Earlier text: General ArticlesTHE BRAZEN SERPENT.
By Eld. A. S. Hutchins
In the history of the travels of the children of Israel through the wilderness, we learn that they murmured against Moses, saying, "There is no bread, neither is there any water." Like other bitter complaints, this manifests the unreasonableness, injustice, and ingratitude of their hearts; for God in a miraculous manner provided them with both bread and water. Hitherto a gracious providence had preserved them from the sting of fiery serpents, which beset their pathway; but now they fall a victim to their venomous bites. God pities them, and provides a remedy unto which they may look and live. Upon a pole the brazen serpent is set up as God directed Moses; and throughout the camp it is heralded: "And it shall come to pass that every one that is bitten, when he shall look upon it, shall live." How simple, how effectual the provision, the remedy whereby the poisoned might be healed and live; and how easy the terms to be complied with to the believing heart. Yet in sight of this Heaven-sent remedy some perished. On the subject of the cure of the serpent-bitten Israelites a good comment is found in the book of Wisdom: "But they were troubled for a small season that they might be admonished, having a sign of salvation, to put them in remembrance of the commandment of thy law. For he that turned himself toward it was not saved by the thing he saw, but by thee, that art the Saviour of all men." Chap. 16 : 67. Of himself, says Jesus: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." John 3 : 14, 15. In the brazen serpent there was no power to heal or save the suffering and dying. By the word and power of God they were healed. And yet they must look to the serpent that they might be saved. In Christ are blended the power and willingness to save the sinner. The sting, the poison of sin, may be removed. "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." But in the light of the gospel, with the history of rebellious, murmuring Israel before us, and ten thousand blessings smiling around us, we are liable to murmur and to forget all the benefits of the gospel provisions. Hence Paul most solemnly warns us: "Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them." "Neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed." "Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured." "Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." Conclusion. "Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." 1 Cor. 10 : 7-12. Following ancient Israel into the promised land, we find them bowing around, and burning incense to, that senseless brazen serpent. It is now their god, or a god in their midst. Oh, what blindness! Oh, what a perversion of the use for which it was erected upon the ensign in the days of their fathers! And it was not until the reign of the God-fearing king of Judah, Hezekiah, that this serpent, "Nehushtan," was destroyed. 2 Kings 18 : 4. How could this people give the adoration due to God, to this piece of brass? Christian reader, you will echo the question. How? But to come home, to come to our own hearts, to our high and holy respect for God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, does not sin lie at our own door? Have we not allowed in our own affections, preferences, and practices, a rival institution to supplant the Sabbath of the Lord our God? Are not professed followers of the meek and lowly Lamb wont to thank God for the Christian Sabbath, while ignoring and trampling under foot the Sabbath of the fourth commandment? Where is the proof for this change? Does it lie where a returned missionary from an island in the Indian Ocean, said in a sermon last summer, it lay? "Thank God," said he, "the Christian does not need a commandment to keep the first day Sabbath, it is the Christian's privilege to observe it." But we say, thank the giver of the holy Sabbath that many are, on the very best ground, doubting both precept for, and privilege of, the Christian to observe the first-day as the Sabbath of the Bible, though some may fear to confess the truth on this point, as the parents of the man born blind feared to acknowledge that it was by the power of Jesus that he had been made to see, for fear of excommunication from the church. As the man was born blind and lived in blindness until the compassionate Redeemer opened his eyes, so many of us were spiritually born blind and lived in blindness on the subject of the fourth commandment until the message of the third angel reached us, bringing the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. As the young man, though reviled, could exclaim: "One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see," so may we say touching the Sabbath question. And as he acknowledged Christ, so may we acknowledge the present truth. And as he went on his way rejoicing though an excommunicant, leaving timid parents behind to share the praises of men, so may we cut loose from opposing influences, leaning upon the arm of Christ for support, "rejoicing that we are counted worthy to suffer shame for his name." It is as certain that truth will triumph over every error, as it is that Hezekiah broke in pieces the serpent of brass. And now allow me to ask the reader, are you walking in all the light God has given you? Said Christ to the Jews, "If ye were blind, ye should have no sin; but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth." John 9 : 41. May the language of our hearts be: "Lord, search my soul, try every thought,
Though my own heart accuse me not
Of walking in a false disguise,
I beg the trial of thine eyes." Renounces Rome.
The following letter speaks for itself:—
Sc. Anne, Kankakee Co., Ill.
March 14, 1881.
To the Rt. Rev. Purcell, Archbishop of Cincinnati:—
My Lord,—You know that I was born at Calvello, in Italy, and that I was ordained a priest of Rome at Diano, province of Salerno, by Bishop D. Fanelli. After five years of priesthood, I had seen so many scandals, and such a want of religion in the secular clergy, that I thought there was no way to be saved, except by becoming a monk; and I entered the order of the Franciscans. But I found that through the whole kingdom of Italy the Franciscans were as corrupt and devoid of religious faith as the rest of the priests. Their vow of celibacy was only a mask to conceal the most unspeakable corruption, and their vow of poverty was only to become the richest men of Italy. I left them in 1875 to come to America.
But here I have seen again that the same immorality, corruption, drunkenness, ignorance, and infidelity are reigning supremely everywhere, among the high and low clergy, under the gilded mask of the bastard Christianity of Rome. In a word, I have seen with my own eyes that the Christianity of Rome, both in Europe and America, is a deception, a fraud. The millions of dollars which yourself, the bishop of St. Louis, and many other bishops on this continent, have extorted from your poor dupes, and engulfed to build your princely palaces, and drink your costly French and Italian wines and brandies, have perfectly showed to me that the church of Rome is only a caricature of the religion of the humble Jesus of Nazareth. I then went in search of that divine religion which the Son of God has brought to save this perishing world. I have, by the mercy of God, found it among those humble and devoted men called Protestant ministers, whom I had been taught to despise as heretics. As it would be too long to name them all, I will tell you that when I have compared the words and deeds of the Revs. John Reids and D. Finks, of Colorado; Rev. Dr. Joyce of Cincinnati; and Father Chiniquy, of St. Anne, Illinois, with the words and deeds of the priests and bishop of Rome, I have felt and understood that my only chance of salvation was in uniting myself "corde et animo" to those humble and devoted disciples of the gospel, to serve my God in spirit and in truth, through Jesus Christ, with them. It is particularly during the happy days of prayers, meditation, and study I have spent in the "Converted Priests' Home," where Father Chiniquy is giving me such a Christian hospitality, that I have seen that your transubstantiation, immaculate conception, purgatory, infallibility of the Pope, auricular confession, indulgences, worship of Mary, are blasphemous and idolatrous doctrines. May God grant that your lordships, with all the priests of Rome, receive the light which my merciful God has given me; and that you may have the grace to give up the errors of popery, as I am just doing to-day, in order to put their hope of salvation only in Christ and him crucified. For there is only one name, the name of Jesus, through which men can be saved; there is only one sacrifice, the sacrifice of Calvary, which has been offered once for all, to redeem the world; there is only one store, one rock to serve as the corner-stone, the foundation of the church; that stone or rock is not Peter, but Christ. Yours truly, F. E. DE CALVELLO.
P. S.—I respectfully ask the Christian papers of the United States to reproduce this letter in order that the disciples of Jesus everywhere may pray for me.
F. E. C. It is not the greatest lives are blest, but those who humbly do their best. STEPPING-STONES.—Don't fancy yourself above your business, boys, even though it is humble. God would not have placed you in it if it were not the place for you. The faithfulness with which you discharge your duties in it will be the best proof that you are fitted for something higher. Let "faithful in that which is least," be your motto, and you will not always remain in the ranks of plodders. It is these little duties well performed that make your character and prove stepping-stones to the higher positions you court.—Young People's Helper. IN his argument before the Senate of Pennsylvania, Senator Horatio Gates Jones made the following remarks on the Religious Liberty Bill:— "I cannot take my seat without saying that I verily believe the Sunday law of 1794, which many here seek to uphold, has 'run its race, finished its course, and accomplished as a hireling its day,' to use the expressive words of the Senator from Wayne; for, sir, all thoughtful and intelligent people must admit that the law is not carried out, except in a few cases where Christian people, like Daniel C. Waldo of Crawford county, have been prosecuted by some son of Belial, and fined for following the dictates of their consciences without disturbing the peace of the Commonwealth, or the religious duties of their neighbors. In the latest case on record, that of Mr. Waldo, he has been subjected to heavy costs, because he worked on Sunday, having kept the seventh day as a sacred and holy day, although there was no allegation that this pious, devout Christian man had annoyed his neighbors. But, sir, look at your city passenger cars, look at your great steam railroads which run their trains up and down and through our State without any fine or molestation whatever, although any man engaged on the trains as conductor, brakesman, engineer, or stoker is, under the decisions of our courts, liable to pay a fine or undergo imprisonment under the Sunday law of 1794. Is this right? Is this fair? Is this just? You may, and you do, punish the poor Seventh-day Christian, but you dare not lift your hands or your voices against the corporations for violating the Sunday law of 1794. "And, sir, if you visit Philadelphia any Sunday, you will see that the Sunday law is openly violated, and no 'Sabbath-breaker,' is arrested or fined or imprisoned. I have been told that the passage of this bill would bring upon our cities and towns the most fearful evils. Well, sir, in reply, permit me to relate an incident which proves the mistake of those who urge such a result. New York has such an exemption law as that now before this body. When application was made by a New York and Massachusetts regiment, which arrived from the inauguration of President Garfield on Sunday morning, to parade up Broadway, with music, to the regimental armory, Superintendent Walling returned answer that the law forbade such processions on Sunday, and the officers cheerfully submitted. Remember that this was in New York, where observers of the seventh day as the Sabbath are exempt from the penalties of the Sunday law of that State. But, sir, on that same Sunday, in Chestnut Street in the city of Philadelphia, in midday, I myself saw the State Fencibles, under the command of Major Ryan, marching to their armory, with music. Senators, these are facts which speak louder than words, and further comment on my part is unnecessary." THE lesson for Sabbath, April 23, found in Instructor No. 14, is a review of the leading events in the life of Christ from the time of his visit to Jerusalem to attend the Passover at the age of twelve to his second visit after commencing his public ministry. As this includes at least three Passover visits it may be interesting to know something more about the way in which this, the most important of all Jewish festivals, was celebrated. We quote as follows from the “Life and Words of Christ,” by Dr. C. Geikie, pp. 149–153:— “The vast multitudes coming to the Passover arranged to reach Jerusalem, at the latest, on the 14th of Nisan, the day on the evening of which the feast was celebrated. So far back as from the 15th of the preceding month, all the bridges and roads, far and near, had been begun to be repaired. All graves near the lines of travel, or round Jerusalem, had been either fenced in, or the head-stones had been whitewashed, that they might be seen from a distance, and thus warn off the pilgrims, whom they might otherwise have defiled, and made unfit for the feast. . . . . The fourteenth day, which began at sunset of the 13th, was also the first day of the feast of ‘Unleavened Bread,’ and was hence known as the ‘preparation day.’ No particle of leaven could be left in any house. The head of each family, as the evening closed, began the household purification with the prayer—‘Blessed art thou, O Lord, our God, King of the universe, who hast sanctified us with thy commandments, and requirest us to remove the leaven,’ and then proceeded, in rigorous silence, to search every room, gathering every crumb that could be found, and finally tying all up till the following morning. A further search, which must end before noon, was then made for any liquid or solid product of fermented grain, and for all dishes or vessels that had held it. All were taken out of the house, and the crumbs and dough carefully burned, with a repetition of prescribed prayers. The house itself was then cleansed in every part, and no one could enter the unpurified house of a heathen, henceforth, during the feast, without being defiled. Nothing leavened could be eaten or permitted in the house during the next seven days,—for defilement, bringing with it unfitness to eat the Passover, would follow in either case. “This purification of the house, however, was by no means all. Vessels of any kind, to be used at the feast, were cleansed with prescribed rites, in a settled mode. Metal dishes, etc., after being scoured, must be first dipped in boiling water—in a pot used for no other purpose—and then into cold. Iron vessels must be made red-hot; then washed in the same way. Iron mortars, for crushing grain for baking, were filled with red coals, till a thread, tied outside, was burned through. Wooden vessels, after being wetted, were rubbed with a red-hot stone. No clay dish could be used at all if not quite new, and it had to be first dipped thrice in running water, and consecrated by a special prayer. Personal purity was as strictly enforced. Every one had to cut his hair and nails, and to take a bath. “The baking of the unleavened bread was accompanied with equally formal care. On the evening of the 13th, ‘before the stars appeared,’ the head of each household went out and drew water for the purpose, uttering the words as he did so, ‘This is the water for the unleavened bread,’ and covering the vessel that contained it, for fear of any defilement. After baking, one loaf, to be taken to the priest at the temple, was laid aside with another prescribed prayer. “The afternoon of the 14th was a time of the intensest bustle, for the ram’s horn trumpets would presently announce, from the temple, the beginning of the feast. At the sound, every one took his lamb to the temple, the court walls of which were gaily hung with many-colored carpets and tapestries, in honor of the day. The countless victims must be first examined by the priests, to see if they were without blemish, then prepared for roasting, in the forecourts of the temple, by the heads of the different households, or by men deputed by them, or by the Levites in attendance, with indescribable haste and confusion, for there was more than work enough for all, to kill, almost at the same time, the 256,000 lambs sometimes required. “As soon as the courts were full, the gates were shut on the multitude within, each holding his lamb. Three blasts of trumpets then announced the beginning of the heavy task. Long rows of priests, with gold and silver bowls, stood ranged between the altar and the victims, to catch the blood, and pass it on from one to the other, till the last poured it on the altar, from which it ran off, through pipes beneath. When the lamb had been drained of blood, the head of the family to which it belonged took it to the hooks on the walls and pillars round, where it was opened and skinned. It was now ready to be carried away, and was borne off by the family head in its skin, which was afterwards to be given to the host in whose house the feast might be held. “Not fewer than ten, but as many as twenty, might sit down at a company. Women were allowed to join their households, though it was not required that they should eat the Passover, and lads from fourteen, and even slaves and foreigners, if circumcised, sat down with the rest. Everything was hurried, for the lambs were required to be killed, roasted, and eaten, between three in the afternoon and nine or twelve at night. They were, properly, to be eaten in the courts of the Temple, but this, after a time, having become impossible, they might be eaten anywhere within the Rabbinic limits of the city. Thousands of fires, in special ovens, prepared them; for they must be roasted only, not boiled, or cooked except in this way. It was trussed with spits of pomegranate wood, inserted in the form of a cross, and the whole creature roasted entire. “The feast itself must have impressed a child like Jesus no less than the preparations. Not a bone of the lamb must be broken, under a penalty of forty stripes, nor must any part of it touch the oven; and if any fat dropped back on it, the part on which it dropped was cut off. The company having assembled, after the lamps were lighted, arranged themselves in due order, on couches, round the tables, reclining on their left side. A cup of red wine, mixed with water, was filled for every one, and drank, after a touching benediction, by the head man of the group. A basin of water and a towel were then brought in, that each might wash his hands, and then another blessing was pronounced. “A table was then carried into the open space between the couches, and bitter herbs, and unleavened bread, with a dish—made of dates, raisins, and other fruits, mixed with vinegar to the consistency of lime, in commemoration of the mortar with which their fathers worked in Egypt,—set on it, along with the paschal lamb. The head man took some of the bitter herbs, dipped them in the dish, and, after giving thanks to God for creating the fruits of the earth, ate a small piece, and gave one to each of the company. A second cup of wine and water was then poured out, and the son of the house, or the youngest boy present, asked the meaning of the feast. The questions to be put had been minutely fixed by the Rabbis, and were as formally and minutely answered in appointed words, the whole story of the deliverance from Egypt being thus repeated, year after year, at every Passover table, in the very same terms, throughout all Israel. “The first part of the great Hallelujah—Ps. 113, and 114,—was now chanted, and was followed by a prayer, beginning, ‘Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who hast redeemed us and our forefathers from Egypt.’ A third cup was now poured out, and then came the grace after meals. A fourth and last cup followed, and then Ps. 115, 116, 117, and 118, which formed the rest of the Hallelujah, and another prayer, closed the feast. “The whole week was full of interest. The 15th was kept like a Sabbath. It was one of the six days of the year on which the law prohibited all servile work. “It was on the third day that the first-fruits of the harvest were brought from the Kidron valley to the temple, to be waved before God in solemn acknowledgment of his bounty in giving the kindly fruits of the earth. “From the 17th to the 20th the days were only half holy. The last day, the 21st, like the first, was kept as a Sabbath. Only necessary work was permitted, and it closed with a rehearsal of the Passover supper, for the sake of those who could not come up on the first great day of the feast.” TESTIMONIES come to us from time to time concerning the great importance of the daily worship of God in the home, and by the whole household. Venerable men and women, looking back from near the end of their lives, and over a long period of years, bear witness to the value of this observance, and to the strength and comfort they have drawn from it in all their domestic experiences. And the children in their turn are able to testify not less strongly to the preciousness of the memories and associations that gather about this family service. And indeed it would be certain, apart from all testimony, that there ought to be such daily worship in every home; and that in a Christian home it must be a special occasion of sacredness and blessing. There are, in every household, common interests and obligations which call for united recognition and acknowledgment before God. There are daily mercies for which thanksgiving is to be offered. There is the daily meeting together of the wants and the trials, whatever they may be, of the earthly life; and there is occasion for prayer together for counsel and grace and strength. There is a sharing together also of the most intimate kind, or there may be, and ought to be, in all the earliest and innermost preparations that are made for the life to come; and these preparations require the daily coming together before God. There can be no great power of Christian feeling or purpose in a home that does not seek to find for itself this utterance in united prayer. There is nothing of good in a home that does not call to household prayer, and that is not strengthened by it; and there is nothing of evil which such prayers will not help to shut out or to remove. Family prayer is needful to the establishment and encouragement of an acquaintance between parents and children with respect to all religious things. It cannot indeed take the place of free, personal conversation; and yet it may sometimes properly be made an occasion for the expression of parental desires which could hardly in any other way be so effectively made known. Family prayer is also needed especially to check the tendency that may often exist to remove religious responsibility, unduly, to some point outside the home, as to the Sabbath-school or the church. These agencies have their most important use, but parental responsibility stands before them all, and no father or mother should be willing that it should ever be thought of otherwise in their own home. And finally, this service of family prayer is not a hard one to maintain. It may seem to be hard while it is thought of and before it is begun. But all duties are apt to grow easy and delightful when once they are entered upon; and this duty stands at the head, almost, for the strength and delightfulness that are in the performance of it. Be persuaded to begin, if you have not begun, thus to pray together in your home; and after you have begun, you will not be easily persuaded to live again in a home without prayers. IN one part of Burmah there is a village of professing Christians, belonging to the Karen race. Years ago, although they had Christian teachers, they had no Bibles—at least, their entire Bible was the gospel of Matthew in manuscript. One day the missionary's wife was reading to a group of them that chapter where Christ speaks of being visited when sick or in prison, as represented in the person of his disciples. They instantly took it home to themselves. Like most heathen, they had hitherto been most heartless towards their suffering neighbors. But they were not content with knowing the Lord's will; they went their way and did it. There was one poor widow who, with her child, was afflicted with leprosy. They had hitherto left her to pine away, neglected and uncared for; they now hastened to her hovel. Some of them cleared her house; another fetched water; and some brought her rice and other comforts, till the poor outcast was bewildered with delight. In the same way they dealt with other afflicted neighbors, and it was not a mere spirit of kindness, but was sustained with silent and unostentatious perseverance, none being allowed to lack what they themselves enjoyed.—Bible in Many Lands. Leadership Requires Willingness to Follow
He is not fitted to lead who will not be led. BY REMISSION, NOT BY WORKS.
By J. H. W.
A FRIEND in an eastern State has written to us in defense of a certain Bible doctrine from the assaults of a secular paper, and says he receives his proofs from the spirits, of whom he says:— “The Christian world tells us they are devils, because they tell us that the atonement of Jesus does not wipe out men’s rascalities; but that every man must undo his own wrongs before he can be happy. This is the teaching of departed spirits now returned.” We do not doubt that our friend, with many others of his mind, is sincere in his belief, and really thinks that the Christian view of the atonement is highly objectionable on moral grounds. But we think he has imbibed a very dangerous error; dangerous to its receiver, and subversive of all right views of the justice and government of a righteous God. Did we not believe in the existence of a Supreme Being; did we not believe in a future Judgment; did we reject the Bible as a rule of right, we think we might be able to accept the belief of our friend. But then, understand, if there were no God, no Judgment, and the Bible were a fable, it would not make much matter what we believed anyway. We invite our friend to reason a little on his proposition. There is a wide difference between ceasing to do wrong and undoing the wrong which we have already done. The murderer may cease to kill, and turn to loving his fellow-men, but that does not undo the wrongs of the past: it does not restore his former victims to life. And no amount of future well-doing, or regrets, or sorrow for the past will ever undo past wrongs. Even if the thief makes restitution for his theft, it does not destroy the fact that he did steal; it yet remains true that he has violated the law and trampled on human rights. To any one who has little or no regard for law and justice, who does not realize the sacredness of the rights of the government and of our fellow-men, this may seem to be an unimportant matter. But not so to us. In the case of a person in the penitentiary for an outrage against society and government and order, how does our friend suppose he is to find his way out? Not by the law which teaches what he should do, and should have done, for by that he stands condemned. Pardon is his only hope. If he cannot secure this he must abide his time, and suffer on for his crime. And a release in any other manner would subvert all law, all government, and all order, and bring only anarchy and confusion. Some, we know, are so short-sighted as to advocate the idea that there should be no punishment for crime; their sympathies are never in behalf of those who are injured by the commission of the crime, or toward the government and justice, but always toward the criminal. The family of a murdered man may suffer neglect, while the murderer receives bouquets at the hands of tender-hearted women, and is received with acclamations as a hero, or as a martyr if the law asserts its supremacy and inflicts a penalty. Thus if they put any difference between the righteous and the wicked it is always somewhat in favor of the wicked. And thus peaceful honesty is placed at a discount, and lawlessness is triumphant. Sure it is that any government which is not a terror to evil-doers will never be to the praise of them that do well. Right cannot be upheld where wrong is not put under ban. It is true that the pardoning power may be abused; and so greatly abused as to neutralize the object of courts and of laws. But this can only be under the hands of evil-minded executives—those who have not that high regard for justice which administrators of law should possess. But all right-minded persons will readily acknowledge that the abuse of a thing is no argument against the use of it. Pardon is not objectionable when granted under proper restrictions. If granted indiscriminately it is subversive of government. Now some affect to find a license in pardon; whereas there is a world-wide difference when pardon is properly guarded. The atonement of Christ is for the exercise of the pardoning power; but he who thinks that it gives any license to evil doing proves only this: that he has not examined the doctrine of the atonement sufficiently to understand its object, and not read the Bible so as to get any just idea of its teachings. When an individual has forfeited his life he cannot escape by anything that he can do; if he is saved from death it must be by what somebody does for him. And complete satisfaction to the violated law can only be made by a voluntary substitute. If such an arrangement can be made to the satisfaction of all parties, then the offender may be spared, and the law be honored also in the execution of its penalty. But, if the law accept a substitute, and the sinner be allowed to escape punishment, it yet remains a fact that he is a sinner. Favor shown to him is unmerited; and if his evil disposition remains it is not safe to let him escape; he might still prey upon the rights of his neighbors and abuse the favor granted. The gospel system of favor, or atonement, provides for this difficulty by granting pardon only to those who become reconciled to the government and fully accept its principles. The atonement not only works for man, but in him—forgiving the past and insuring obedience for the future. There is no license, no warrant of future disobedience in the gospel. Granting that this is a truthful statement of the principles of the gospel, there are some who still call it in question, denying the necessity of even such an atonement. But they do not consider that God’s justice is infinite, and that sin is exceedingly hateful in his sight. His justice must be honored; the righteous demands of his government must be satisfied. The gospel system was devised for this very purpose, “that he might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.” Rom. 3:23–26. Here we find infinite justice brought into harmony with infinite mercy. It is only when we lose sight of the just principles of government and the infinity of God’s attributes that we can pronounce the atonement unnecessary. And it is only when the gospel is abused and perverted by the blindness or selfishness of fallen man that it appears to give even the least countenance to immorality. We have thus briefly viewed the main principles of the gospel. Volumes are needed to unfold all its glories. But the grand requisite to our appreciation of its beauty and richness is to feel that we are sinners. He who will never confess this can never be persuaded that there is “form or comeliness” in Jesus of Nazareth. May the gracious God grant us all the aid of the Holy Spirit to feel our need, and to accept the rich provision of his grace. WHAT THEY LOST.
By J. H. W.
It is quite a common thing to hear people say they cannot obey the truth, especially that they cannot keep all the commandments of the decalogue, because they will have to lose so much; they fear they cannot make a living. The following incident may be instructive to such:— Near London there lived an old couple. In early life they had been poor; but the husband became a Christian, and God blessed their industry, and they were living in comfortable retirement, when one day a stranger called on them and asked their subscription to a charity. The old lady had less religion than her husband, and still hankered after the Sabbath earnings and easy shillings which Thomas had given from regard to the law of God. So when the visitor asked for their contributions she interposed and said: “Why, sir, we have lost a deal by religion since we first begun; my husband knows that very well. Have we not, Thomas?” After a solemn pause, Thomas answered, “Yes, Mary, we have. Before I got religion, Mary, I had an old slouched hat, a tattered coat, and mended shoes and stockings; but I have lost them long ago. And you know that, poor as I was, I had a habit of getting drunk and quarreling with you; and that you know I have lost. And then I had a hardened conscience and wicked heart, and ten thousand guilty fears; but all are lost—completely lost, and like a millstone cast into the sea. And, Mary, you have been a loser, too. Before we got religion, Mary, you had a washing-tray. And you had a gown and a bonnet much the worse for wear; but you have lost them long ago; and you had many an aching heart concerning me at times; but those you have happily lost. And I could even wish that you had even lost as much as I have lost; for what we lose for religion will be an everlasting gain.” It is a pity that, when people open a debt and credit account with the Lord, they so generally forget his mercies. But in the book of the Lord about all that will be found will be his mercies and our errors and shortcomings. Here we look too much upon our services and our trials and our crosses. If our afflictions turn us toward the Saviour they will work for us. 2 Cor. 4:17, 18. But if they cause us to repine and fret, then they will work against us. It was in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, where he said, “I am the man that hath seen affliction,” that he also said of the mercies of the Lord, “they are new every morning.” Even so it is. Our lives, all along, have been dotted with places of trials and sorrows; but the mercies of God have flowed in one continual stream. Of him we receive “life, and breath, and all things.” Acts 17:25. Every breath which we draw makes us his debtor. And the intercessions of Jesus continually “holdeth our soul in life.” Ps. 66:9. Every-day blessings and privileges are but mementos of the riches of his grace. If we had done all his righteous will we should yet be unprofitable servants; we could not benefit him; our righteousness could not reach to him. Ps. 16:2. It can be no gain to him that we make our ways perfect. Job 22:2, 3. “If thou be righteous, what givest thou him? or what receiveth he of thine hand?” Job 35:7. But we have not done our whole duty; our ways have not been perfect before him. We have “done despite unto the Spirit of grace.” Heb. 10:29. Mercy, through the name of Jesus of Nazareth and the cleansing power of his blood, is all the plea that we can make. This truth is very often confessed, but very seldom felt. If it were generally felt, we should not so often find people claiming the privilege of making terms with God. They are willing to serve him if it involves no personal inconvenience and no earthly loss. Poor souls! what a terrible delusion they are laboring under. How deep is their self-deception, and how bitter will be their disappointment when they will be rewarded according to their works, and not according to their confidence or their profession. Matt. 7:21-23.