If there is anything in “astrological etiology,” we are approaching one of the most pestilential periods in earth’s history. Since the commencement of the Christian era, the perihelia of the four great planets of the solar system—Jupiter, Uranus, Saturn, and Neptune have not been coincident. But this is about to occur, and, in the language of Dr. Knapp, who has traced the history of the greatest epidemics that ever afflicted the human race to the perihelia of these planets, there will soon be “lively times for the doctors.” The theory is that when one or more of the large planets is nearest to the sun, the temperature and condition of our atmosphere are so disturbed as to cause injurious vicissitudes, terrible rains, prolonged droughts, &c., resulting in the destruction of crops, and pestilences among human beings and domestic animals.
Dr. Knapp has collected a mass of statistical data, all going to show that perihelion periods have been marked by unusual mortality, and that sickness and death have invariably corresponded with the number of planets in perihelion at the same time. The revolution of Jupiter around the sun is accomplished in a little less than twelve years, of Saturn in a little less than thirty, of Uranus in about eighty-four years, and of Neptune in about one hundred and sixty-four years. If it be true, therefore, that the perihelia of these planets occasion atmospheric conditions unfavorable to life, pestilential periods should occur once in a dozen years, and aggravated and still more wide-spread epidemics at longer intervals. In tracing the history of epidemics for more than two thousand years, Dr. Knapp finds the facts in all cases to validate the theory. Thus, in the sixth and again in the sixteenth centuries, three of these planets were coincident in perihelion, and those were the most pestilential times of the Christian era.
But soon we are to have, for the first time in two thousand years, all four of these planets against us. They will be at their nearest approach to the sun in or soon after 1880, so that for a few years, say from 1880 to 1885, the vitality of every living thing will be put to a severe and trying ordeal. Some persons think they see, in the signs of the times, evidences of the great disasters in the immediate future. The excessive heat, the unexampled cold, the prevalence of flood and disasters at sea, the general failure of the potato crop, the wide-spread chill fever among human beings, and the equal prevalence of the epizootic among animals, are mentioned as among the premonitions of the rapidly approaching perihelion.
Well, “to be forewarned is to be forearmed.” Accidents excepted, we know very well that persons of more vigorous constitutions and more hygienic habits will have the better chance to survive whatever adverse influence the extraordinary perihelia will occasion. It is well known to physicians that, in all pestilences, plague, typhus, small-pox, cholera, murrain, &c., the intemperate, the dissipated, and those whose sanitary conditions are bad, furnish the victims.
We do not write to alarm any one, nor to make a sensation: we state the facts which all history attests. Readers can judge for themselves what importance to attach to the subject. That the conjoint perihelion of all the large planets of the solar system, one of which, Jupiter, is a thousand times as large as the earth, must disturb our atmosphere and temperature very considerably, is probable; that this disturbance must be injurious to health and life is certain; and that these periods have heretofore been pestilential, is a matter of record. How much we shall suffer during the next dozen or fifteen years, depends very much upon how nearly we live a life in accordance with the laws of life.—Science of Health.
HYMN FOR THE NEW YEAR.
“Joy cometh with the morning.”
What though in dreary night
The old year is departing?
The new shall give us light.
The time past has sufficed us
For sins and doubts and sorrow;
Time present is for labor,
And gladness for the morrow.
“Joy cometh with the morning.”
’Tis night till Jesus come,
Though skies shine brightly o’er us,
And flowers around us bloom.
We now have but the earnest
Of what shall be revealed,
Like droppings from a fountain
But partially unsealed.
So we’re waiting for the day-streaks
To gild the eastern skies,
Our watch is nearly over,
Soon shall the sun arise;
Well-nigh the low, soft footfalls
Of angels we can hear,
And the chiming of the golden bells
That tell the Priest-King near.
“Joy cometh with the morning.”
Creation waits and longs
To change her funeral dirges
To resurrection songs:
Now, of the tearful rainbow
Her holiest garb is made;
Then, in the heaven’s own sunshine
This earth shall be arrayed.
“Joy cometh with the morning.”
Hushed be the mourner’s groan;
The dead in Christ, like seedlings
In wintry furrows sown,
Shall rise in life and beauty
When these dark hours are past,
More loving, pure, and holy,
Than when we saw them last.
“Joy cometh with the morning.”
O Israel, it shall be
Indeed a glorious dawning,
Long-banished one, to thee.
Transplanted from the desert
To where thy fathers grew,
Thou shalt be God’s own lily,
And he will send the dew.
“Joy cometh with the morning;”
But joy alone to those
Who on a Saviour’s merits
Their weary souls repose;
Who through the darksome night-watch
Have stayed themselves on God,
And trusting to his guidance
The narrow path have trod.
Brethren in Christ, oft looking
For our returning Lord,
Lay not aside your armor,
Sheathe not the conquering sword,
Faint not, nor be discouraged,
Our resting time is near;
Ere many New Years follow,
Our Master will be here.
—Sel.
THE SCHOOL OF HYGIENE.
By G. C. Tenney
The intimate relation existing between moral principles and the laws of health is, through the blessing of God, more clearly seen and taught by Seventh-day Adventists than by any other people. And God is honoring us as a people, before the world, for the position we have taken upon the subject of temperance reform. We stand in the front rank of this reformation; and instead of its being a reproach and stigma upon our cause, nothing gives us favor with the intelligent portion of our communities as do the grand truths of health reform. And if we follow the providence of God, we shall certainly avail ourselves of the influence which these truths afford us. We should seek to become intelligent upon the subject, in order that we may be qualified to help and instruct others.
It is noticeable that an important feature of the work of Christ on earth was to relieve the sick and those in distress. Though we may not be able to imitate his divine miracles, we can partake of his spirit and follow his example by relieving the afflicted ones and instructing them in those simple means by which good health may be gained and maintained.
A few discourses by our ministers in each of the neighborhoods where they labor, upon the laws of hygiene, Christian temperance, and sanitary rules, would awaken an interest in the minds of many when nothing else would. In no other way can we gain the confidence and gratitude of an individual so readily as by affording him relief in his distress. So shall we be laborers together with Christ.
It is with the object of preparing men and women for this work that a School of Hygiene has been organized in connection with our Sanitarium, to be conducted by Dr. Kellogg and his able assistants. In a term of twenty weeks, such instruction will be given as will enable the student to teach reliably, by theory and practice, the principles of hygiene. As ministers, we all need this instruction. Each of our churches needs at least one person who is thus qualified. Being connected with the Sanitarium, this school affords superior advantages. It is a sufficient guarantee of the thorough and scientific nature of the teaching to say that Dr. Kellogg is to be the principal instructor. The tuition is placed at an amount merely nominal. The term, commencing Jan. 14, will occupy the spring months, when not much can be done in either public or out-door labor. Thus the circumstances are all favorable for those who wish to attend, and prepare themselves for greater usefulness in the Master's vineyard.
G. C. TENNEY.
JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH.
The doctrine of justification by faith alone is so simple and self-evident to all Protestants, it has been so inculcated from the cradle, that it is difficult for us to realize how it struck the pious monks in the days of the Reformation. For it is a doctrine which the church of Rome has ever stamped as heresy. Rome teaches that men are saved, not by simple trust in the free mercy of God through Jesus Christ our Saviour, but by love and good works. We are pardoned, according to Roman Catholic theology, only when we become good. According to Protestant theology we become good only after we are pardoned.
“Do this and live,” says Romanism. “Live that you may do this,” says Protestantism. “Do good that you may receive the grace of God,” says Romanism. “Accept the free grace of God, that you may be able to do good,” says Protestantism. “God does not forgive all your sins,” says Romanism, “he simply remits the external punishment. The rest you must balance by your penances or by your sufferings in purgatory.” When to one who has been taught this doctrine from his youth up, the truth first comes that God loves us for his own sake, not for our virtues or experiences or work, that he forgives us because he is love, and because for love’s sake he has sent his Son into the world to bear all our sins, it is a revelation whose wondrousness we can hardly realize. Perhaps a glance backward to the days when justification by faith only was a new disclosure, a resurrection of a long-entombed truth, would help us to realize how sublime a truth it is, and how transcendently it would appear to be to us if we had not become used to it. Many a man will travel hundreds of miles to see sights less grand than the sunrise through which he every morning sleeps. Many a man ransacks literature, and flits from preacher to preacher in search of some new truth, and is utterly indifferent to this sublimest truth of history or philosophy: “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.”—Sel.
“THE GIFT OF GIVING.”
By Roswell F. Cottrell
Among the many gifts and graces of the Spirit, the gift of giving is very desirable, being profitable both to the giver and the receiver, especially the former, for “it is more blessed to give than to receive.” Nothing has more of a tendency to conform us to the likeness of Christ. It was “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,5that though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might be rich.” It was by “the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia,” that “their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of liberality.” For to their power, and beyond their power, they were willing of themselves, and prayed the apostle with much entreaty to receive their gift and minister the same to the poor saints. And the way they came to do so was, they “first gave their own selves to the Lord;” and this prepared them for the exercise of this grace, or gift, of God. See 2 Thess. 8 and 9. This incited in the apostle the ardent desire that through the instrumentality of Titus the same grace or gift might be perfected in the church of the Corinthians also.
Happy is he that has this gift in its fullness of blessing. He does not do or give “grudgingly or of necessity,” but with cheerfulness, realizing the truth, that “God loveth a cheerful giver.” Who would not desire to abound in this grace? Well, we may obtain it by a full consecration of ourselves to God, and by acquiring the habit of doing and giving to advance his cause and save men. The gift can never be acquired but through exercise in that direction, “Give, and it shall be given unto you.” Can we do or give but little? do and give that little, and the ability will increase. “Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the first-fruits of all thine increase; so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst forth with new wine.” When God sees that we will use what he gives rightly, he will give us more. He desires our best good, even our eternal salvation; and will intrust us with all that will be for our good. He does not desire a gift from us, but fruit that may abound to our account. See Phil. 4:17. The Lord is not in need, that he asks us to make a covenant with him by sacrifice. See Ps. 50:5, 10-12. If we offer to God thanksgiving and pay our vows unto the Most High, then we may call upon him in the day of trouble, and he will deliver us. It is better to trust in God than in ourselves.
And it is not the great deeds and the great gifts that are acceptable to God. “For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.” It is the motive, the real spirit of doing and giving, that weighs in the balances of Heaven. The poor widow in giving two mites gave more than all the rich. We are apt to think that if we were gifted and wealthy, we would give the world an example of devotion and liberality—we would do great things for God and humanity. Such thoughts are vain and false. They spring from a desire of self-glorification, rather than a desire to glorify God and benefit men. If we really desire to glorify God, we have only to use the time and means and powers that he has given us. If we do this, we have the approval of Heaven. You and I, my brother, can possess this inestimable favor.
Then let us cultivate the gift of giving, and God will increase the gift.
R. F. COTTRELL.
PAST
SUCH is the word we now must write against 1877. Twelve short months ago, it was all before us, now all behind, buried with the things of the past. Its record is complete; what does it say for us? How much better is the world for our having lived through 1877? How much better are we? What new experience have we gained? What devices of the enemy discovered? What avenue hedged up against his approach to us? What weak place in our characters discovered and fortified? How much better prepared are we for the work upon our hands?
The year 1878 opens upon us with the same opportunities for work all around us, and more necessity apparent for the accomplishment of it. We have a hymn which deals with the solemn inquiry, “What shall the harvest be?” But in reference to the incoming year we may raise the antecedent inquiry, “What shall the sowing be?” for as we sow, we shall also reap.
Eighteen seventy-seven is dead, but it will have a resurrection. Our lives are there in its imperishable record. The Judgment is the world’s history repeated in epitome. All its deeds come up again. All its actors appear. All its sins will be judged and punished. All the years of our life will be resurrected for us; and all destinies will be decided by these records for eternity. Whatever in our course during 1877 lies like a painful burden upon the conscience, let us repent of it and secure pardon for it, while probation lingers; and let us see that the record for 1878, as much as we may be permitted to make, shall be such as will not make work for repentance.
OUR MISSION AND WORK.
Our message is the proclamation of the third angel’s message of Rev. 14, with its associated messages, and its kindred truths. The friends of this message have every reason for encouragement, and every inducement to put on new zeal and energy in the work.
While there are yet some specifications to be fulfilled, it may be said that time has already demonstrated the correctness of our position. The truths we have to present, as all Bible truths always have been, are unpopular; yet they have made progress. The cause has met the most persistent and bitter opposition; yet there has been an increase of strength. The arguments and applications involved in our position have been subjected to the severest criticism; yet they have grown brighter and clearer. We are not obliged to depend on the sensational, or the occurrence of some startling event, to keep up our own interest or that of others, in the work. Broad principles lie at the foundation of it. Prophetic fulfilments covering mighty empires and long generations sustain this last superstructure, which is completing the prophetic edifice. Events now all point in one direction; and that is, to the completion of what remains to be fulfilled. If we are not correct, and what we expect is not about to transpire, then all prospects must be reversed, and the general tendency of events be made to turn in another direction. But this is not to be. We are soon to realize our hope.
There are no lines of prophecy upon which the light does not seem to be shining with sufficient clearness. Every specification finds its place; and harmony and unity appear from beginning to end.
If, for instance, upon such prophecies as the three messages of Rev. 14, especially the third, which is the last religious movement before the coming of Christ upon the great white cloud, there was doubt and uncertainty, so much so that we could not make it the burden of our work, though proclaiming the coming of Christ at hand, well might we lose confidence in our position, and lose our ardor in the work.
If upon such prophecies as that of the two-horned beast of Rev. 13, the last symbol introduced before the saints stand redeemed on Mount Zion, we found no place to make a consistent application, we might again cherish strong misgivings in regard to our position.
If upon the subject of the sanctuary we were obliged to look to the land of Palestine or the earth, as the sanctuary, without a particle of Scripture for making such an application, and no reason to be assigned for it, we could not with much confidence urge our views upon the people.
If we were observing the first day of the week as the Sabbath, and, finding in the Bible no time when, nor events by which, that day was made a day of rest, and no law, example, or instruction for its observance, we should appeal to one learned doctor, and he should give us one reason for it, and another, another, and a third should overthrow the other two, and a hundred voices were raised, but all in contradiction and confusion, how could we with any assurance attempt to teach the people, or with any heart engage in the work?
But how different is it with us on all these and many other subjects! We can give the third message its place. It is rightly connected with the messages that go before, and the coming of Christ that follows after. We can give an intelligent explanation of all the symbols contained therein. It is the burden of our work; and we can consistently declare that the great white cloud bearing down to earth the Divine Reaper, is soon to appear.
We can point to the two-horned beast already far advanced in his work, and show tokens of the coming conflict between his followers and the servants of the Lord.
On the subject of the sanctuary we are enabled to rest with peculiar delight. Viewed in the light of the testimony of the Bible, the only light we know of for Bible subjects, it is all bright and glorious. It throws light on the types, light on the antitype, light on the plan of salvation, light on the present position of Christ, light on the prophecies, light on our past experience, light on the future, light everywhere. Thanks be unto God for the clear truth on the important subject of the sanctuary.
We come to the law of God and the Sabbath, and still find ourselves on firm ground. So long as we keep to the Sabbath of the Bible, we can tell when it was instituted, and why; we can point to the acts that gave it existence, and the law that enforces it; we can tell when it begins and ends all over the earth, and how it should be observed; we can point to blessings for its observance, and judgments for its violation; we can show the immutability and perpetuity of the law which guards it, and point to illustrious examples of its observance, in the New Testament as well as in the Old. There is no uncertainty, doubt, or obscurity upon the question; and those who defend this Sabbath, all bear the same testimony and urge the same arguments in its support. The first day of the week lacks all these, and its supporters are in confusion. As in the case of the false witnesses brought against Christ, their testimony agrees not one with the other.
Our mission is thus shown to be specific and well defined. On these great truths Christendom is either asleep or apostate, and as a consequence the world lies in darkness and wickedness. The true light must shine before the end. “At eventide it shall be light.” The Lord will have a people at his coming who have thrown off all antichristian and papal errors and corruptions. It would not be to the honor of his name or providence to have a people at his coming ignorant of the requirements of his law, which is an expression of his will. Much less can they expect to meet their Lord in peace who are living in rebellion against that law. “Not every one,” says Jesus, “that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of Heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in Heaven.” Hence in the last message, “the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus,” are set forth as the standard by which the remnant are to regulate their lives. In no other way can a people be made ready, prepared for the Lord.
Such has been our work from the beginning. We have not been obliged to change our base or our aims. “On this line” the campaign is to go through. And the progress already made calls for gratitude of heart. The well-established offices of publication in different parts of the world, the many works issued in different languages, the various missions in successful operation, that powerful agency for both the physical and spiritual good of men, the Health Institute, the good results of the educational enterprise, the increased interest in the missionary work, all show that this message is soon to be what the prophecy declares it, a world-wide message, and that the close of its mission is at hand.
It bears the same relation to the second coming of Christ that the work of John the Baptist bore to the first. It is to go forth in the spirit and power of Elijah. Some of this power has been seen. Let us seek for more. With the Lord God of Elijah to help us, we can accomplish the work that is given us to do.
SALT WITHOUT SAVOR.
The following paragraph speaks particularly of religious progress in the Presbyterian Church; but this may probably be taken as a fair standard for all other denominations. It presents a sad picture, from which it is becoming painfully evident that the type of revivalism now prevailing in the land is not leading to any permanent religious growth. The time has come for the last reform upon the law of God, and the stirring testimony of the final fulfillments of God’s word; and any revival that ignores these things, cannot produce any lasting good. It is salt without savor. Men can never become strong enough to stand up against the evils of this time, fed on emotion alone. The paragraph is quoted in The Advance from the Evangelist, as follows:—
“The Chicago correspondent of the Evangelist, studying the Minutes of the Presbyterian Church, gathers these very significant items: ‘Fourteen hundred and seventeen of the five thousand churches, received last year on confession an average of less than two each. These churches, with few exceptions, are reported as regularly supplied with preaching, and they have an aggregate membership of about 150,000. One hundred and two churches regularly ministered to, and having an aggregate of twenty thousand members (an average of more than two hundred each), had an average of a little more than one addition on confession of faith to each church. Eighty-three churches, regularly supplied, and having an average membership of more than one hundred and fifty, report no additions. Three hundred and twenty-two churches which have stated preaching, and a membership of no less than twenty-five nor more than one hundred, report no additions. Nine hundred and sixty-two churches are reported vacant. Many of these, doubtless, are supplied with preaching irregularly, and some regularly, since they are among our strongest churches; but six hundred and eighty-one of them report no additions. Here there are more than twelve hundred of our churches from which the report comes of no additions by conversion, and one hundred others in which the conversions are a little more than one each, and fourteen hundred others in which the conversions have averaged about two each. As the writer adds: ‘These figures are certainly suggestive; but of what? Of the failure of the gospel, as infidels freely charge, or of the failure of its preachers through unfaithfulness? Certainly not the former, and probably not wholly the latter.’”
ARRIVAL OF OUR FRIENDS FROM AMERICA.
By John Nevins Andrews
Bro. and Sr. Ings and Sr. Sisley have made a safe and prosperous journey to Switzerland. I met them in London, and accompanied them to Bâle. Their arrival will enable us to set up a printing office, and to do all the work upon our paper except the press work. We shall also be able now to make up our own tracts. When in London we selected the things necessary to use in making up our tracts, and a few things for the work of type setting. But as we have a supply of type, the expense for the compositor’s room will not be heavy. With about $100 we can purchase the things which we selected in London, and as soon as these are received we can take all our work into our own hands except the press work. We hope after a few weeks to be able to make this change, and we trust we can save something on the cost of our paper and our tracts, and at the same time have our work done better than at present.
We bid these dear friends a most hearty welcome. Their presence is cheering, and their courage and interest give us new courage to press onward in the work. We will render them all the assistance in our power to make rapid progress in the French language, and we believe that they will not fail to do this. God grant that this new move may be crowned with his special blessing, and that it may accomplish great good in the advancement of the work.
I must not omit to speak of the great kindness shown to us in London by Bro. and Sr. Jones and Bro. Barber. They could not have done more than they did. Eld. Jones took unwearied pains to aid us in the many matters of business which we sought to investigate. We owe him a debt of gratitude which we shall not forget.
In consequence of the delay of one week in the arrival of Bro. Ings, I had the privilege of uniting in worship with the Mill Yard church on two Sabbaths. These were to me very precious seasons. This is the oldest organization of Sabbath-keepers now in existence of which we have knowledge. There are many sacred memories connected with this ancient church. May the efforts which Bro. Jones is making to bring many to the observance of the commandments of God, be greatly blessed of Heaven.
While in London, I listened to a very remarkable discourse by Mr. Spurgeon on the sin of ignorance. I never heard the law of God set forth with greater force and clearness as the supreme and perfect rule of right, and as the standard according to which all human actions must be estimated either as good or bad. He said that the transgression of the law of God is sin even when committed ignorantly. He added: “Perhaps there is some commandment that you and I are ignorantly breaking, but our transgression is a sin notwithstanding our ignorance.” If the printed report of this sermon when it appears is found to be faithful to the speaker, I shall take pleasure in sending it to the REVIEW. I also listened to a very solemn discourse upon the day of Judgment by Dean Stanley in Westminster Abbey. His text was Rom. 13:12: “The day is at hand.” The Abbey was thronged with people, and they gave the most earnest attention to the word spoken. Mr. Stanley spoke principally upon the character of the Judgment, but he also expressed the idea that it is an event at hand.
Bâle, Dec. 11. J. N. ANDREWS.
VOLUME FIFTY-ONE.
By Editor
Figures, this time 51—1878, again remind us of the lapse of time speeding past like an arrow. We look into the future. The figures that mark the coming years grow dim and are soon lost in the darkness of the great day of the Lord. The wiles of the enemy are everywhere visible to those who are the children of the day. Every effort is made to draw the minds of men away from that to which they should now give their most earnest attention,—the soon-coming end. Or, if they will look to the future, then the policy of the adversary is to give them a perverted or false view of coming events, and lead them to settle down into fancied security, anticipating the enjoyment of every good, instead of preparing for the realities of that day which shall sweep away all refuges of lies, and try every man’s work as by fire.
This deceptive dream must be broken. The world must hear the true warning. Blow the trumpet in Zion, says the prophet, when the day of the Lord cometh, when it is nigh at hand. And the prophecy will be fulfilled by those who will give the trumpet no uncertain sound. The REVIEW is one of the important agencies through which the note of warning is to be sounded.
A new volume is before us. We enter upon it feeling more than ever the need there is for such papers as the REVIEW and its co-laborers in the same field. These alone put in all the links in some important lines of prophecy, down to the very end. These alone bring out the practical truths taught in the prophecies themselves. Others are heralding the near coming of Christ and the great day of the Lord; but they do not lead men to the observance of the commandments of God, which is the great preparation needed for that day; but, on the contrary, some of them even bitterly and maliciously oppose this work. They talk about holiness and a preparation for the coming of Christ, and grow zealous, enthusiastic, and boisterous over such themes, while they leave out the very foundation upon which such a character must rest. “Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus,” is the last prophetic announcement respecting that people who are ready for the coming of Christ. It is of no use for any one who keeps the first day of the week for the Sabbath of the Lord, in place of the seventh day, to claim that he is keeping the commandments of God. He is not. And on this vital point the world must hear.
The prospect was never better for the progress of this work. The truth is clearer. Its friends are more numerous, and better organized. Unity prevails, and a feeling of courage and good cheer is abroad. The REVIEW asks the continued co-operation of all its subscribers and contributors. In return it will endeavor to observe closely the signs of the times, proclaim them faithfully, maintain uncompromisingly its defense of the down-trodden truths of the Bible, and act well its part in preparing a people for the coming of the Lord.
FAITH AND REPENTANCE NOT ALL OF RELIGION.
By ALBERT STONE
We would earnestly contend for faith and repentance as cardinal points in religion. They are as essential to religion as life is to motion, and bear the same relation to it. But it is not all of life to live, neither does the whole of religion consist merely in repenting and believing. These are only first principles. They are simply generative and initiatory.
If Gen. Washington had never been born, he would not have fought the battles of the Revolution. But he might have been born and well trained in military tactics, and yet never fought the battles. Faith, repentance, and love are simply affections of the mind; and we need not be informed that they are, in their own nature, invisible to every eye but that of Omniscience. We cannot look into the heart and see them glowing there. They can be discerned only by the effects they produce, and the external signs which constitute their language. Where their genuine effects are most abundantly displayed, there we conclude they exist in the highest degree. We see them as they exist, not in the fountain, but in the streams; and from the copiousness of the streams we infer the fullness of the fountain.
It is by this rule that we are to estimate our Saviour’s love for man. His love was great, without a parallel. In itself it was invisible. No one could look into the great heart of Jesus and see it glowing there. The action inspired by love is all that can be seen. Did Jesus act? Then we know that he loved. Otherwise we could not know it. And the intensity of his action was the measure of his love. It is the same in regard to faith and repentance. True faith is known to exist only by the works it inspires. True repentance is known only by the reformation of the penitent.
It is a painful fact that the nature of faith is but imperfectly understood by many professed Christians of the present time. By many it seems to be regarded as an abstract principle, meaning no more than to believe in Christ as our Saviour, and to trust in him for salvation; and they think that this constitutes a Bible union with Christ, and entitles us to salvation. Such an attainment once made, we are at liberty to embrace any view of Christian doctrine that lies inside the large circle of church creeds. Said an intelligent Methodist lady, the other day, as her attention was invited to the subject of the soon-coming of Christ, “Why, I am a Methodist; my parents were Methodists; they died happy, and have gone to Heaven. I am satisfied with Methodist religion.”
An aged deacon lately made virtually the same reply, when we called his attention to the subject of the sanctuary of the Bible. Said he, “What need have I of more truth? I have truth enough to save me, and have no need to trouble myself with those outside issues.” And thus it is generally; the people are satisfied with the religion they have at present, both as to quantity and quality.
Being at ease in Zion, they measure themselves, not by the law of God, the proper rule, but by any false standard that happens to have the approval of others, and thus feel that they are safe. They look not for any change of dispensation, or any further development of truth.
To many there are no practical duties connected with the Advent doctrine; they are prepared for death, and to be thus is the sum total of true religion. They feel quite sure that their experience, in years past, includes faith and repentance, and to these is linked salvation. They realize not on which side they stand in the great controversy between the true and the false, now soon to be ended. They have not been careful to heed the counsel of the apostle Peter, and thus add to their “faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity.” 2 Pet. 1:5-7.
Faith that does not add to itself the other graces, is not faith in the Bible sense of the term. What if I do believe there is one God? What if I embrace in my belief the whole system of revealed truth? The devils believe all this, but they do not perform good works. Temperance, patience, godliness, and charity possess value in themselves. But faith is only valuable as it relates us to God, and is the basis of good works, and an incentive to their performance.
Thousands make profession of faith. It is cheap to do this. But to keep faith in a condition to bear fruit, costs something. It is a warfare in which few care to engage. It seems as though many were trying to get to Heaven with the least possible outlay of faith; with the least watching, praying, reforming, and enduring hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. There seems to be a tendency at the present time to bind religion within the limits of a dead faith, to cast off restraint, and give license to sin.
A defective faith carries rottenness and decay into every branch of Christian doctrine and duty. Constant effort is required to keep this part of the armor in working order. As the apple hangs on the tree by its stem, and receives its support and growth through it, so all the genuine fruit of Christianity hangs on the stem of faith. Hence, “without faith it is impossible to please God.” ALBERT STONE.
The Tramp Nuisance.
THE machinery of our social system is becoming alarmingly disarranged. At one side of the continent evil overshadows the land from the shores of China, and California clamors at the doors of Congress, and hangs upon the skirts of the President, for an abatement of the “Chinese nuisance.” At the other side of the continent, people are agitated to an almost equal extent over the “tramp nuisance.” This army of vagrants has appeared suddenly like the grasshopper scourge, and the potato bug; but what shall be done with them? The various plans devised, and the loud demands for legislation, show the deep anxiety that exists in regard to it. Some writers fear that it will take fifteen or twenty years to rid ourselves of the evil. Why do not some of those who think the world is growing so much better, and that the good time coming is right at hand, explain how it is that these disorders are growing upon us so of late, and tell how they can be abated?
District No. 1 Tract and Missionary Society Report
Dist. No. 1, N. Y. and Pa. T. and M. Society.
Since the Rome meeting, I have visited the churches in this district, to ascertain the condition of things, and to get all ready for the work. I find but little material for the work in the hands of the church societies; but I have ordered a supply, and anxiously hope soon to get it. We want a living V. M. Society in every church. One was organized at Lancaster, and I hope that not a church in this district will neglect this important branch of the work. Let us re-organize our demoralized regiment, and be ready to bear our part in a stirring campaign.
The address of our district secretary is H. Lindsay, Coomer Station, Niagara Co., N. Y.
Note of Thanks.
By Joseph Harvey Waggoner
I am very thankful to my friends for their kind invitations to assist in dedicating their houses of worship, in Flint, Mich., and Ligonier, Ind. It would have pleased me to be present on these occasions, full as much as it could have pleased them. But it was not consistent with other duties to go so far for that purpose. If the occasion shall ever offer for me to meet with them in these houses, I shall improve it with great pleasure. J. H. WAGGONER.