To ME the following article was most interesting, and it strengthened my faith in the Bible. I think it will do others good. It is from a magazine, “The Holy Land,” Chicago, Ill. D. M. CANRIGHT.
In making an exploration of the Holy Land, there is nothing that so interests the Christian traveler, as to observe the abounding light that the country of the Bible sheds upon the Bible itself. Viewed from this standpoint, Palestine is a great “Chamber of Imagery,” in which every object may be used as a key to interpret Scripture. Every tree that grows there; every flower that colors hillside or plain; every bird that attunes the morning echoes; every star that glitters from heaven to suggest the glory beyond; every fountain whose water revives the thirsty traveler—everything has a voice to explain this volume, and open hidden allusions, making “dark things light, and crooked things straight.” “Verily,” cries aloud the enthusiastic traveler when he first realizes this great fact, “Verily the God of the Land is the God of the Book. He has preserved the Land, that our faith may be thoroughly confirmed in the Book.”
To make this matter available to the Christian student, a few of these remarkable evidences are brought forward as witnesses upon the stand.
I. The birds of the Holy Land are tuneful witnesses to many of the statements of the biblical narrative. Still the stork “knoweth the appointed time of her coming; the eagle mounteth up in the clear, blue sky; the sparrow “chatters” upon the housetop, and is sold, “five for a farthing;” the young ravens cry aloud to God for their food; the fowls of the air that “sow not, neither reap, nor gather into barns,” are fed by our Heavenly Father. Other references, under this head, might be greatly multiplied.
II. The clothing of the people in the Holy Land is still of the same fashions worn in distant times. Customs of dress, so whimsical and eccentric in our country, are as settled in the orient as the eternal hills—they never change. And so the girdle of Judah, the sandals of the Gibeonites, the mantle of Elijah, the turban of Daniel, the cloak of Paul, and the seamless robe of Jesus, may all be met with any day, in the streets of Jerusalem—witnesses to the marvelous accuracy of the word.
III. The climate of the Holy Land sufficiently confirms the statements of the Holy Page. When “the south wind blows,” there is heat (Luke 12:55); when a cloud arises in the west, there is rain (Luke 12:54). The oriental year is still divided into seasons, by the fall of the early and the late rains; and any marked deficiency in the rainfalls of a season, is still followed by terrible droughts, accompanied by famine, disease, and death.
IV. The diseases of the Holy Land are of the same types as those that existed in scriptural days, and so bear witness to scriptural truth. Around the Sea of Galilee, fever abounds, such as prostrated the little daughter of Jairus, and the mother-in-law of Peter. At Bethany sudden and fatal diseases are experienced, like that which overcame Lazarus, whom “Jesus loved.” Sunstrokes are common upon the plains, as when the son of the Shunamite woman fell under its influence. Leprosy, in its utmost loathsomeness, is as prevalent as when Moses made it a type of mortal sin, and Jesus Christ of his power to heal. Blindness is fearfully frequent. In the town of Lydda, one-third the inhabitants are blind. And the blind still sit by the wayside begging, clamoring for aid in those pitiable notes that moved the pitying heart of their Lord.
V. The domestic life of the inhabitants of Palestine, as it was so vividly depicted by the Bible writers, has remained substantially unchanged for forty centuries, and so bears its part of Bible testimony. In the sultry hour of noon, the people still sit under “their own vine and fig tree,” and sleep at night in booths upon the house tops. The bread they eat is still that “daily bread” for which Jesus taught us to pray—thin, small loaves, five making a meal, baked once a day and always eaten fresh. New wine is still kept in new bottles, and so “both are preserved.” People recline at the table while eating, as they did at the Last Supper of Jesus. The sound of the grinding is still heard through the quiet night, the millstones small and always turned by women, as in the olden time. The salt used is still of that sort that easily loses its savor and cannot be salted again. The virgins at the weddings still go forth by night, with lighted lamps to meet the bridegroom. And the dead, at the funerals, are still carried without a coffin, upon an open bier, amid the death songs of the minstrels and the lamentations of the mourning women.
VI. The farmers of the Holy Land still use the tools of labor, and practice the systems of husbandry, to which so many references are made upon the Sacred Page. Traveling there, we see Cain a “tiller of the earth,” and Elisha, “plowing with a yoke of oxen.” Whenever the ravages of war are intermitted for a season, the ground yields with its ancient abundance. Then “the mountains drop down sweet wine,” as in the poetical figures of Joel, and “the hills flow with milk.” The olive-tree still “sucks its oil from the flinty rock,” and the honey-bee stores up her luscious treasures in “the hollow rock.”
Then the glowing words of Josephus are literally verified. Then the descriptions of Moses become again true, wherein he describes old Canaan as “a land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig-trees and pomegranates; a land of oil, olive, and honey; a land in which the inhabitants eat bread without scarceness; there is no lack of anything in it.”
“The sower going forth to sow,” still scatters a portion of his seed among “the thorns,” and a portion upon “the rocks,” and a portion “by the wayside,” where the “fowls of the air come and devour it up.” And still that which falls upon good ground “brings forth, some thirty, some sixty, some an hundred-fold.”
VII. The geography of the Holy Land is a solemn witness that He who created the country inspired the Book. The traveler cannot fail to experience the sensation that he is standing upon “the old ways,” the ways of God. All the sacred places are there, there just where they should be, to answer the requirements of the Holy Narrative. There is Bethlehem, you can almost fancy you see the Eastern Star pointing to it, the birth-place of Jesus. And there are Bethany, Bethel, Jericho, Jerusalem, Joppa, Shiloh, Shechem, Samaria, Nain, Nazareth, Tiberias, Capernaum, Dan, Damascus, Gibal, Sidon, Sarepta, Tyre, Acre, Cesarea, Gaza, Beersheba, Hebron. Looking more closely we find Gethsemane, where Jesus was betrayed, and Aceldama, bought with the price of that treason; Siloam and Gihon. All the memorable localities may be found, affecting our minds like well-remembered features upon the countenances of the well beloved.
The fountains are there that used to slake the thirst of prophets, priests, and kings; that of Elisha, near Jericho; and of David, near Hebron; and of Joab, at Gibeon; the wells at Bethlehem and Shechem, and many others from which the traveler rejoices to drink and be refreshed.
The mountains, stern and awful in their sublimity, stand as monuments of God’s truth. Nebo, whence Moses gathered his last view before he went up to the heavenly hills; Hermon, glittering with his diadem of unmelted snows; Carmel, looking westward over the broad, blue sea; Tabor, Gilboa, Ebal, Gerizim, glorious summits that afforded God’s prophets their best images of his grandeur and majesty; all are there, faithful to their trust, speaking witnesses to Bible truth, as they will be to the end of time.
VIII. The heavens of the Holy Land still “declare the glory of God,” as when they inspired the soul of the psalmist. In that “blue, ethereal sky,” “the Seven Stars and Orion” still wheel and glitter as in the times of Amos; “Arcturus and the chambers of the South,” as in the times of Job. The promise of “a countless seed” to Abraham, is sublimely illustrated by a view of that oriental sky, crowded and dotted and powdered with stars.
IX. The houses of the people in the Holy Land bear their witness to the accuracy of the ancient text. Everything about them—the “foundation upon a rock,” the roof, movable as in the miracle of the paralytic man—“the guest-chamber upon the wall, as in the narrative of Elisha—the “Court”—the “lattice”—the “needle’s eye,” that the loaded camel cannot pass—everything illustrates the biblical account so vividly that when we enter one of those houses we almost look for the Samuel, the David, the Isaiah, the Peter, who once occupied such dwellings.
X. And even the insects of the Holy Land still bear a part as witnesses to the divine truth. The scorpion explains the parental figure of Jesus, as well as the terrible image of John. The locust in his year of visitation, still devastates the country as in the time of Joel; before them, the “land is as the garden of Eden, behind them is a desolate wilderness.”
XI. Nature, who works everywhere with unvarying laws, has her story to tell upon this subject. Still her “lily of the field” is arrayed in a splendor that the glory of King Solomon could in nowise rival. Still her serpent is an emblem of wisdom, her ant of industry, her dove of innocency. Still her grain of mustard seed in her quick climate and congenial soil, becomes so great a tree that “the fowls of the air lodge in the branches of it.” Still the husks, such as the prodigal son did eat, hang profusely upon the carob-tree, affording a rich food for swine; the tares grow among the wheat; the stone, easily pulverized, covers the traveler’s feet with dust, as it did the feet of Jesus and his followers; earthquakes still afflict the land, sometimes, as in January, 1837, producing calamities as frightful as that in “the days of Uzziah, king of Judah;” sometimes less severe, as those of the crucifixion and resurrection of nature’s Lord. But nothing less than a volume suffices for a theme like this.
XII. The seas of the Holy Land boom forth their chapter of our great story, with mighty voices. The Dead Sea lies awful in its silver basin, a tell-tale of Jehovah’s anger. The Sea of Galilee is subject to sudden storms of wind such as terrified the timid fishermen. Off the coast of Joppa, the Lord still sends “great winds.” Then the “mighty tempests” arise as in the flight of Jonah and the poetry of David.
XIII. The shepherd still watches his flock by night, as on the birth-night of the Son of Man. Still he goes before them; and calls them by name; and they know his voice; and they follow him; and “he maketh them to lie down in green pastures, and leadeth them beside the still waters,” all as in those affecting passages which our children have by heart.
XIV. The state of society has preserved unnumbered testimonies to Bible truth. We touch only upon a few. Laborers still “stand in the market-place,” waiting to be hired; and their wages are paid them at the close of each day as Moses enjoined, and as Jesus described in his beautiful parable. Merchants and traders still use the balances of deceit, wicked balances, “a bag of deceitful weights, and scanty measure,” as charged against them by the prophet Micah; hatred and malice still abound as in the time of the Maccabees, when “the wolf had no fellowship with the lamb, nor the hyena with the dog, neither the rich with the poor.”
XV. The very ruins into which opulent and popular cities have fallen, when we dig into them and explore them carefully, yield sure testimonies to the verity of the Bible. In their stony bosoms are the very objects needed to make our case complete; the penny still bearing “the image and superscription of Caesar,” the mites, two to the farthing, such as “a certain poor widow” cast into the Temple Treasury, and “the piece of silver,” such as that which Peter found in the mouth of the fish, and Judas Iscariot received as the price of treason.
XVI. And finally the trees of the Holy Land still “clap their hands,” overjoyed at the privilege of coming into the witness box, when the truth of God is in peril. Upon great Lebanon the cedar rears his lofty top as in the reign of Solomon; upon the slopes of Olivet, the olive tree bends under its weight of fatness, and justifies the ancient title of the mountain; along the sea-coast the palm tree, most graceful of trees, stands, a beautiful shaft, the psalmist’s best emblem of an upright man; and far and near, from Dan to Beersheba, “the fig tree, while his branch is yet tender, sends forth his leaves,” precisely as it did when the divine finger pointed it out as the subject of an inimitable moral, so many centuries ago.
And so, for volumes, this subject may be expanded. But enough has been advanced to prove that every fact, gathered in the Holy Land, is a living monitor, a sure witness, having a tongue of its own to tell God’s truth with fullness, greatness, energy, and a great blaze of light. To read the Holy Bible in the Holy Land is, to the pious believer, a treat worth whole years of ordinary experience.
SUBMISSION
I would not have the restless will
That hurries to and fro,
Seeking for some great thing to do,
Or wondrous thing to know;
I would be guided as a child,
And led where'er I go.
I ask Thee for the daily strength,
To none that ask denied,
A mind to blend with outward life,
While keeping at thy side;
Content to fill a little space
If thou be glorified.
Moon's Light and the Christian's Standing
By Jos. Clarke
Items.
THE moon has always that part of her surface enlightened which is next the sun; consequently, one-half her surface is always enlightened; but she appears to us, at times, almost all light; at other times, almost all dark. We say she is now new, or now full. She seems to increase, then decrease, because of her position at such times; showing to us only a part of her light side, or at other times all her light side. So of Christians. We may not always judge of their standing before God; perhaps we do not see all as God sees. We must wait. If the Christian seems to wane, it may be only a seeming. If we could see all sides, we might sometimes come to more correct conclusions.
Children of wealthy parents, who never know want of food or raiment, who have all comforts and conveniences, and many luxuries at command, can never realize what toil, and self-denial, and care, their ancestors have experienced, to build up a fortune and a home; but they think it all a matter of course; and often wonder that others do not possess the same. Such children need to go through privation, poverty, and hardship, in order to remind them of what has been endured by the parents, for their sakes. So of the plan of redemption. It might perhaps have been made so as to free man from much labor and self-denial; but God would have his ransomed people appreciate the amazing price paid for their redemption. The love, the infinite love, and agony of grief and pain; the long ages of care and watchfulness, and labor, Heaven has bestowed upon man; all, man can never know; but he must have some idea of this, or he would lightly regard the work of redemption.
In this age of selfishness and self-love, it is unusual for any to esteem others more than self. Self-esteem is written upon almost every countenance. How few bow to the man of years. How few respect age. In fact, how few of the aged dare to expose themselves to the jostling of the crowd. They must have an attendant, on the walk, and in the car, lest they receive injury or insult. Almost every countenance seems to say, in a greater or less degree, “Give place.”
This feeling tinctures the whole fabric and frame-work of society. Humility and real, disinterested love are rare. “Cheat your friends, your enemies will not let you,” is a maxim often quoted, and oftener practiced. Regard for kindred and friends is weak; death of associate and relative is taken coolly, and soon forgotten; and few have plans of good for others unmixed with self-interest. But, thank God, true love exists in Heaven, and can be awakened in human hearts. The love of God will be in all who enter Heaven. The more we have of this, the better and clearer our evidence of acceptance at the court of Heaven.
We are generally most pleased with those principles which do not carry reproof to our own hearts.
He who has many talents to improve, must be on the alert, or some will be neglected. The Christian must be a live, wide-awake man. JOS. CLARKE.
Motives to Holiness.
A man who has been redeemed by the blood of the Son of God should be pure. He who is an heir of life, should be holy. He who is attended by celestial beings, and who is soon—he knows not how soon—to be translated to Heaven, should be holy. Are angels my attendants? Then I should walk worthy of their companionship. Am I soon to go and dwell with angels? Then I should be pure. Are these feet soon to tread the court of Heaven? Is this tongue soon to unite with heavenly beings in praising God? Are these eyes of mine soon to look on the throne of eternal glory, and on the ascended Redeemer? Then these feet, and eyes, and lips, should be pure and holy; and I should be dead to the world and live for Heaven.
The Spirit of Slavery.
By Uriah Smith
Slavery is for the present made illegal in this country. This result has been brought about by the force of circumstances rather than by any change of disposition on the part of those who were the former upholders of the system. Should the legal impediments in the way of that system be removed, how long before the shackles would again be riveted with tenfold firmness on the limbs of the slave? The disposition is not eradicated; the opportunity only is wanting; and that when the opportunity shall offer, the system with all its barbarities will be speedily revived, is shown by the readiness with which what is innocently called the Coolie trade, is transformed virtually into slave traffic. The following from the Boston Journal is the too evident testimony upon this point:—
“THE NEW SLAVE TRADE.—The dealing in coolies, which has never yet been properly exposed in all its horrors, is likely to have disastrous effect upon European and American interests in China. The atrocities on board the African slavers were not so great as those reported recently, said to have occurred on the transit from European ports in China to the western coast of South America. The demand in Peru for coolies is very great, and they are not ill-treated there, being set at work upon the simplest processes of agriculture; but the transport agents abuse them beyond measure. They are seduced into emigrating by extravagant promises, and, as they are ignorant and miserably poor, they go in swarms. Once on board ship, they are fastened under hatches, like criminals, and guarded night and day. During the long voyages the suffering becomes intolerable, and the cases of “mutiny,” so called, which have occurred latterly, show that the misery of the transport drove even the patientest race in the world to violent measures. By the time the coolies arrive in Peru they are thoroughly brutalized, and they remain apart from the Peruvian populations, sullen, defiant, meditating outbreak.
The complaints of the Portuguese Consul General at Lima concerning the coolie influx arrived so frequently at the office of the Portuguese Governor in Macao, whence most of the coolies were shipped, that the latter has finally issued an order suspending for the present the transport. The English Minister at Lima was instructed to approve this course of the Portuguese Government, and to hint that England considered the transportation, as it had heretofore been carried on, nothing but a disguised slave trade. The decree of the Governor Macao was hastened by the terrible accident to a coolie transporting vessel in May, when six hundred of the wretched creatures were burned to death, the captain and crew deserting them and leaving the hatches closed when it was known that the ship was on fire and could not last three hours. The English demand that the exporting of coolies be completely stopped, because such abuses as it engenders encourage a state of feeling in China which will, sooner or later, endanger the lives of foreign residents. We have the same considerations, and should be especially careful that no abuse at sea or on land can be registered against us so long as we permit the importation of Chinese labor.” U. S.
LATTER-DAY SCOURGES
By Uriah Smith
Items.
LATTER-DAY SCOURGES.
Accounts just received from Persia state that a famine of unparalleled severity is now desolating that land. Thousands of people have already died of starvation, and in places where every other vestige of food has been consumed, men have been driven to eat their own offspring. “Such scenes of misery,” says the account, “have never been witnessed elsewhere in modern times.”
A short crop the present year adds to the accumulating horrors. All the inhabitants of Faruz have been obliged to leave and seek refuge in other quarters. Selling their children failed to gain them sustenance. In Cairman the government has seized all the grain for taxes. Ten or twelve are dying there per day. At Zezd fifty per day die of starvation. At Ispahan shops are opened for selling camels’, asses’, dogs’ and cats’ flesh, and seventy or eighty die daily. The people go about trying to sell their children. At Khorassan about 18,000 men have been swept off through hunger and disease. In some parts men have begun to eat grass and vegetables like cattle in the fields, and are plagued with a foot-sore of which they die after lingering a few days.
It will be remembered that in some parts of India famine was quite severe last year. Can it be that this scourge is traveling westward, and that we are soon to hear of its ravages on the soil of Europe?
Newburyport is said to be in danger of pestilence from the number of menhaden (a species of fish) dying at the mouth of the Merrimac.
A telegram from London, dated Aug. 14, says that a dreadful calamity has visited the small island of Tagolanda, in the Malay Archipelago about fifty miles north-east of the island of Celebes. An outburst of the Volcano of Ruwang accompanied by a convulsion of the sea, and a wave forty yards in height, swept all the human beings, cattle, and horses, from the island. The number of persons who perished was four hundred and sixteen.
On Thursday of last week a great cloud of locusts was swept from the sea, falling on Plum Island, off Newburyport, Mass., literally covering the ground. They might have been raked up by bushels. This is a new experience for this section.
A GOOD MOVE AMONG THE MORMONS.
A certain Mrs. Hawkins of Utah, overcome with shame and remorse at her position as one among twenty or thirty Mrs. Hawkinses, has brought an action against her husband to have him taken and held for adultery. As there is no law which recognizes polygamy, the charge will doubtless stand. Quite a sensation is created by this movement, and several of the Mormon dignitaries are said to be trembling in view of similar contingencies. Any movement will be hailed with pleasure by all who understand the evils of that ism which tends to stir up its nest of iniquity. Thousands, it is thought, will avail themselves of this method of seeking release from that degrading system.
KEEPING IT BEFORE THE PEOPLE.
The disposition to keep the Sabbath before the people is seen in the following item. A sentence is chosen for a memorial inscription in Plymouth Harbor, setting forth the practice of the Pilgrims respecting the Sabbath. This will be a continual reminder to the people, at least in that vicinity, of the early introduction of what is called the Christian or American Sabbath into this country, and tend to arouse all their feelings of patriotism in its behalf. “Straws show,” &c.
“THE PILGRIM MEMORIAL. Acting upon the suggestion of Hon. R. C. Winthrop, in his address at Plymouth last December, it has been decided to place the following inscription on the great rock on Clark’s island in Plymouth Harbor, near the small burial inclosure:
“ON THE
SABBOTH DAY.
WEE RESTED.”
20 December,
1620.
“The revenue cutter Mahoning conveyed to the spot Wednesday, Mr. Winthrop, Hon. E. S. Tobey and others, who, after viewing the situation, selected for the place of the inscription the face of the rock looking to the sea, under the shadow of which the Pilgrims who landed there probably conducted their first devotions, sheltered from the northerly winds.” U. S.
Meetings in New Hampshire.
By Uriah Smith
BRO. ANDREWS being called away from Boston for a time by the New York Camp-meeting, I availed myself of the opportunity (not being able to prosecute the work on the History of the Sabbath to advantage in his absence) to fulfill some long-standing engagements with my friends in my native place, West Wilton, N. H., and vicinity.
Sabbath, Aug. 12, met with the few in New Ipswich who are trying understandingly to keep God’s whole law. It is cheering to meet with those who, in these days when the masses are either indifferent to religious matters, or are openly hostile to the truths of God’s word, have boldly taken their stand upon the right, and express their faith with all the assurance of knowledge. Spoke once on first-day to some from without who came in to hear.
Sabbath, Aug. 19, spoke twice to the little company of commandment-keepers in Blakeville. Some of this church are unable to go abroad to meeting, and hence highly appreciate the visits of any who come to labor with them. They all seemed to be cheered and encouraged by the meetings.
Sunday, the 20th, presented the Sabbath question to the people of Wilton. A word as to the occasion of this meeting may be necessary. The lectures of Bro. Rodman in West Wilton, last spring, excited quite a spirit of inquiry among the people on the Sabbath question; and honest inquiry will be satisfied with nothing short of the truth, if the truth is to be had. With the probable object of quieting the spirit of investigation, a discourse was preached against the Sabbath, which was not altogether satisfactory to those who had acquainted themselves somewhat with the reasons upon which the sabbatic institution rests. This, therefore, tended to increase, rather than allay, the excitement; and this was still further increased by the position taken, under the pressure of argument, by some of the most prominent members of the Baptist church. Failing to find any scriptural sanction for the first day of the week, they placed it upon a basis of expediency rather than upon any divine command, and so were driven by the inexorable law of sequence to acknowledge that hunting and fishing were recreations not particularly sinful upon that day. This was rather loose and strange ground for many who had always heretofore been taught that any infraction of Sunday sacredness was a crime committed direct against the requirements of Heaven.
Under these circumstances, I was requested by some who were interested, to speak upon the subject; and ascertaining that the Unitarian house in Wilton Center could be had for the purpose, an appointment for the 20th at 1 P. M. was sent in and announced the Sunday previous. On the day in question, the Baptists very kindly arranged their exercises so that their members could have an opportunity of listening to the Sabbath discourse in the afternoon. Both the Unitarian and Baptist congregations were therefore present, to the number, as was estimated, of four hundred or more. In the Unitarian house a discourse was given in the forenoon in behalf of the first day of the week, so that both theories were brought side by side before the people. Two Unitarian ministers, and the Baptist minister, were present in the afternoon.
Those who are acquainted with the Sabbath question understand the difficulty of bringing out all of even the more essential points of the evidence in one discourse. I presented all that I was able in an hour and a half, endeavoring to make some strong points in the following line of argument: 1. That the Sabbath is confined to a definite day, not merely to a seventh part of the time; as is proved by the wording of the fourth commandment, and the setting apart of the day in Eden. 2. That the Sabbath was instituted before the fall. 3. That a law was there given for its observance. 4. That it is the great memorial which God has given us of himself. 5. That it was a moral law, like the others amid which it was placed. 6. That since the crucifixion of Christ, one of three things is true; namely, that the Sabbath has been changed, or it has been abolished, or the original institution still exists. 7. That the grounds on which a change is claimed are wholly assumed and fallacious. 8. That the disciples did not meet on the day of Christ’s resurrection to celebrate that event, for they did not believe it had taken place. 9. That the apostles made the first day a secular day, as is proved by Acts 20:7, and onward, and 1 Cor. 16:2. 10. That the Sabbath has not been abolished; for all that was abolished was the typical and ceremonial law; as is proved by Col. 2:14-16. 11. That those who apply Col. 2:14-16 to the weekly Sabbath, should banish even the semblance of such an institution from their religious system, and never contend for it on the ground of expediency; for what the apostle Paul declares to be against us, no believer in Paul can consistently claim to be either a moral or physical necessity. 12. That the original institution still exists; for the law as a whole has come into this dispensation unrepealed and unchanged; as is proved by Matt. 5:17-20, and Rom. 3:31, and the apostles made the Sabbath the day of weekly religious worship even when laboring exclusively for the Gentiles; as is proved by Acts 13:42, 44; and there is in this dispensation a day set apart to divine uses, as the Lord’s day, Rev. 1:10, which can be none other than that Sabbath day of which our Saviour declared himself to be the Lord. Mark 2:28. 13. That our best course is to obey God’s requirements just as he has given them, even though it subject us to some inconvenience, lest in the coming day when we are required to answer for our conduct here, it be found that we have made void the commandments of God by the traditions of men.
At 5 P. M. of the same day, I spoke, by request of the Baptist minister, at the County Farm, to a congregation of about two hundred.
Immediate results could hardly be expected from one or two discourses. I have, however, the satisfaction of thinking that by means of this meeting many have heard some of the evidences in favor of the Sabbath, who would probably never have taken the trouble to listen to any one with whom they had never had an acquaintance, and in whom they had never felt an interest. That impressions may have been made by the remarks upon some minds, which will prove lasting and prepare the way for further truth, is a matter of hope, and a subject of prayer.
As the New England Camp-meeting commences at Amherst in a few days, I design to attend that meeting, and shortly after to return to Michigan. U. S.
“He Spake as a Dragon.”
By John Matteson
Various ideas have been entertained about the manner in which the two-horned beast will speak as a dragon. Perhaps the following may be worthy of consideration.
The speaking refers to the enactment of laws. The voice of a government is heard through its laws. The dragon is a symbol of Pagan Rome. Every beast introduced in prophecy is a symbol of a government, including its rulers, subjects, territory, and laws. Therefore the two-horned beast is also a symbol of a government, not the ecclesiastical part of papacy, as some would have it. No other government but that of the United States of America will answer to its description. Now we inquire: What law, contrary to God’s law, has been enacted, both by Pagan Rome and by the United States? Ans. The Sunday law.
“Let all judges and town people, and the occupation of all trades, rest on the venerable day of the sun,” &c. Constantine the Great, A. D. 321.
“There shall be no shooting, hunting, fishing, &c., on the first day of the week, called Sunday. . . . . Neither shall there be any servile labor or work on that day, except works of necessity and charity.” Law of the State of New York.
Other States have enacted laws of the same kind. God’s word commands us to keep holy the seventh day, or Saturday. Ex. 20:8–11; Matt. 5:17–19. By exalting another day in its place, the Sabbath of the Lord is set aside and brought into disrepute. This work was commenced by the dragon. The seven-headed and85ten-horned beast established the same in the fallen church. The two-horned beast speaks like the dragon, and will make an image to the beast, thus following in the track of its predecessors. This work is now being developed. And the time may not be far distant, when church and State will unite to enforce the observance of their rival Sabbath.
It may also be worthy of notice, that on the continent of Europe, the Sunday is not observed as a Sabbath, but merely as a day of meeting and amusement. Professed Christians, throughout Germany, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, work and trade on Sunday as well as on any other day. Here and there a store may be closed while service lasts; but Sunday is generally considered a good trading day. Mechanics work. Farmers plough, sow, or harvest their grain. And it is difficult for an individual, who wishes to observe Sunday, to get employment. They do not leave the earth to rest on Sunday. It remains for this government, in the last days, to manifest such strong zeal in the Sunday cause.
John Matteson.
Michigan Camp-Meeting.
THE great Michigan State Camp-meeting will be held at Charlotte, Mich., September 13-19. The ground has been improved and enlarged since last year, and is every way commodious, and truly beautiful.
Elders Andrews, Littlejohn, Waggoner, and other speakers, may be expected, which will greatly increase the interest of the meeting from last year.
There will be two large tents upon the ground in which to lodge our friends who are scattered, and are not able to get up a tent alone. All are recommended to furnish themselves with tents, if possible.
There will be a boarding and provision stand for those who come not fully provided with provisions, where food can be obtained at a reasonable price. All should bring with them a sufficient amount of bedclothing, as the committee propose to furnish only a shelter, and straw.
There were fifty neat and commodious tents on the ground last year. This was doing well. But we expect to see one hundred the present year. We recommend that all who can come on Tuesday, the 12th, do so, and have their tents up, ready to assist the camp-meeting committee in their arduous duties. This will also be more convenient for the Peninsular R. R. Company than for all to come on Wednesday.
And, remember, let every tent be up as early as Wednesday, and let no tent be taken down until Tuesday of the following week. And let all come with a mind to seek the Lord. Brethren and sisters, bring your children and neighbors with you, and be prepared to work for them, and with them, in seeking salvation.
And do not forget the wants of the cause. We expect to receive pledges on the Charlotte camp-ground for not less than three thousand dollars for the new Office building; and also as large a sum for the Health Reform Institute.