THE SOUNDING OF THE SEVEN TRUMPETS.
In illustrating this trumpet, I shall make an extract entirely from Keith. "Verses 10, 11: 'And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; and the name of the star is called Wormwood, and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.' "A third angel sounded;—and a third name is associated with the downfall of the Roman empire. The sounding of the trumpets manifestly denotes the order of the commencement, not the period of the duration, of the wars, or events, which they represent. When the second angel sounded, there was seen, as it were, a great mountain burning with fire. When the third angel sounded, there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp. The symbol, in each instance, is expressly a similitude, and the one is to the other in comparative and individual resemblance, as a burning mountain to a falling star; each of them was great. The former was cast into the sea, the latter was first seen as falling, and it fell upon the fountains and rivers of waters. There is a discrimination in the similitude, in the description, and locality, which obviously implies a corresponding difference in the object represented. "On such plain and preliminary observations we may look to the intimation given in the third trumpet, and to the achievements of Attila, the third name mentioned by Gibbon, and associated in equal rank with those of Alaric and Genseric, in the decline and fall of the Roman empire. "Genseric landed in Africa in the year 429, and in the following year spread desolation along its coast, throughout the long-extended territory of Rome, which was then finally separated from the empire. Attila invaded the eastern empire in the year 441. From that period, ten years elapsed before he touched the western empire, and twenty-two years intervened, from 429 to 451, between the invasion of Africa by Genseric, and of Gaul by Attila. The burning mountain arose first, though it blazed longer than the falling star. "The connexion between the events predicted under the first and second trumpets, is marked by the passing of the Vandals from Europe to Asia, and the consequent combination with Moors and Mauritanians in the conquest of Africa, 'the most important province of the west, and in the overthrow of the naval power of Rome. The sequence and connexion between the events denoted by the second and third trumpets, are, we apprehend equally definite. "The alliance of Attila, (A. D. 441,) maintained the Vandals in the possession of Africa. An enterprise had been concerted between the courts of Ravenna and Constantinople, for the recovery of that valuable province, and the ports of Sicily were already filled with the military and naval forces of Theodosius. But the subtle Genseric, who spread his negotiations round the world, prevented their designs, by exciting the king of the Huns (Attila) to invade the eastern empire: and a trifling incident soon became the motive, or pretence, of a destructive war. The troops which had been sent against Genseric were hastily recalled from Sicily. "But if symbolized, or described under the second and third trumpet, the respective nature of their power, or character of their warfare, must needs be described, as well as the order marked, in which Genseric and Attila first assaulted the empire of Rome, and accelerated its ruin. "A great star is the symbol—of which the significance has to be sustained; burning as it were a lamp, is the character of the warfare. The locality is neither the earth, in the full extent of the term as applicable to the Roman empire, and the wide scene over which the hail and fire swept on the sounding of the first trumpet, nor yet the third part of the sea, as expressive of the second, by which the African coast was forever separated from the empire, and the ships finally destroyed, but, as referring to a portion of the remains of the empire of Rome—the fountains and rivers of waters. "There fell a great star from heaven. The name of Attila is to this day a memorial of his greatness, of which a brief description may suffice. "The crowd of vulgar kings, the leaders of so many martial tribes, who served under the standard of Attila, were ranged in the submissive order of guards and domestics, round the person of their master. They watched his nod; they trembled at his frown; and, at the first signal of his will, they executed, without murmur or hesitation, his stern and absolute commands. In time of peace, the dependent princes, with their national troops, attended the royal camp in regular succession; but when Attila collected his military forces, he was able to bring into the field an army of five, or, according to another account, of seven hundred thousand barbarians. "Burning as it were a lamp. The armies of the eastern empire were vanquished in three successive engagements; and the progress of Attila may be traced by the fields of battle. From the Hellespont to Thermopylæ, and the suburbs of Constantinople, he ravaged, without resistance and without mercy, the provinces of Thrace and Macedonia. Heraclea and Hadrianople might perhaps escape this dreadful irruption of the Huns; but the words, the most expressive of total extirpation and erasure, are applied to the calamities which they inflicted on seventy cities of the eastern empire. "Attila threatened to chastise the rash successor of Theodosius; but he hesitated whether he should first direct his invincible arms against the eastern or western empire; while mankind awaited his decision with awful suspense, and his ministers saluted the two emperors with the same haughty declaration, Attila, my lord and thy lord, commands thee to provide a palace for his immediate reception. But as the barbarian despised, or affected to despise, the Romans of the east, whom he had so often vanquished, he soon declared his resolution of suspending the easy conquest, till he had achieved a more glorious and important enterprise. In the memorable invasions of Gaul and Italy, the Huns were naturally attracted by the wealth and fertility of these provinces. "The trumpet sounded. The kings and nations of Germany and Scythia, from the Volga perhaps to the Danube, obeyed the warlike summons of Attila. From the royal village in the plains of Hungary, his standard moved towards the west; and, after a march of seven or eight hundred miles, he reached the conflux of the Rhine and the Neckar. The hostile myriads were poured with violence into the Belgic provinces. The consternation of Gaul was universal. From the Rhine and the Moselle, Attila advanced into the heart of Gaul, crossed the Seine at Auxerre; and, after a long and laborious march, fixed his camp under the walls of Orleans. An alliance was formed between the Romans and Visigoths. The hostile armies approached. I myself, said Attila, will throw the first javelin, and the wretch who refuses to imitate the example of his sovereign, is devoted to inevitable death. The spirit of the barbarians was rekindled by the presence, the voice, and the example, of their intrepid leader; and Attila, yielding to their impatience, immediately formed his order of battle,66At the head of his brave and faithful Huns, Attila occupied in person the center of the line. The nations from the Volga to the Atlantic were assembled on the plain of Chalons. The number of the slain amounted to one hundred and sixty-two thousand, or, according to another account, three hundred thousand persons; and these incredible exaggerations suppose a real or effective loss, sufficient to justify the historian's remark, that whole generations may be swept away, by the madness of kings, in the space of a single hour.' 'The course of the fiery meteor was changed, not stayed; and, touching Italy for the first time, the great star, after having burned as it were a lamp, fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters. 'Neither the spirit, nor the forces, nor the reputation of Attila, were impaired by the failure of the Gallic expedition. He passed the Alps, invaded Italy, and besieged Aquileia with an innumerable host of barbarians. The succeeding generation could scarcely discover the ruins of Aquileia. After this dreadful chastisement, Attila pursued his march; and, as he passed, the cities of Altinum, Concordia, and Padua were reduced into heaps of stones and ashes. The inland towns, Vicenza, Verona, and Bergamo, were exposed to the rapacious cruelty of the Huns. Milan and Pavia submitted, without resistance, to the loss of their wealth; and applauded the unusual clemency which preserved from the flames the public as well as private buildings, and spared the lives of the captive multitude. Attila spread his ravages over the rich plains of modern Lombardy; which are divided by the Po, and bounded by the Alps and Appennines. He took possession of the royal palace of Milan. It is a saying, worthy of the ferocious pride of Attila, that the grass never grew on the spot where his horse had trod.' 'The western emperor, with the senate and people of Rome, embraced the most salutary resolution of deprecating, by a solemn and suppliant embassy, the wrath of Attila. The Roman ambassadors were introduced to the tent of Attila, as he lay encamped at the place where the slow-winding Mincius (Mincio) is lost in the foaming waves of the lake Benacus, and trampled with his Scythian cavalry the farms of Catullus and Virgil. The barbarian monarch listened with favorable, and even respectful attention; and the deliverance of Italy was purchased by the immense ransom, or dowry, of the princess Honoria.' 'Attila advanced not further into Italy than the plains of Lombardy, and the banks of the Po. He reduced the cities, situated on that river and its tributary streams, to heaps of stones and ashes. But there his ravages ceased. The great star, which burned as it were a lamp, no sooner fell upon the fountains and rivers of waters and turned cities into ashes, than it was extinguished. Unlike to the great mountain burning with fire, the great star that fell from heaven, after suddenly scorching a part of Italy, rapidly disappeared. During the same year in which Attila first invaded the Italian territories, and spread his ravages over the rich plains of modern Lombardy, which are divided by the Po, and bounded by the Alps and Appennines, without advancing beyond the rivers and fountains of waters, he concluded a treaty of peace with the Romans, 'at the conflux of the lake and river,' on the spot where Mincius issues from lake Benacus (L. di Garda.) One paragraph in the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, describes 'the invasion of Italy by Attila, A. D. 452.' Another is entitled, under the same date, 'Attila gives peace to the Romans.' The next paragraph describes the 'death of Attila, A. D. 453;' and the very next records, without any interval, the destruction of his empire. 'There fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters. Its greatness, its burning course, the place, the severity, and suddenness of its fall, leave nothing more to be here explained, while its falling from heaven seems obviously to imply that it came from beyond the bounds of the Roman Empire, on part of which it fell. Allusion will afterwards be made to the significance of the term, third part, which so repeatedly occurs. 'But another verse is added, under the third trumpet, which, having thus seen the significance of the former, we cannot pass over with any vague and general exposition, without calling on history to discharge its task, in expanding the full meaning of the words, which sum up the decline, and are the immediate prelude to the fourth trumpet, the death-knell of the western empire. 'And the name of the star is called Wormwood. These words—which are more intimately connected with the preceding verse, as even the punctuation in our version denotes—recall us for a moment to the character of Attila, to the misery of which he was the author, or the instrument, and to the terror that was inspired by his name. 'Total extirpation and erasure,' are terms which best denote the calamities he inflicted. 'One of his lieutenants chastised and almost exterminated the Burgundians of the Rhine. The Thuringians served in the army of Attila; they traversed, both in their march and in their return, the territories of the Franks; and they massacred their hostages as well as their captives. Two hundred young maidens were tortured with exquisite and unrelenting rage; their bodies were torn assunder by wild horses, or were crushed under the weight of rolling wagons; and their unburied limbs were abandoned on public roads, as a prey to dogs and vultures.' 'It was the boast of Attila, that the grass never grew on the spot which his horse had trod. 'The scourge of God,' was a name that he appropriated to himself, and inserted among his royal titles. He was 'the scourge of his enemies, and the terror of the world.' The western emperor, with the senate and people of Rome, humbly and fearfully deprecated the wrath of Attila. And the concluding paragraph of the chapters which record his history is entitled, 'Symptoms of the decay and ruin of the Roman government.' The name of the star is called Wormwood. 'In the space of twenty years since the death of Valentinian, [two years subsequent to the death of Attila,] 'nine emperors had successively disappeared; and the son of Orestes, a youth recommended only by his beauty, would be the least entitled to the notice of posterity, if his reign, which was marked by the extinction of the Roman empire in the west, did not leave a memorable era in the history of mankind.'" I shall also permit the same author to give us the history of the Verse 12. 'And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.' 'At the voice of the first angel, and the blast of his trumpet, the whole Roman world was in agitation, and 'the storms of war' passed over it all. 'The union of the empire was dissolved; a third part of it fell; and the transalpine provinces were separated from the empire.' Under the second trumpet, the provinces of Africa, another, or the maritime, part, was in like manner rent from Rome, and the Roman ships were destroyed in the sea, and even in their harbor. The empire of Rome, hemmed in on every side, was then limited to the kingdom of Italy. Within its bounds, and along the fountains and rivers of waters, the third trumpet reached from the Alps to the Appennines. The last barrier of the empire of Rome was broken. The plains of Lombardy were ravaged by a foreign foe; and from thence new enemies arose to bring to an end the strife of the world with the imperial city. 'Though the union of the empire was dissolved there was still an emperor in Rome. The majesty of the Roman name was not obliterated, though tarnished. And after the middle of the fifth century, the Cæsars had still a successor in their own city. But the palace of Milan could not again be the temporary abode of the Roman court, when it was the seat and center of a hostile power. And the marshes of Ravenna ceased to be a security, after the waters were made bitter, and when hordes of Huns mingled with other savages in the northern regions of Italy. The time, too, had long passed for realizing the project, which the terror of the Goths had first suggested, of transferring the court of Rome to the shores of Africa, and transforming Carthage into another Constantinople. The remnant, or the refuse, of previous invasions, was enough to destroy the last remaining parts of Roman greatness in Italy, and to abolish the office and the name of the emperor of Rome. 'Long had that name been a terror to the nations, and identified with supreme authority in the world. Long had the emperor of Rome shone and ruled in the earth, like the sun in the firmament. His was a kingdom and dominion, great and terrible, and strong exceedingly, to which all others were subjected or subordinate. His supreme or imperial authority, had, in the decline of the empire, been greatly obscured, but till then it had never been extinguished. It had been darkened and disfigured by a great storm; eclipsed, as it were, by a mountain that burned with fire; and outshone, as it were, by a falling star, like a fiery meteor. It had survived the assaults of Goths and Vandals, and Huns. Though clouded and obscured, it had never been smitten; and though its light reached but a little way, where previously it had shone over all, it had never been extinguished. 'Neither, at last, was the whole sun smitten: but the third part. The throne of the Cæsars had for ages been the sun of the world; while other kings were designated as stars. But the imperial power had first been transferred to Constantinople, by Constantine; and it was afterwards divided between the east and the west. And the Eastern empire was not yet doomed to destruction. Even the western empire was afterwards revived; and a more modern dynasty arose to claim and maintain the title of emperor of the Romans. But, for the first time, after sudden, and violent, and distinctly marked and connected convulsions, the imperial power in Rome, where for so long a period it had reigned triumphant, was cut off forever; and the third part of the sun was smitten. 'EXTINCTION of the western empire, A. D. 476, or A. D. 479. Royalty was familiar to the barbarians, and the submissive people of Italy were prepared to obey without a murmur the authority which he should condescend to exercise as the vicegerent of the emperor of the west. But Odoacer resolved to abolish that useless and expensive office; and such is the weight of antique prejudice, that it required some boldness and penetration to discover the extreme facility of the enterprise. The unfortunate Augustulus was made the instrument of his own disgrace; and he signified his resignation to the senate; and that assembly, in their last act of obedience to a Roman prince, still affected the spirit of freedom and the forms of the constitution. An epistle was addressed, by their unanimous decree, to the emperor Zeno, the son-in-law and successor of Leo, who had lately been restored, after a short rebellion, to the Byzantine throne. They solemnly disclaim the necessity or even the wish of continuing any longer the imperial succession in Italy; since in their opinion the majesty of a sole monarch is sufficient to pervade and to protect, at the same time, both the east and the west. In their own name, and in the name of the people, they consent that the seat of universal empire shall be transferred from Rome to Constantinople; and they basely renounce the right of choosing their master, the only vestige which yet remained of the only authority which had given laws to the world.' 'The power and the glory of Rome, as bearing rule over any nation, became extinct. The name alone remained to the queen of nations. Every token of royalty disappeared from the imperial city. She who had ruled over the nations sat in the dust, like a second Babylon, and there was no throne, where the Cæsars had reigned. The last act of obedience to a Roman prince, which that once august assembly performed, was the acceptance of the resignation of the last emperor of the west, and the abolition of the imperial succession in Italy. The67sun of Rome was smitten. But though Rome itself, as an imperial city, ceased to exercise a sovereignty over any nation, yet the imperial ensigns, with the sacred ornaments of the throne and palace, were transferred to Constantinople, where Zeno reigned, under the title of sole emperor. The military acclamations of the confederates of Italy saluted Odoacer with the title of king. 'A new conqueror of Italy, Theodoric, the Ostrogoth, speedily arose, who unscrupulously assumed the purple, and reigned by the right of conquest. 'The royalty of Theodoric was proclaimed by the Goths, (March 5th, A. D. 493,) with the tardy, reluctant, ambiguous consent of the emperor of the east.' The imperial Roman power, of which either Rome or Constantinople had been jointly or singly the seat, whether in the west or the east, was no longer recognised in Italy, and the third part of the sun was smitten, till it emitted no longer the faintest rays. The power of the Cæsars was unknown in Italy: and a Gothic king reigned over Rome. 'But though the third part of the sun was smitten, and the Roman imperial power was at an end in the city of the Cæsars, yet the moon and the stars still shone, or glimmered, for a little longer in the western hemisphere, even in the midst of Gothic darkness. The consulship and the senate were not abolished by Theodoric. A Gothic historian applauds the consulship of Theodoric as the height of all temporal power and greatness:—as the moon reigns by night, after the setting of the sun. And, instead of abolishing that office, Theodoric himself 'congratulates those annual favorites of fortune, who, without the cares, enjoyed the splendor of the throne.' 'But in their prophetic order, the consulship and the senate of Rome met their fate, though they fell not by the hands of Vandals or of Goths. The next revolution in Italy was its subjection to Belisarius, the general of Justinian, emperor of the east. He did not spare what barbarisms had hallowed. 'The Roman consulship extinguished by Justinian, A. D. 541,' is the title of the last paragraph of the fortieth chapter of Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of Rome. 'The succession of consuls finally ceased in the thirteenth year of Justinian, whose despotic temper might be gratified by the silent extinction of a title which admonished the Romans of their ancient freedom.' The third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars. In the political firmament of the ancient world, while under the reign of imperial Rome, the emperorship, the consulate, and the senate, shone like the sun, the moon, and the stars. The history of their decline and fall is brought down till the two former were 'extinguished,' in reference to Rome and Italy, which so long had ranked as the first of cities and of countries; and finally, as the fourth trumpet closes, we see the 'extinction of that illustrious assembly,' the Roman senate. The city that had ruled the world, as if in mockery of human greatness, was conquered by the eunuch Narses, the successor of Belisarius. He defeated the Goths; (A. D. 552,) achieved 'the conquest of Rome,' and the fate of the senate was sealed. 'The calamities of imperial Rome, in its downfall, were told to the very last of them, till Rome was without an emperor, a consul, or a senate. 'Under the exarchs of Ravenna, Rome was degraded to the second rank.' The third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars. The race of the Cæsars was not extinct with the emperors of the west. Rome before its fall possessed but a portion of the imperial power. Constantinople divided with it the empire of the world. And neither Goths nor Vandals lorded over that still imperial city, the emperor of which, after the first transference of the seat of empire by Constantine, often held the emperor of Rome as his nominee and vicegerent. And the fate of Constantinople was reserved till other ages, and was announced by other trumpets. Of the sun, the moon, and the stars, as yet but the third part was smitten. 'The concluding words of the fourth trumpet imply the future restoration of the western empire. The day shone not for the third part of it, and the night likewise. In respect to civil authority, Rome became subject to Ravenna, and Italy was a conquered province of the eastern empire. But, as more appropriately pertaining to other prophecies, the defence of the worship of images first brought the spiritual and temporal powers of the pope and of the emperor into violent collision; and, by conferring on the pope all authority over the churches, Justinian laid his helping hand to the promotion of the papal supremacy, which afterwards assumed the power of creating monarchs. In the year of our Lord 800, the pope conferred on Charlemagne the title of emperor of the Romans. That title was again transferred from the king of France to the emperor of Germany. By the latter it was formally renounced, within the memory of the existing generation. In our own days the iron crown of Italy was on the head of another 'emperor.' And the sun, as in the sequel we will see, is afterwards spoken of in the book of Revelation.' Verse 13. 'And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Wo, wo, wo to the inhabiters of the earth, by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!' The last three trumpets are each attended with a wo to the inhabiters of the earth. The fifth trumpet is the first woe; the sixth trumpet the second wo; the seventh and last trumpet the third wo. Pilgrim weary in the way
Leading through earth's thorny maze,
Look above, behold thy God
Beaming now with pitying gaze:
While a voice falls on thine ear,
Soothing each corroding fear,
'Soon will rest the way-worn band
In flow'ry Canaan's verdant land!' Signs, loud warning thou hast known,
'Wonders' in the heavens on high,
Fearful omens have been shown—
Signal watch-lights in the sky.
Once the burning orb of day
Darkened from the sight away—
Filling 'failing hearts' with fear,
Speaking of the judgment near! Once (long since the hour has fled)
Was the peaceful Queen of night
With a battle-hue o'er spread,
Startling men to wild affright;
Telling of the 'vintage' time,
When is filled earth's cup of crime—
When the War of wars shall be,
Closing Earth's dread tragedy! Other 'wonders' now gone by,
Ne'er can Israel forget—
'Works of God we'll sound them high,
And proclaim their warnings yet!
Once, from shining firmament
Falling stars, like 'figs' were sent;
News on wings of flame they bore,
'Soon Earth's conflicts will be o'er'! Later yet, the 'still, small voice,'
By the pilgrim hath been heard,
(Jehovah leads—we will rejoice;
And 'wait' the 'counsel' of his word;)
Loudly too, a mighty Cry
Swelled at Midnight through the sky;
And it echoes still proclaim,
That 'twas then' the Bridegroom came! Weary pilgrim lone and sad,
Thine no more is grief and fear,
Jesus now would have thee glad;
With 'many crowns' he draweth near—
And upon thy dreary way
Beams the golden dawn of day;
Day of sweet and heavenly rest—
Day of triumph to the blest!—Sel. Family Worship—Anecdote of Mr. Clay.
A highly respectable Baptist minister of Kentucky, still living, related to us the following anecdote: He had just commenced preaching and had for a few years been married and house-keeping. He was in humble circumstances and of a limited education—modest and retiring to a fault. It was with great difficulty that he could summon resolution to address a congregation. Mr. Clay, in the discharge of his duty as a lawyer, came to the neighborhood of our informant, ("Clover Bottom," Woodford Co.,) to have surveys made of some land then in litigation. He was accompanied by another lawyer of note. They made the humble cabin of Bro. B. their home. On the first night they staid with him, our brother was reduced to great extremity. He was in the habit of holding family worship morning and evening; but he trembled at the thought of doing so in the presence of guests so distinguished as Mr. Clay and his friend. His little children were becoming sleepy; and his wife, by significant gestures suggested that the time for prayer had come. Bro. B. hinted to his guests that perhaps "they would choose bed." But Mr. Clay, with great politeness, said, "that he did not feel at all sleepy, and that, unless it was intrusive, he would be happy to enjoy his society longer." Of course Bro. B. could not object. Still the matter of prayer could not be postponed without sending his children to bed in advance, which was contrary to his settled principles of procedure. At last, with considerable trepidation, he stated to Mr. Clay and his friend what was his custom; and said that they could stay and unite with his family in their devotions, or retire at their option. Mr. Clay promptly and with some feeling replied, "that they would remain by all means—that the earliest recollections of life were associated with such exercises—that his father was a Baptist minister, and his mother was still a member of that communion, and that they had taught him to reverence the institutions of religion, and none more so than that of family worship." Bro. B. then proceeded with his wonted exercises, but with much fear and trembling. He says that he never felt so much embarrassment in his life. When the season of prayer was passed, Mr. Clay approached him and said, "Mr. B. never again feel the least hesitation in the discharge of your duty to God on account of the presence of men. I saw your embarrassment, and remained on purpose that you might never feel it again. Remember, my dear Sir, that every man of sense will respect the individual who is not ashamed to acknowledge his dependence upon his Maker; and he deserves only contempt who can cherish any other feelings than reverence for 'the consecrated hour of man in audience with the Deity.' And what are myself and friend here, but frail and feeble mortals like you and your little children—indebted for all that we are to the great fountain of good, and dependent on Him for every blessing of life? We and you are destined to the same grave and to the same final retribution. The king upon his throne and the beggar in his rags are the same in the eyes of the Omniscient. Think of this, Mr. B., and you will never hesitate again to engage in prayer to God on account of the presence of men. For myself, I would rather know that the prayers of a pious man, no matter how humble his position in life, were ascending in my behalf, than to have the wildest applause of listening Senators." Mr. Clay and his friend then retired for the night. Brother B. says it was the best lesson of his life. He often afterwards heard the great statesman in all the grandeur of his resistless eloquence, but he insists that in no effort he ever heard was he so impressive as on the occasion named.—Western Rec. When my conscience is oppressed with guilt, says Cappee in one of his sermons, when I am alarmed with the apprehensions of a future reckoning, what is the world to me? What comfort or what hope can it administer? When my conscience bears testimony to my integrity and virtue—when my hopes of future recompense are just and lively—what is the world to me? What want I of its consolations? When my heart is torn with grief, or oppressed with melancholy—when my limbs are racked with pain, and my body languishing in sickness, what is the world to me? That my habitation is splendid, my dependents not a few, and my treasure not a little, does this afford me any mitigation of my anguish? When the period of life has overtaken me, and the messenger of death has read me the summons of my departure out of it—what is the world to me? Anticipate the solemn moment—it may be with you ere long. Place yourself on the verge of time! Imagine that your course is finished, your glass is run, and from the margin of eternity look at the approaching and the receding world. How vast, how sudden, how inexpressible a change in your conceptions and affections!—Buffalo Advocate. THE WORLD'S HATRED TO LIVING SAINTS.
There is a generation of men, that will praise and adore the saints in heaven, and yet mock and afflict the saints on earth; so that were all those saints alive again, whom they so much honor in their day, I dare affirm, they would persecute them in their persons. Like the Jews, they can garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, and yet play the Jew with the persons of the righteous. Dissembling world! thy tongue embalms a dead saint whilst thy hand strikes a wound into the living, and thou canst praise God for those that are departed in the faith, and yet persecute God in those that will not depart from the faith. O foolish world! thou must needs condemn thyself, for thy praise hath left thy practice without excuse. The Worth of a Christian.
It appears not what we are to the world, and it hardly appears what we shall be to ourselves; for did they know that we are jewels of God, the favorites of heaven, the excellency of the creation, the beloved of Christ; they would not mock and persecute us as they do: or if we did but know that we should be glorified together with Christ; that his happiness shall be our happiness, and that his joy shall be our joys, and his glories shall be our glories, truly we should not be so much dejected as we are. When I consider that when Christ shall appear I shall be like him, I wonder it doth so much as trouble me. The Hidden Ornament of a Meek Spirit
"In like manner, let the wives be in subjection to their own husbands; that, indeed, if any obey not the word, they, without the word, may be won by the behavior of the wives, (when they behold your chaste behavior, joined with reverence,) whose adorning, let it not be that which is external—the plaiting of hair, trinkets of gold, or finery of dress; but the hidden man of the heart, with the incorruptible ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which in the sight of God is of great value. [Macknight's Translation of 1 Pet. iii, 1-4. BRO. A. S. HUTCHINS has placed in our hands a work entitled, "Catechistical Instructions on the Doctrines and Worship of the Catholic Church, by John Lingard D. D.," in which there is some good testimony concerning the institution of Sunday, in which the Catholic Church has borne such a conspicuous part, and now boasts of what she has been able to effect. Although much testimony has been produced on this point, and Protestants will have to labor hard to free themselves from the charge urged upon them by the Catholics, namely, that they do "fondly contradict themselves, by keeping Sunday strictly, and breaking most other feasts," our readers will nevertheless be pleased with any new witness that may come upon the stand, and any additional testimony that may be given to this end. Speaking of Doctrines, the book says, [p. 67,] "Not only is there no proof that all the doctrines of Christianity are contained in the Scriptures, but there is proof to the contrary. Neither the obligation of keeping the Sunday, nor the validity of infant baptism, both admitted by most Protestants, is mentioned in Scripture." Concerning the seventh day, we quote again, from p. 84: "It should be remembered that the day of rest is fixed by God to the seventh day, and not as some pretend to one day out of the seven. To suppose that the command is observed by keeping the first day, because it is one of seven days, is as unreasonable as to maintain that the first son has a right to take a bequest made to the seventh, on the ground that he, the first, is one of the seven sons." On the fourth commandment, numbered the third in all Catholic Catechisms, we read: [pp. 85, 86:] "Ques. Does this commandment bind Christians as it bound the Israelites?" "Ans. No: neither as to the time nor as to the manner." "Ques. How not as to the time?" "Ans. Because they kept their Sabbath or rest from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday: we now keep ours from midnight on Saturday to midnight on Sunday." "Ques. By what authority was this alteration made?" "Ans. By the authority of the 'Holy Catholic Church.'" To this last question the following note is appended: "There is not a syllable in Scripture to prove that the obligation of resting from work was ever transferred from the Saturday to the Sunday, from the seventh to the first day of the week." Again, p. 90. "Is it proper to call the Sunday the Sabbath? No: for the Sabbath was a Jewish ordinance, and the name is nowhere given to the Sunday in Scripture." To this is appended the following note: "From the preceding notes it is plain that the Sunday is a very different institution from the Sabbath, and belongs to the ceremonial code of a different form of worship. It is therefore desirable that they should not be called by the same name, which leads men to confound them together, and to attribute to the Sunday that severity of discipline which belonged exclusively to the Sabbath." Concerning the precepts of the Church the following question is asked: p. 109: "What is the first precept? To keep the Sunday holy." Note on this question: "It has already been shown that the Sunday differs from the Sabbath both in time and manner. If then there be any obligation of keeping the Sunday, that obligation must be derived from the authority of the church, and not from the command of Moses, which enjoined the keeping of the Sabbath." "What is the second precept of the church? To keep certain appointed days holy in the same manner as the Sunday." p. 111. Note. "It should be remembered that the authority which appoints the holidays is the same which appointed the Sundays, that is, the Catholic Church: of course the obligation of keeping them is the same." We wish all Protestants to be enlightened on this point, and know the foundation upon which they stand in the observance of Sunday. If then, with their eyes open, they are willing to continue upon that foundation, and look to the authority and tradition of the Catholic Church for their faith and practice, instead of to the Word of God which they profess to take, we have nothing to say. Only we know that the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, [Isa. xxviii, 17,] and God shall bring every work into judgment, whether it be good or whether it be evil. Eccl. xii, 14.