The Bible contains special promises for those who freely give of their means to sustain the cause of God. Here are some of them:
“There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty. The liberal soul shall be made fat; and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.” Prov. 11:24, 25.
“But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. . . . . . . And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work; (as it is written, He hath dispersed abroad; he hath given to the poor; his righteousness remaineth forever. Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness).” 2 Cor. 9:6-10.
Like begets like. Covetousness in us begets covetousness in others, while benevolence and liberality displayed in our lives tend to inculcate the same traits in our fellow creatures; so that it is for our temporal interest to be liberal in our deal with our fellow-men. Hence the Saviour says, “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.” Luke 6:38. The same is true in our deal with God. If we are liberal with God, he will be liberal with us. But if we withhold from God the means that he justly claims to advance his cause, he will withhold from us temporal blessings, and very often he will scatter the very property that we place our affections upon.
Anciently, God promised to make those who obeyed him plenteous in goods, in the fruit of their cattle, and in the fruit of their ground, Deut. 28; and from the second passage quoted above, we see that similar blessings are promised to the liberal in this dispensation. But the withering curse of God is pronounced against disobedience and covetousness in his people; “for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth. . . . But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.” Heb. 12:6-8. Those who are all bound up in covetousness, and yet go on year after year without reaping the legitimate fruits of their selfishness, are in a far worse condition than those who are chastened of the Lord. Their case is far worse than that of the ungodly. Their example is bad in the church, and instead of laying up for themselves treasure in Heaven, they are laying up a sure foundation for bitter remorse and wailing, when it shall be said to professors who “have heaped up treasures together in [Greek] the last days,” “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten, your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire.” James 5:1, etc. The rust of gold and silver is here used to represent that they were not freely circulated to push forward the cause while probation lasted, and souls could be saved by a proper use of means. What unutterable anguish shall come upon those who will awake to a sense of their duty with reference to their property, when troubles commence to come upon earth, when strangers cast the people of God and others out of their houses, and rob means and treasures that should have been sent to the bank of Heaven, and means are no more needed to advance the cause of truth. Who can express the burning anguish of those who in the day of the Lord shall cast their means far from them as the stumbling block of their iniquity, and for fear of the Lord when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth? Who can describe the full sense of guilt and sad despair of the miser when he and his treasures shall pass away in the burning day?
From the words of Paul quoted above, we learn that when God adds to our property and gives us sufficiency in all things, he does it that the fruits of our righteousness may be increased, and that we may abound in every good work. This agrees with what Paul says 1 Tim. 6:17-19: “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.”
Giving of our means to advance the work of the gospel is here made a condition of eternal life. We all need this rich boon. But those who have riches are in danger of not realizing their dependence upon God, who gives us wealth and bestows eternal life on his faithful, sacrificing children.
Dear brethren and sisters, when we have been blessed with additions to our property, have we remembered God, the author of every good and perfect gift? or have we been bound up in selfishness, and deprived God of his just due, that we might add to our earthly treasure? Let us stop197and reflect on the past, and see if we cannot discern the hand of God in reverses and losses. Many who have been backward in paying up their Systematic Benevolence, and added farm to farm, etc., have lost hundreds and thousands of dollars, that might and should have gone into the cause. They perhaps excused themselves on the ground that they owed debts. But did they owe no debt to God? Have we any right to run into debt to add to our property, so that we cannot give God his just due? Is not selfishness at the bottom of all this? God help us to realize our obligations to him, and to look to him for wisdom in the management of the property he has given us, that we may redeem the past, make God, Christ, and holy angels, our friends by a right use of our means, that when earthly things fail, we may be received into everlasting habitations, and have a part in the eternal inheritance. Let us turn a new leaf, and see if we shall not realize the truthfulness of this Scripture: “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of Heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” Mal. 3:10.
Some may claim that they are not rich, and that therefore this article does not apply to them. But God requires of us according to what we have, and enjoins upon every one to lay by for the cause as God has prospered him. 1 Cor. 16:1, 2, etc. A poor man can be as covetous over the little that he hath as the rich man is over his abundance, and it is a rare thing even for the rich to acknowledge themselves wealthy, especially when they are invited to render unto God the things that are God’s. Then away with our excuses! Let us act as in the presence of God, remembering that he who sows bountifully shall reap also bountifully.
D. T. Bourdeau.
Light Become Darkness.
By John Norton Loughborough
“If, therefore, the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness.” Matt. 6:23.
From this scripture we would understand, that a person who has had light, but through failing to carry out the truth has so far incurred the displeasure of God that he no longer enjoys his presence and Spirit, will go into very great darkness when he leaves the humble truth. To what ridiculous lengths of folly and error he will go. The truth of this is even now forcibly impressed upon my mind by a circumstance which has happened recently in this city.
There is, in the west part of this city, near Lone Mountain, a Catholic priest, who, a few years since, was an intelligent, talented, zealous minister of the Methodist church. For some reason, he gave up the good old Methodist doctrine of justification, and ceased the work of pointing sinners to the Lamb of God, to whom they could go directly for themselves; and through vainglory, pride, flattery, selfish ambition, or some other cause—perhaps the last-named—he has engaged in the work of teaching sinners to do penance and come to the priest with a bit of money in their hand to confess to the priest, he in turn to the bishop, the bishop to the pope, and the pope alone to Christ. And as Christ and the pope are claimed to be one consistory with God, if the pope should say, “I absolve you,” “God would be obliged to submit, and the sinner’s guilt is absolved.”
But then, what about this money consideration for pardon of sins! The idea of buying salvation was fully exploded by Luther when he wrote so strongly and logically against it; when, as seen in the dream of Frederic, Elector of Saxony, this “monk wrote with the quill of a Bohemian goose,” and the stem of his pen was so long that it “reached from Wittenberg to Rome and knocked the tiara off of the pope’s head.” Since Luther struck so effective a blow, and others have followed up so earnestly in the work, we no longer find lists of prices for absolving from certain sins; but, it is claimed that the money the penitent brings is only a trespass-offering, which is put into the treasury of the church. The priest, of course, when his penitent is gone, puts his hand into the box and takes it out; so what difference from the old plan, only in form?
But to come to the real point of consummate folly! A few days since, Bro. Diggins, of this city, who resides near where the above-named priest holds forth, passed their church on his way to our meeting. He saw persons coming from every direction, from the city and from the country, bearing pictures in frames and out of frames, of every description—sacred, secular, and of all kinds. He supposed, of course, that they were preparing to hold a fair in their church, and were going to sell these pictures. On accosting one of them with an inquiry, he was told that they were carrying these pictures there to be blessed by this Catholic priest, who was once a Methodist minister.
What nonsense, to suppose that the blessing of a finite man placed upon lifeless wood, paper, and glass, will cause that picture to be a safe protection against damage by earthquakes, fire, flood, and keep the devil out of the house. The poor Catholic member is left to drink his whisky, swear, get angry, and let the devil into his heart, with no proper instruction that his great effort must be to overcome, or the devil will be in his heart, and as matter of course go with him everywhere.
Learning of this great picture-blessing excitement, I could but think of the text at the head of this article, and of these words of Jeremiah: “They have rejected the word of the Lord; and what wisdom is in them.”
J. N. Loughborough.
Faith, Love, and Hope.
By A. S. Hutchins
“Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ!” 1 Thess. 1:3
In the 17th chapter of Acts, we have a brief account of the preaching of the gospel by Paul in Thessalonica, the metropolis of Macedonia; and of the reception given both the preacher and the gospel. “Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures.”
The Holy Scriptures was his text-book. He was not rash nor impulsive. He reasoned with his audience. But did the majority act like men of reason? Did they appear like those possessed of, and governed by, reason? Did the greater part even of the professed people of God search the Scriptures prayerfully and diligently, comparing what they heard with the teachings of this sacred volume, and, by its divine truths, withstand and refute the arguments of the apostle? Or did they hold a prayer meeting, and seek counsel of God, and move like men actuated by principles of righteousness, and guided by the Holy Spirit?
No; maddened with hatred to God’s chosen servants, and the truths they proclaimed, and moved with envy, in union quickly with congenial spirits, “certain lewd fellows of the baser sort,” a company is gathered, the city is set on an uproar, and a cry rings out, “These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also!”
Now, who was in fault for all this excitement, stir, and confusion? What had been done to justify all this disorder, strife, and persecution? What apology can be offered for the infuriated mob? Why, the gospel had been preached there, not “in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance.” 1 Thess. 1:5. Some of the Jews believed, “and consorted with Paul and Silas; and of devout Greeks a great multitude, and of chief women not a few.” With these, reason sits upon her throne, common sense and a sanctified judgment mold their decisions and shape their course. Of them, the apostle testifies, “Ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost.” What was the result of this ready reception of the gospel in its purity? Men were “turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.” Here is a change. A breaking up of things. It is felt in the city, in houses, and in families. Henceforth those formerly united, separate, and go two ways. Some continue their practices of idolatry, others rejoice in and help spread the gospel of the Son of God.
The characteristics of their religion are commendable in the highest degree. Says Paul, “We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers; remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” A faith that works, a love that labors, a hope that is patient! Conclusive, indeed, the evidence of the genuineness of their conversion. An active, living, working faith! Not alone; accompanied and made perfect by good works. Yea, more, “it groweth exceedingly.”
Love labors. If possible, it outdoes faith. Elsewhere compared with faith and hope, it is said to be the greatest. It does not soon grow weary, nor seek an easy position. Cheerfully it bears the cross. It runs the Christian race with joy and gladness. It sustains the good soldier in untold hardships and conflicts. It inspires his heart with courage and fortitude in the most severe struggle, while faith holds before him palms of victory and crowns of glory.
Love feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, visits the sick, comforts the dying, labors to promote the usefulness and happiness of all. Amidst scorn, opposition, and bitter persecution, it seeks to honor the Most High, without a murmur, sustained by the blessed hope, “Deliverance will come.”
But hope is patient, not anxious to be quickly relieved of trials and temptations incident to a connection with the cause of God. Patient hope bears up the sinking spirit while traveling the cross-bearing, self-denying, pathway the dear Saviour trod. For his sake, scorn, reproach, and tribulations, are cordially welcomed, and submissively endured.
Paul says to his brethren in Thessalonica, “So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure: which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer.”
The result upon others of the reception of the gospel by the men of Thessalonica, and their joyful obedience to it, amidst the persecution they endured, is worthy of consideration. “For from you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not speak anything.” 1 Thess. 1:8.
Suppose they had reasoned as some do now. It will not do to “make a break in society.” “We might better keep together.” “If others would move, I would, but as it is, I think I shall be justified in taking no advance steps.” Had this been their decision, they would have remained in blindness and unbelief, and never reflected the light of the gospel to others.
But God regards the oppressed and the oppressor. With this consideration the apostle comforts his brethren. A reward awaits both classes, seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.” 2 Thess. 1:5–10.
A. S. HUTCHINS.
Nov. 14, 1872.
What Next?
THERE is a grim sort of consolation in the fact that if we are just now suffering from a combination of calamities, such as great fires, the horse disease, a stringent money market, heavy taxes, and various social disorders, we are not alone in our misery. All the powers of evil and forces of disaster seem to be let loose at once in Europe, and with a fury which is almost sufficient to make one believe that Satan has been unchained, and is coming on his thousand years of havoc. The cable dispatches in our last issue present a catalogue of horrors, the bare enumeration of which is enough to make the reader a settled hypochondriac. First, a terrible storm sweeps along the English coast, wrecking everything within its reach, and involving a sad loss of life. The same gale ravaged the Prussian coast. If the damage to shipping was less severe, it was only because the merchantmen are not so numerous as on the English coast. What it failed to do on the sea, however, it more than accomplished on shore. The ancient and quaint old town of Stralsund, which has borne the brunt of nearly all the old German wars, which was besieged by Wallenstein in 1628, bombarded in 1678, and nearly destroyed by Frederick William, the great Elector of Brandenburg, and captured again after desperate struggles, in 1713 and 1807, seems to have come in for more than its share of this terrible natural convulsion. Twelve vessels were sunk in the shallows of its harbor. The whole town was inundated, and then, to add to the general horror, a great fire broke out, destroying many of the largest warehouses and other buildings, as well as many lives. Those in the interior have fared little better. For several days, an unusually severe rain and snow storm has prevailed in eastern Germany, prostrating the telegraph wires in every direction, and doing wide-spread damage by flooding the country.
Lubeck, the famous commercial city of Germany, close by Hamburg, and the former meeting place of the Hanseatic League, has suffered like Stralsund, and all its principal buildings are under water. The coal mines of Staffordshire add a melancholy item to the general tidings of disaster, one of them being suddenly inundated, while the miners were at work, twenty-two of them perished miserably.
The South Sea Islands furnish the last and most fearful story of all, in which “man’s inhumanity to man” dwarfs all the desolation by fire and storm. An English vessel was on a kidnapping expedition among the islands. The unsuspecting natives were decoyed alongside the vessel, when their canoes were smashed. The wretched victims were fished out of the water, and thrust into the hold of the vessel. They fought for their liberty, and, to secure it, set fire to the vessel, and then the captain and crew commenced firing into them indiscriminately. The next morning the hatches were removed, seventy were found either dead or wounded, and the wounded and dead were thrown overboard together. It is hard to believe that human nature can be guilty of such atrocious crimes, but one man in the crowd of barbarous wretches has had conscience enough to turn Queen’s evidence, and it is to be hoped that the latest development of English barbarity not only will meet with the most inexorable administration of English justice, but will serve to help on the movement already commenced in England to punish and prevent kidnapping into slavery, and enlist the cooperation of other European nations in the good work.
The inevitable question which will occur to every reader as he peruses this dismal list of horrors, is, “What next?” What calamity or combination of calamities is to come to-day or to-morrow? What fresh evils have the revengeful fates in store for the world, already groaning under its heavy burdens? Just as the great wars were over, and all the nations of the earth were settled peacefully down to industrial and commercial pursuits, and the two leading powers had set a joyful example to the rest by settling their disputes amicably, all the powers of fire, air, and water, seem to be let loose, with no restraint upon their capabilities for mischief. Earthquakes swallow up the cities of the plain. The pestilence set forth upon its devastating march, and not even the dumb beasts escape its influences. Volcanoes rain storms of fire upon the villages below, and consume them. Vast and terrible conflagrations lay low great cities and forests in a night. Whirlwinds destroy rural villages and the labors of the husbandman, floods submerge the accumulations of the merchants, and gales sweep the coasts of their shipping. The lightning in its wrath spares neither the Escurial, with its buried kings, nor the remotest country hamlet. There is only one consolation attaching to this general havoc, and that is, we are gradually becoming accustomed to it, and may soon be able to endure it, and, perhaps, enjoy it with a certain degree of philosophy. At present, however, the world is as pitiable as poor old Lear, out on the barred heath, with nothing to protect him from the pitiless storms. * * * * —Chicago Tribune.
Mrs. H. B. Stowe on the Resurrection.
By Dudley Marvin Canright
The following article from this celebrated authoress is certainly worth reading. She but expresses the real feeling of every heart when she says, “A pure spirit, abstract, distant, will never content me; it will not be my friend.” This shows the hollowness and worthlessness of that miserable theory that makes us in the world to come simply a ghost, an immaterial spirit. How truly she says of the doctrine of the resurrection to the old Christian church, how dear was this belief. We cannot but inquire, Why is it not as dear now? Simply because it has been supplanted by a doctrine which those early fathers were ignorant of, viz., the immortality of the soul. Again, she confesses a sad fact when she says this doctrine of the resurrection of the body has in some degree faded from the consciousness of the Christian church. This is but too true. We believe that the time has come to revive this grand old doctrine. But hear her words:—
“One of the most precious concessions which Christ’s religion makes to human love is embodied in this article of a Christian’s belief. We love our friend in a body. How dear that form! Those eyes, those lips, that hair, over which the grave has closed—how sacred! How vain to say to us, ‘Your beloved is a spirit—a bright essence gone to mingle with the great sea of spirit life!’ ‘Alas! how cold and vague to the mourning heart is all this! I want to see him again; I want again the eye, the smile, the voice, the SELF—warm, winning, living. A pure spirit, abstract, distant, will never content me; it will not be my friend.’ But Christ promises us in that immortal life not alone the soul and spirit, but the body of our friend. He consecrates our earthly love by promising to restore it to us by-and-by, glowing with freshness and stamped with the seal of immortality.”
“To the old Christian church of the first ages how dear was this belief! When they saw the bodily form racked, torn, mutilated, trampled by wild beasts, burned to ashes and scattered to the winds, still they said in triumph, ‘We believe in the resurrection of the body; we shall have them again and hold them to our hearts, our own, our beloved ones. We shall see those same eyes shining into ours; those same hands shall clasp ours; there shall be the old, familiar voice, the well-known smile. It shall be our own and no other—restored to us, far beyond death, immortal in God’s kingdom.’”
“Even in St. Paul’s time, there were doubters and philosophers who said: ‘How can this be? How are the dead raised up, and with what body do they come?’ and St. Paul answers: ‘That which thou sowest is not quickened except it die, and thou sowest not the body that shall be, but bare grain.’ That is, this body you bury is a seed, which goes back to earth, but there is a vital power in it out of which God shall raise the new body, fresh and immortal, and ‘God shall give to every seed his own body.’”
“The lily that you lay in the dark earth to-day, in its pure beauty, shall decay and pass away, but another lily shall spring from it that shall never fade. In the resurrection, the oak shall arise an oak, and the lily a lily, and the violet a violet, ‘to every seed his own body.’”
“This preservation of human identity, even to the restoration of that bodily form, is a proof of the intense value set upon love by a God of love. It is as if he said to us, ‘I must make you pass through a terrible experience, a dreary, inexpressible sorrow; but trust me, it shall be only for a moment. This apparent death of your dear ones is not real death. I will give them back to you better, brighter, more perfect than before, and in a world where there is no shadow of death to be feared. You shall have them, hold them, clasp them to your heart, a thousand times dearer for the great experience through which you have passed.’”
Many confuse themselves in thinking how and with what body this will be. Will our friend who died with silver hair come forth thus? Will he be as we knew him in youth? Will our little one have the fair curls and starry eyes of infancy? Here, as St. Paul says, there is a mystery. All we know is, there is a mysterious something, called personal identity, that remains about our friend through all the changes of life. The old wife fondly holds her husband’s hand and remembers when his white hair was black as the raven’s wing, when his step was firm and his voice was ringing; and he remembers when her hair was golden and her cheeks like roses; and yet both of them feel that this is the same. They knew each other in youth, they know each other now, and yet nothing could be more utterly different than their bodily appearance in youth and now. So, when they meet each other in the immortal home, in the new body made like unto Christ’s glorious body, there will still be that inexpressible something that constitutes personal identity; they will know each other for the same. The mother sits to-day with fond content and holds the hand of her son full of the life and vigor of manhood, and she doubts not that this is actually the same who once in snowy cap and long robe lay helpless in her arms. She has seen the infant, the rollicking, curly-headed child, the school-boy and now the full-grown man, and yet identity has remained unbroken through all these changes. Her son never has seemed unfamiliar or strange. So, in our immortal reunion in the world beyond death, we may believe that with the great and beautiful changes which will pass upon us will yet remain that beautiful familiarity, that sweet consciousness of identity.
This doctrine of the resurrection of the body has, in some degree, faded from the consciousness of the Christian church. St. Paul always spoke of that as the consummation of bliss, the grand central point of the believer’s hope. “I press forward,” he says, “if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead”; and he announces that the final triumph will be when this is accomplished. “When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death! where is thy sting? O Grave! where is thy victory?”
What a gift to this life is such a promise! How often we say, “If I only could be young again! if I only could live life over!” Well, you shall be young again, and you shall live life over! Your physical life—all that is worth keeping—shall be restored to you in a purer and brighter form, fitted for immortal wear and progress. Your friends shall be restored, familiar, dear, free from earthly defect, but with all the sweet memories and innocent identities of earth. “Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost,” the Master said, even over a basket of bread. It is said by philosophers that no particle of matter is ever lost, but all goes into new forms in the eternal economy. Much more shall no throb of love, no tenderness of the heart, no yearning of human affection, be cast by as worthless. All shall be held in memory, and all shall be restored fresh and bright. And this is what we Christians mean every Sunday when we say, “I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.” D. M. CANRIGHT.
COVETOUSNESS.—
There is a fable of a covetous man, who chanced to find his way one moonlight night into a fairy’s palace. There he saw bars, apparently of solid gold, strewed on every side; and he was permitted to take away as many as he could carry. In the morning, when the sun rose upon his imaginary treasure, borne home with so much toil, behold! there was only a bundle of sticks; and invisible beings filled the air around him with scornful laughter. Such shall be the confusion of many a man who dies in this world worth his thousands, and wakes up in the next world not only “miserable and poor and blind and naked,” but in presence of a heap of fuel stored up against the great day of burning.
The Scandinavian Mission.
By John Matteson
Norwegians, Danes, and Swedes, are called with a common name—Scandinavians. The first two classes speak and write the same language. The Swedes have a different language; yet it is so nearly like the Danish that we can readily understand each other. Of organized churches, we have two Norwegian, and six, Danish. Two more Danish churches are now being organized—in all, ten churches, with about two hundred and seventy members. In Minnesota, two little companies of Swedes have also been started by Bro. Lee. Besides this, there are scattered Sabbath-keepers living in different places, and our hearts are made glad by receiving letters from several persons that have been brought into the truth by reading the Advent Tidende.
Bro. Olsen seems to labor with some success this year in Wisconsin. After years of temptations, and prayers, and fruitless attempts, he is at last enjoying freedom in presenting the truth before our countrymen, and I believe that he can do much good, if he lives near to the Lord. Bro. J. C. Nielsen has helped him some. No doubt Bro. Nielsen can also gain an experience in gathering souls for Christ, if he is persevering, energetic, and willing to have the Lord lay upon him a burden for souls.
In Minnesota, in Brown Co., Bro. John Hansen is laboring with success. The Lord has blessed him much. When he wrote to me, Nov. 10, twenty-five souls had embraced the faith. Several were baptized, and fourteen have taken the covenant. There is but one ordained minister among our people. When souls are ready for baptism in new places, it is quite important that they should be baptized. I have therefore advised those brethren, who are both local elders and licentiates, to baptize candidates in new places, and organize as far as possible. They cannot ordain an elder, but a leader can be chosen, and S. B. organized; also Bible-classes, Sabbath-schools, and Tract Societies, as far as practicable. If any one is to be blamed for this, I will take the blame. From Freeborn Co., Minn., I have received letters. The church is alive and united, and all that have come out are firm. Bro. Jorgensen meets with them, and seems to be growing in the love of the truth. Several others, in different places, are looking on with interest, and may yet be made efficient in the harvest. The Lord is good, very good. The work is onward.
A word to those who are trying to labor. Learning is good. But those who are learned, in some measure, often spoil their sermons and articles, by making them so learned, logical, burdened with rules, and full of hair-splitting, that they pass over the heads of the majority of hearers or readers. Find some one that knows less of the Bible and of Christian experience than you do. There are plenty of that class. Teach them what you know, not any more. Be determined to lead a few souls, at least, to embrace the commandments, and prepare for the coming of Christ. Persevere. Don’t run away because you get tired, or sick, or tempted, or because the children are crying at home, or because your heart is fainting in you, when you think of home comforts and pleasures. Stick to your duty, even though you feel that you are so unfit. Running away only makes you worse. In my estimation, one of the worst things a preacher can do in a new field, is to leave when there is a good interest to hear. Then study as you work. Study and labor. Study living as well as dead books. Work for God and humanity, and not for money. Don’t shrink from duty, whether your superiors praise you, or find fault with you. If you fall, rise up again. Never draw back till the victory is won. To be running from place to place all the time, accomplishing nothing, is a foolish and fanatical way. Be steady. Work with patience in a place till some souls are gained—twenty, or ten, or five. The Lord will certainly reward you if you work for him.
Our American brethren are very kind to us. I appreciate their sympathy and help. Our dear Bro. White is doing all in his power to help us. But it is doing too much for us, far too much. The importance of this branch of the work, I am afraid, is overestimated. We are but few, and, as a people, we cannot at all be compared to our more enlightened American brethren. We are below in many respects. We have more recently come out of that hard bondage, which is so unfriendly to the cultivation of the mind. There is indeed a difference. But some of our people, I fear, will never get very good ideas of health reform and cleanliness. Yet I praise God for the improvement I have seen, also, in this respect.
Brethren, we are unworthy of your notice. This work is much smaller, and poorer, than you think it is. Yet I feel for it. Oh, to save one soul! The salvation of one soul, safely harbored at last in the mansions of glory, is, in my estimation, worth all my labor. To labor for God, for eternity, for Jesus, for the salvation of lost souls—oh! how glorious. Our privations, sufferings, health injured, life shortened, comforts sacrificed—oh! how insignificant, compared with the exceeding and eternal gain.
The Advent Tidende has become a very important part of the Scandinavian Mission. It is doing a good work, which is certified by testimonies from many places. I can speak of this more freely, as the principal part of our journal is but an echo of your best Tracts, and choicest articles from the REVIEW. I am now translating the excellent Sabbath tract of Mr. Morton, and also give a chapter in each number of Thoughts on Revelation, condensed. Next volume will contain a thorough examination of the Sabbath question, if the Lord will.
To our American brethren, I do hereby in the name of our people, send forth our heartfelt thanks for your Christian kindness and sympathy.