Earlier text: The SermonSpeech of an Unconverted Brahmin.
DR. J. CHAMBERLAIN missionary from southern India relates the following incident. He had delivered a lecture in an Indian village, which was attentively listened to by an audience of one hundred and eighty, composed of Brahmins, merchants, artizans, officials, and students. As I took my hat to come away, says the doctor in narrating the occurrences, a Brahmin, one of the best educated in the place, arose and politely asked permission to say a word. I, of course, politely assented, without the slightest idea what his purpose was. In a neat address of ten or fifteen minutes, couched in choice and ornate language, and with apt illustrations, he urged upon his fellow-citizens to second in every way, the efforts I was making for their intellectual and moral advancement. I will give you briefly the substance of one part:— "Behold that mango tree on yonder road-side. Its fruit is fast approaching to ripeness. Bears it that fruit for itself or its own profit? From the moment the first ripe fruits turn their yellow sides towards the morning sun, until the last mango is pelted off, it is assailed with showers of sticks and stones from boys and men, and every passer-by, until it stands bereft of leaves, with branches knocked off and bleeding from many a broken twig. Piles of stones underneath, and clubs and sticks lodged in its boughs, are the only trophies of its joyous crop of fruit. Is it discouraged? does it cease to bear fruit? does it say, if I am barren nobody will pelt me, and I shall live in peace? Not at all; the next season the budding leaves, the beauteous flowers, the tender fruit again appear. Again it is pelted, and broken, and wounded, but it goes on bearing, and children's children pelt its branches and enjoy its fruit. "That is a type of these missionaries. I have watched them well, and seen what they are. What do they come to this country for? What tempts them to leave their parents, friends, and country, and come to this, to them, unhealthy climate? Is it for gain or profit? Some of us country clerks in government offices receive more salary than they! Is it for the sake of an easy life? See how they work and then tell me. No! They seek like the mango tree, to bear fruit for the benefit of others, and that though treated with contumely and abuse from those they are benefiting. "Now, look at the missionary. He came here a few years ago, leaving all and seeking only our good. He was met with cold looks and suspicious glances, and shunned, and avoided, and maligned. He sought to talk with us of what he told us was the matter of most importance in heaven or earth, and we would not listen. Was he discouraged? He started a dispensary, and we said, 'Let the Pariahs take his medicines, we won't'; but in the times of sickness and distress we had to go to him, and he healed us. We complained if he walked through our Brahmin streets, but when our wives and daughters were sick and in anguish, we went and begged him to come into our inner apartments, and he came, and our daughters and wives now smile upon us in health. Has he made any money by it? Even the cost of the medicines has not been returned to him! And now, in spite of our opposition, he has bought this site and built this beautiful room, and furnished it with the choicest lore, in many languages, and put into it newspapers and periodicals which were inaccessible to us before: he has placed here tables to write on, chairs to sit on, and lamps for us to read by. And what does he get for all this? Does he make money by it? Why, we don't even pay for the lamp oil consumed by night as we read. Now, what is it that makes him do all this for us? It is his Bible. I have looked into it a good deal, at one time and another, in the different languages I know; it is just the same in all languages. The Bible—there is nothing to compare with it in all our sacred books, for goodness and purity, and holiness and love, and for motives of actions. Where did the English-speaking people get all their intelligence and energy, and cleverness, and power? It is their Bible that gives it to them. And now they bring it to us, and say, 'This is what raised us; take it, and raise yourselves.' They do not force it upon us, as the Mohammedans used to their Koran, but they bring it in love, and translate it into our language, and lay it before us and say, 'Look at it, read it, and examine it, and see if it is not good.' Of one thing I am convinced: Do what we will, oppose it as we may, it is the Christian Bible that will sooner or later work the regeneration of this land."—Missionary Link. Patience.
By Earnest Christian
BE patient toward all men. The cold hammer fashions the hot iron. He who would govern others, must first learn to govern himself. Passion is blind. Cool, deliberate, and at the same time energetic action, makes itself felt in every department of life. Be patient toward your brethren. Some good men are slow to see into things. They want to do right, but it takes them a good while to determine what is required of them. Every member of the body of Christ is not an eye. To get out of patience with these dull ones will not help either them or you. Give them time, and they will do their duty. We all have our infirmities. Let us bear with each other. Be patient toward sinners. Think how long God bore with you. We should bear with wicked men while God bears with them. Our patience under provocation may be the very means which the Spirit will use to strike them under conviction. But if we get out of patience with them, they can have no confidence in our religion. They will say they are as well off as we are, and so they will harden themselves in sin. To be patient you must have patience. The stream cannot flow if the fountain is dry. The fruit will not grow without the tree. Resolutions alone, against impatience, will not answer. You must pray as well as resolve. Ask God, not merely to help you in your outward conduct, but to give you the inward grace. Unless you get that, you will fail as you have failed before. Be determined on victory in this respect. No matter how much money a man may make by day, he will never grow rich if he is robbed of all at night. Impatience is the thief that steals your grace, and leaves you weak and faint, notwithstanding God has blessed you with the outpouring of the Spirit. The soul never permanently grows in grace, unless it is hedged about with patience. Remember that peace, and gentleness, and long-suffering, are as truly fruits of the Spirit as love and joy. Policy of Romanism.
By John Harvey Kellogg
MANY papers in the United States scout the idea that there can be any danger to our civil liberties in the increase of the power and influence of the Catholic church in this country. Prominent among these is the Christian Union, edited by H. W. Beecher. Mr. Beecher reports that some of the warmest tokens of respect come to him from the Catholic church. Why the dignitaries of that body should congratulate him is not easy to conceive, unless they believe that his latitudinarian course indirectly helps their cause by tending to break down the landmarks and safeguards of Protestantism. That his ministry has this tendency has been noticed with regret by many for years past. Certainly Catholics cannot favorably regard him as a religious teacher, for the present pope, in harmony with his predecessors, has denounced as error the opinion that, "Protestantism is nothing more than another form of the same true Christian religion in which it is possible to be equally pleasing to God as in the Catholic church." It cannot be said that this is but the opinion of a church in regard to its own superiority to others, even as each Protestant church may consider its own faith purer and better than that of its neighbors, for this opinion is set forth as emanating from one who is infallible, and who has unlimited authority, both spiritual and civil. Whatever changes may take place in the teachings and actions of the Roman church, she never changes in her feelings and policy toward those who dare to worship God outside of her communion. To show that her present peaceful attitude to-ward Protestants is one of policy and not of principle we quote from the "Syllabus of Errors" promulgated by Pius IX in 1864. Error 77. "In the present day it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion shall be held as the only religion of the State, to the exclusion of all other modes of worship." Error 78. "Whence it has been wisely provided by law, in some countries called Catholic, that persons coming to reside therein shall enjoy the public exercise of their own worship." It is an error to say that it is expedient to tolerate any worship but that of the Catholic church; an error to say that others beside Catholics shall enjoy the public exercise of their own worship. This reminds us strongly of the inquisition and the fires of the auto-de-fe. This is a direct confession that the present pacific course of the pope and the Catholic church is one of necessity, not of choice. Of course her action must be changed when opportunity permits. Another error is the following:— Error 54. "Kings and princes are not only exempt from the jurisdiction of the church, but are superior to the church in litigated questions of jurisdiction." In questions of jurisdiction the State must yield to the church. This ought to be a warning, but the American people love blindness, and they will not be warned. Many great men of the Protestants seem to be almost as much bewildered by the gaudy trappings of the Roman-American Cardinal as are the Romanists themselves. High officers of the government do him honor, while they know that it is impossible for him to be an American citizen, and a Catholic Cardinal. His allegiance is to a power higher, in his estimation, than the government of the United States. Not an ecclesiastical power merely, confining its decisions to matters of religion, but a power holding jurisdiction over the government. Whatever may be said of the manner in which Prussia has met the aggressions of the papal power, it must be conceded that her course is founded upon just views of the relation of the church to the State, and the danger to the State of permitting the claims of the Catholic church to be pressed on the people without a check. In our own land the prospects of success for the papal power are brighter than in any other country, England not excepted, though the tendency of the established English church is decidedly toward Romanism. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, but never so fearful as when men fall from under the gospel. The saddest road to hell is that which runs under the pulpit, past the Bible, and through the midst of warnings and invitations. THE variety and number of needles made in these days are wonderful; the surgeon, harness-maker, book-binder, felt-worker, saddler, glover, embroiderer, and housewife, each wanting needles of all shapes and sizes and lengths. And when you think that each needle has to pass through seventy pairs of hands before it is finished and ready for use, you see what pains is taken to reach excellence in a very small thing. Seventy pairs of hands to make a needle, and each pair necessary to make the needle perfect. If only one pair refused to do their part, the whole would be a failure—not a needle would be right. You see it is painstaking in little things and in small parts which leads to excellence and success. We are apt to slight bits of work, thinking it is no matter and of no account. But it is not so. The details of a plan must be faithfully carried out in order to make the plan a success. If the parts of a work are well done, the whole will be complete, and only then. And it is just so in making and moulding character. It must be well done in parts, faithfully finished in bits, in order to make a complete and beautiful whole. Preaching Christ Crucified.
By John Hall
HERE, gentlemen, is the commanding theme of your preaching. Around the sun of this central Christian doctrine all other truths revolve as satellites. Why did he come? God pitied sinners. Why must he die? "Without the shedding of blood there is no remission." Why do we need him? We are dead in sin, under the law's curse. What are we to do with our sin? Carry it to the cross. How can it be removed? "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin." What shall men believe? That Christ is able and willing to save. To whom shall they go? To God in Christ. In whom shall they trust? A personal, living Jesus, who was dead and dieth no more. How shall they loathe their sin? By looking at the crucified Christ. How shall they vanquish it? In the strength of the risen Jesus. Ah, but the way is long and hard, and the struggle is unutterably wearying! Even so. There is no help for it, but to "run with patience the race set before us, looking to Jesus."—Dr. John Hall. MANY persons attempt to drown trouble in drink. You might as well attempt to drown a fish in the brook. It is the element in which trouble lives and thrives. Others nurse their trouble in idleness. They say, "I don't feel like doing anything." No doubt about that. The first effort of trouble is to absorb all your energies, and make you feel that all effort is difficult, perhaps useless. But it is effort that cures trouble. Work is the only certain remedy for it. If misfortune has come upon you, work must retrieve it. If sudden calamity has struck you hard, you must strike something else hard, or it will overpower you. If you have met with losses, you need all your energies to make them up, and these you cannot have if you lie awake thinking about your troubles. Every sleepless hour at night takes away the value of a waking and working hour by day. There are some troubles which time only can heal, some, perhaps, which no time can heal, but there is no burden of trouble which will not be made lighter by good, hearty, honest work. Try it and see. And remember that, as most of our troubles are caused by departing from duty and from God, there is no perfect cure for them until we penitently return to him who "binds up the broken heart," and who having been himself a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, knows better than any one else how "to comfort all that mourn." The Michigan Camp-Meeting.
By Editor
ANOTHER meeting on the ground at Battle Creek has passed. It has not been without numerous scenes and incidents which are more or less common to all the camp-meetings of our people, and of any one of which it may be said, This has well paid for the entire meeting. Some may go from the most powerful and profitable meeting, not particularly impressed or benefited, because they are themselves too much like the heath in the desert, and do not know when good cometh. But who that has a heart susceptible of divine influences, can attend such gatherings and not receive a lasting blessing? How much some are losing by not attending the camp-meetings! How can they be contented to remain away! We have neither time nor space to give even a full synopsis of the meetings. We had many fears that the number of business sessions to be held would greatly detract from the religious interests of the occasion. But the business matters were disposed of in a marvelously brief, effective, and harmonious manner. A greater amount of business was transacted during the seven days of this meeting, than during the fourteen days of the meeting of 1874; and yet there was a fair proportion of time to devote to religious services, which were not without their interest and good results. The happy disposal of so much business was due to the energy and tact of Bro. White, who took hold to lift in every direction, and whose executive ability, when his way is clear from any serious hindrances and drawbacks is equal to the occasion. Only a few particulars concerning the religious meetings can we give. At the early social meeting on Friday morning ninety-three testimonies were given in fifty-eight minutes. On Sabbath morning the congregation was divided into three companies, in each of which between sixty and seventy spoke. The testimonies were intelligent and substantial, having the ring of the true coin, and showing that all hearts were beating in unison in the same work—the work of the third angel's message, which is to lead souls to the keeping of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus the few remaining years while mercy may be found. At nine a general social meeting at the stand. But it was soon seen that the congregation was so large, and so many wished to speak, that it was practicable to divide the congregation as they sat into three divisions, each under charge of its leaders, and thus hold three meetings in one. It worked admirably; and for most of the time three were speaking at once; and this caused no more distraction or confusion, as was remarked at the time, than different birds singing in the same forest cause disorder and confusion. This was a remarkable meeting surpassing in interest anything of the kind we have ever witnessed. It was good to be there. In the afternoon an intense religious feeling pervaded the congregation as sister White spoke on Christ's pathetic lamentation over Jerusalem. At the conclusion of her remarks, some three hundred or more came forward for prayers. The preaching during the meeting was performed by Eld. Jas. White, Mrs. E. G. White, and Elds. Hull, Bourdeau, St. John, Smith, and Jones. Bro. W. spoke five times and sister W. four. On Sunday, though the day was broken up with showers, the crowd that came to the ground was uncommonly large. A special train on the Chicago and Lake Huron road brought in some seven hundred passengers. Besides these many came in with their own conveyances from eighteen to twenty miles, through all the region round about, so that in the afternoon the number present was estimated at four thousand. Sr. White spoke in the forenoon during the rain, under unfavorable circumstances, to as many as could be literally packed under the tent, flanked on all sides by a surrounding wall of standing listeners eight or ten feet deep. This rendered speaking in the close and oppressive air within, a severe tax upon her physical strength. In the afternoon Bro. W. spoke with freedom on the Sabbath question. But many coming from so long a distance, had not arrived in season to hear all the discourse, and not being able to remain till evening were going away disappointed if they could not hear more—disappointed, in fact, if they could not hear Mrs. White. Under these circumstances she roused herself, notwithstanding her worn condition, to speak again in the afternoon. This she was however enabled to do with unwonted freedom and power, the Lord signally sustaining and blessing her in the arduous effort. The presence of Bro. Francois Urgos, who recently embraced the truth in Kankakee, Ill., under the labors of Bro. Bourdeau added no little interest to the meeting. This Bro., of a noble Italian family, espoused the cause of freedom and fought for the liberty of his country under Garabaldi; but when the papal cause was re-established by the intervention of the Austrians, after much oppression, and a series of narrow escapes he fled from the country. After traveling in various parts of the eastern world he came to America, and here has received the truth, as above stated. He has an uncle who is prime minister of Italy, and brothers who are in the service of the king and government. Victor Emanuel has invited him to return to Italy; and if he would renounce Protestantism, his family would welcome him back, and he could live in affluence under government pension. But he prefers the truth, and deigns to return, when he can do so independently, and when he has provided himself with some of our works in Italian, to make known the truth to his countrymen. He however labors under the disadvantage of being totally blind, having lost one eye in the service, and the other through the machinations of the Jesuits, who have followed him with the purpose of taking his life. A sketch of his history, giving his experience as a prisoner of the inquisition in Rome, &c., &c., will be published soon. He will for the time being teach Italian and Spanish in connection with our school, if there are those who desire to learn these languages. The welcome presence of Eld. N. V. Hull, the delegate from the Seventh-day Baptist General Conference, is spoken of by Bro. White in another column. His discourse Sunday evening was on the subject of persevering, prevailing faith, as illustrated in the case of the Syrophenician woman, Matt. 15:21-28. It was replete with instruction and encouragement, and was listened to with marked attention by the large assemblage. Bro. Bourdeau gave an interesting and encouraging report of a Frenchman who had received the truth in Africa, where he found several families keeping the Sabbath. He desires, after suitable preparation, to return to engage in missionary labor there. A notice of this case will also be found in another column. On Monday afternoon, forty-eight were immersed in the Kalamazoo river, Brn. E. R. Jones and H. M. Kenyon administering the ordinance. Some of these were very interesting cases: one a little girl in her ninth year, thus early following understandingly her Saviour in this divine ordinance; another a young man who, when he first heard of this faith, was connected with a drug store in a neighboring city. The trial volume was sent by some one to the proprietor of this store. Instead of being favorably impressed with the truth, he became so incensed against it as to commit some of the papers to the flames. Finally he told the young man that he would give them to him. The young man read them and was interested. The seed found good soil. He and his companion are, as the result, keeping the Sabbath, and here he took upon himself the baptismal vows. Thus the good providence of God often directs the truth into channels we know not of, where honest hearts are to be found, and fruit is to appear. Withhold not your hands, O ye who are scattering the words of life through the printed page. Souls are everywhere turning Heavenward, as the glorious consequence. Two from the Review Office we were rejoiced to see go forward on this occasion, besides the daughter and son-in-law of Eld. J. B. Frisbie, and others whom we could mention with equal pleasure. There were eighty-five tents on the ground, six less than last year; but one of these, a forty-foot tent, contained many families, and another, a sixty-foot tent, many more, being filled very much as a hive is filled with bees. Had these all had separate tents, there would have been at least one hundred. The number present it was judged was larger than one year ago. Another feature of the meeting was very noticeable, and that was the number of recent converts to the truth. The present is the fourth year a camp-meeting has been held upon the ground of Battle Creek, yet scores testify that it was the first camp-meeting of this kind they ever attended, some keeping the Sabbath for the first time there on the ground, some dating their conversion to the truth three weeks before, some six, some two months, four, five, six, &c. The truth is working more rapidly than we are aware, and agencies seem to be preparing to carry it into all the earth. As we look back upon the meeting, we see no features of an unpleasant or discouraging character, but many of great interest and the most hope-inspiring nature; the advantage therefore lies immensely in this direction. The meeting has been good, and will do good. And when, a little in the future the race is accomplished, and the prize is gained, we believe that some will look back to this meeting as their starting point in the way to Heaven, and many others, as a timely help to them in their Christian course. Editorial Correspondence.
By John Nevins Andrews
I GRATEFULLY acknowledge the reception of a bundle of Holland tracts, and have also to report that the most of these were on their way to Holland by the next mail. I hope for good fruit from these tracts. I sent them to those with whom I have corresponded, and to several of these correspondents I sent also a letter bringing before them the claims of the Bible Sabbath, and an epitome of our faith. Our second baptism was an occasion of much interest. The place is a beautiful spot near the north end of Lake Neuchatel. Eight persons were baptized. Two of these were a Methodist brother and his wife, who have this summer begun to hallow the Bible Sabbath. He appears to be a man of God. He is deeply interested in the study of the Scriptures, and very zealous to teach those who are in darkness. I have taken much pains to help him, and I feel very hopeful in his case. He had begun to preach among the Methodists, and now since learning the nearness of the second advent of Christ, the commandments, and the Sabbath, he is very desirous of telling his German friends what he has learned. So with the approval of the committee he has already begun to labor publicly, and with a fair prospect of success. He seems to be a man of a humble spirit, and to be willing to labor without inquiring what remuneration shall be made him. He supports himself with his own labor and preaches on Sabbath and first-day. His wife appears to be of the same mind with him. Since my separation from Bro. Ertzenberger, I have been in constant correspondence with him. His labors have been faithful and untiring in Germany. He has had peculiar difficulties to contend with, and has, I think, stood in the counsel of God and acted with wisdom and with humility. His labors have been a great blessing to the German brethren, and a few have embraced the Sabbath through his instrumentality. He has just entered upon a course of lectures in a new field. May the Lord make him the instrument of great good in Germany. My first great object to accomplish in Switzerland is the publication of a paper in French. The most, even of our own people here in this country, can have no real idea of the work in America as our publications are all in English with the exception of a few tracts. The day which witnesses the publication of a paper in French in behalf of the cause of truth will mark a new era here. The time is at hand when with God's blessing we will have this. I miss no opportunity to teach the truth, but my principal effort is to thoroughly master French. For various reasons this has been not simply a painstaking labor but one of real pain. It does not give me much to report that is of interest to the brethren in America, and I well know that they watch with prayerful interest the progress of the week in Europe. Yet this preparatory work is absolutely necessary. They may be sure of one thing: I am at work, as wisely as I know how, and to the full extent of my strength. Though I have obstacles to surmount, I feel that the Lord is present to help. My courage is good, though I see not yet how everything is to be done. We need a man of God to give himself to the work in Italy in the region where sister Revel lives. This is the first person in Europe who embraced the Sabbath under the labors of Eld. M. B. C. I would go with such laborer and remain for a time, as I did with Bro. Ertzenberger in Germany. And what shall be done for the Sabbath-keepers in Russia? There are certainly many of them, and I hope they are people who fear God. Is there no Russian Sabbath-keeper in the United States? We must soon open communication with these people. Did Moses Write on the Tables of Stone?
By John Harvey Waggoner
A SPECIAL effort having lately been made to prove that Moses wrote the ten commandments on the tables of stone, we are induced to write out a few thoughts on that subject. Those who claim that Moses did write on the tables of stone rest entirely on the 28th verse of the 34th chapter of Exodus, which reads thus:— "And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread nor drink water; and he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments." The case turns on this one question: when a pronoun is repeated without a substantive intervening, does it necessarily in each case refer to the same antecedent? Without any regard to the context or to other texts, and with modern ideas of grammatical constructions, it would be decided at once that Moses wrote on them. But no candid student of the Bible will contend that a text must be taken without regard to the context or to other texts speaking on the same point. It should also be considered that the Hebrew is a very brief language, leaving far more to be gathered from the context than do modern languages.341 Learned Jewish Rabbis consider the Christian teachers greatly at fault in trying to bring down the Hebrew to the grammatical precision of Western languages. The great proportion of supplied words in many texts gives force to this objection. Without these supplied words we have barely the skeletons of sentences, to be filled out according to the connection. What, then, was the usage of early writers of the Hebrew in regard to the pronoun? Every observing reader must have noticed that they used pronouns often when we, for the sake of greater clearness, would insert the proper name. A few instances will suffice to show this. 1 Sam. 16:21. "And David came to Saul and stood before him; and he loved him greatly; and he became his armor bearer." It was Saul that loved David greatly, as he said in verse 22, of David, "he hath found favor in my sight." According to modern ideas of grammar we must decide against the evident meaning of the text. Isa. 37:36. "Then the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand; and when they arose in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses." Here there is no antecedent expressed but the Assyrians who were slain; we are left to infer that it was the remaining Assyrians who arose and found one hundred and eighty-five thousand corpses in the camp. Zech. 6:13. "Even he shall build the temple of the Lord, and he shall bear the glory, and he shall sit and rule upon his throne, and he shall be a priest upon his throne." Although the pronouns in this text are not the same, the construction is similar, so much so that some have strenuously claimed that he and his refer to the same person. But the context shows that it is upon the throne of the Lord, the Father, that the Branch, or the Son of God, sits a priest. "The counsel of peace shall be between them both." Heb. 7 and 8 show positively that our Saviour, the King of peace, is a priest on his Father's throne. And this is in distinction from his own throne, upon which he will never be a priest, as is said in Rev. 3:21. "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne." This method of expression is not confined to the Old Testament. We find a striking instance of it in Paul's language in 1 Cor. 15:25. "For he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet." Here, according to our rules of grammar, we must decide that he who reigns is the same who puts all enemies under his feet. But the context and other Scriptures show that he is not. In the two preceding verses both the Father and Son are introduced, and the two instances of the pronoun in verse 25 apply, the first to the Son, the second to the Father, exactly as the pronouns refer to Moses and to God in Ex. 34:28. In Ps. 110:1, the Father says to the Son, "Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool." He is now sitting at his Father's right hand from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. 1 Cor. 15:28 shows positively that the Father puts his enemies under the feet of his Son. "And when all things shall be subdued unto him [the Son], then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him [the Father] that put all things under him [the Son], that God may be all in all." This verse also presents the same interchange of pronouns that we find in Ex. 34:28, and it shows that the same rule of grammar which would make Moses write the ten commandments on the tables of stone, would make the Son become subject to himself! instead of becoming subject to the Father who will put all things under him. And verse 25 stands thus:— "For he [the Son] must reign till he [the Father] hath put all enemies under his [the Son's] feet." And thus in Ex. 34:28. "And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he [Moses] did neither eat bread nor drink water. And he [the Lord] wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments." The context and other texts show that this is the true reading of the text. See verse 1 of this chapter:— "And the Lord said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest." This alone fully justifies our application of the pronouns as above. But it is placed beyond all possibility of doubt in Deut. 10:1-5. We will copy entire; they are the words of Moses speaking to Israel:— "At that time the Lord said unto me, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and come up unto me into the mount, and make thee an ark of wood. And I will write on the tables the words that were in the first tables which thou brakest, and thou shalt put them in the ark. And I made an ark of shittim wood, and hewed two tables of stone like unto the first, and went up into the mount, having the two tables in mine hand. And he wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which the Lord spake unto you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly: and the Lord gave them unto me. And I turned myself and came down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made." The opposers of the truth have waxed so bold as to even deny that God wrote upon the first tables except through Moses as his agent. In Deut. 5:22, Moses said:— "These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice: and he added no more. And he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me." Also Deut. 4:12, 13. So far from it being true that Moses wrote on the tables, the Lord prepared the first tables and wrote upon them before he called Moses up into the mount to receive them. See Ex. 24:12:— "And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there; and I will give thee tables of stone, and the law, and the commandments, which I have written, that thou mayest teach them." Accordingly Ex. 31:18 says they were "written with the finger of God." And Ex. 32:16 says:—"And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables." God prepared the tables and wrote upon them the ten commandments before he called Moses up to the mount to receive them. This is too plain to be denied by any candid man. They only who regard theories more than truth will deny the evident teachings of these Scriptures. Unfortunately there are many in these days who strive for the mastery without regard to the contradictions in which they involve the Scriptures. They who "tremble at the word" of God, will ever seek to harmonize the Scriptures and to bring them into agreement one with another. And they will also try to bring themselves in harmony with the whole truth of God, instead of distorting the word to make it conform to their own opinions. J. H. W. The Camp-Meetings.
By James White
The Battle Creek Camp-meeting is passed. Many circumstances were unfavorable; but the Lord helped, and results are good. The influence of this meeting will be lasting. The business sessions of the several Societies passed off rapidly, harmoniously, and well. We are again greatly indebted to our S. D. Baptist brethren for the presence of another delegate from their body in the person of Elder N. V. Hull. His assurances of a desire of Christian union between the two bodies on the part of his people met with a hearty response from more than a thousand glad hearts of our people. God bless the Seventh-day Baptists. The coming to us of Bro. and Sr. Hull with good words has done us good. Our labors before, and during, this meeting, were such as to nearly disqualify us to meet the large congregations on first-day, and to enjoy the closing labors and blessing of this great and good meeting. And now we feel fearfully worn as we pencil these lines on the train bound to the Vermont meeting. But the pleasant reflections of what God has wrought the past two weeks, and the triumphant hope of reward in the future, make us very happy. We were all made joyful to see Elder Butler moving out from his trials at the close of the General Conference. We were indeed happy to greet Elder Canright on the camp-ground the last day of the meeting. He helped just where help was most needed. He is now with us on the way to the meetings in Vermont, Massachusetts, and Maine. Bro. Smith will join him at the Rome, N. Y., meeting while we shall hasten from Maine to the Kansas meeting to be holden the same time. These brethren will also attend the camp-meetings in Northern Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana. Before we left California last May, we promised to return to the California Camp-meeting provided that the brethren there would put up the new office building ready to take in the new press in season to advertise therein a series of tent-meetings in San Francisco, to be holden immediately after camp-meeting; and provided the church in that city would have their church ready to dedicate at the close of the tent-meeting. There is no drawing back on the part of the Californians. They are fulfilling on their part, and the Conference Committee and nearly every church in the State have sent us unanimous requests to be at their camp-meeting. In view of urgent requests from New York, Northern Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana, we had decided to divide forces at the New York Camp-meeting, Mrs. W. to go directly to California, and the writer to remain at present and attend all the camp-meetings east of the Plains. But the coming of Elder Canright has decided the matter, that we both be at the California Camp-meeting, and by the grace of God, fulfill on our part, to the best of our ability, the contract to which the brethren in California hold us.
JAMES WHITE.