who each claim to be the prophet that was to appear. And how are we going to decide between these rival claims? Should we grant that one of them might be the person in question, only one of them could be; and all the others must be impostors. S. S. Snow, of New York, has the oldest claim to this distinction. Ever since 1845, he has given out that he was some great one, even the Elijah that was to come. The second claimant we have in mind is one Mr. Moore, of this State, who lately passed through Battle Creek, declaring himself to be not only Elijah, but that prophet, of Deut. 18, like unto Moses, and claiming to hold various other positions of distinction brought to view in the Old Testament; and he proposed to establish his title in the following summary manner: “If I am not the person, who is? Point out the man; if you cannot, you are bound to receive me as such.” N. B. We did not conclude to receive him, though we could not point out any “other man.” A third claimant, we learn, has arisen in the person of a Mr. Curry, of Massachusetts. And now we inquire, How can any one of these individuals establish his claim in opposition to the others? What is the distinguishing feature by which one is proved to be genuine, and the other false? Let these gentlemen, who each have a claim so presumptuous that with every sensible mind it ought to prove its own refutation, settle the question between them as to which of them is entitled to bear the burden of this prophecy, before they trouble others with their crazy pretensions. Again, if Elijah is personally to appear, it must be Elijah himself, the very one who lived nearly a thousand years before Christ, and who was taken up alive into Heaven. Therefore, let him who claims to be the Elijah of the prophecy, first give us a few particulars of his previous earthly history, and his long intervening heavenly existence. Elijah was received up into Heaven there to remain till he should suddenly appear to accomplish his mission among men, if he was thus to appear. Hence, let no one pretend to be he, who has been born and reared within the lifetime of the present generation. If he says that Elijah is in him, we reply that that is a kind of incarnation concerning which we have no information in the word of truth. If he says that the spirit and power of Elijah is with him, then we answer that that would be taking it in a figurative sense; and when we come to that, we can show a movement which can lay better claim to being a fulfillment of the prophecy, than can be put forth by any one individual. But the investigative reader may be inclined to seriously inquire what the prophecy does mean. We have the prediction that Elijah should be sent before the great and dreadful day of the Lord; and there can be no dispute that that day is the one which all prophecy shows to be now just upon us. What, then, shall we do with it? for we have evidently reached the time when the fulfillment is due, and when we may look for something which answers reasonably and scripturally to the prediction. There are several allusions to the prophecy in the New Testament which will first claim our attention. They are spoken with reference to John the Baptist. It was prophesied of John in Luke 1:17, that he should go before Christ in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. When John came upon the stage of action, and commenced his preaching in the wilderness, the Jews asked him plainly if he was Elijah, and he as plainly answered that he was not. John 1:21. And yet when He who was greater than John appeared, he told his disciples distinctly that if they would receive it, John the Baptist was the Elias, or Elijah, which was to come. Matt. 11:14. In these statements, apparently, at first sight, contradictory, we find a key to the solution of this question. The Jews were expecting Elijah personally to appear. See Bloomfield’s Greek Testament on Matt. 11:14. And when John in answer to their question tells them that he was not Elias, he simply affirmed that he was not that prophet in the sense in which they were expecting him, that is, the same identical person. But when Christ says that John was the Elias which was to come, he evidently speaks of him in the same sense in which he was prophesied of; namely, as one coming in the spirit and power of Elias. It is the spirit and power, then, and not the person, that fulfills the prophecy. This, it seems to us, should forever settle the question that it is not necessary that Elijah should personally appear. John affirmed expressly that he was not the personal Elijah whom they were expecting; and yet Christ says that John’s mission was a fulfillment of the prophecy respecting Elijah, because, as we are compelled to conclude, he came in the spirit and power of that prophet. But was the prophecy wholly fulfilled in John the Baptist? We answer, No; for it is more intimately connected with the great day of the Lord than was the mission of John. His work had exclusive reference to the first advent; but the prophecy must relate more especially to the second advent, which is the crowning event of the ushering in of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. The first and second advents are in many respects parallel events. Single prophecies often contemplate them both, the prophetic utterances glancing from one to the other in quick transition. Such prophecies receive a partial fulfillment in the events of the first advent, and a complete accomplishment in events connected with the second. Of such a nature we believe are some of the predictions of Malachi. See, for instance, chapter 3: “Behold I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me; and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple,” &c. Christ, in Matt. 11:10, applies this to John the Baptist, saying, “For this is he of whom it is written, Behold I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.” Yet the very next verse of Mal. 3 reads, “But who may abide the day of his coming, and who shall stand when he appeareth?” glancing right down from the preparation for Christ’s first advent to his revelation the second time in power and glory. So with the prophecy respecting Elijah. Fulfilled primarily in the preaching of John the Baptist to prepare the people for Christ’s first coming, which was itself an antecedent step looking to his second advent, we may look for its ultimate and complete fulfillment near the coming of the notable day of the Lord, in some work which will be at once both the herald and precursor of that great event. If, then, we can find a work, even if it should be now going on, which is the counterpart of the work of John the Baptist, or which bears the same relation to the second advent that his work did to the first advent, and, withal, is the same in character as the work in which the literal Elijah of old was engaged before his translation, may we not take our stand upon it, not timidly and falteringly, but boldly and firmly, as the ultimate fulfillment of this important prophecy? The question remains, Do we find any such work in process of accomplishment? Need we ask this question of any who have had a knowledge of the great Advent proclamation of the past twenty-four years—a proclamation brought to view in Rev. 14, under the symbols of three angels flying through mid-heaven with important messages for the children of men, and denoting, as we understand, a body of religious teachers going through the land with the blazing light of truth, giving the announcement and warning of coming judgment? John’s work was to expose the traditions and corruptions of that age, and prepare a people for the first advent of the Lord. In like manner it is the object of the work symbolized by the messages of Rev. 14, to prepare a people for his second appearing. Do you say that the prophecy must be fulfilled by one person? We answer, Not necessarily; for the case of John has shown us that it is not the individual, but the spirit and power, that fulfills the prophecy; and why may not this spirit and power accompany a body of men, as well as a single individual, especially if the magnitude and importance of the work demand such an increased agency? Do you say again that the spirit and power of Elijah is a miracle-working power, and the fulfillment of the prophecy must be accompanied with such miracles as Elijah wrought? We answer, Wrong again; for John the Baptist worked no miracles; and his mission was not a failure on this account. He preached a plain and cutting message to the people, and laid the ax to the root of the tree of their pride, errors, and corruptions. The Advent message is designed to do the same thing. In the development of the great Advent proclamation, we have now reached the third message of Rev. 14; and here we see the striking similarity between this work and that which Elijah was commissioned to perform. He was sent to the apostate kingdom of Israel, to stand up for the honor of the true God and vindicate his name in opposition to the gross idolatry of that people. What says the third message? It comes heralding the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, enforcing the claims of the down-trodden law of God, which the Man of Sin has thought to change, and vindicating its immutability and perpetuity, to the honor of God’s great name, thus endeavoring to restore the true worship of God, in opposition to the traditions and departures from the faith which characterize the present age. One more point of resemblance will complete our evidence on this subject. Elijah was to be sent to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the children to the fathers. The reading of the Septuagint is a little peculiar here. It reads that he “shall turn the heart of the father to the son, and the heart of a man to his neighbor.” It denotes the earnestness with which a person, on receiving the truth, would seek to impart the same light to his relatives and friends. Fathers would yearn over their children with longing desires for their salvation, and children over their parents, and both over their neighbors and friends. Such has been a characteristic of this work more or less from its commencement. We say, then, that we believe that the third angel’s message is now completing the fulfillment of Malachi 4:5, 6. Hence, let none be beguiled with the fancy that Elijah has personally appeared, or is yet personally to appear, but give heed to the work already going on before their eyes. The Closing Messages.—No. 28.
By Roswell F. Cottrell
THE special penalty threatened in the last message—the wine of the wrath of God without mixture—is the seven last plagues; “for in them is filled up the wrath of God.” Rev. 15:1. The lake of fire burning with brimstone is the common lot of all who are not found written in the book of life. This is the second death. Chap. 20:15. But God has determined that the last generation of the wicked—a generation privileged with the greatest means of light from the word and providence of God of any that ever lived, and yet rejecting their privileges become the most vile—should come to the first death in a dreadful manner, with special indications of divine wrath. And the “fierceness of his wrath” is especially reserved for false professors of religion—the worshipers of the beast and his image, who, with the Bible in their hand, and also the light of the history of the Roman apostasy, still choose to follow in the footsteps of the “mother of harlots,” and persecute those who keep God’s word, thus identifying themselves fully with “great Babylon.” Chap. 16:19. Some teach that these plagues are symbolical, and that six of them, at least, have been already poured out, beginning some centuries in the past. If this be true, the three messages must all be far in the past; for the first of the plagues takes effect upon those that have the “mark of the beast, and upon them which worship his image,” chap. 16:2, and consequently is the beginning of that unmingled wrath threatened by the third angel. This warning message locates itself before the day of wrath which it threatens, being the last merciful warning before the coming of the Son of Man; hence as the first vial is the infliction of a portion of the wrath threatened by the message, they are all of them in the future, and will be until probation shall close. The “mystery of God” is to be finished in the beginning of the sounding of the seventh trumpet. Rev. 10:7. This mystery, which is also called “the mystery of the gospel,” Eph. 6:19, is evidently the reconciliation and salvation of men through Christ; and the finishing of the mystery must be the closing work of the gospel on earth and also of the intercessions of Christ, as our great High Priest, in the heavenly temple. The third angel’s message is the closing message of the gospel, and the ministration of our Priest is finished within the second vial, before the ark of the covenant containing the ten commandments. (See works on the Sanctuary.) This apartment of the temple is opened under the sounding of the seventh angel. Rev. 11:15–19. “The temple of God was opened in Heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testimony.” This ark contains the commandments which are the burden of the third angel’s message, and before this ark our High Priest closes his priestly work by blotting out the sins of his people, which are their transgressions against that law contained in the ark. The seventh trumpet brings the third woe, chap. 8:13, which is evidently identical with the wrath threatened in the third message—the seven last plagues. But the third woe does not commence with the beginning of the sounding of the seventh angel. There is a little space in the “days of the voice of the seventh angel when he shall begin to sound,” in which the mystery of God is finished, by the proclamation of the last merciful warning, and the close of the work of Christ in behalf of sinners in the inner temple, before the ark and mercy-seat. It has been demonstrated that the sixth trumpet closed with the fall of the Turkish power, Aug. 11, 1840. (See Sounding of the Seven Trumpets.) From this date to the ending of the 2300 days in 1844, is precisely the period for the time message (Rev. 10:6, 7; and 14:6, 7) to be given, which points forward to the sounding of the seventh angel and the finishing of the mystery of God in the beginning of his sounding. The third woe does not commence with the beginning of the seventh trumpet, but there is a little space first given to the closing of the work of the gospel—a time for the fulfillment of the commission, “Thou must prophesy again,” of chap. 10, which is identical with the third angel of chap. 14. Consequently, the precise period of time which we now occupy is expressed in the text—“The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly.” Chap. 11:14. During the time of the last merciful warning to the world, Jesus, our High Priest, ministers in “the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in Heaven,” i. e., the inner apartment where the ark of the testimony is, which is now opened; and the wrath of God waits till he shall finish his intercessions and blot out the sins of his people. When this is done, the day of salvation is closed, and the ministers of vengeance proceed from that very place where bleeding and abused mercy has been pleading for all that would heed its invitations and turn to God. Their garments are pure and spotless white, like the great white throne whence they proceed, an emblem of the immaculate righteousness of those judgments they are commissioned to execute, as they bear to earth the seven golden vials, or bowls, “FULL of the wrath of God.” No drops of pardoning mercy are mingled in those bowls: for mercy long neglected and abused has ceased to plead. A Saviour’s dying love can do no more. Those “five bleeding wounds,” received on Calvary, can no longer “pour effectual prayers” for the guilty, in the heavenly temple. There is no longer an intercessor there; for as the messengers of wrath leave the temple, it is “filled with smoke from the glory of God,” and no one can enter it until the wrathful mission is accomplished in cutting off the wicked inhabitants of the earth. “And after that I looked, and behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in Heaven was opened. And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles. And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever. And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.” Chap. 15:5–8. As the plagues are all in the future, and are to be fulfilled in the great day of wrath, in which “he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land,” (see Zeph. 1:14–18; 8:6–8,) there is no reason to expect that they will be otherwise than literally fulfilled. The first is “a noisome and grievous sore upon the men that had the mark of the beast.” Rev. 16:2. This is like the plague of the boils upon the Egyptians in the days of Moses. Ex. 9:8–11. The second and the third vials turn the waters of the earth to blood. Verses 3, 4. One of the plagues of Egypt was that their waters were turned to blood. Ex. 7:17–20. These judgments are terrible, but just. The throne of God remains pure and unstained. “And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus; For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy. And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.” Verses 5–7. It may be asked, Will the last generation of men actually shed the blood of saints and prophets? Are not the people of God to be delivered from the last persecution, every one that is found written in the book, and translated to Heaven without death? How then can these be charged with the blood of saints and prophets? The answer is, that, with all the light of the past, they indorse the deeds of all previous persecutors by decreeing the death of the saints. The Jews who persecuted Jesus and his disciples, in the face of the light of the history of the past, assumed the blood of all the martyrs, from that of Abel to their own time. Matt. 24:34–36. So when we come to the time of great Babylon’s destruction, in her is found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of ALL that were slain upon the earth. Rev. 18:24. The effect of the fourth vial is, that the sun scorches men with great heat. The same thing is inferred from Joel’s prophecy of the day of the Lord, where the fire is represented as burning up the pastures. See Joel 1:15–20. The fifth causes darkness, which was also one of the plagues of Egypt. Ex. 10:21–23. And here is evidence that those expositors who make these plagues symbolical, covering centuries of time, are mistaken; for when the fifth is poured out, men are still suffering from the sores produced by the first. Verses 10, 11. The sixth vial dries up the great river Euphrates—a symbolical river, the Turkish empire, chap. 9:14—and hence is a real and destructive plague upon men; whereas the drying up of one literal river, like the Euphrates, would not be so very disastrous. But the consumption of the Turkish empire prepares the way for the gathering to the battle of the great day of God Almighty, so abundantly predicted in the126 prophets. At that time the unclean spirits that are now deceiving men will have gained a controlling power over the kingdoms of the earth, classed under the three great divisions of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, the last of which is the two-horned beast (compare Rev. 13:13, 14, with chap. 19:20), and will be the instrumentality which God will use in gathering them to the battle. The last plague and the second advent are now imminent; for he says, “Behold, I come as a thief.” Then comes the last plague, universal as the air which envelops the earth, and terrible beyond description. So much needs to be said concerning it, that I defer it to the next number. Double-Minded.
By John Nevins Andrews
“A DOUBLE-MINDED man,” says James, “is unstable in all his ways.” James 1:8. He has two minds. One mind desires this world; the other desires the next. One mind seeks the approval of God; the other the favor of men. Sometimes one mind controls; sometimes the other. Under the influence of the better mind, the man takes steps heavenward. But the other mind still living, and only held in check for a little time, on the first occasion that gives it the advantage, asserts the lead, and all the ground that was gained in the direction of Heaven is lost. Sometimes both these minds act with so nearly an evenly-balanced force that the man is neither the one thing nor the other. Men with singleness of purpose are sure to succeed. The double-minded man is certain to make an utter failure. Lot and his wife are proper examples of these two classes. Both believed the warning; both desired to escape the coming destruction. They had great possessions, as we may judge from Gen. 13. They were agreed in leaving all, to flee for life. Both started out of Sodom, and for a space journeyed over the plain. But now the difference between them reveals itself. Lot had only one mind. Sodom had no hold on him. He must reach Zoar. Not so his wife. She had strong attractions toward Sodom, as well as strong desires to make her way to Zoar. She was simply double-minded. She followed one mind as long as she could. Then the other mind asserted its claims. She looked back toward Sodom and in a moment became a pillar of salt. But not even this terrible calamity could cause righteous Lot to turn his face from Zoar. Lot and his wife determined their cases before ever they left Sodom. It was this difference in religious experience which made itself so conspicuous on that eventful day. Reader, which one of these are you like? Have you the single mind of Lot, or the double mind of his wife? J. N. A. Bearing the Yoke in Youth.
By John Nevins Andrews
“It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.” Lam. 3:27. Such was the judgment of the prophet Jeremiah. It is particularly worthy of our acceptance. 1. Because he had himself borne the yoke from youth. Jer. 1. He knew whereof he spoke. 2. He had seen some neglect this till advanced life, and then with the utmost difficulty put on the yoke. He had seen some fail in the attempt. He had also observed the alarming fact that very few of those who reach mature life without putting on the yoke, do then even make a serious effort to bow their necks to it. 3. Besides his own experience and observation he was divinely inspired in judgment. It is not, therefore, the mere opinion of a wise and excellent man, but the voice of God's Spirit speaking to us. Bearing the yoke is submitting to the service of God and yielding to his control. In early life this can be done with comparative ease. But the longer we live in sin, the more difficult it becomes to submit to God. Our necks become stiff, our spirits become stubborn, our minds become darkened, our judgment perverted, and we cannot yield to God. It is a difficult thing for an old sinner to put on the yoke of Christ. And there is the utmost danger that such persons will chafe at the yoke after they have put it on. They are slow to see that the fault is not in the yoke, but in the stiff neck and obdurate heart of the wearer. It is a good thing to wear the yoke in youth; it is almost certain to prove a fatal error to neglect this till mature years, or advanced life. J. N. A. Religious Gambling.
By Jos. Clarke
[The following scathing rebuke given by the New York Tribune, might be published as evidence of the moral fall which has happened to the nominal churches as a class, and might be read by all, as an index of the feelings of sober, thinking men, who make no profession of religion. How are the mighty fallen? Jos. Clarke.] We had occasion the other day to question the expediency of ministers of the gospel lending their authority to promote the sale of nostrums or inventions, with the merits of which they necessarily must be but slightly acquainted. Sewing machines or quack medicines had better be left to push their own way in the market unheralded by any odor of sanctity or devotional horn-blowing, although, as we before remarked, this clerical indorsement is most frequently given out of mere careless good nature, or as the only practicable return for a personal gift. But there are modes of money-getting less legitimate than the vending of patents or pills which it has become so common for clergymen, both Protestant and Catholic, not only to sanction, but begin, that they have grown to be regarded by the public as an essential part of church machinery. We mean the lotteries and raffles, which are usually set like spring-guns and pitfalls for the entrapment of the unwary victim who stumbles into that abyss of horrors, a church fair. The matter is ordinarily passed over with a good-humored joke. Nobody denies that in principle they are a petty imitation of the lotteries repressed in most of the States by law, against which, as against any species of gambling, the pulpit regularly fulminates its denunciation. But then the imitation is so very petty, and the motive assigned so very good! The church debt must be paid, or the missionary sent, or the hospital kept up, so people only laugh patiently at the importunate ladies, especially if they are pretty and young, with their wearisome grab-bags and numbered tickets for cakes and slippers. Lately, however, the matter has grown more serious, and has been thrust into unpleasant prominence. One church advertises a complete scheme of graduated prizes, from a house to a gold finger-ring. Another religious society in West Virginia has canvassed all the Eastern cities with a proposed lottery for the disposal of a hundred acres of valuable land; and at a respectable church fair in the city of Brotherly Love, the other day, the unbrotherly capabilities of the crowd were developed by the lottery to the extent of some broken heads and a free fight, which the voice of the Rev. Mr. ———, we are told, though raised to a shout, was totally unable to quell. That of the policeman proved more efficacious, we presume, as the whole party were marched off in his custody. It is with diffidence that the secular press should touch upon any flaws in the management or executive functions of the churches. Not that the individual members of religious bodies are not human, and in need of sharp and wholesome discipline. But believing as we do that the future health of the nation depends largely upon the religious element contained in the different sects, we are cautious in even seeming to join in the now popular outcry against them, which would stigmatize all orthodox Christians as bigots, and every clergyman as a Cream Cheese or a Chadband. It is only when an inconsistency in church management becomes so glaring as to be known of all men as a public evil, that we feel justified in calling the attention of religious teachers to it. When the policeman is called in, it is high time the pastor should be wakened and set to his work. The matter may seem trivial. Nothing is trivial by which Christianity is brought into disrepute. We are aware that the introduction of gambling in greater or less degree into the business transactions of a church does not originate ordinarily with the clergyman, but with the shrewd business men and women to whose care its financial operations are intrusted, and whose zeal will often induce them to make use of means to gain money for the sake of the church, which neither their honor nor dignity would allow them to use for their own. When once the attention of clergymen is called to this matter, they will, we are confident, repress the short-sighted energy of their flock. Religion is too vital a matter, even to the political world, for us willingly to see her wounded in the house of her friends. “Walk while ye Have the Light.”
By Mary Martin
“THEN Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you; for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.” John 12: 35: “A little while,” and each fleeting moment makes the time less. God in infinite mercy sends us the light. It may be in answer to prayer; but when it comes, oh! how thick the crosses lie all along the way. Our few feeble efforts seem thwarted on every hand; and the lions appear but just ahead. How can we go farther? “Walk while ye have the light.” If we ever hear the call to the marriage supper of the Lamb, we must listen to the call to share in the suffering part now. How little do we know of true self-sacrifice! how very little of suffering for Christ! Each moment’s delay in performing known duty increases the danger. “Lest darkness come upon you.” If we spend our precious time in trying to climb up to Heaven “some other way,” darkness will surely come, and the siren song of “peace and safety” may disarm us of all our fears; for, he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.” Is it possible? Have we worn the outward garb of religion and been counted followers of Jesus, and yet are in danger of hearing at last those awful words, “Depart, I never knew you”? Shall we, because the light from Heaven instead of falling on a way strewn with flowers, falls on burning sand, ragged rocks, or cruel thorns, go away grieved, and so pass by on the other side? If we do, darkness will come, and not knowing whither we are going, we may think we are safe in the road to the heavenly city, when our feet are fast tending the other way. Oh! fatal delusion. Who may know the anguish of such a one, when he learns that he has forfeited a right to the tree of life, a crown of gold, a home in the city of God, and is never to hear that music no earthly strains can imitate, nor ever to see those precious forms that “sleep in Jesus,” nor from his eyes to have all tears wiped away? And all this because somebody else does not do right, or it takes too much of an effort, or, somebody will ridicule, or, we shall lose a few moments of earthly happiness, that it seems we may just as well enjoy. Can we do this? Can we sell our title to eternal life so cheap? Where is our realizing sense of the toil, and sorrow, and anguish, of that sinless One, suffering till the great drops of blood came oozing from every pore, and then suffering for us that cruel death we shudder to think of. Oh! for a deeper heart-work, a more thorough consecration of our entire being to God. Then let the crosses come, close up by our Saviour’s wounded side will we keep now, and we can easily bear them. If they seem heavy, let us carefully examine and see if it is not because we are so great a distance from the burden-bearer. Then hasten on, lest darkness come upon us, “for yet a little while and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry.” How comforting the thought! The eyes heavy with unshed tears beam brighter, and the aching heart feels less sad, as the quivering lips repeat over and over again, a little while, only a little while. Spring and summer, autumn and winter, passing in rapid succession, make that little while still less. Soon he will be here, and shall we be ready? If we are as interested for ourselves as God and angels are for us, we shall not be found without the wedding garment. Let us ever walk in the path of duty, however humiliating it may be, working out our own salvation with fear and trembling. MARY MARTIN.
Blakeville, N. H. Meetings in Michigan.
By Joseph Bates
SABBATH, Feb. 26, held interesting meetings with the church in Wright. The 27th, Bro. Root's team took me to Blendon, where, on the 27th and 28th, I held four meetings in two districts. The brethren were much encouraged to go forward and overcome. March 1 and 2, held four meetings with the church in Allendale. This church had been laboring under some discouragements. Bro. E. H. Root, S. A. McPherson, and J. L. Edgar, from Wright, met with us. The Lord blessed their labors, and strengthened the discouraged ones to press onward in the message. March 3, I visited Cooperville, where there are four families of Sabbath-keepers. March 4, Bro. McPherson took me to Casnovia, some eleven miles. Here, with the church, and ten teams loaded with brethren and sisters from Wright, we held seven meetings and celebrated the ordinances of the Lord's house. The Lord blessed and strengthened his people. Bless his holy name! Monday, the 7th inst., Bro. Higley gave me a pleasant sleigh ride of twenty-four miles, to Grand Rapids. From March 8 to 21, had the pleasure of attending a series of important meetings with the church in Battle Creek, with tried friends of the cause from the wide127 harvest field; following which, came the Anniversary Week, in which were held the yearly meetings of the S. D. Adventists, such as the General and Michigan State Conferences, Publishing Association, Health Reform Institute, and Missionary Society. The business sessions and deliberations in these meetings were harmonious and pleasant. A good spirit and influence pervaded them all, as has been justly stated in the report given in REVIEW, of March 22. Monterey, Mich., March 26, 1870. Plenty of Room in the Heavenly City.
By JOHN MATTESON
It has been strongly objected by some that our literal view of the New Jerusalem makes too small a space for the myriads of saints which no man could number, and that the infants alone would cover the city three feet deep. The best answer to this, I think, is a few plain figures. The measure given of the city is 12,000 furlongs. Rev. 21. This, according to ancient manner of measuring, makes 375 miles to each side, which gives an area of 140,625 square miles, about the size of Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana; 1 square mile contains 27,878,400 square feet, which, multiplied by 140,625, equals 3,920,400,000,000 of square feet in the heavenly city. The present number of inhabitants in the world, small and great, is about 1,000,000,000. Twenty generations to Abraham, and forty-two from Abraham to Christ, make sixty-two generations. Fifty-eight generations since Christ make in all one hundred and twenty generations. To average half of the number of the present generation to every generation since Adam, would certainly be a high estimate. Then we have one hundred and twenty generations multiplied by 500,000,000, the number of inhabitants, making 60,000,000,000 of inhabitants in this world since Adam. Now divide this into the number of square feet of the city, and it gives 65⅓ square feet to every man, woman, and child, that ever lived upon this earth. But if you should say these figures are too small, and you would want to double the number of people, which you certainly must admit is much too large an estimate, yet it would leave over thirty-two square feet to every one in the first story of the city, to say nothing of the glorious hight of the city, which is in equal proportion to its immense length and breadth. This proves the city, if need be, even large enough for Universalist views. But if we take the Bible view, that by far the smaller number of mankind will be saved, and that a host of wicked people, “the number of whom is as the sand of the sea,” are devoured by fire outside of the city, Rev. 20: 9, in the day when the Lord says that all the proud and all that do wickedly shall be burned up and be ashes under the feet of the righteous, Mal. 4: 1–3, then there is, indeed, abundance of room in the mansions of glory, where Jesus is now preparing a place for them that love him. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth. DIED, in Sylvan, Mich., Feb. 25, 1870, of inflammation of the lungs, and acute bronchitis, Frances Elias, wife of John Faulkner, and daughter of Ransford and Elizabeth Stevenson, aged 25 years. E. STEVENSON. DIED, in Rose, Oakland Co., Mich., Jan. 5, 1870, my brother, Francis E. Conklin, in his 24th year. He took a severe cold on his lungs in March, 1869, and consumption took a fast hold, which terminated in death. He died in hope of a part in the first resurrection, then to meet a mother and five sisters that have fallen under the same disease within the past ten years. POLLY CONKLIN. DIED, in Vienna, Dane Co., Wis., March 23, 1870, Charles Paul, in the 27th year of his age. Remarks at the funeral were made from Rev. 21 : 4. N. M. JORDON.