Earlier text: THE SEVEN LAST PLAGUESDARE TO DO RIGHT.
By M. D. Amadon
NEVER did such a solemnity seem to rest upon us as at the present time. Often does the impression come home with terrible force. Our hope of salvation depends upon our actions now. We cannot pass on asleep to the great work of preparation going on for God's people, only at our peril. We have the warning, that but few will live out the truth, and overcome at last. “But few, who profess the truth, will be reinstated in the new earth.” Terrible warning! But why is it thus? Because the tender love and compassion of God toward his people have ceased? or that the way is so straight as to be impassable? or that his commandments are so severe that we cannot obey them? No, no; not this. We have the same compassionate Father in Heaven to serve; the same merciful High Priest to intercede for us, with a just God; the same number of ministering angels to watch over and guard us, holding us back in hours of danger, and encouraging us on in the way of truth and holiness. Then, why are we in so great danger? Why is our salvation so doubtful? Not because of any failure in the plan of salvation; but has there not been a departure from God? Have not his people wandered from him? Once they were a plain, humble people. The world scoffed at them for being such. Then, they felt that it was wrong to mingle with the gay and vain, wrong to join with the light-hearted and foolish. Pride was scarcely seen in their gatherings. Then, every energy was bent to advance the truth; and, if the presence of God's Holy Spirit was not felt in their meetings, how they mourned its absence, and sought it again. But how is it with us now? How often we hear the foolish laugh and jest! The society of the world is sought, and even courted. Pride is common everywhere. Where are the self-sacrificing ones, who are only glad when the cause of God is prospering, and sad when it is not? Where are those who are seeking to be living Christians, whose lives are a reproof to the ungodly, and who dare to do right, in the face and eyes of the world? Where is the moral courage necessary to let the light of truth and reform shine out before the world? Is there not a great lack here? Why should we start back with wonder that crosses, which are calculated to separate us from the world, are presented to us to bear in this time, if crosses there be? And why should we feel that they are crosses? Heaven is reaching out to us blessings, and it is only for us to reach up, and take them. Blessings indeed! Who, that has started out in the pathway of health reform, and has arrived where he has seen its true merits, will not call each step a great blessing? Ask those servants of God, who have used up one life in the cause of truth, and have looked to be just on the verge of the grave, who are now renewing their strength to engage still more ardently in the last conflict, and which of them will call any of it a cross? Is it not time that we, as a people, were whole-hearted in the work of reform? that we felt the weight of responsibility resting upon us, and the worth of souls around us? that we had lost sight of the idea of our gratifying self, and were loving the reform with all the heart? Is it not time that the derision of the world was no more to us than the idle wind? I have often felt to pity those who are mincing the matter in the dress reform. Such know not the worth of moral independence; not a brassy boldness, but a mind that looks above and beyond the foolishness and extreme vanity of these last days. We have had, now and then, a glimpse of what moral courage would do for us, as a people, were we possessed of it. Not long since, I was happy to meet a young bride, who had, meanwhile, done honor to the reform dress. She told me that she had, during the past winter, been teaching school among the world, and had not worn a long dress once during the term of school. But what was the effect? Was it to call down upon her derision and contempt? No, indeed; but, before she closed her school, nearly every family in the district had worn it more or less. But what if she had worn the long dress, and only now and then put on the short one, as some do; would she have shown her moral courage? No; far from it. The satisfaction that follows right-doing, would not have been hers, as it now is. A sister teaching in No. 3, Union School, in Battle Creek, was invited, with all the other teachers connected with the schools, to spend an evening at the house of the principal. She hesitated at first, as they were to have a nice supper; and then, to carry out her principles, she must wear the reform dress. But she decided to go, and take her principles of reform with her. She did so, arrayed very neatly in a short dress, which stood out in wide contrast with those of her associate teachers, many of them trailing half a yard on the floor. When the supper was passed, consisting of three rounds: 1st, white biscuit and butter, and pickles, 2d, frosted cake, 3d, ice cream—she said, “No, I thank you; I do not take supper.” But what was the effect? Did it excite scorn and ridicule? No; not a disrespectful word was met, and some, at least, were favorably impressed. Did she dishonor herself in doing this? I trust not in the sight of God or man; for she dared to do right. “But,” say some, “it is wrong to go to such gatherings.” So it is, and do as the world do, and dress as they dress, and eat as they eat. But, if one has moral courage to let his light shine, let him do so. Christ mingled with the world, not to conform to the world; but it was to save some out of the world, and to let his life be a reproof to the world. There is danger in associating with the world; great danger, because we at once become contaminated with its dreadful influences; and how can those who do mingle with the gay and vain, love its flattery, and imitate its fashions, hope to join the pure and holy when Jesus comes? Where, oh! where is the moral courage of God's people? When shall we come up, and be as a city set upon a hill, whose light cannot be hid? Is it not time that we were awake? that we were fully aroused to our lukewarm condition? What if souls should be lost by reason of our example and influence? The work of reform is a great work. It is like emerging out of a wilderness into bright sunlight. But what if, when the light shines, we do not walk in it? Will it not surely become darkness? And then, how great is the darkness! May God help us as individuals to help each other, and not, as Paul says, be an occasion to fall, or a stumbling block in our brother's way. God has condescended to tell us what is for our good, and shall we be wiser than he, and think a digression from the way will answer? God does not speak to us in these things, and then say it is no matter if you do not heed it. The pride and stubbornness of the human heart is great, and he knows just all we need to subdue it. But the grace of God is sufficient, and, though we cannot conquer all at once, he gives us time, and little by little, step by step, we may overcome, and be conquerors at last. “Heaven is not reached at a single bound,
But we build the ladder by which we rise
From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies;
And we mount to its summit, round by round.
“I count this thing to be grandly true,
That a noble deed is a step toward God,
Lifting us up from the common end
To a purer air and a broader view.” THE DRAGON'S WARFARE.
By H. C. MILLER
“And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Rev. xii, 17. As a general thing too many are apt to apply this wholly in the future, when Satan, in wrath, stirs up the wicked of earth to decree the death of the saints on certain conditions. In this is danger, because it causes sleeping, and unfaithful watching at the post now, just as some sentinel, thinking the enemy at a distance, and the battle to be on the morrow, drowsily leans on his arms, and knows not his danger until the enemy has come upon him as a flood, and he is a captive before aware of his danger. In a war there is much done besides the pitched battle. There are the skirmishes, the sorties, the reconnoissance in force, the capture of advance guards, feints, spies sent out, the midnight attack, &c. A wise and crafty, and a skillful commander is constantly on the alert, giving his opponent no rest, day nor night. Is the dragon, “that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world,” less wise? Nay. It is written of him that “he walketh about seeking whom he may devour.” “Woe to the inhabitants of earth and sea, for the Devil is come down to you having great wrath.”325 “Satan, with malicious art, Watches each unguarded heart.” The manner of his warfare is not honorable, is not always open, and frank, but with guile, craft, and with trap and snare. “Watch, therefore, and pray always,” is the warning. He wars against them that keep the commandments of God. He stirs up the unconsecrated to aid him. Have some earnest but erring ones been corrected? Is the hand of the Lord smiting in love and mercy, that the spirit may be saved? Satan stirs up some to lay on too, not in love, but in a spirit of resentment, with a tender mercy that is at least but cruel, in order to crush the burdened soul already sorrowful, and repenting, under a load of despondency. It is his mode of warfare. See in case of David and Shimei. He weakens his opponents by false reports, or by reports calculated to weaken their influence, causing his dupes to delight in circulating them, even making them feel that in this they are doing God's service, blinded to the fact that their spirit is of that kind that speaketh on this wise, saying, “Report, and we will report it.” Again, he taketh some who serve the Lord Jesus on this wise: He causes cold neglect to weaken the hands, and is never so jubilant as when some useful and zealous servant of Jesus is forced to some out-of-the-way corner of the vineyard, where his hands are tied, and the good work he or she might have done, or may have begun, is left to fall. Such are some of the modes in which this adversary wages war. And his skill is only equaled by the weakness of those he seeks to destroy. May I get strength from Him in whom is strength to resist the Devil. JUST LIKE JESUS.
By L. E. MILLNE
O my Saviour, can it be
I shall e'er be made like thee?
All thy graces in me shine,
Impress of thy hand divine? Just like Jesus, says the word,
That so deep my heart hath stirred,
Blessed pattern, may I be,
Wholly, Lord, conformed to thee. Just like Jesus, as I stray,
O'er life's dark and thorny way,
Oh! his heavy cross I'll bear,
That I may his glory share. Just like Jesus, patient, mild,
Though by foes I'm oft reviled,
And by Satan sorely tried,
Help me, O thou crucified. Just like Jesus, day by day,
As I tread the narrow way,
Patiently my toils endure,
Resting on the promise sure. Just like Jesus, glorified,
When the fires have purified,
Like my Saviour wondrous fair,
All his glory I shall share. Oh! what joy, what bliss supreme!
Sweeter far than poet's dream,
Doth thy little flock await,
When they reach the pearly gate. Hallelujahs to our King,
All the ransomed shout and sing,
Sorrow then will all be o'er,
Joy shall reign forever more. L. E. MILLNE.
Shabbona, Ill. SOLEMN THOUGHTS.
By N. JANE LUCAS
This day has been one of solemn thought to me; and while my mind has wandered to past events, I can but realize that every day brings us nearer the closing scenes of earth. Oh! it will be but a little while ere the rending heavens will reveal the lovely form of the Saviour. How important it is that our lives be such that in that great day we can say, “Lo! this is our God, we have waited for him, and he will save us.” How many of us truly love Jesus and his appearing? I thank God that this very same Jesus that once walked this earth, poor and despised, is again coming back to earth to remove the curse and bring it back to its Eden beauty, raise his sleeping jewels and give them immortality and eternal life. “But” says one “the bodies of your friends will never be raised from the tomb.” Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” These are Jesus’ own words, who can doubt them for a moment? I believe that the same Jesus that could raise Lazarus, after he had been dead four days, can raise our loved ones from the tomb. This is my hope. I believe it beyond a doubt. It is my comfort by day and by night. Oh! I rejoice that Jesus is coming. I want to see him in his beauty, and hear him say, “Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Matt. xxv, 34. If I am his child, I shall hear this said to me; but if not, it will be, “Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels.” I pray God that I may never hear this said to me. Dear sinner, come to Jesus. “Behold now is the accepted time, behold now is the day of salvation.” We have no promise of to-morrow. Jesus is about finishing his closing work in the heavenly sanctuary. He lingers a little while longer to plead for you and me. Soon he is coming as king. Then if we are the Lord’s children, we can say, This is our God. Dear reader, may it be your happy lot to be found waiting when the Lord comes. AN APOSTLE’S RELIGION.
By Ryle
READER, if you and I are to be saved at last, we must have the same kind of religion as the apostles had while we live here. The apostles were the men who first preached the gospel after Christ’s death. By their preaching Christianity was first spread and planted over the world. If our religion does not agree with that of the apostles, you may be sure we are wrong. Now what did the apostles trust in for their salvation? What was the foundation of their confidence? What was the ground of their hope? This is the grand point to be discovered. Let us take the opinion of one of the greatest apostles that ever lived. He has written down his mind. He has given his judgment in words that cannot be mistaken. The man I mean is the Apostle Paul. The place where you will find his opinion, is in the letter which the Holy Ghost inspired him to write to the Galatians. And the words in which his judgment is set down, are these, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Gal. vi, 14. Now what did Paul mean by saying this? He meant to declare strongly, that he trusted in nothing but Jesus Christ crucified for the pardon of his sins and the salvation of his soul. Let others, if they would, look elsewhere for salvation. Let others, if they were so disposed, trust in other things for pardon and peace. For his part the apostle was determined to rest on nothing, lean on nothing, build his hope on nothing, place confidence in nothing, glory in nothing, except, “the cross of Jesus Christ.” Reader, there are many things that Paul might have gloried in, if he had thought as some do in this day. If ever there was one on earth who had something to boast of in himself, that man was the great apostle of the Gentiles. Now if he did not dare to glory, who shall? He never gloried in his natural privileges. He was a Jew by birth, and, as he tells us himself, “An Hebrew of the Hebrews.” He might have said, like many of his brethren, “I have Abraham for my forefather. I am not a dark, unenlightened heathen. I am one of the favored people of God. I have been admitted into covenant with God by circumcision. I am a far better man than the ignorant Gentiles.” But he never said so. He never gloried in anything of this kind. Never for one moment! He never gloried in his own works. None ever worked so hard for God as he did. He was more abundant in labors than any of the apostles. No living man ever preached so much, traveled so much, and endured so many hardships for Christ’s cause. None ever converted so many souls, did so much good to the world, and made himself so useful to mankind. No father of the early church, no reformer, no puritan, no missionary, no minister, no layman—no one man could ever be named, who did so many good works as the Apostle Paul. But did he ever glory in them, as if they were in the least meritorious, and could save his soul? Never! Never for a moment! He never gloried in his knowledge. He was a man of great gifts naturally, and after he was converted, the Holy Spirit gave him greater gifts still. He was a mighty preacher, and a mighty speaker, and a mighty writer. He was as great with his pen as he was with his tongue. He could reason equally well with Jews and Gentiles. He could argue with infidels at Corinth, or Pharisees at Jerusalem, or self-righteous people at Galatia. He knew many deep things. He had been in the third Heaven, and heard unspeakable words. He had received the spirit of prophecy, and could foretell things yet to come. But did he ever glory in his knowledge, as if it could justify him before God? Never! never! never for one moment! He never gloried in his graces. If ever there was one who abounded in graces, that man was Paul. He was full of love. How tenderly and affectionately he used to write! He could feel for souls like a mother or nurse feeling for her child. He was a bold man. He cared not whom he opposed when truth was at stake. He cared not what risks he ran when souls were to be won. He was a self-denying man,—in hunger and thirst often, in cold and nakedness, in watchings and fastings. He was a humble man. He thought himself less than the least of all saints, and the chief of sinners. He was a prayerful man. See how it comes out at the beginning of all his epistles. He was a thankful man. His thanksgivings and his prayers walked side by side. But he never gloried in all this, never valued himself on it, never rested his soul’s hopes on it. Oh, no! never for a moment! He never gloried in his churchmanship. If ever there was a good churchman, that man was Paul. He was himself a chosen apostle. He was a founder of churches, and an ordainer of ministers. Timothy and Titus, and many elders, received their first commission from his hands. He was the beginner of services and sacraments in many a dark place. Many an one did he baptize. Many an one did he receive to the Lord’s table. Many a meeting for prayer and praise and preaching did he begin and carry on. He was the setter up of discipline in many a young church. Whatever ordinances and rules and ceremonies were observed in them, were first recommended by him. But did he ever glory in his office and church standing? Does he ever speak as if his churchmanship would save him, justify him, put away his sins, and make him acceptable before God? Oh! no! never! never! never for a moment! And now, reader, mark what I say. If the Apostle Paul never gloried in any of these things, who, in all the world, from one end to the other,—who has any right to glory in them in our day? If Paul said, God forbid that I should glory in anything whatever except the cross, who shall dare to say, “I have something to glory of,—I am a better man than Paul?” Who is there among the readers of this tract, that trusts in any goodness of his own? Who is there that is resting on his own amendments, his own morality, his own performances of any kind whatever? Who is there that is leaning the weight of his soul on anything whatever of his own, in the smallest possible degree? Learn, I say, that you are very unlike the Apostle Paul. Learn that your religion is not apostolical religion. Who is there among the readers of this tract that trusts in his churchmanship for salvation? Who is there that is valuing himself on his baptism, or his attendance at the Lord’s table,—his church-going, or his daily services during the week,—and saying to himself, What lack I yet? Learn, I say, this day, that you are very unlike Paul. Your Christianity is not the Christianity of the New Testament. Paul would not glory in anything but the cross. Neither ought you. Oh! reader, beware of self-righteousness. Open sin kills its thousands of souls. Self-righteousness kills its tens of thousands. Go and study humility with the great apostle of the Gentiles. Go and sit with Paul at the foot of the cross. Give up your secret pride. Cast away your vain ideas of your own goodness. Be thankful if you have grace, but never glory in it for a moment. Work for God and Christ with heart and soul and mind and strength, but never dream for a second of placing confidence in any work of your own. Think, you who take comfort in some fancied ideas of your own goodness,—think, you who wrap up yourselves in the notion, “all must be right if I keep to my church,”—think for a moment what a sandy foundation you are building upon! Think for a moment how miserably defective your hopes and pleas will look in the hour of death, and in the day of Judgment! Whatever men may say of their own goodness while they are strong and healthy, they will find little to say of it when they are sick and dying. Whatever merit they may see in their own works here in this world, they will discover none in them when they stand before the bar of Christ. The light of that great day of Judgment will make a wonderful difference in the appearance of all their doings. It will strip off the tinsel, shrivel up the complexion, and expose the rottenness of many a deed that is now called good. Their wheat will prove nothing but chaff. Their gold will be found nothing but dross. Millions of so-called Christian actions, will turn out to have been utterly defective and graceless. They passed current, and were valued among men. They will prove light and worthless in the balance of God. They will be found to have been like whitened sepulchers of old, fair and beautiful without, but full of corruption within. Alas! for the man who can look forward to the day of Judgment, and lean his soul in the smallest degree on anything of his own. Reader, once more I say, beware of self-righteousness in every possible shape and form. Some people get as much harm from their fancied virtues as others do from their sins. Take heed, lest you be one. Rest not, rest not, till your heart beats in tune with St. Paul’s. Rest not till you can say with him, “God forbid that I should glory in anything but the cross.” Look forward to the day of Judgment, and seek to have a religion which will not fail you when this world has come to an end. Be not content with “doing as other people do,” and “thinking as other people think,” and supposing that then all must be right. Read the New Testament carefully, and pray for the Spirit to teach you as you read. Once more I say, if ever you are to be saved, your religion must be that of the Apostle Paul.—Ryle. DO OUR DEAD FRIENDS VISIT US?
By B. F. Merritt
Not in this world. No more do they share in the cares and sorrows of this life. Now they rest. They have done the works for which, in the resurrection, they will be rewarded. So must we while life remains decide what our reward shall be. Man is left to gain or lose Heaven, as he may choose. No more do our dead friends instruct, warn, and pray for us. Only by what they have done may we be profited by them. Angels are made ministering spirits to men, but never have the enlightened people of God expected visits from the dead. Job, in speaking of the dealings of God with man, says, “Thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away. His sons come to honor, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low but he perceiveth it not of them.” Job xiv, 20, 21. Abraham, the father of the faithful, never saw the great multitude who looked at him as a common father; neither did those who were his heirs look to him as though they thought he recognized them, or knew their condition. Isaiah represents the church as addressing God, thus: “Doubtless thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not; thou, O Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer; thy name is from everlasting.” Isa. lxiii, 16. David, the great shepherd of Israel, could do no more for his flock after the hand of death was laid upon him. Peter, on the day of Pentecost, speaks of David, not in a way to convey the idea that he was conscious, but, on the contrary, in a way to teach us that he was unconscious. After quoting from his Psalms, he says, “Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is now both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day.” Acts ii, 29. Doubtless Peter uses this language to convince the people that David was not speaking of himself, but of Christ, when he said, “Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.” It is a fact that the sepulcher of David was there at that time, and, doubtless, the people believed that he there silently slept. Peter plainly says, “David is not yet ascended into the Heavens.” Far better is it for us to believe, as the Bible says, that the dead “rest from their labors,” than to hold to erroneous opinions about spirits, which pave the way for greater and more dangerous errors. AVARICE.— The avaricious man is like the barren, sandy ground in the desert, which sucks in all the rains and dew with greediness, but yields no fruitful herbs or plants for the benefit of others. THERE are but two states in the world which may be pronounced happy—either that of the man who rejoices in the light of God’s countenance, or that of him who mourns after it.