(Continued.)
WE have this inquiry made in 2 Cor. 13:5: "Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" This word "reprobate" means spurious, counterfeit. If you are a real Christian, Jesus Christ is in you. That is the very idea of salvation, for we read in Col. 1:27: "To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." That is the Christian experience; that is the Christian life. But when Christ dwells in the heart by faith, he by his presence makes the believer holy.
It is not only said that Christ blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it, but he sanctified it. Notice what it is that sanctifies. Ex. 29:43: "And there I will meet with the children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory." What is it that sanctifies?—It is the presence, the glory of Christ. And just as Christ dwelling in the tabernacle made it holy, so Christ in the believer sanctifies him.
Now read Eze. 20:12: "Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them." Or, as another translation reads, "I am Jehovah, their sanctifier." And in connection with that read Ex. 31:13: "Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep; for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you." Another translation gives that clause in this way, "I, Jehovah, am sanctifying you." Now of what is the Sabbath to be a sign to us as it recurs week after week?—It is to be a sign that "I, Jehovah, am sanctifying you." I am making you holy, and every succeeding Sabbath marks the progress of that work of sanctification. We receive the blessing of God on one Sabbath; the next one comes, and if we have been growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the blessing of the next Sabbath is an added blessing. It teaches us more and more of the power of God in creation and in redemption. We add to our experience, and it is a sign continually. "I, Jehovah, am sanctifying you," making you holy.
Notice what a close connection there is between this power of God as manifested in creation and the Sabbath idea. The ninety-second psalm is a psalm, or song, for the Sabbath day. That is the title of the psalm. "It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, O Most High; to show forth thy loving-kindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night, upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound. For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work; I will triumph in the works of thy hands." How is it that the Lord makes me to be glad?—Why, when I behold his works, and behold his power in those works, I remember that that power is pledged to me for salvation. And so I can say I will triumph in the works of thy hands, and it is indeed a psalm, or song, for the Sabbath day, because that day reminds us of the power of God in Christ manifested in creation, and with that comes the blessed assurance that He who has created has also redeemed. The Creator is the Redeemer. The power in creation is the power in redemption.518
WHAT SABBATH KEEPING IS.
Now notice the conclusion to which I referred earlier in our study, and that is, that many a person has been desirous to keep the Sabbath and has not kept it. Why?—Because Sabbath keeping is resting in the Lord. No person in whom Christ does not dwell by faith can keep the Sabbath. He may keep Saturday, he may keep Sunday, but he cannot keep the Sabbath. There is only one day in which a person can thus, in this special and particular manner, rest in the Lord, because there is only one day in which Christ has put his presence in that particular way. Ah, but, says one, cannot we have the blessing from the Lord on any other day?—Certainly, every day, and every hour of every day; we are having the blessing of God here now. But there is a blessing in Sabbath keeping that comes in no other way. You cannot keep Sabbath on Wednesday, because Christ is not there to make it Sabbath, to make it rest in him. You can enjoy the presence of Christ every day and the blessing of Christ; you can enjoy an added blessing on the day that he has blessed, and that blessing is Sabbath keeping, resting in the Lord; and it is impossible at any other time. Whenever I invite anyone to Sabbath keeping, I am glad to invite him to the special blessing of God in Jesus Christ; Sabbath keeping is being blessed especially of God in Jesus Christ. Sabbath keeping is resting in the Lord, on the Lord's rest day, and I invite anyone who never has kept Sabbath—I do not care whether he is a Saturday keeper or a Sunday keeper—I invite him to keep the Sabbath. I invite him to the presence of Christ, whose presence gives rest, whose presence is blessing, whose presence makes holy, whose presence sanctifies. I invite everyone to Sabbath keeping, to the blessing which God has put upon his own day, and which no man ever has removed, or ever can remove, from it.
When we understand what Sabbath keeping is, and what the Sabbath really is, there is not a person who desires Jesus Christ, there is not a person who longs for the blessings and the rest that there are in Jesus Christ, who would stand one moment to discuss with me what day it is. It is what it is rather than when it is that we must consider, because when we study what it is, we shall at the same time find out in the most emphatic way when it is. One day will do just as well as another in which to rest physically, but there is only one day on which we can keep Sabbath; there is only one day that has the blessing by the presence of Christ in this way. Come to the Sabbath blessing; come to Sabbath keeping; come to rest in the Lord.
Let me now call your attention further to the fact that the Sabbath always has been, and always will be, a sign of the power of God. The reason given in the commandment for setting apart the seventh day as the Sabbath is that in six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth, and rested the Sabbath day. The Sabbath day, therefore, is a sign of the creative work. This sign of creative power always calls our attention to the One who made the heavens and the earth, and it is true if the Sabbath had always been kept that there never would have been any false religion or idolatry; for once each week would the minds of men have been turned to the true God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth. The distinguishing characteristic of the true God is his creative power. In the ninety-sixth psalm we read: "Sing unto the Lord, bless his name; show forth his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all the people. For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols; but the Lord made the heavens." So we read again in Jer. 10:10-12: "But the Lord is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king. . . . The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens. He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, he hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion."
THE SABBATH THE SIGN OF HIS POWER.
And the Sabbath day was given as a sign of this power of God, this creative power, and since its institution, the Sabbath has been used as a sign of the display of this same creative power. Let me read from Deut. 4:32-34: "For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it? Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live? Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched-out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?" Mark the inquiry. You ask from one end of heaven to the other, and you go back to the very day that man was created, and inquire whether there has been from that time to this present time such a display of the power of God as was seen in the deliverance of the children of Israel from Egypt.
A moment's thought will show you that it was creative power then displayed. They were delivered by signs and wonders, which were a display of creative power. It took the same power when Aaron's rod was cast down before Pharaoh and it became a serpent as it did to create the serpent in the first place. It took the same power to bring darkness over all the face of the land—darkness that could be felt—and yet have light in the dwellings of the children of Israel, as it took in the first place, when God said, "Let there be light, and there was light." It took the same power to divide the waters of the Red Sea, that the children of Israel could go through on dry land, as it did in the first place when the waters were created. That is, there was at that time a display of the creative power of God. So, after the children of Israel had been delivered by such creative power, the Sabbath obligation is repeated, and the Lord says: "And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched-out arm; therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day." Deut. 5:15. Some make the mistake of thinking that the Sabbath was merely a sign to the children of Israel of their deliverance from Egypt, and has nothing to do with any other people. The fact is simply this: In the first place the Sabbath was the sign of creative power. When the children of Israel were delivered from Egypt, that same power wrought for their deliverance. When the same God uses the same power, he calls attention again to the same sign as the sign of that power; and so to the children of Israel after their deliverance, the Sabbath was a sign of God's creative power in making heaven and earth, and it was also a sign of Christ's creative power in delivering them from the land of Egypt. But, further, we have learned that redemption is creation, and the Sabbath is the sign of creative power wherever it is displayed. The Sabbath was the sign of creative power when the heavens and the earth were made. The Sabbath was the sign renewed to the children of Israel of creative power when they were delivered from the land of Egypt. But the deliverance of the children of Israel from the land of Egypt is but a type of the deliverance of the Christian from the power of darkness, because deliverance is wrought for him by creative power, just as the children of Israel were delivered by creative power. So the Sabbath is a sign to every Christian of the creative power of God in his deliverance from the power of sin. It is a sign to him of the blessing of God in turning him away from his iniquities. It is a sign to him of the presence of Christ to make him holy. It is a sign to him of the presence of Christ in him to sanctify him. That is to say, it is a measure of the working of that creative power in his individual experience.
But the real purpose of God in creation will not be fully carried out until all who receive Jesus Christ have been created anew, until the body has been fashioned anew, that it may conform to his glorious body, until the new heavens and the new earth are made. Then, with the new heavens and the new earth, with the body conformed to his glorious body, and with the character of God in Jesus Christ wrought in us by faith, then the earth will be peopled with a righteous people, just as God intended in the first place, and just in pursuance of his original plan of creation. And so in the new earth will still be the Sabbath, the sign of God's complete work in creation. And thus we read in Isa. 66:22, 23: "For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord." And so onward through all the ages of eternity, the Sabbath will always be the sign of the creative power of God.
A DELIGHT.
When Christ was here upon the earth, we read of the testimony that the Father bore of him (Matt. 3:17): "And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Another translation gives this version of this text: "Lo a voice out of the heavens, saying, This is my Son, the beloved, in whom I did delight." Read, in connection with that, the prophecy of Isa. 42:1: "Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth." This is a prophecy of Christ. So, when Christ came, the testimony was, "This is my Son, the beloved, in whom I did delight." Now read that familiar scripture in the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah, the thirteenth verse: "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words, then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord." Another translation brings out the idea in a little plainer way, although not changing the sense at all. It says, "And hast cried to the Sabbath, 'A delight.'" Our version says, "And hast called the Sabbath a delight;" this translation says, "And hast cried to the Sabbath [called out as the Sabbath came], 'A delight,'" and to the holy of the Lord cried out also, "Honored." Put these texts together. The prophecy in Isa. 42:1 speaks of Christ as God's delight; and when Christ came, the record is in Matt. 3:17, "This is my Son, the Beloved, in whom I did delight." When the Sabbath comes, we are instructed to call out to it, to hail it, to cry to it as it comes, "A delight!" Why?—Because He in whom the Lord did delight, the delight of the Lord, the delight of the soul, is in the Sabbath. Jesus Christ is in the Sabbath, and so when the Sabbath comes, we are to call to the holy of Jehovah, "Honored!" It is the holy of Jehovah. And Christ was the holy child Jesus, and it is the holy day because Christ is there in the day. And the Scripture says that if we do call to the Sabbath, "A delight!" and to the holy of Jehovah, "Honored!" "then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord." Why?—Because the Lord, who is the delight, is in the Sabbath. And so we shall delight ourselves in the Lord on the Lord's day. That makes the Sabbath a glorious thing. At every step of the way, when it is properly understood, the Sabbath is suggesting Christ and his work for us. At every point it is Christ and his power; it is the creative power pledged for our redemption. It is the sign of Christ to bless, to give rest, to make holy, to sanctify. It is the sign of Christ, the delight of the soul; it is the sign of Christ, the Holy One. It is the sign of Christ, whom we are to honor. As the Sabbath suggests at every point Christ, as Creator, as Redeemer, as Saviour, and as we are to honor the Son even as we honor the Father, therefore it is impossible that one should honor Christ when he knowingly dishonors Christ's day. For that reason no people can exalt Jesus Christ as the people who honor him in the observance of the day which he has blessed and sanctified. Therefore, there is no way in which we can exalt Jesus Christ from first to last, as Creator, as Redeemer, as Saviour, when we knowingly and willfully trample upon the day which he has blessed and sanctified.
It being evident that the Sabbath is designed to turn men's minds toward the true God, and Jesus Christ as the agent in creation and in redemption, it follows that if any movement is to be made to defeat the plan of God in the salvation of man, in the recreation of man, the first thing to be done is to turn men away from the Sabbath, the reminder of Jesus Christ as the only Saviour. If men's minds can be turned away from Christ, they will fail of salvation. Christ's power is the only power sufficient to save. If men can be led to trust in any other power, they will be disappointed in all hope of salvation. Therefore the most certain way to defeat the plan of Christ for the salvation of men is to turn men's minds away from Christ; and the first thing to be done, then, is to turn men's minds away from that which reminds them of Christ. Therefore, if the Sabbath can be hidden, if men's minds can be turned from the Sabbath and the meaning of the Sabbath, the hardest blow has been struck and the strongest effort has been successful in turning men away from the plan of salvation in Jesus Christ.
(Concluded next week.)
LITTLE SINS.
By D. Hildreth
BY D. HILDRETH.
THE idea has obtained that there are degrees of sin all the way from murder, for instance, down to nothing; that certain actions, though not really proper, are not worthy the notice of God. If some case is mentioned, the reply will be, "Oh, that's nothing; such little sins are not worth minding!" The careless reader is here requested to pause and point out one place in the Bible that speaks of "little sins"—"sins not worth minding," or anything like it. When degrees of comparison are used, sin is always called great, grievous, etc. David says, "O Lord, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great." Ps. 25:11. The Bible throughout holds up sin in its true deformity. No one ever prayed in the Spirit to have his sins pardoned because they were small. It is true that there are degrees of sin, yet no sin is really small. Any act which is a transgression of the law, however small it may appear to men, is sufficient to condemn the transgressor to death, unless he obtains pardon.
For instance, it is supposed to be very innocent to tell a clever falsehood for the sake of playing a trick on another. This is not lying; oh, no! it is only sport. It is thought to be quite harmless to joke, tell stories, play all manner of games, and have all the fun and sport possible. It is supposed to be nobody's business how much the mind is occupied with foolish thoughts. It is even looked upon as commendable to get the best end of a bargain by shrewdness and misrepresentation. There are a thousand such things as these that are looked upon as of no importance. But the just demands of an abused law will stare transgressors in the face by and by.
Scripture testimony will now be produced, and if this meets the eye of any careless one, let him remember that the following passages of Scripture, and others of like import, will stand in array against the sinner at the great Judgment day. Many things that are supposed to be of no importance are particularly mentioned in the Bible.
SINS OF COMMISSION.
Idle words. "But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment." Matt. 12: 36.
Foolish thoughts. "The thought of foolishness is sin." Prov. 24: 9.
"He that despiseth his neighbor sineth." Prov. 14: 21.
"An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin." Prov. 21: 4.
"But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin." James 2: 9.
"As a mad man who casteth firebrands, arrows, and death, so is the man that deceiveth his neighbor, and saith, Am I not in sport?" Prov. 26: 18, 19.
Paul's conclusion: "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." Rom. 14: 23.
DEATH.
"THE wages of sin is death," declares the apostle in Rom. 6:23. That cannot mean endless torment, for endless torment implies endless life, or existence. An ever-burning hell will not always exist; for there is coming a time when all the universe will praise God (Rev. 5:13); when there shall be no more pain nor death (Rev. 21:4); when there shall be no more curse (Rev. 22:3).
"Death," the wages of sin, must mean just what it implies, "cessation of life;" and the punishing of the wicked is completed when they cease to exist. This is evident from another consideration. Inspiration declares that God will reward everyone according to his works. But if endless misery is the doom of the wicked, it can never be executed. The sentence can never be carried out; for after billions of ages have rolled their round, an endlessness of cycles still lies before, and the words of the Bible are proved untrue, impossible of fulfillment. But God's plan is not thus inconsistent. Life, endless life, will be given to the faithful; and death, endless death, will be the doom of the impenitent and unfaithful. The first—the life—will never cease; the second—the death—will know no resurrection. God's universe will again be clean, his works "very good," and Christ our King will reign forever.
The Curse of Drink
"Mackay wrote: 'Drink is the curse of Africa.' Where and what and whom does it not curse?"
Receive and Give
“THERE are two things for live men and women to do—to receive from God and give out to their fellows.”
WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT?
By Ellen G. White
BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
THE question is asked, "What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" It is dangerous to give time, thought, and strength to the pursuit of worldly gain, even if success follows persevering effort; for in thus doing there is danger of making God and his righteousness secondary. It is better far to be in poverty, to endure disappointment, and have our earthly hopes shattered, than to have our eternal interests imperiled. Flattering inducements may be presented to us, and we may think to obtain wealth and honor, and so set our heart and soul on worldly enterprises. But as we cannot serve God and mammon, we are led to give up the service of God.
Money has become the measure of manhood in the world, and men are estimated, not by their integrity, but by the amount of wealth they possess. Thus it was in the days before the flood. "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. . . . And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth." "But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be."
Let us not be determined to get rich. If we see that poverty will be our portion in abiding in the simple truth, let us abide by the truth and enter into life. Jesus said that "man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God." The devotees of the world may smile at this statement, but it is nevertheless the counsel of eternal wisdom. Jesus has left his followers a legacy of peace. He says, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." The Christian who is called into the world by his business, if he follows Christ, will bear his cross, and meet his perplexities in the Spirit of Christ. He will not make the world his God, and give brain and bone and muscle to the service of mammon. He will realize that Heaven is looking upon him, and whatever success attends him, he will give glory to God. He will realize that God knows, as man does not, that a few more years will roll by, and the treasures of earth be no more.
Our Saviour came to the world to adjust the claims between heaven and earth. He knows that man, formed in his image, has been endowed by his Creator in such a way that he may rise to the highest eminence of moral efficiency through coöperation with divine agency provided for his assistance. With what sorrow Jesus looks upon man wasting his energies in pursuit of that which profiteth nothing. In tones of sorrow in which mingle tears, Jesus asks, "What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it?" The arch-deceiver has inspired in man, by his temptations, by his presentation of flattering inducements, an inordinate desire to get the riches of this world, and he leads men to practice every form of sin in order that they may gain every earthly treasure. In the acquirement of this world's wealth, the precious promises of God are cast aside as worthless. Through the service of mammon the love of God has been expelled from the heart, and the love of the world has rushed in to fill the vacuum, and to firmly enthrone itself in the heart, to rule and reign in the life. The power of God alone can force it from its usurped position. Through love of the world the spiritual vision is blinded, and the pleasures and attractions of the future world are hid from sight.
It is the vision of the world to come that balances the mind, so that the things which are seen do not obtain control over the affections, which have been bought with an infinite price by the world's Redeemer. Through the agency of the Holy Spirit the things unseen and eternal are brought before the soul, and the advantages of the eternal, imperishable treasure are made to appear before the mind's eye in their attractive beauty. In this way we learn to look to the unseen and the eternal, and to esteem the reproaches of Christ greater value than the treasures of the world.
The angels are the servants of Christ, and there are ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands who are sent to minister unto them that shall be heirs of salvation. Angels that excel in strength minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation, and impart to them divine power; for they become partakers of the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world through lust. Heavenly agencies are ever at the side of him who is wrestling for the victory, in order that while lawfully striving for the mastery, he may not be worsted in the conflict. But if the human agent places little value upon the precious things which God, through the gift of his only-begotten Son, has made possible for man to obtain, if he loses eternity out of his reckoning, and listens to Satan's false representation, and is attracted to the things of earth instead of heaven, he sustains great loss, so cultivating the powers of his mind and soul that he will not have a fitness for eternal life. In this way he not only concentrates his mind and affection upon that which cannot possibly bring him happiness in this life, but through the idolizing of the most contemptible things, he degrades himself to a low moral level. In his insane pursuit after earthly gain, he accepts Satan's method, and practices dishonest ways, and is blind to the result. Why should he not do this way when he disconnects himself from Him who is the source of all good, all righteousness and truth? Why will not Satan give him his mind and his attributes, and so mould him by his influence that he shall reflect the image of the earthly? The mind of him who follows the suggestion of Satan becomes like his leader; evil propensities gradually take him captive, and he becomes a slave of Satan. He is led on into deeper idolatry, beholding not the celestial imagery but the deceiving representation of the enemy. Satan pictures before him the advantage of worldly gain, and fills memory's hall with false representations. The mind looks upon these, and becomes debased according to the subjects presented.
LIBERTY AND ROMANISM.
[Translated from the Spanish, by Frank C. Kelley.]
THE Syllabus is a law all Romanists, from the least to the greatest prince in the church, must respect, under pain of condemnation. With this belief, consequently, although he may be very liberal at heart, the Papist must curse liberty. In order that doubt shall not remain in the mind of the faithful Romanist, the pontifical declaration terminates it by condemning what he affirms, saying that "the Roman pontiff can and must be the reconciler and adjuster of modern civilization, progress, and liberty."
These unreasonable declarations sorely conflict with the ideas and sense of modern society, and they trouble the minds of a majority of those who are called Romanists, causing them to make flagrant contradictions.
They curse progress and freedom, and, at the same time, write songs of liberty and send them forth, to prove that the church, i. e., the pope, is the defender of freedom and the chief support of true liberty—a position actually shameful for many, and humiliating to the majority of those Romanists who love liberty by being obliged to curse it and use subterfuges and sophistries in order to deceive their own consciences.
They tell us that if liberty is the faculty the soul possesses of choice between two contrary opinions, God lacks liberty, because in him can be no conflicting solicitations. Therefore, they conclude that any definition that denies liberty in the Supreme Being is necessarily false, and that the liberty of man does not consist in the inalienable right to choose between two opposite opinions, but in admitting and professing the opinion that may be true and good; which is to say, in8other words, God is always in the truth; liberty for him does not consist in choosing the truth; and that which is not liberty in God cannot be in man, who is the image of God. Liberty, then, consists in always following the truth. But as man cannot be always in the truth, his liberty will consist in submitting himself to the authority that will guide him by the true way. And where is this authority, we ask? In the pope, they reply with undisturbed serenity.
What is there in this argument the design of which is the deception of men?—Sophisms and nothing more than sophisms. It is a sophism to draw from the divine nature conclusions in order to apply them to man on a subject in which they clearly state that they are diverse. God, not having to choose from being the Supreme Intelligence, chooses not, Thou, O man, art the one who must choose. Behold the sophisms that these enemies of liberty, progress, and civilization present to us under a thousand forms!
Another sophism that we meet constantly in the mouth of the Papist is the one that they give us for positive proof for all that is in dispute, by which they begin and prove all. It is this, that the pope is the authority to which man must blindly submit himself, and what he tells us is the truth. Says the Romanist, "You cannot find the truth; submit yourself, give up your reason and your conscience, and you will find it." Yes, I reply at all times, I may be persuaded that the pope has the truth; and, although I sincerely desire that it may be so, yet I doubt it; assure me of it, examining it in the light of the gospel, of reason, and history; and you refuse me the examination. Oh, well, if permitted, it is only done after the manner of a preacher that we heard a few nights ago preaching on "Purgatory before Reason,"—"it is according to the justice of God." He declared that he was not going to prove the dogma by reason; that would be to fall into rationalism; the dogma is proved through what?—Through the faith and the traditions. He said that he was going to show through Catholic authority that this dogma is reasonable.
The pope is the authority and has the truth, says the Romanist, and you can always examine it through the Catholic channel, which is to say, without reasoning upon it, and that you never examine it except to confirm what the pope says is the truth. With these weapons, with this class of arguments, you can prove all, and thus these false defenders of liberty tell us that the teachings of modern civilization are libertinism.
No agency is refused to make acceptable such absurd doctrines; all are good; all are permitted—the audacious falsehood, such as the falsification of history. Balmes tells us that the Inquisition was one of the great glories of Spain, and then declares that his heart is irritated when he hears the church which he has served reproached for using violence to convince men. Is this blindness or sophistry? Mr. Nicolás says indignantly: "The popes have neither sustained nor favored the Inquisition. It has been a question of the kings. Father Ventura rejected violence as means for the conversion of the heretic, and affirmed that the doctrines of the church must alone be propagated by the word, and that physical force had never been used by the popes."
But what of the Inquisition, the destruction of the Huguenots, the anathemas against those who held that the heretics ought not to suffer persecution? The most sincere of Roman authors cannot deny that the church condemns liberty. This painful impression on the mind of the Catholic is destroyed by subtlety. The church condemns all systems of philosophy that are not its own. These authors tell us that they only treat of materialism, although the pope has marked out many other systems of materialism. The church declares marriage concubinage that has not been solemnized according to its doctrines, and these authors tell us that the pope condemns the families thus formed. The church curses him who denies its right to direct in the public schools; and these lords tell us that the pope's only wish is to take atheism out of the schools.
The pope condemns the defenders of the liberty of thought and of conscience. To-day it is known throughout all the truly civilized nations, and these lords say the pope's wish is that no secular education be permitted.
Again we ask, What is there in all this, blindness or deceit? Is it possible that they are all persuaded that modern civilization, in which the most distinguished are, is evil? Ought we not to see clearly in these sophisms, these adulterations of history and the subterfuges of the doctrines of the church, the protest of the consciences of these selfsame defenders of the Papacy, because the conscience naturally resents the infringement of its laws?
It is from these that we affirm that the Papacy is a denial of liberty in all of its forms, and a system that employs means as this one does to make itself acceptable, is death to the conscience and the spirit of its defenders.
DISCIPLINE.
By Barbara Deane
BY BARBARA DEANE.
Life is not lived in the brief joy
Of a bright summer day,
Nor measured by the clouds that cast
Fleet shadows o'er the way.
Within each human soul there lie
Unfathomed deeps, below
The waves that o'er the surface sweep
With ceaseless ebb and flow.
O stricken one with soul distressed,
O'erwhelmed with bitter grief!
O heart, all quivering with pain,
Without rest or relief!
Remember 'twas an angel's hand
That stirred Bethesda's pool,
And gave the troubled waters power
The fevered brow to cool.
For 'tis the heaving billows move
The depths where true peace dwells,
And out from these far hidden springs
The purest joy upwells.
Then fear not when the angry waves
Rise on life's troubled sea,
For He will calm thy soul who calmed
The storm-tossed Galilee.