THERE can be no doubt that the success of any laborer in the cause of God depends much upon the methods chosen and pursued. The canvasser, the colporter, and the preacher may, by a judicious course, win and attract the interest of those with whom they have to deal, toward the truth they present; or they may, by injudicious methods, repel and turn them away, to their everlasting injury. We should never sink the truth to a low level to conciliate the prejudices of any; nor should we ever needlessly stir up or come in conflict with their prejudices, so as to close their eyes and ears against the truth. There is "a golden mean" which should constantly be kept in view. The Saviour gave a rule embodying remarkable wisdom when he said: "Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves."
The first great requisite to success in the work of God is a loving heart. "Speaking the truth in love," said Paul. First, we should love God, the author and giver of the truth. Secondly, we should love the truth which he has given to us. Thirdly, we should love those to whom we speak, and whom we hope to benefit by the truth. If such be the condition of our mind and heart, our labor cannot fail to be fruitful. But if either of these elements be lacking our work will show defects of some kind.
The work of the Third Angel's Message is a providential work. It is not a work, in either its matter or methods, which somebody devised and adopted according to their own choice. The Spirit of God not only impressed the truths of the Revelation upon the minds of his servants, but enlightened them in regard to their personal labors under their new and varied circumstances, leading them as he did the Israelites of old, in a way they knew not. Many have risen up and for a while stood in doubt of the propriety of the methods pursued; but time and experience proved that it is well to follow where the Lord leads, though we cannot always see the full result in advance.
In this very subject we have a solution of the question often proposed, why it is that so few ministers from other denominations are found in the ministry of this message. It is not because none have embraced it, for quite a number have done so, but they very seldom enter upon its labors in public; very few have been successful in an effort in that direction. The reason is this: They have their habits fixed, and must work according to the established methods of their several churches, and they find it about impossible to conform to the necessities of so great a change of circumstances. And then the question follows: Why not work after those methods? And, Would not our influence be greater and better if we conformed to the customs and methods of the denominations around us?
Our answer is in the negative, and for two reasons. 1. It is impossible. Our circumstances will not admit of it. The churches of the other denominations place almost their entire dependence for existence on a settled pastor. As a Presbyterian paper lamentingly said: "When the minister is gone, all is gone." Many a church, with a fair-sized membership, closes up its house of worship for want of a settled preacher. But ours is altogether a missionary work. We have not preachers enough to supply a tithe of our churches, if we would; but we would not if we could. If our work is a missionary work, our people, to be in the work, must be a missionary people. And experience has taught us that nothing but persevering labor will keep the missionary spirit alive in any people. No, we cannot and would not have settled pastors over our churches.
2. The people do not expect such a work from us. To work after the old church methods is to rob the message of its life and power. We have seen it tried. We knew a minister who would not introduce any doctrine of the present truth to a community until he had preached about a week after the old style, or what he called revival sermons, to get up a good interest and enlist in his favor the feelings of the people. But he afterward confessed that it was labor to no purpose. In the first place, the people were disappointed; they expected something different, and were anxious to hear it. And this fact may be borne in mind by our laborers: the majority of the people are tired of hearing read little essays on common topics, miscalled "sermons." They will hail with joy solid instruction from the word of God. There is power in the word of truth when "poured forth in the Spirit." And again, he said that after he had preached a week, and got the congregation up to the revival standard, when he struck on to the doctrines of the message his hearers dropped back to the place they occupied when he commenced his work.
And we had a recital of the same experience from a Seventh-day Baptist brother who had labored in a tent. He said at first he started with preaching one or two weeks on general subjects, and after working up a strong religious feeling in his congregation he would introduce the Sabbath, and his hearers would listen to his arguments and act in reference to them exactly as if he had never preached to them before. Some who had been his warmest friends, and manifested the most zeal and fervor, would turn away from the truth with scorn. And some who had appeared to be quite unaffected by his preaching before, would listen to the Bible proofs with interest, and accept the whole truth. He said that he had learned that if he presented the Sabbath at all he found it just as well to "pitch in" at the beginning; the effect was just as good, and he saved much time.
The principle is what we are aiming at; not the particular form in which the truth should first be presented in any place. We always preferred opening a series of sermons with the prophecies, the messages, and the sanctuary, and let those subjects introduce the law and the Sabbath, as they really do in the book of God. But the point is this, that the present truth is not benefited, its presentation is not accelerated or strengthened, by resorting to the methods adopted by the denominations in an entirely different work.
We are strongly impressed with the conviction that herein is a suggestion to those who go to labor in other lands. While it may be specially undesirable to arouse their prejudices in those lands, it may be true there as well as here that God blesses those means and methods to which his Spirit has given its sanction in the rise and progress of this work. Our message is to go to "many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings;" and the Lord himself chose the place, and means, and methods of its rise and progress, and his providence has ever indicated his will in carrying on the work, and his Spirit instructed in the way. A sanctified judgment, or, as Bro. White used to express it, "sanctified common sense" is very desirable in such a work. But the Lord has promised to guide us in judgment if we meekly depend on him, and do not choose our own ways or endeavor to labor in our own strength.
"Surely, God is good to Israel." Nothing but goodness and mercy have followed us in this precious cause,—this glorious work. And his mercy endureth forever, and will ever rest upon those who delight in his commandments, and who strive to glorify him in all that they do. As yet we can say, "the lines are fallen to us in pleasant places." Opposition to the truth is little, merely nothing. How important that we wisely improve our opportunities while they are so favorable. How important that every laborer study to show himself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, whose work shall be approved in the day of account.
"Who Only Hath Immortality."
THERE is no other denomination in the land to which we feel so strongly drawn by fraternal ties as the Seventh-day Baptist. And there is no other paper (outside of our own denomination) which we take up with so much pleasure as the Sabbath Recorder. We love the Sabbath of the Lord God with a very earnest devotion; stronger, perhaps, than if we had been raised in its observance, as our observance grew out of strong conviction. We cannot fail to respect those whose "delight is in the law of the Lord."
Soon after we embraced the Sabbath, in Wisconsin, Eld. O. P. Hull remarked to us that he took great interest in the movement of the Seventh-day Adventists and their success in winning converts to the Sabbath. Of course we tried to impress upon his mind the fact, which we thoroughly believed and now believe to be a fact, that our success was entirely due to the power of the Third Angel's Message of Rev. 14:9-12; that its proclamation received the special blessing of Heaven because it is "present truth." Of his further remark we have often thought, namely, that he had feared that God would have to raise up a people to give the Sabbath truth to the world, because the Seventh-day Baptists were not aggressive enough to move the world with the important truth committed to them. Further, that he expected some truth would come up which would greatly shake the Seventh-day Baptist churches, because there were in them so many "birth-right members," and so few converts to the Sabbath; so few who had embraced it in their maturer years by conviction. This was the expression of his view, and not ours. We speak of it to show that we are not alone in our estimate of the value of personal conviction of a truth.
And we are ever ready to accord perfect honesty to our brethren of the Seventh-day Baptists in their opposition to certain views held by us as Scriptural and important. We are as strongly entrenched in our faith on the advent as we are in that on the Sabbath. We are fully that which our name implies—Seventh-day Adventists. It is our belief in the "signs of the times," the fulfillment of prophecy, which so arouses us to the danger of the proposed "Religious Amendment of the Constitution of the United States." In like manner we are warned, and in the self-same prophecy (Rev. 13), of the deceptions, and ultimate triumph among the people of this world and a sleeping church, of Modern Spiritualism. As shown in our article last week on "One-sided Religion," the doctrine of immortality only in and through Christ, and the resurrection as the only hope and means of future life, are given as safe-guards against those deceptions. Confident, as well they might be, that they held a most important and precious truth of God's law, few compared to the millions of believers who had followed the papal church in accepting tradition, the Seventh-day Baptists naturally felt conservative in regard to attaching new views to their own time-honored truth, and many of them felt suspicious of the faith and the methods of the new denomination. The Jews were right when they said, "We know that God spake to Moses," and there they took their313stand on a known truth. But when they added, "as for this man, we know not whence he is," perhaps it was equally true, for they did not know; but it was equally important that they should know, for God had not exhausted his revelations in speaking to Moses. The Seventh-day Baptists are to be credited in one thing—they have the truth. But they would do well to consider the position of the Jews, and inquire whether they have all the truth.
We were led to this train of thought by reading in the Recorder a criticism by a correspondent on the use somebody had made of 1 Tim. 6:16, which, speaking of the King of kings and Lord of lords, says, "Who only hath immortality." And the criticism was partly correct, for we believe that very often an injudicious, if not an unlawful, use is made of these words. The text certainly cannot mean that "our Lord and his Christ" are the only immortal beings in existence at this time. We think it must be evident to every one that, in the controversy in Heaven, when legions of angels "kept not their first estate," but sinned, the angels on both sides determined their character by the choice they made and the part they took, and thereby fixed their eternal destiny. If the rebellious ones sinned beyond recovery, so that they were hopelessly lost, as the Scriptures teach, it must follow that the obedient ones were in like manner fixed in their obedience, never to fall, even as the saints will be when glorified. And to this the Saviour refers in his answer to the Sadducees on the resurrection. Speaking of those who are counted worthy of eternal life in the resurrection, he said: "Neither can they die any more; for they are equal unto the angels." Luke 20:36. This would not be conclusive if the angels could die. And if they cannot die they are certainly immortal.
But inasmuch as this refers to the saints in the resurrection state, it is no proof in favor of their being immortal in the present state. To the contrary, it is opposed to that idea, and is in harmony with the teaching of Paul in 1 Cor. 15, that we receive or put on immortality, exemption from death, in the resurrection.
God, the living God, is the only being who "has life in himself." John 5:26. It is not in the nature of a created being to have life in himself; it must be a gift to every creature. Hence, in this sense, by self-possession, or by virtue of his nature, God "only hath immortality." If any use the text to prove that none but God are now immortal, we think it is used in an unwarranted manner, for the angels in Heaven have doubtless had immortality conferred on them. But it is a contradiction of the theory that any are naturally immortal. And here come in the remarks by the writer in the Recorder which are so very questionable:—
"So far as man has been able to penetrate, it is a universal law that the offspring is the same in kind with the parent. Adam 'was the son of God.' Luke 3:38. Paul (Acts 17:28, 29) readily agrees with the heathen poets that 'we are the offspring of God.' It will require more than four words taken out from a sentence of fourteen words to prove that in the creation of man there was a violation of the general law of relation between parent and child."
This paragraph is so faulty that we can but wonder that it ever found a place in that paper.
1. "So far as man has been able to penetrate;" but man is not able to comprehend himself, much less can man "by searching find out God." We can know God only by his own revelation, and this does not at all justify the position of the above quotation.
2. It is assumed that because God the Father has immortality, therefore man, his son, must also have immortality. But, if immortality is an essential or necessary attribute of man, what mean the words applied to God, "who only hath immortality?" Who can tell?"
3. But immortality is only one attribute of God. If man must by virtue of his nature be "the same in kind with the parent," God, we must give him all the attributes of his parent, because that is according to the "universal law," "so far as man has been able to penetrate;" for who ever knew a son to resemble his father in only one respect? God the Father is immortal, all-wise, omnipotent, omnipresent, self-existent; of course man, "his offspring," must possess all these qualities. If not, the "universal law" is a failure!
4. But there is one expression in the extract which sufficiently betrays the weakness of the argument. It is that which speaks against the idea of proving "that in the creation of man there was a violation of the general law of relation between parent and child." Now there is no such thing as "the general law of relation between parent and child," in creation. Is it the "general law" of natural generation that the parent forms the child of the dust of the earth, and by an act of creative power endues it with life by breathing the breath of life into its nostrils? It is exceedingly strange if this is "the general law" that there is no one living who ever saw the process. If ever there was a decided case of "reasoning from unlike to unlike," it is presented by this writer.
But the all-important question is this: "What say the Scriptures?" Do they show that man, as the offspring of God, possesses and must possess the nature and attributes of his Creator? Let us present a short series of points.
a. God is self-existent; therefore man is self-existent. But read Job 25:6.
b. God is immortal; therefore man is immortal. But read Job 4:17.
c. God is uncorruptible; therefore man is uncorruptible. But read Rom. 1:23.
d. God has life in himself; therefore man has life in himself. But read Ps. 89:48.
e. God is an uncreated Spirit; therefore man is an uncreated spirit. But read Zech. 12:1; Ps. 103:14, 15.
Surely there is no need to extend this list. It is more than absurd to make such a claim in regard to the nature of man, as that in the above extract.
6. In reasoning on a Bible subject, why not take what the Bible says on that subject, and let that settle the question? If immortality is in our nature, it is not brought to light in the gospel. 2 Tim. 1:10. If all men possess it, there is no need for any to seek for it. Rom. 2:7. If we have it by birth, we do not receive it in the resurrection. 1 Cor. 15:53, 54. The word rendered "uncorruptible" in Rom. 1:23, is the same that is rendered "immortal" in 1 Tim. 1:17. "The King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God." Instead of the child partaking of the nature of the parent in respect to immortality, the contrast is stated in direct terms on this very subject. If Rom. 1:23 were translated as 1 Tim. 1:17, and it would be perfectly right to so translate it (they are rendered alike in the Revision), then it would read, "And changed the glory of the immortal God into an image made like to mortal man." Think of it; a creature made of the dust claiming the nature and attributes of his Creator, the self-existent, eternal One; and this for the reason that, as far as our observation extends, the child partakes of the nature of the parent!
Is immortality through Adam more valuable than through Christ? "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." Col. 3:4. Our hearts respond, Amen.
The Signs of the Times.
By Editor
Los Angeles Camp-Meeting.
By Ellet Joseph Waggoner
By the time this report issues from the press, this meeting, now two-thirds over, will be closed. Of course we cannot yet speak of results, yet we can make a good estimate of what will be accomplished.
The meeting was appointed in rather an unfavorable time for a full attendance of our people. This county has had three or four times its usual amount of rain the past season, and, as a consequence, farmers have been delayed in putting in their crops. The ground is just now in suitable condition for cultivation, and the people think that if this time is not improved they will raise no crops this year. The attendance of our own people is, therefore, very small. We regret this very much, for those in this part of the State have never before been permitted to meet with others of the same faith in camp-meeting. We cannot but think that if they had had this privilege, and could know the importance of such gatherings, where they can receive instruction concerning the dangers and duties of our time, there would have been a larger attendance. Satan knows the importance of these meetings, and will throw hindrances in our way. He is an arch-deceiver, and can magnify a mole-hill into a mountain when it stands between us and duty. Very often it happens that things that seem to be in the natural order of events, perhaps ordered by Providence, have been gotten up by Satan for the express purpose of depriving us of a blessing. We need to be careful not to be deceived.
But notwithstanding the meager attendance of our own people, the meeting has been in many respects a success. We have not attended a camp-meeting in California where there was so large and regular an outside attendance. God has seemed to give us favor with the people, and a good impression is being made. The daily papers, of which there are four in the city, have been very kind in giving us favorable notices, reporting our meetings, etc. There has not been a word of adverse criticism. The order of the ground is commended, and surprise is expressed at the size of the camp which to us seems so small.
We believe that it is in the order of God's providence that this meeting is held. Its effect will be to give character and permanence to the work in this section. There is no better field for labor in the State than Los Angeles; it is indeed a missionary field, and it will now be easier to reach the people than ever before. As we see the abundant opening, we feel constrained to pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers. Would that all our brethren in the State might awaken to the necessity of the time, and be preparing to fill the openings which God is preparing for us. Our College should be more than filled, and it should be so relieved from financial embarrassment that it can provide accommodation for all who may desire to attend. We often pray for the spread of the message, as though there was some failure on the part of the Lord, and he must begin to work, when the fact is that he is away ahead of us, and is waiting for us to get faith enough to walk out where he leads. God is more anxious for the salvation of souls than we are. Let us all pray the Lord to send forth laborers, and then have a hand in answering our own prayers.
The burden of this meeting has been to instruct the little company present in the practical duties, to give them a familiarity with the workings of the cause, and to awaken living faith in the promises of God. The timely testimony of Sister White has been well received. If it shall be heeded the Lord will work wonderfully for his people in this part of the field. Brethren pray for the work here.
E. J. W.
Los Angeles, May 15.
Let in the Light
Mr. Moody, speaking at Cork, Ireland, said, in his characteristic fashion, that "the way to get a room illuminated is not to send a hundred men to bale out the darkness, but just to let in the light. It is the same with our hearts. We must let in the light." Light is man's greatest need, yet that is just what is most rejected.
The Way of the Wicked
"The way of the wicked is as darkness; they know not at what they stumble."
Parleying with Temptation.
By Uriah Smith
WE are in a world of temptations. We cannot escape them. Fortunately the temptations themselves are not sins. The sin lies in yielding; and the yielding is almost invariably preceded by a parley. Parleying with temptation is the grand avenue to all the sins which the tempter would have us commit. If we can close up this, we fortify ourselves against many dangers.
What is meant by parleying with temptation is most strikingly illustrated in the history of Balaam. When the messengers of the king of Moab came to him with splendid offers, if he would come and curse Israel, the Lord expressly told him not to go with them. A second deputation arrives with richer bribes and more imposing honors. Under an affectation of piety he says, "Tarry ye also here this night, that I may know what the Lord will say unto me more." God had once expressly forbidden him. Of that he was well aware; but the offers were tempting. The prize was worth securing. And now could not he, notwithstanding God's prohibition, some way secure the reward consistently with duty? He gave his mind up to the unlawful study of how to reconcile these two things. And because he loved the ways of unrighteousness more than his duty to God, God gave him up to follow his own ways; and the sad results are known to all.
The human mind reasons now just as it did then; and thousands are substantially following the steps of Balaam. There are four principal ways in which we give the tempter access to us, and even solicit his assaults.
1. The first is when we re-open for debate a question which has once been decided. Our first judgments are the best. They spring from the intuitive perceptions of conscience before it is biased by afterthoughts. Subsequent considerations are too often but the pleadings of selfishness or dishonesty to escape from the convictions of conscience. If Balaam, once expressly informed by God of his duty, and decided in that direction, had adhered to that decision, he would have been safe. But he re-opened the question for further discussion. Perhaps the question was not fully settled after all. Perhaps it could be decided in some way which would allow him to receive the reward which he so much coveted. Here was his first great stride toward his fearful fall. And so it is with us. Therefore when a question has once passed the tribunal of conscience, and been decided in accordance with clear perceptions of right, take your stand immovably upon that decision. Let the enemy understand that that is not a debatable question. This will save much after trouble.
2. The second way in which we weaken ourselves in the face of the enemy is when we do not at once subjugate the inward inclination which leads to the outward act. All things spring from within. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." Every act can be traced to some inward motive. If these motives are right and pure, such will also be the actions which follow; if they are evil and impure, the actions will bear the same character. These hidden springs, therefore, need to be carefully watched. And when an inclination enters the heart which will lead to evil, subjugate it, suppress it, nip it in the bud, don't let it mature. This is the easiest, quickest, surest way to avoid the evils which will follow if this is not accomplished. The secret inclination in Balaam's heart, which eventually matured into such bitter results, was the love of honor and gain. Could he not in some way secure these? This was the object of his parley; and this was the great cause of his fall; for the apostle mentions as his chief characteristic, that he "loved the wages of unrighteousness." These secret inclinations being allowed to prevail, soon gain the understanding by special pleas addressed to it, and finally the will is drawn in, and the guilty deed is at once executed. Lay the axe at the root, suppress the inward inclination. The strength of the temptation is then gone.
3. The third way of parleying with temptation is to throw ourselves into circumstances of trial, relying upon our own strength. The Christian's strength is wholly in God. The Bible seeks to inculcate a true conviction of human weakness and guilt as the basis of all acceptable action. And the Christian's sense of weakness is his strength, for it leads him to rely upon an unfailing arm. And it operates also in another direction; for feeling his weakness, he shuns temptation; and temptation shunned is powerless. The serpent cannot charm when we turn from him. These considerations teach us, first of all, to fly from temptation; but when we are thrust out where we are obliged to grapple face to face with the foe, then rely on God for help and strength. With every temptation he is able to make a way of escape.
4. The last and fatal stage is reached when conscience becomes a party in the conspiracy with evil, and sin is made to look consistent with duty. So long as a person will acknowledge right principles, there is hope of him, however reckless he may appear. There is some ground upon which a reform may be based. But when the conscience is brought into that place where it will bear a false testimony; and the distinction between right and wrong is broken down, then the person is wholly given up to evil. Here is the great danger. Conscience may be perverted; it may be seared; it may become evil. Alas for the victim, when he reaches that stage in self-deception. Hence the necessity of guarding well the conscience. Hence the value of a Christian education. Welcome, anything which will enlighten the mind, and restrain from sin. Welcome, anything which, though it may not entirely restrain from sin, will render it uncomfortable. Something is gained even then. Failing to secure the enjoyment falsely promised, the transgressor may turn to seek what reward there is to virtue.
"Every man," says the apostle, "is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." Such is the insidious entrance of evil; such is its awful result. We have spoken of some of the more usual avenues of its approach. If these can all be guarded, we have but little to fear; and it is all summed up in one sentence: Don't parley with temptation.
U. S.
The Missionary.
By Editor
From the Continent, Europe.
FROM a private letter from Bro. Butler to Bro. White we are permitted to take the following extracts. Our readers will be pleased to learn of the work in Europe, and we hope soon to be able to give more fully an account of Bro. Butler's labors there:—
I have never been more crowded with work in my life than some of the time on this trip. I have several meetings every week, usually preaching through an interpreter, sometimes two of them, and we have traveled quite rapidly in Italy and going to Roumania. We were gone only three weeks, and traveled much of the time nights without sleeping-cars (we do not have them in this country), catching every odd moment to write, in which I was not engaged in something else, and there is no prospect of any greater leisure until I return. Next Sabbath and Sunday we expect to be with the Prussian brethren in western Germany, and hold a meeting the following week in Denmark.
We expect the next Sabbath to be in Christiana, spending a week there in the important business likely to come up; then the following week in Sweden, at Grythittehed and Stockholm. The following week we have a general meeting of three days, for organizing Conference and to set things in motion as much as possible, at Bienne, Suisse, immediately followed by a five days' meeting in general council at Bâle; then one week in England, and I hope to sail for America about the 10th of June.
I cannot make better time and do the work that seems necessary to be done here, than I have indicated, and this is putting things through pretty rapidly. But this is the plan I have laid, and have been working up to it for the last three weeks. I think I shall succeed in reaching America about the 20th, and Battle Creek about the 23d, of June.315I hope that something can be done in Northern Italy, as there must be honest souls in all that country. Our visit to Roumania was a new experience. That is a sort of border land between the Oriental and Occidental world and presents a sort of mixture. Peopled in part by descendants of the ancient Romans who once occupied the country, from whom it was named, the language is derived from the Latin, and resembles the Italian. Bro. Thos. G. Aslan of Roumania speaks French quite well, his own tongue, talks the Turkish very well, and is studying English. His case seems to be truly miraculous. In his early years of manhood, he had a great feeling of condemnation upon him, fear of death, etc., until some one made him a present of the Psalms. He had read the Bible but very little. When he first began to read this book it seemed strange and mysterious to him; but he kept reading it and a work of grace seemed to be wrought upon his heart. His fear of death departed, and he felt like a different person. He felt impressed to pray for light, and for three or four years he used to go to a certain place of retirement to pray for light. When Czechowski came there the latter part of his life to teach French, to earn something on which to live, he became interested, while taking lessons, to learn something of present truth. He felt that it was the truth, and retained these thoughts of the truth until he began to keep the Sabbath. There are seven now keeping it, and a number of intelligent people interested in it. He has one brother keeping the Sabbath with his family, another whose wife keeps it, and he is just disposing of his business so that he can keep it also; and still another who is very friendly. We held six or eight meetings, I preaching five or six times.
We had but a small company at first, in Bro. Aslan's house, some eight or ten, but toward the last nearly thirty came in, though our manner of preaching was anything but well calculated to hold an interest. I preached in English, Edith translated into French, and then Bro. Aslan into Roumanian. This you will see was rather a roundabout way to drive the truth into the people. I do feel that if they have meetings there a good interest might be created.
Plain and Inexpensive Funerals
THE Occident says: "Plain and inexpensive funerals are coming into fashion, and a good fashion it is. Not long ago one of our prominent citizens was buried according to directions previous to his death, in a redwood coffin. We read that the late Baroness de Rothschild, who bequeathed half a million of dollars to general charities, was buried in a plain pine coffin, and there were no funeral ceremonies. What a mockery are all these flowers and hacks, and how foolish all this show and parade at funerals. It certainly does not help the dead, and it is of no earthly benefit to the living."
Ancient Hebrew Manuscript Fragments
MANY of our readers may have seen the absurd statement that the original manuscript of the Pentateuch had been found somewhere in Arabia. The truth, on which the falsehood was based, is that Dr. Harkavy, of the Imperial Library at St. Petersburg, Russia, has come into possession of some fragments of the Hebrew text of the Old Testament, "written in characters quite different from those contained in all known manuscripts and inscriptions." Dr. Harkavy will publish the fragments which will be reproduced by photograph.—S. S. Times.
Sing Unto the Lord
"SING unto the Lord, all the earth."
North Pacific Camp-Meeting.
By T. H. Starbuck
THE time for this meeting is near. All should begin at once to make preparation to attend. Come at the commencement and remain to the close, for it will be a meeting of great importance. It may be a long time before we shall have another annual meeting so full of interest to our Conference as this will be. If there has ever been a time when we should manifest zeal for the cause of truth, it is now. The cause is advancing and receiving a new impetus in other fields. Shall we fall behind, or shall we move forward with God's people to certain victory? Every Sabbath-keeper west of the Cascade Mountains should make a special effort to attend, and receive the benefits of the meeting.
We have much to do for ourselves and others before we shall be ready to meet our Saviour and hear him say, "Come, ye blessed of my Father." The day of the Lord is near and hasteth greatly, and our time to work is short. Those only will be ready who seek earnestly to do their Master's will. This year our camp-meeting will continue over two Sabbaths, thus affording more time than usual to seek God, to receive instruction, and to lay plans for the future. There will be delegates present from other Conferences, and we shall be favored with more ministerial help than ever before. And best of all, the Lord has promised to meet with us if we go prepared to receive his blessing.
Our camp-meeting can be made a source of strength and comfort to all our people in this part of the great harvest-field. Such opportunities for instruction and encouragement are rare, and we cannot afford to lose them. Some will be tempted to remain away because of home cares; but if we remember the Saviour's words, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness," we will not yield to the temptation. It may be money in our pockets to remain at home, but it will not be treasure laid up in Heaven. Earthly riches cannot purchase for us the favor of God and the unfading glories of the eternal shore. If we desire a closer connection with God and a home in his kingdom, we will make some sacrifice to be at the camp-meeting; but if eternal things are less desirable than the things of earth, we shall probably be found where our treasure is. Come, then, and bring with you as many of your friends as you can induce to attend. The success of our camp-meeting depends largely upon the attendance, and willingness to work together in harmony. We should not forget that it is the salvation of souls for whom Christ died that such meetings are held. We can go to the camp-meeting with hearts full of gratitude to God for the privilege; we can work for a good attendance; we can pray for the blessing of God to attend, and we can set our own hearts in order before going upon the encampment. If we do these things, God will come very near to us, and we shall see of his salvation. There will be much to do to make the meeting a complete success. We need much done for us to fit us for the many mansions. Shall we not then go with a spirit to help and to be helped?
T. H. STARBUCK.
Salem, Oregon, May 9, 1884.
Missionary Work at Home
By James Petigru Boyce
I would not give a sixpence for a man who wants to be a foreign missionary, but who will not do any good work at home.—Dr. J. P. Boyce.
North Pacific Conference.
By Charles L. Boyd
CARROLLTON, W. T.—I have been holding meetings near this place during the past few weeks. It is a new country, with but few inhabitants, among whom are a few families of Sabbath-keepers, through whose influence I came. Some of these have been connected with our people, and some had never publicly made a profession of religion. My labors have been for their conversion, and advancement in true godliness, and to get the light of truth before those who have never seen it. The Master has blessed the labors. Some have "decided to keep the Sabbath until convinced that it is not binding;" among whom is a justice of the peace. I have had the privilege of baptizing three willing souls; and there are others who, I trust, are dying to sin, and will soon be ready to be buried in the likeness of a Saviour's death. CHAS. L. BOYD.