Earlier text: An Appeal to the Unconverted and BackslidersIn looking over some of the works written by men of great minds in the church, I find that many of them believe that the present dispensation is drawing to a close. Cummings, in his “Great Consummation,” says, “We are drawing near to the close of the world’s weary sixth day eve.” And one might almost believe Bonar to be an Adventist from the closing words of his book. They are so grand that I cannot help copying them for the readers of the REVIEW: “The church’s pilgrimage is nearly done. Yet she is not less a pilgrim as its end draws nigh. Nay, more so; for the last stage of the journey is the dreariest portion, and her path lies through the thickest darkness the world has yet felt. It seems as if it were only by the fitful blaze of conflagrations that we can now shape our way. It is the sound of falling kingdoms that is guiding us onward. It is the fragments of broken thrones lying across our path that assure us that our route is the true one, and that its end is near,—that end, the morning with its song, and in that morning a kingdom; and in that kingdom glory; and in that glory the everlasting rest, the Sabbath of eternity.”—Bonar’s Morning of Joy. Such is the belief of some of the best and brightest minds of the Protestant church to-day. While it is too true that most of them cry peace and safety, a great many have the impression deep in their minds that the end draweth nigh. I have found people of all walks in life who think the close is near. They can scarcely tell why, but they believe the world’s week is nearly ended, and are striving to be prepared. May God bless those who are engaged in spreading over the earth the message that shall bring the clear light to these inquiring ones. J. W. W. STANDING ALONE.
By M. E. McKee
“Can you stand for God, though you stand alone?” This is a question I have frequently asked myself of late. And is it possible to do it—to stand firmly for the truth, though friends should all fail and foes all unite? Let the many who have passed the fiery ordeal answer, It is possible. “Through God,” says the psalmist, “we shall do valiantly; for he it is that shall tread down our enemies.” Ps. 60:12. A wise man will be quite sure that he has the truth before he attempts to defend his position; then, with God on his side, he need not be afraid of the reproach of man, nor tremble at his revilings. He can say, “Truly my soul waiteth upon God; he only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defense; I shall not be greatly moved.” Ps. 62:1, 2. But to stand alone—aye, that word alone expresses a great deal. When it means apart from the great multitude, shut up in sweet communion with God and our own souls, then it is a word of comfort and rest; but when it means cast out, rejected or deserted for the truth’s sake, then it touches the deep fountains of the heart, and the quickened sensibilities feel keenly the agony of the hour. Such persons may find comfort in calling to mind the agony of their beloved Master, who was deserted by those who professed to be his friends and betrayed into the hands of his enemies; and while drinking of the bitter cup they can realize something of the sufferings of Him in whom they trust for recompense by and by. There are times when it is wisdom to keep silence or to assume a quiet attitude until circumstances demand a decided testimony. It is a good thing to know how to meet such an emergency, and to be prepared to act with wisdom and true Christian courage. The grace of God is especially needed at such a time; and if the spirit be tempered with patience, fortitude, and humility, one may reasonably expect to see the hand of God manifested in his behalf. “Patience, poor soul, it is night now, but the morning cometh by and by, bright with resplendent beams from the better world. God is a God of justice and of truth, and whatever seems dark or doubtful now will eventually be made plain in the light of Infinite Wisdom and Justice. His word says, “The hypocrite’s hope shall perish;” Job 8:13; “the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate;” chap. 15:34; and that “the sinners in Zion shall be afraid;” and fearfulness surprise the hypocrites. Isa. 33:14. What! sinners in Zion and hypocrites also! Yes; there is no doubt of it. They walk about with a high head and presumptuous air, causing many to turn from the truth because they are unrebuked. Well may God’s people cry for the day of deliverance to draw near. The time seems long to wait, but God’s hand will ere long be stretched out in behalf of his own cause and people. Faith views it in the distance, and the precious promises gleam like a watchtower o’er the dark and troubled sea. Safe in the Cross: The Prairie Fire Lesson
Look at the frontiersmen. When those men see the prairies on fire, and the flames traveling a great deal faster than the fleetest horse, when they can see the flames rolling over the entire prairie, consuming man and beast—what do the frontiersmen do at such a time? Do they run away from it? They know better than that; for the flames go faster than they can. They light the grass in a circle around them. They hear the flames as they roll over the prairie, but they know they are perfectly safe. And why? Because fire has been there before. There is one mountain peak that the wrath of God has been over, and that is Calvary. Take the cross, and there you are safe. Let pestilence and plague and death sweep over the city, and you are safe. Why? Because Christ has passed through the city, and all you have to do is to accept the finished work of salvation.—Christian Weekly. Searching for strawberries ready to eat,
Finding them fragrant and large and sweet,
What do think I found at my feet,
Deep in the green hill-side?
Four brown sparrows, the cunning things,
Feathered on back and breast and wings,
Proud with the dignity plumage brings,
Opening their four mouths wide. Stooping lower to watch my prize,
Watching their motions with eager eyes,
Dropping my berries with glad surprise,
A plaintive sound I heard;
And looking up at the mournful call,
I spied on a branch, near the old stone-wall,
Watching with anxious heart her all,
The poor little mother bird. With grief and terror her heart was wrung,
And while to the slender bough she hung,
She felt that the lives of her birdlings hung,
On a still more slender thread.
“Ah, birdie,” I said, “if you only knew
That my heart was tender and warm and true!”
But the thought that I loved her birdlings too
Never entered her small, brown head. And so through this world of ours we go,
Bearing our burdens of needless woe,
Many a heart beating heavy and slow
Under its load of care;
But oh! if we only, only knew
That God was tender, and warm, and true,
And that he loved us, through and through,
Our hearts would be lighter than air. “Would you have me go where I am not wanted?” Yes, if you are a Christian; that is just where you are needed. Jesus was not wanted; he came to his own, and his own received him not, and they prayed him to depart out of their coasts. Yes, go anywhere among the perishing, sow beside all waters, go with the whole armor on, looking not to man, but to God for your reward; and you will get it at the resurrection of the just. Don’t wait to be invited, only by your Captain. Volunteer! But pride says, “I am afraid they will not appreciate my work.” Did they appreciate Stephen’s preaching, and Paul’s, and Peter’s? The righteous did, whom these converted, and they will yours. Keep sowing the seed, though all should be lost but one little germ; it repayeth the cost, for that little blade, if watered with care, may bloom in Paradise “just over there.” Go speak to that young man. He is in danger; you see it, he does not. “Well, he will not thank me.” Very likely. Still he may thank you upon a death-bed, if not before; warn, exhort, and entreat. “But I do not like to make myself conspicuous; I love to mind my own business.” That is your business, for God has bidden you do it, and we have no right to like anything better than God’s commands. Some one has prayed, and wept, and cared for you. He minded your needs, made himself conspicuous, when they mockingly bent the knee before him, when he hung upon the cross, and cried, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani.” Go work in his vineyard; let gratitude prompt you; let pity move your selfish heart to work for the perishing. Go! If you are not wanted, you are needed.—Herald of Life. At a recent dinner in New York, at which no ladies were present, a man, in responding to the toast, “Woman,” dwelt almost solely on the frailty of the sex, claiming that the best of them were little better than the worst—the chief difference being in their surroundings. At the conclusion of the speech a gentleman rose and said, “I trust the gentleman, in the application of his remarks, refers to his own mother and sisters, not ours.” The effect of this just and timely rebuke was overwhelming; and the maligner of woman was covered with shame and confusion. This incident serves an excellent purpose in prefacing a few words on the subject. Of all the evils prevalent among men, we know of none more blighting in its moral effect than the tendency to speak slightly of the virtues of woman. Nor is there anything in which young men are so thoroughly mistaken as in the estimate they form of the integrity of women—not of their own mothers and sisters, thank God—but of others whom they forget are somebody else’s mothers and sisters. Let young men remember that their chief happiness in life depends on their faith in women. No worldly wisdom, no misanthropic philosophy, no generalization, can cover or weaken this fundamental truth. It stands like the record of God himself—for it is nothing less than this—and should put an everlasting seal upon lips that are wont to speak slightly of woman.—Sel. Mutual Help: Sir Walter Scott on Human Dependence
SIR WALTER SCOTT wrote: The race of mankind would perish did we cease to help each other. From the time that the mother binds the child's head till the moment some kind assistant wipes the dew of death from the brow of the dying, we cannot exist without mutual help. THE SANCTUARY.
By Uriah Smith
Thirty-Fourth Paper—The Opening of the Temple.
“And the temple of God was opened in Heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament.” Rev. 11: 19. We have seen that the temple in Heaven is the sanctuary, the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man. The opening of this temple brought to view in this passage, is that which reveals the ark of God. The ark had its position invariably in the second apartment. This, then, is the opening of the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary. And when does this take place? At the sounding of the seventh trumpet. Rev. 11: 15. The events mentioned to take place under this trumpet are, 1, the anger of the nations, verse 18, commencing especially when so many European thrones toppled to the dust in 1848, and continuing to the present time. 2. “And thy wrath is come,” referring to the seven last plagues in the near future. 3. The kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. Verse 15. This will be fulfilled when Christ takes the throne of his kingdom. 4. “And the time of the dead that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.” Verse 18. This must reach over to the final destruction of the wicked at the end of the 1000 years. 5. “And the temple of God was opened in Heaven.” We know from the argument on the sanctuary and the 2300 days, that this took place in 1844. And, conversely, as it does not take place till the sounding of the seventh trumpet, the last of that series, we know it must take place somewhere near the end, and could not have taken place at the opening of this dispensation, as some vainly imagine. This, then, is the earliest event that takes place under the sounding of the seventh trumpet, and hence the inference is necessary that the seventh trumpet commenced to sound at that point. The 2300 days ended, the seventh trumpet began to sound, the temple of God was opened in Heaven, and the work of the cleansing of the sanctuary was entered upon. And what results from the opening of this temple? “There was seen,” says John, “in his temple the ark of his testament.” He does not say simply, I saw it, but it “was seen.” John standing here as the representative of the church, clearly teaches that the church would then by faith behold the ark in the tabernacle above. The sight of the ark suggests one thing, and one only, and that is the law of God contained in the ark. The ark was called the ark of the testament because it contained the tables of the testimony which God gave to Moses, the ten commandments. It owed its name to the fact that the tables of the law were therein. Had it not contained the tables it never would have been called the ark of the testament; and whenever and wherever it is called the ark of the testament, it is proof that the law of God is there. With these remarks we ask the reader to mark well the fact that the ark as seen in Heaven by John, down under the sounding of the seventh trumpet, is still called “the ark of his testament.” What does this prove? It proves that that ark in Heaven contains the law. What law? The same law that gave it that name in the days of Moses; namely, the tables of the testimony, the ten commandments. And how may we suppose that those commandments read in the ark in Heaven? Just the same, of course, as they read in the ark on earth. Of this there can be no question. This forever precludes the idea of any change in the law. Talk about changing or abolishing the law? Not until we can change or abolish those tables in Heaven. Oh! what a vain and futile work are they engaged in, who are laboring to show that the law of God, or even the fourth commandment, has been in the least respect altered, much less done away. The conclusion is therefore not only plain and scriptural, but beautiful as well, that as the ark in Heaven is the great original, after which the ark on earth was formed, so the law in the ark above is the great original, of which the law given on earth was but a transcript or copy. This great truth the poet, in the following language, has well expressed:— “For God well knew perdition’s son
Would ne’er his precepts love;
He gave a duplicate alone,
He kept his own above.”
Having now found a sanctuary, an ark, and a law in Heaven, where Christ is ministering, another thought is at once suggested, in relation to the object to which the earthly and Heavenly ministrations have reference. We have seen the relation which these two ministrations sustain to each other, namely, that of type and antitype. The first was a figure, the second the reality; the first a shadow, the second the substance. But everything pertaining to that dispensation was not a figure and a shadow. There was something there real; and that was sin. Men were actual transgressors. But sin, or transgression, is a violation of law. Hence there was a real law there which they were guilty of breaking; and that was the law contained in the ark, the ten commandments. All that was typical was the ministration connected with that law. There was real law, and actual sin; and the ministration, the service of the priesthood, was for the purpose of taking away that sin. But this could be done only in figure; for the blood of beasts, the only blood they had to offer, Paul says, could not in reality take away sin. But this typical ministration looked forward to one to come, to be performed by our Lord, which should in reality take away sin. The offerings of that time were types of the offering of our Lord. Those offerings had reference to the law contained in the ark. The offering of our Lord must therefore have reference to the law contained in the ark; for what they were in figure, this must be in fact. The idea could not for a moment be conceived that those offerings should have reference to one law, and yet be types of an offering which would have reference to another or a different law. This could not be possible. In this case the one would not and could not be a type of the other. The established relation of type and antitype existing between these offerings shows that they must have reference to identically one and the same law. Therefore, the law in the ark in Heaven, before which Christ ministers, must be, word for word, letter for letter, jot for jot, tittle for tittle, the same as the law that was deposited in the typical ark here upon the earth. Such is the bearing which the subject of the sanctuary has upon the law of ten commandments. It is an absolute demonstration of their perpetuity and entire immutability. And this is perhaps the reason why those who have set their hearts against the law shut their eyes to the plain light on the subject of the sanctuary. They cannot receive the one, without adopting the other. The temple has been opened in Heaven, and John says there was seen there the ark of the testament, seen of course, through faith, by the church on earth. What further evidence can we show that this has been fulfilled? We answer, The great movement in behalf of the law now going forward in the land through the efforts of the S. D. Adventists. They have received the light on the subject of the sanctuary. They see the temple opened in Heaven. They behold there the ark, and our Lord making his last offering on the mercy seat, the cover of the ark, in the most holy of the sanctuary on high. They see that the requirements of the law in that ark are neither relaxed nor altered. And they are going forth to vindicate its claims, and lead men to the reform necessary in its observance. This movement has come up in the right time and manner to fulfill the prophecy and confirm the application we make of this important subject. The temple is opened, and no man can shut it. The ark is seen, and no man can obscure it. The corresponding movement on the earth is in progress, and no man can stop it. Reader, fall into line, and go with us to the kingdom. THE OHIO CAMP-MEETING.
By Uriah Smith
This meeting was held at the appointed time, Aug. 10-15, 1876. There were thirty-three church and family tents on the ground, and three hundred and sixty brethren and sisters present. This is a larger representation than has attended any previous meeting in this State, and shows an encouraging condition of the cause in this Conference, so far as numbers are concerned. For meeting purposes, two fifty-foot tents were pitched together, making an audience room 50 by 100 feet. These had been pitched separately in the environs of the city of Norwalk, and meetings held in them for a few weeks previous, which had resulted in bringing out quite a number of good, substantial souls, who were very glad for the presence of the camp-meeting. Thursday and Friday were stormy, but Sabbath and Sunday fair and pleasant. Quite a proportion of the congregation evenings, and through the day on the Sabbath, were from without, the congregation on the Sabbath reaching the number of five or six hundred. In the forenoon Bro. White introduced the subject of the Sabbath, and many desiring to hear the conclusion of it before evening, he took the forepart of the afternoon service, sister White occupying the remainder of the time. As she appealed to sinners and backsliders, thirty came forward for prayers. She enjoyed unusual freedom, so much so that she was able to testify that she had not felt the blessing of God for weeks to that degree that she did on this occasion. On Sunday the congregation was proportionately large, numbering in the afternoon upward of two thousand people. The penetrating dampness of the weather had brought upon sister W. a hoarseness quite embarrassing to one attempting to address so large a congregation. With this exception the most complete freedom was enjoyed in the presentation of the word. One church has been added to the Conference the past year. Two other bodies are about ready for organization and admission. But this does not measure the increase of membership in the Conference, many having embraced the truth in the vicinity of the older churches, and united with them. But three ministers, belonging to the Conference, were at the meeting, Bro. Butler and Steward having such an interest where they are laboring with the tent, that they deemed it unadvisable to leave. Monday forenoon Bro. Wm. Cottrell was set apart to the work of the ministry. In the afternoon candidates for baptism were called for. Twenty-four were examined and accepted. A pleasant place was found for the ordinance a short distance from the encampment in the stream skirting the ground. At the water others came forward, among them children from the ages of 10 to 15 years, till the number who received baptism amounted to forty. Bro. Cottrell acted as administrator. It was a scene long to be remembered by those who witnessed it. An interesting circumstance connected with this meeting was the fact that the owner of the ground upon which the camp was located, was a Mr. Rogers, the tenth generation in a direct line of descent from the celebrated John Rogers, the martyr. He was quite interested in the meeting; and this interest was increased by a dream he had some six months ago in which that ground was shown, white with tents and dark with people. It did not come to his mind till he had given the ground for this meeting, when he saw a literal fulfillment of it, as the meeting was in progress. Another circumstance is worthy of mention. A young sister from Northern Illinois, a stranger to all present, came forward for baptism. As no one was acquainted with her, it was thought proper that she make a statement of her experience. From her statement, made with deep feeling, it appeared that she had embraced the truth by reading, having never heard preaching on the subjects of present truth. From the time of that conversion by means of the printed page, some two years since, she has been keeping the Sabbath all alone, having no acquaintance with any church, nor the privilege of associating with any of like faith till the present time. Being a teacher in the public schools of the city where she resides, she has never been able to attend the camp-meetings in her own State, as they have not come during vacation when she could leave. But having seen the notice of the Michigan Camp-meeting to commence Aug. 10, and not learning of the change, she started for that meeting, feeling that she could not longer put off the duty of baptism. At Battle Creek Bro. and Sr. Haughey took the same train for the camp-meeting in Ohio, which she chanced to be on, on her way to Lansing. Providentially learning of her case and purpose, they informed her of the change of time of the Michigan meeting, and she came on with them to Ohio, where her long cherished desire for baptism was gratified. The case of this young lady who, with education, ability, and position, took her stand upon the truth by reading, and has for two long years, alone, amid opposition, maintained her devotion to it, and now took a long journey alone into another State for the sake of receiving baptism, shows the power of the truth as set forth in the publications. These silent messengers are proving themselves a more mighty agent in this work than any one has ever anticipated. During the forepart of the meeting there was an evident lack of the Spirit of God among the people. This was manifested in such a spirit of gossip, jesting and levity among some, as showed that the weight and solemnity of this message was not felt at all by them. This called forth a plain testimony by Bro. and Sr. White which was well received, and greatly helped the spiritual condition of the meeting. Taken as a whole, the brethren feel that they have reason to be cheered and encouraged at the result of the meeting, and to press the work vigorously on in their State. The good results of the efforts put forth to bring all up to work with system and energy are clearly seen, and these will be continued. A vote of thanks was passed to Bro. St. John for his earnest efforts in this direction the past year, which is a pledge that the brethren will second him in the same efforts in the year to come. U. S. “Is it right for persons who would not wear flowers and plumes themselves to put them on the hats of their small children? S. M. W.” We should consider it in any case inconsistent, and if the children are old enough to have pride fostered in their hearts, positively evil. “Is it right for a man who has to work out by the day to work for a man in a tobacco field? E. B.” It is not well for a person to do anything by which his own conscience or that of his brother is offended. To a certain extent the same questions would apply to the hop and rye fields. “If the righteous are taken to Heaven 1000 years before the wicked are raised from the dead, what need of any further sitting in judgment in their cases, as they must have been decided, otherwise how would it have been known who should be brought up in the first resurrection? R. W.” The further Judgment in the cases of the wicked is to determine the degree of punishment due to their sins. We understand that the cases of those who have never made a profession in Christ do not come up at all in the investigative Judgment of the sanctuary. But when it is determined how many are righteous, and are to have a part in the first resurrection, it is determined also that all the rest indiscriminately are to be left to the second resurrection. The thousand years’ work of Judgment that intervenes before that resurrection is to look over the cases of all these and determine the degree of punishment due to their sins. “What did Christ mean when he said, ‘Before Abraham was, I am’? John 8:58. R. B.” He meant that he was in existence before Abraham lived. “Is it right to care for the sick on the Sabbath and take no pay for it? C. W. S.” If a person is professionally engaged in that business, we think it would be right to receive pay for it whenever performed. For if all Sabbath work of that kind was performed free, the person would soon have his or her hands full on the Sabbath. “Is not milk an increase on which we should pay a tithe? C. B., of Ill.” Yes; all that is received above the actual outlay necessary to produce it. “1. What does ‘anoint thine head’ mean in Matt. 6:17? 2. Can a Sabbath-keeper keep tavern and not break the Sabbath? M. A. G., of Vt.” To the first we answer that Christ wished his disciples to perform their acts of devotion in a manner not to attract the attention of men. It was customary in those days, ordinarily, to anoint the head. When this was omitted it would be at once noticed. The Pharisees performed their religious acts to be seen of men. So when they fasted, they omitted the anointing, put on a forlorn aspect, and worked every way to lead men to notice them and to think that they were eminent for their piety. Christ tells his disciples to do no such thing; but when they fast anoint their heads as usual, put on no outward sign of self-mortification, but perform their acts of devotion to God alone, with an eye single to his glory, and not to be seen of men. The principle is the same now, though that particular custom is not now in use. To the second question we answer, Yes; if they do no unnecessary work. Still we think they could find some better occupation, in which they would not be in danger of having their obligation to the Sabbath put to so severe a test. “To whom did John refer in Matt. 3:11, as the ones to be baptized with fire? Is the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire the same? If not, what is the baptism of fire? B. F. K.” We understand that John was addressing a mixed multitude, and set before them two conditions: a baptism of the Holy Ghost or a baptism of fire. Critics tell us that it might be translated, He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost or with fire. We understand that the69 baptism of the Holy Ghost is to be experienced by all Christians. Failing to secure that, we pass on to the baptism of fire, the final destruction of all the wicked in the lake of fire. “What does Christ mean when he says in John 11:26, ‘And whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die’? Id.” He was speaking in this case of the time of the resurrection. Whosoever believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live, says Christ. When shall he live? At the resurrection. And whosoever liveth, that is, whosoever is alive at that time, and believeth in Christ, he shall never die, but be translated to Heaven without seeing death. MARRYING “ONLY IN THE LORD.”
By A. C. Spicer
“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers; for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?” 2 Cor. 6:14. That the apostle had reference to the intermarriage of believers with unbelievers, in 2 Cor. 6:14-18, I think there can be no doubt; though perhaps not exclusive reference to marriage; for the injunction is quite as applicable to many social and business relations in life. Previous letters of Paul to these Corinthians, 1 Cor. 5:9; 7:25-39, sustain this conclusion. The reasons for objecting to the intermarriage of believers with unbelievers are very forcibly indicated by the questions asked in this and the following verses. Under the former dispensation such marriages were imperatively forbidden (Deut. 7:2, 3; Joshua 23:12), for which prohibition God gave this reason: “For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods.” Deut. 7:4. Paul, in this chapter, suggests the same reasons, employing very strong language. The sympathy, interest, communion, and fellowship of the marriage relation, are naturally and rightfully stronger than in any other human relation; and so strong are these that, unless the heart be very strongly fortified by grace and sanctified, and very firmly rooted, settled, and established in religious convictions, sentiments, and habits, and in divine truth, they are quite likely, in the course of time, to overpower those of all religious relations. Paul saw this fact (as God did, as above quoted), and hence he says, “Only in the Lord.” 1 Cor. 7:39. Read carefully Paul’s reasoning in these chapters, especially in verses, 33, 34, and reflect well upon the inevitable and universal tendency to assimilation of thought, feeling, and character in all human associations, and it will be discovered that the apostle Paul reasoned philosophically, and spoke from an enlightened view, if not wholly by inspiration. Observation and experience fully attest that these texts referred to, and Paul’s entire conclusions, were spoken in wisdom. The hundreds of the sons and daughters of Sabbath-keepers and others who have once kept the Sabbath, not to mention the great number more who have at some time seen God’s truth in respect to the Sabbath, who are now living in violation of God’s law simply because of unfavorable marriage alliances, affirm the above truth. The same is confirmed by scores, if not hundreds, of wives distributed through the States, who are making an almost inevitable failure properly to keep God’s Sabbath, many of them groaning and sighing each recurring Sabbath day, because they must labor more or less, entertain company, and pass much of their time in the confusion of secular labor and business transactions, on the day appointed for sacred, holy, and sanctified rest, simply because in a thoughtless hour they contracted unfortunate marriage alliances with unbelievers in God’s Sabbath. Other scores of mothers who respect and honor the Sabbath as best they may in their circumstances, pass the long years of motherhood in sadness and anguish, because they cannot rear up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and to reverence and keep holy his sanctified day of rest, because the surroundings are all so opposed to the truth, or because the children must follow the predilections of an unbelieving or non-sabbatising husband and father, presenting a sad and admonishing verification of this doctrine. Very many hopeful and very promising young men and young women—some of the best talents, of rarest gifts, and of high expectations and hopes of usefulness in the world, have thrown themselves and all their bright and promising hopes and prospects away in an unfortunate hour upon the altar of an alliance with an unbeliever, and, as time has developed, all after life has been one of blight, and dearth, and non-fruitage in good, and unsatisfying. Said a fond mother to the writer of this, not long ago, as the tears rolled down her face in grief because her children whom she almost idolized had forsaken her faith in respect to the Sabbath and become generally skeptical, “So much for marrying an unbeliever! He’s a good, kind husband to me and a too indulgent father to the children; but oh! my children! my children! I cannot bear the thought that my children will choose the ways of death! Better for me had they never been born!” Said another Sabbath-loving, sorrowing one, as she spoke of her children, within the year past, “My husband is all that a husband without grace could be, but, alas! it was an evil angel that guided to my present destiny.” It is very common, indeed, that believing Sabbath-keeping wives of unbelieving husbands, notwithstanding all the fair prospects and fair previous promises and pledges ever in the best of faith, after awhile, some sooner, and some later, have to yield, or do yield, to the unfavorable influences, and give up their practice in faith if not the faith itself. And it is almost universal experience and observation that children of believing, Sabbath-keeping mothers with unbelieving husbands, are led by force of the more natural example and the stronger surrounding influences to ignore the religion of the mother. The above indicated facts in observation and experience, and facts they are, together with concurrent facts of universal observation in all past religious history, attest in strong terms that the quoted scriptures were spoken in wisdom and truth; and appeal to all the young believers to be thoughtful, careful, and prayerful, and never thoughtless, prayerless, or hasty, in forming marriage alliances. There is but one condition of even comparative, presumptive safety for the believer (especially for a Sabbath-keeping lady), in marriage with an unbeliever, or non-Sabbath-keeper, and that is that such Sabbath-keeping believers be the stronger of the two allied, and be of very intense, firm, and decided religious conviction, and of very positive conscientious character. A. C. SPICER. General Meeting for Western Iowa and Nebraska.
By George I. Butler
After consultation, the Iowa and Nebraska Conference Committee have concluded that it will be best for the interests of the cause to have a meeting of several days’ duration, at some central point, either in Western Iowa or Eastern Nebraska, immediately following the general quarterly meeting appointed in the REVIEW for Victor, Iowa, September 30 and October 1. Our Conference is so large that but very few of the brethren and sisters of that section can attend our camp-meetings, which are held so far east, to accommodate the main body of our people. The distance is too great. The people generally are too poor, and have too much on their hands in that new country at the time of our general camp-meeting. But the friends of the cause in that section greatly need the benefits of a general meeting, being mostly young in the faith, and members of small churches which can have but little preaching. They need help and encouragement. There will be persons desiring baptism, who might otherwise be deprived of the privilege for a long time. Our scattered brethren will also have a chance to hear. We therefore conclude to have such a meeting, perhaps of three days’ duration, at which we will have at least one of our preaching tents, and to which our people should come prepared to take care of themselves, at the time above mentioned. I desire to hear at once from our preaching brethren and other leading brethren in that section, as to the best place to hold this meeting, so that we can give out the definite appointment immediately. Bro. Boyd will please take considerable responsibility in this direction, as one well acquainted with different localities, and specially interested in the progress of the cause in that field. Address me at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. GEO. I. BUTLER, Pres. Iowa & Neb. Conf.