THE question that is uppermost in the minds of most of our brethren and sisters as we meet them, is, "Are we now in the 'little time of peace' to which sister White refers in Testimony for the Church?" My answer invariably is, I think not. But, it is asked, do you not believe the Lord moved his people out to fast and pray for the winds to be held, over one year since? I do. And it was so apparent to all that the war was terminated by the special interposition of the Lord's hand, that they could not refrain from publicly proclaiming the fact. In Washington, the Capital of the nation, while Union men were rejoicing over the victories gained, they had this inscription in evergreen in a conspicuous place, "This is the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes." Yes, the Lord heard and answered in a signal manner the prayers of his people. Perhaps we erred in thinking the cessation of open hostilities would mark the commencement of that little time of peace.
It has been my conviction the most of the time since the close of the war, that there were closer trials and perplexities than anything we have yet seen before that time of peace in which the message is to go with a loud cry. It will assist us here to call attention to that testimony showing the situation of affairs before and in the time of peace. "I was shown the inhabitants of the earth in the utmost confusion. There was war, bloodshed, want, privation, famine, and pestilence in the land; and as these things were without, God's people began to press together and to cast aside their little difficulties. Self-dignity no longer controlled them. Deep humility took its place. Suffering, perplexity, and privation, caused reason to resume its throne, and the passionate and unreasonable man became sane, and acted with discretion and wisdom. My attention was then called from the scene. There seemed to be a little time of peace." Testimony No. 7, pp. 21, 22.
Judging from the words of the above, we should conclude that before that time of peace, want and privation were to distress the people of God. Where has been the want? Where the famine and pestilence? Some may answer, among the freed-men at the South. But the language implies more than that. It is something that will so affect the church that the man of "self-dignity" will be humbled, and deep humility will be manifest in its place. Instead of want and privation, it has been uncommonly easy times for money during the war.
There is another testimony in No. 9, which we suppose applies to the state of affairs before the time of peace. "The desolating power of God is upon the earth to rend and destroy. The inhabitants of the earth are appointed to the sword, famine, and pestilence." True the sword has been heavy upon the land. Famine in some places South. Pestilence nowhere.
Again we would ask, Can we call this a time of peace? Andrew Johnson it is true, lately proclaimed peace; but every loyal man would say it was the cry of "Peace! peace! when there is no peace." As to whether we are yet in peace, we will let the following extracts from an article on reconstruction in the Advocate of Peace, for March and April, 1866, testify:
"Never in the darkest night of the rebellion, was our country in more imminent peril than at this moment, and on the result are suspended issues big with the weal or woe of our republic for long ages, perhaps to the end of time.
"Unless this question of reconstruction shall be settled aright, we fear we are doomed, from the slaveocratic element still working among us, to evils in the future well nigh, if not quite as great as in the past; but at present we see little reason to hope for such a settlement.
"We look now at this subject—reconstruction—only in its bearings on the future peace of our land; and in this view we confess we have many sad forebodings.
"One thing is certain—the war has not given us, morally or politically, any satisfactory or permanent peace. It is only a truce; and the South, still nearly, if not quite, as rebel and pro-slavery as ever in heart, will bide her time, and nurse her wrath for such future revenge as shall atone for the bitterness and mortification of present defeat." pp. 61, 62.
Parson Brownlow, Governor of Tennessee, says concerning the disloyalty of the South:
"The feeling of hostility toward the Government is now greater than it was at the time of Lee's surrender. And if, by any indiscretion on the part of our civil or military authorities, we should be involved in a war with any foreign powers, in the present and growing temper and spirit of the South, the great body of the people would take part against the Government.
"I honestly believe that the country will be plunged into as great a sea of calamities as it was in 1861, and hence, as a Union man, I feel that I should be no better than a traitor did I not say so, and denounce those concerned.
"The newspapers of the rebellious States, thoroughly disloyal, bitter in their teachings, and infamous in doctrines, correctly represent the feelings and sentiments of the rebel people.
"There are not a dozen straight-out Union papers in the eleven seceded States. Of the forty newspapers now in blast in Tennessee, only seven can be classed as unconditionally loyal, and half of them are in East Tennessee.
"This is a gloomy account of affairs, but it is true, and I could have stated the case stronger and still had truth on my side."
The above testimonies not only show that there has been no real peace as yet, but they also establish the truthfulness of what is found in Testimony No. 7: "I was pointed back to ancient Israel held in bondage by the Egyptians. The Lord wrought by Moses and Aaron to deliver the children of Israel. Miracles were performed before Pharaoh to convince him that they were especially sent of God to bid him to let Israel go. But Pharaoh's heart was hardened against the messengers of God, and he reasoned away the miracles performed by them. Then the Egyptians were made to feel God's judgments. They were visited by plagues. While suffering under the effects of the several plagues, Pharaoh consented to let Israel go. But as soon as the cause of their suffering was removed, his heart was hardened. His mighty men and counsellors strengthened themselves against God, and endeavored to explain the plagues as the result of natural causes. Each visitation from God was more severe than the preceding one, yet they would not release the children of Israel until the angel of the Lord slew the first-born of the Egyptians. From the king upon the throne, down to the most humble and lowly, there was wailing and mourning. Then Pharaoh commanded to let Israel go. After the Egyptians had buried their dead, Pharaoh relented that he had let Israel go.
"This scene was presented before me to illustrate the selfish love of slavery, the desperate measures the South would adopt to cherish the institution, and the dreadful lengths to they would go before they would yield. The dreadful system of slavery has reduced and degraded human beings to the level of the brutes, and the majority of slave-masters regard them as such. Their consciences have become seared and hardened as was Pharaoh's; and if compelled to release their slaves, their principles are unchanged, and173they would make the slave feel their oppressive power if possible. It looked to me like an impossibility now for slavery to be done away. God alone can wrench the slave from the hand of his desperate, relentless oppressor." pp. 17–19.
While success was attending the Union army, and disaster, defeat, and suffering, were the lot of the South at almost every point, slave-holders were willing to give up their slaves, and even urged the point of giving the slaves their liberty, to induce them to defend their masters. The scene of open carnage has been hushed, and they hold their slaves with a firm grasp, Pharaoh-like, determined they shall not go. Note again the testimony from a Southern correspondent to the New York Independent, as published in Review No. 21. "Slavery in the South is as much a fact now as it was five years ago; and, having lost nothing but the name—with the increased ratio in which the 'peculiar institution' is gaining ground—if the Southern States are reconstructed on the principles enunciated by the President and his copperhead coadjutors of the North, we may say, with the disorganizers of the Chicago Convention, 'The war is a failure."
The South have manifested their Pharaoh-like character for once at least, and hardened their hearts. What judgment is next to burst over their heads we wait to see.
But, the reader may ask, if we are not in the "time of peace," why fast and pray? We fasted and prayed in March 1865 for the Lord to stay the winds of war and strife that threatened to stop all efforts to spread the message. The Lord answered prayer and that hindering cause to the progress of truth is removed. Have we sought unto the Lord as we should to deepen the work of grace in our hearts, to give the holy unction to his servants, and pour out his Spirit where the truth is presented? Have we not rather thought, in the heart if not expressed, that some mighty manifestation would be made by the Lord to arouse us, and neglected that consecration and earnest pleading with the Lord which is necessary for us, in order that we may break through the cloud, and secure a share in the refreshing?
Affliction is upon us as a people. Satan designs to destroy the servants of God, and dishearten the Lord's people; but in the Lord's time his servants will come forth refined by the trial, and better prepared to engage in the work of the Lord. We want to pray that God will regard us in our affliction, raise up his servants who are detained from the field, give us all more earnest desires for the advancement of his truth, and pour out his Spirit, that in this favorable time to spread the truth, a mighty work may be accomplished for his people and cause. May the Lord prosper his people, and give us all a reviving. Amen.
J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.
The Present.
By J. Clarke
We all feel much interested to know just where we are, and what is our position upon the troubled sea of time. Often this anxiety to know what great event is next to take place, may be so great, as to take precedence of our individual responsibilities to God, to ourselves and others; but if our anxiety to understand our whereabouts in prophecy, does but prompt us to increased diligence and watchfulness, then may we hope that this desire to understand, is not mere curiosity, but the genuine work of the Spirit of God upon our hearts.
In the present emergency, we as practical common-sense people, often would like to know if we are soon to be precipitated into the horrors of civil war; if our government is to be revolutionized; our financial system overthrown, and general disorder reign supreme. I have not taken my pen at this time to decide dogmatically upon these points, but with the light we as a people profess at the present time, it seems that we may form something more than a mere speculative opinion.
With regard to the permanency of our government, we may infer that it is to stand till the close of time, from the fact that it is the same identical power spoken of in Rev. xix, 20, which is to be engulfed in the final ruin: also that is treated of as the "two-horned beast" of Rev. xii, 11, and the "false prophet" working miracles in the succeeding verses of the same chapter, evidently the same mentioned in the nineteenth chapter, without organic changes, which could not be if revolutionized.
From Rev. xiv, 9, we learn that this power is to enforce a mark upon the inhabitants of earth, (religious test) which could not be done by a weak, impoverished nation; but such a government must have a wide influence. We infer that such a nation must be in such a crisis highly influential: probably at the pinnacle of seeming prosperity; and from the warning Jesus gives to his followers in Matt. xxiv, 38, and in Luke xxi, 34, it would seem that great plenty and prosperity would immediately precede the day of final ruin. We may therefore look, it would seem, for financial and worldly prosperity; else how could the truth be spread abroad, if men were constantly agitated by revolution and financial disaster, or general war, or famine.
In Rev. vii, 1, 2, there is an account of the holding of the four winds, and the chapter speaks of the final sealing. No doubt the prayers of God's people availed in the subjugation of the rebel forces, and the angels upon the four corners of the earth, restrained the fury of man, and held back the desolating curse of war. If so, they have their charge; they will obey; they will restrain the wrath of the nations until the sealing time is over. Governments may seem to be about to be revolutionized, war may seem to be about to break out, systems of finance may seem to be on the verge of destruction, but they will not bring ruin yet. A mysterious agency is visible among men, and great wisdom is granted at particular crises, and the falling house does not come down. The winds are held; the angels have charge to hold the four winds "until the servants of God are sealed."
Faint not, then, oh troubled saint, as you hear the mutterings of the impending storm. That future storm is not to break until God's servants are sealed. Not now is that storm to discharge its burden of wrath; the angels have their charge; not a tree, nor the earth, nor the sea, is to be hurt till the servants of God are all sealed. Commerce will spread itself upon all waters, and upon the iron roads which belt the earth, and men will settle down in the idea of universal peace; but little will they dream of the mighty work of God in the earth.
Think you a great crisis is just at hand; that a fearful storm is soon to burst? You think correctly; but be assured that storm is not for thee, oh saint, but for the wicked. Those tumults will be silenced; those warlike armies will lie in their barracks; those formidable navies will lie listlessly in the harbors, or cruise leisurely in safest seas; the Papal power will have time and leisure to establish for itself a palace in old Jerusalem, and men of orthodox stamp will be surer than ever of a temporal millennium. Then, oh saint, will come the crisis for which you now so anxiously look; when the faithful angels let go the winds, and nations fly upon each other, and earth will be deluged with blood.
God is now testing and proving his people still, and quietly his work moves on. Soon will the work of sealing be over. Then no more apostasy, no more division. But who can stand the trial; who can be prepared; who can be ready? Thou canst prepare; thou canst be ready; thou canst receive the seal. Only heed the testimony as it comes from day to day. Live a holy life. Then thy life shall be a life of victory here, and of rapture hereafter. J. Clarke.
What is Man?
By J. C. Ryle
READER, It is the beginning of all true religion to know ourselves. You will never value the gospel, till you know what you are by nature and what you deserve. I ask you in all affection to read carefully what I am going to say about the question, "What is Man?"
I am going to tell you the simple, naked, truth. I am not going to talk nonsense, as some do, about the dignity and goodness of human nature. I will not pay compliments to human nature which it does not deserve. Life is too short and uncertain for such flattery. Let us go to the Bible and to facts.
Now, what is man? There is one broad, sweeping, answer, which takes in the whole human race,—man is a sinful being. All children of Adam born into the world, whatever be their name or nation, are corrupt, wicked, and defiled in the sight of God. Their thoughts, words, and actions, are all more or less defective and imperfect.
The evidence of the Bible on this point is clear and unmistakable. "The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth." "There is not a just man upon earth that doeth good, and sinneth not." "The heart of the sons of man is full of evil." "There is none that doeth good, no! not one." "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Gen. viii, 21; Eccl. vii, 20; ix, 3; Ps. xiv, 3; Rom. iii, 23.
The evidence of facts is exactly in keeping with that of the Bible. Man always has been and always is by nature, wicked. By bloodshed, or violence, or impurity, or robbery,—by theft, or lying, or deceit, or fraud,—by pride, or selfishness, or covetousness, or passion, or evil temper, or malice,—by one or other of these marks, the true character of man, is continually showing itself all over the world. As it was in the beginning, so it is now.
Is there no country on the face of the globe where sin does not reign? Is there no happy valley,—no secluded island, where innocence is to be found? Is there no place on earth, where far away from civilization, and commerce, and money, and gunpowder, and luxury, and books, morality, and purity flourish?—No! reader, there is none. Look over all the voyages and travels you can lay your hand on, from Columbus down to Kane, and you will see the truth of what I am asserting. The most solitary island of the Pacific Ocean,—islands cut off from all the rest of the world,—islands where people were alike ignorant of Rome and Paris, London and Jerusalem,—these islands have been found full of impurity, cruelty, and idolatry. The footprints of the Devil have been traced on every shore. Whatever else savages have been found ignorant of, they have never been found ignorant of sin.
But are there not men and women in the world who are free from this corruption of nature? Have there not been every now and then high and exalted souls, who have lived faultless lives? Have there not been some, if it be only a few, who have done all that God required, and thus proved that sinless perfection is a possibility?—No! reader, there have been none. Look over all the biographies and lives of the holiest Christians. Mark how the brightest and best of Christ's people have always had the deepest sense of their own defectiveness and corruption. They groan, they mourn, they sigh, they weep over their own short comings. It is one of the common grounds on which they meet. Patriarchs and Apostles, Fathers and Reformers, Episcopalians and Presbyterians, Luther and Calvin, Knox and Bradford, Rutherford and Bishop Hall, Wesley and Whitefield, Martyn and M'Chyne,—all are alike agreed in feeling their own sinfulness. The more light they have, the more humble and self-abased they seem to be. The more holy they are, the more they seem to feel their own unworthiness, and to glory not in themselves, but in Christ.
Now what does all this tend to prove? To my eyes it seems to prove, that human nature is so tainted and corrupt, that, left to himself, no man could be saved. Man's case appears to be a hopeless one without a Saviour,—and that a mighty Saviour too. There must be a Mediator, an atonement, an Advocate, to make such poor sinful beings as we are, acceptable with God;—and I find what we want, nowhere excepting in Jesus Christ. Heaven for man without a mighty Redeemer,—peace with God, for man without a mighty Intercessor,—eternal life for man without an eternal Saviour,—in one word, salvation without Christ,—all alike appear to me utter impossibilities.
Reader, I lay these things before you, and ask you to consider them. I know it is one of the hardest things in the world to realize the sinfulness of sin. To say we are all sinners is one thing; to have an idea what sin must be in the sight of God is quite another. Sin is too much a part of ourselves to allow us to see it as it is. We do not feel our own moral deformity. We are like those animals in creation which are vile and loathsome to our senses, but are not so to themselves, nor yet to another. Their loathsomeness is174their nature, and they do not perceive it. Our corruption is part and parcel of ourselves, and at best we have but a feeble comprehension of its intensity.
Now, consider what I have been telling you. Think quietly and calmly about it. The Lord grant you may know your own sinfulness and guilt. Once know what you really are, and you will never rest till you are a saved soul.—J. C. Ryle in The Christian.
Commendable Recantations.
By M. W. Howard
USUALLY a strong aversion to recantations is felt. The very name itself has come to convey a significance which is odious. Yet there are recantations that reflect all honor upon the recanting one. An account of such an one has fallen under my notice. It is from Thomas Chalmers,—one gifted with ability and eloquence seldom equalled,—one who from choice, in the fullness of an unexampled popularity, forsook all the endearments of an old and influential, even wealthy position, in an active and commercial city, which had become proud of his talents, so that his influence was almost unbounded, even in circles of the highest refinement of that city, and sought a field of labor among the untaught, degraded thousands that "swarm around the base of the social edifice."
In the early years of his ministry, he held opinions regarding the duties of ministers wholly different from those which he came to entertain after the Spirit of God had wrought a true conversion in his heart. In a General Assembly of ministers he gave expression to sentiments so different from former expressed opinions, that one of the number stood forth and read a paragraph, purporting to be from an anonymous pamphlet. Dr. Chalmers, by the interposition of another speech, had a brief period for recollection afforded him. Then in the midst of breathless silence he arose and said, "Sir, that pamphlet I now declare to be a production of my own, published twenty years ago. I was indeed surprised to hear it brought forward and
quoted this evening; but since it has been brought forward in the face of this house, I can assure the gentleman that I feel grateful to him from the bottom of my heart for the opportunity which he has now afforded me of making a public recantation of the sentiments it contains. I now confess myself to have been guilty of a heinous crime, and now I stand a repentant culprit, before the bar of this venerable Assembly. . . . Alas, Sirs, so I then thought in my ignorance and pride! I have now no reserve in saying the sentiment was wrong, and in the utterance of it I penned what was outrageously wrong!! . . . Strangely blinded that I was."
Here truly, was a recantation verging on the sublime. So, too, in that other instance, when he separated from the national or established church. So very recently had he advocated an established church, that he now drew upon himself the charge of inconsistency. And this as late as the year 1843. The General Assembly was again convened. "Dr. Walsh read a paper prepared for the occasion, then turning and bowing respectfully to the commissioner, he took his hat and walked down the aisle to the door. Dr. Chalmers, during the reading, had stood looking vacantly and abstracted. Starting as from a reverie at Dr. W.'s movement, he seized eagerly his hat and hurried after him. The whole audience, it is said, were now standing, gazing in stillness on the scene. Man after man, row after row moved along that aisle, till four hundred ministers and a greater number of elders had withdrawn."
Here was a recantation, not of sentiment alone, but of action. An action by which, ere its full measures were carried out, four hundred and seventy ministers in Scotland "relinquished their churches, their residences, their living; incurring the scorn and dislike of those who could not comprehend the principles that governed them, and bringing on themselves all the power of caste and a religious aristocracy." In this, Chalmers, in the space of a few hours, so changed his views that he stepped out in one of the most important acts of his life, evincing a heroism and independence characteristic of the man.
Have my readers been interested in the recantations I have related? Will they listen to a personal one? Illustrating how in the quiet, humble walks of life we may be called to recant from former positions and views. A fancied consistency holds many in religious bondage; for the opinion so widely prevails that any new view of Scripture truth must be an innovation. But such as do prayerfully and earnestly make the Bible a study, will from time to time find new revelations bursting upon the mind with all the power of an intuition; and this because the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost, takes of the things of God and shows them unto men. They will find that though all that is essential to salvation is laid down so plain and simple that a child may understand, yet there is much that the profoundest philosophers cannot fathom; and this because the divine Spirit has not yet thrown the light of revealment upon it.
But in some of the plain teachings of the Bible, (if they be taken literally) egregious errors have crept in through a spiritualizing, mystifying habit of understanding the Scriptures. Under this deleterious influence I had come to middle life, trained in the various doctrines of the so-claimed orthodoxy of my church—the punishment of the wicked with the rest. My attention had been called to the view I now hold; but with a shrinking "holy horror," akin to that manifested by the Romanist, when the dogmas of his church are questioned, I sometimes cast furtive glances in that direction. The truth flashed and glared upon my conscience, for I was astonished to find how full the Bible was of it. But with the quietus that it was God's purposes and there it might rest, I sought to let it rest. But rest it would not, but surging back upon the mind it constantly came stronger and stronger. With aching heart and agitated mind it became the burden of every hour. The morning dawn found it pressing down the sinking soul; the midnight hour saw it resting there with accumulating weight. Sleep departed from the eyes and slumber from the eyelids.
Just at this point occurred a general public exercise of our Sunday-school. The subject, God's View of Truth and Falsehood. The manner of conducting the exercise was, each class convened in their respective175places and the afternoon services gave place to it. Each one having previously selected passages of Scripture bearing upon the subject, were to answer as their respective classes were called. The passages which I preferred among those I had selected, had been used over and over again, before our turn came. The most explicit passage in the Bible had not been named, and I too felt reluctant to quote it. But when our class was called and no one seemed inclined to reply, without rising from my seat, I repeated, "All liars shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second death." Rev. xxi, 8. The house was large and well-filled, and our class occupied a distant seat. The pastor standing in the desk was conducting the exercise. As I ceased speaking, he remarked, "I did not hear what was said, neither do I know who spoke." No alternative being left, I rose upon my feet and repeated the passage as distinctly as I could. But my voice was tremulous from embarrassment, and overwhelmed, almost chagrined for having spoken at all, I sank into my seat. But my mind was quickly relieved and diverted from myself, by the words from the pulpit. A young lad had risen, about to leave the house, when familiarly sounded from our leader the words, "Stop there, my boy, a moment, I want you to hear something about that verse that has just been repeated;" himself then repeating it, and commenting upon it to the school.
On relating the incident a few days afterward to an intimate friend, not concealing that my aversion to quote that passage grew out of the conviction that it had a literal significance, her reply was, "And when you reached home you should have gone on your bended knees, and thanked the Lord that you were forced to do it." At any rate, I do thank him now that I have been taught by his Spirit to receive his word in simplicity and truth. And those of my readers who may recall a former article, The Punishment of the Wicked, is it Material or Mental? will understand how fully I indorse the sentiment of the Bible verse, I once so reluctantly quoted.
M. W. HOWARD.
Malone, N. Y.
Are you Reconciled to God?
By Noah W. Vincent
If our heart condemn us, we cannot have confidence toward God. Guilt is justly attended with fear. For God has ordained that sin should be rewarded and finished by death. The transgressor is a rebel against the one Lawgiver. If we have sinned, we have been taken captives, and set in array against our first and supreme Friend. We can no more joy in God whom we have grieved. We cannot love him, or find our chief pleasure in pleasing him. We have denied him; unless he looks upon us in mercy, we shall perish as his enemies.
But Christ has made reconciliation for iniquity. "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." 1 John iv, 10. While we were yet sinners, when we were enemies, God pitied us, and permitted Jesus to die for us. Oh, will not such grace make us give up our rebellion, and draw us to the holy, atoning Lamb?
Dear unconverted, or backslidden friend, in love you are commanded to repent and believe the gospel. The Father now looks upon you in compassion. He is ready to forgive you for Christ's sake. He can be just and the justifier of him that believes in Jesus. "I delight not in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God; wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye."
Christ has bought us with his own blood. He bids us come. He suffered the death which we merited. He now says, whosoever will, let him partake of the water of life freely. We need not die the second death. All in Heaven, and the saints on earth, wish to have us saved. But there is only one door to the kingdom of Heaven; this door is Jesus. He is able to save to the uttermost them that come to God by him. The Father cannot love us with approval, while we slight his dear Son. Jesus cannot wash us from our sins while we adhere to them, and tread under foot his precious, justifying blood.
Jesus first loved us, and gave for our ransom all that he could—even himself. Worthy is our ransom,—the sinless, only begotten, loving Son of God. Oh, let us in him be reconciled to God. Let us hate our sins which made it necessary that we should forever be lost, or that our good Shepherd should die. Let us confess our sins, and henceforth obey the kind and perfect law of God. After we have become the friends and children of God in Jesus, we shall delight to obey his word. Our Master will deliver us from the dominion of sin, and make us more than conquerors. Perfect love will cast out fear, and manifest itself by willing and patient obedience.
While the longsuffering of God is waiting, while his good Spirit is striving with a rebellious world, let us be zealous and repent. Let us buy of Jesus gold tried in the fire, and white raiment. Let us obtain the evidence that he dwells in us by faith, and that we please him. Then we shall love his appearing, and not hide ourselves in the dens or rocks of the mountains. Then he will give us the kingdom. There shall we realize forever how great is our Father's goodness and love. There shall we be permitted to serve and glorify forever the Lamb that brought us nigh to God. NOAH W. VINCENT.
Cady's Falls, Vermont.
Strong Talk.
A SPIRITUALIST medium, by the name of Chadwell, in Springfield, Mass., said to Bro. G. W. Davis about 1863,--"If you live ten years, you will have to acknowledge Spiritualism, or have your head cut off." Better to lose the head, than to take "the mark of the beast."—Crisis.
Weary Pilgrim.
By Abigail Clark
Lone, weary pilgrim! why weep'st thou in sadness?
Let the bright dawning future, rouse thee to gladness,
For time on swift pinions, is fleeting away.
Though Satan's wild legions surround thee with sorrow,
Let faith lift the vail, to brighten the morrow—
Awake from thy slumber, and welcome the day.
What are earth's charms? A gay, tinselled bubble!
As phantoms elude you, or fire o'er the stubble,
Thus flee on approaching all earth's gilded toys,
Though earth's fairest scenes, should tempt thee to wander,
'Mid hope's fairy bowers, thy precious time squander,
They ne'er can compensate for Heaven's lost joys.
Though spicy the breeze, o'er the landscape soft smiling,
From the bowers of pleasure, vain hearts beguiling,
'Tis the net-work of Satan, to lure thee to death,
And music's rich strains, in soft cadence are stealing,
The mind in rapt ease, entrance every feeling,
Deceitful all charms, with terrestrial breath.
Flowers of rich fragrance, with dew drop begemming,
Breathe not their odor—but the mad torrent stemming
More deadly their breath, than the famed Upas tree!
More fatal than Simoon, those roses of pleasure,
They are sin's blighting pomps, earth's fading treasure,
E'er hurled to destruction those mad pleasures flee.
Seek heavenly joys, with bright hope expanding,
With faith for your shield, on Christ firmly standing,
And rush on to glory, from sin's witching wiles!
Though drear seems the way, and friends proudly scorning,
A crown shall enwreathe—thy temples adorning,
Where radiant landscapes, unceasingly smile.
Beseech in strong prayer, to Heaven appealing,
E'er death's scathing grasp, o'er his victim is stealing,
Strive fierce for those mansions, where joys never die,
Shun not the conflict, there are angels protecting,
And God's Holy Spirit, thy efforts directing—
Though trials attend thee, on Jesus rely.
Christ's heralds are sounding the last solemn warning!
Soon will dawn in thy vision, the bright rosy morning,
And the seraphim throng, all glittering and fair,
For soon He is coming, bright angels surrounding,
Hallelujahs shouting! The trumpet is sounding—
While loud pealing anthems float sweet on the air.
As the heavenly host, earth-ward are wending,
With the song of redemption, music is blending,
And the silver-toned lyre softly echoes the strain,
Then wake weary pilgrim! awake from thy sadness,
And gird on thy armor, with zeal and with gladness,
For soon will the ransomed in Paradise reign.
ABIGAIL CLARK.
What is the Matter?
By E. G. Doud
THERE is great dearth in Zion. The life of the popular churches is fast ebbing out. Their members are on the decrease, and their efforts to win souls to God do not prosper. Such an effect cannot be without its corresponding cause. The effect is extensive, hence the cause must be great. The religious press feels sad and often mourns over the condition of religion in the earth; but have they learned the cause of all this? Should they not be inquiring, What is the matter? Remove the cause and the effect will cease. What then is the cause?
Let the prophet Jeremiah answer. He says, "The pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the Lord; therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered." Jer. x, 21. Again in Micah we read a lesson with regard to those whose business it is to build up Zion, he says, "The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money; yet will they lean upon the Lord and say, Is not the Lord among us? none evil can come upon us." Micah iii, 11. What is the consequence of their acting thus? We read it in the 12th verse, "Therefore shall Zion for your sakes be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest." Mark the desolation here brought to view. Can Zion or Jerusalem rejoice when in such condition? Is it any wonder that the church mourns? Again Paul tells us "that in the last days perilous times shall come, for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy; without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof; from such turn away." 2 Tim. iii, 1-5.
Thus we see there is something wrong with those who have a name to live in the church. They retain the form of godliness, but it is as a shadow. The substance has departed. Is it not plain in the light of God's word what is the matter? God grant that the third angel's message may raise up a people free from all these causes of spiritual dearth, whose God is the Lord.