Earlier text: PRAISE GLORIFIES GODLOST TIME.
By Elder A. S. Hutchins
AMONG objections often met against the Sabbath of the fourth commandment is this: "Time has been lost and we cannot tell when the seventh day comes; therefore, that day cannot be binding." When shown that the Sabbath was known and kept according to the commandment in the days of the apostles, then we are told time was lost in the change from Old Style to New Style. Many appear to make themselves feel perfectly secure while shielded with this excuse. We marvel how men professing godliness, claiming to love and obey the teaching of the Bible, can trifle as they do with a subject of such importance. Not long ago, while in conversation with a minister on the subject of the Sabbath, he said time had been lost, and that no man could tell when the seventh day comes. This loss he maintained was owing to the change from Old Style to New Style. No reasoning on the point could convince him of his error. I told him what the change consisted in, and why it was made, and labored to help him to see that it neither did, nor could, in any way affect the weekly cycle; whereupon I received from him some information entirely new in astronomical minuteness of observation. He said the reason for the change from Old to New Style was this: The earth in its diurnal revolution falls about one minute behind in each revolution, causing a loss of about one minute every twenty-four hours, hence the necessity of the change. When asked for his authority on this, he quickly replied, "I am my own authority, I have looked it out." Now it will certainly take another person of equally good discriminating powers of mind, to tell us how such a change would balance or correct the motion of the earth, and set this matter right. But what was the change from Old to New Style? and why was it made? The following clear explanation of this matter, which I clipped several years ago from the Christian Almanac, answers these questions, and shows conclusively that not a moment of time was, or could have been, lost in the change. "THE GREGORIAN YEAR, AND OLD AND NEW STYLE.
"The inquiry is often made, 'What is the meaning of the expression, March 7, 1738-9? The real date is March 7, 1739. The civil or legal year in England formerly commenced on the 25th day of March. This practice continued throughout the British dominions till the year 1752. Then the new, or the Gregorian style was introduced, which makes the year commence the 1st of January. But before that period (1752), as some other nations had adopted the New Style, it was usual for English writers to designate both years, if the event occurred before the 25th day of March. Thus we have Washington's birth designated, February 11th, 1731-2. That is, if the year commenced the 25th of March, it would be February 11, 1731; if the year commenced the 1st of January, it would be February 11, 1732, or according to New Style, February 22, 1732." In order to make the above statements more fully clear, it is needful to remember that a year is designated to include the exact period of time which the earth takes to make one revolution around the sun. This is accomplished in 365 days and nearly 6 hours, but as the calendar must consist of complete days, these six hours are omitted, and in four years they make up a whole day, when one is added to the year, making what is called a leap-year. This, however, is not strictly correct, for it is ascertained by accurate calculations that a solar year is exactly 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 57.7 seconds; consequently, in putting on the six hours, we add 11 minutes 12.4 seconds in four years. This in the course of 158 years would amount to 24 hours, or a complete day. If this were permitted to go on, the 1st of January would gradually fall back toward mid-summer; and in the time of Pope Gregory XIII. (1582), it was found that the vernal equinox, which, A. D. 325, happened on the 21st of March, actually occurred on the 10th. The Pope, for the purpose of restoring the correctness of the calendar, ordered ten days to be dropped that year. This reformation was called "the New Style," while the former calendar was denominated "the Old Style." This New Style was not adopted in England until 1752, when it was found that another day had accumulated. An act of Parliament was then passed, in which it was directed that 11 days be dropped out of the calendar in 1752. In this country the Old Style was not discarded in colloquial discourses until about fifty years ago. To guard against the disarrangement of the calendar in future, chronologers now omit the leap year at the end of three or four centuries, which plan is formed to balance the excess of 11 minutes 12.4 seconds, this being added by making every fourth year leap year, as people generally suppose. The year 1800 was not a leap year, for one of these intercalary days had accumulated, and was dropped; and the same will have to be done in 1900. There are now, therefore, twelve days difference between the Old and New Styles; and in order to compute the date of events correctly, and not fall into blunders which even some able historians have not avoided, we should recollect to allow ten days for the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, eleven for the eighteenth, and twelve for the nineteenth. DISGUISED INFIDELITY.
By R. F. Cottrell
As a hypocritical professor of religion is worse than though he made no profession, so infidelity, under a profession of faith in the word of God, is worse in its influence than an open rejection of that word. Avowed infidelity would be feared and avoided by many a mind that would listen to the insidious attacks upon revelation from one who professes to believe it. To illustrate the idea I will say that I once heard from a professed preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ three lectures, in which he attempted to prove that Adam was not the first man of the human race, but that men had existed upon the earth hundreds of thousands of years before him, and that he was born of parents, as others are at the present day. He ridiculed the idea that "God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul;" and that God took a rib from Adam, and of it made a woman, and brought her to the man. He did not believe anysuch absurdity. But did he not believe the book? Oh! yes; but all this was allegorical; it meant that man was then raised to a higher state of development than he had enjoyed during the previous hundreds of thousands of years of his existence. He thanked God for the book of Genesis; but if there was anything in it that conflicted with the sure light of geological science, it was no revelation to him—he did not believe it. He also thanked God for giving to the world such a man as Charles Darwin, a devout believer in God, who had done so much for the advancement of science among mankind. One would think from the encomium of the speaker that the man, who holds that man was evolved or developed from the monkey, was truly one of the greatest benefactors of mankind. Most Christian readers will wonder that such infidelity should be held forth by a professed believer in the Bible and a preacher of salvation through Christ. But let me tell you that all who favor the mystical mode of interpreting the Scriptures are accomplices in this work of helping in the progress of infidelity, and are in a degree responsible for the prevailing and increasing skepticism of our times. The Bible is a revelation to mankind, or it is not. If it is, its plain statements of facts, its promises and its threatenings, are to be taken at par—they mean what they say. But if these things are to be allegorized, spiritualized, rationalized and mysterized, the Bible is not a revelation, but a riddle. All have an equal right to guess at its meaning; and, as a consequence, there may be as many creeds as there are persons. To make such a book a revelation, another one is necessary to tell us what this one means. You may wonder that any one should allegorize the plain statements concerning the creation of man, as described above, so as to deny that man was formed of dust, while we see him turning to dust again; but if you make the threatening of death, in case of man's disobedience, to mean eternal life in torment, or something besides what God defined it to be—a returning again to the dust out of which he was taken—you are in a like position, and are aiding in the work of destroying faith, and building up infidelity. And this remark applies to every interpretation which takes the license of setting aside a commandment of God, or an ordinance of the gospel. The fault of factions and false doctrines is not in the Bible, but in this huge license of interpretation. This is the pillar and support of infidelity. If the Bible be thus assailed by its professed friends, what shall we not expect from its open enemies? VICTORIES OF FAITH.
By C. A. Osgood
FAITH in God produces wonderful results. It raises men from the slough of sin to become sons of God. It leads the blind in a way they knew not, so that they walk in paths they had not before known. Many instances of the victory of faith are given in the eleventh chapter of Paul's epistle to the Hebrews. Noah was one of those believing souls. He is described as having been "a just man," one that "walked with God." We think of him as one who had enjoyed the favor of God for many years when God made known to him his purpose to destroy the wicked inhabitants of the earth by a flood. But this was not all; God commanded him to make special preparation for that event by building an ark for the saving of his household. To do this, would change all his plans in life. It would cost an immense sum of money, and long-continued labor and thought, together with an unlimited amount of contempt from the unbelieving multitude. Had he possessed no more faith than many professing Christians at the present time, we may well imagine that he would have answered: Lord, I have enjoyed the conciousness of thy favor these many years. I am satisfied with my present condition. I will pursue the way I am now going, I shall get to Heaven safe enough; but as to incurring this great expense and labor, and enduring the ignominy that must result from doing such a work, I beg leave to be excused! What would have been the consequence if Noah had thus talked and acted? Doubtless he would have perished by the waters of the flood, with the wicked multitude, notwithstanding all the religion he had before possessed. But Noah believed God. He built the ark. The flood took away all the unbelieving world, but he and his family were saved. The influence of faith shone out gloriously in the person and work of Moses. He "was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds." He was heir apparent to the throne of Egypt. Egypt was then a rich and powerful kingdom. He might have possessed those riches, and ruled that mighty nation. There he might have enjoyed "the pleasures of sin" to the full. The luxuries which unbounded wealth could give, might have been his. But God called him away to do another work. This was a humble work, as men esteemed it. It had very much of sorrow connected with it. But under the influence of faith he "chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." By faith "he endured as seeing him who is invisible." And though afflicted and poor, his faith "looked forward to the recompense of reward" which God had in reserve for him. For men to act thus in the present age would be accounted the height of folly, even by those who bear the name of Christian. Let a man with high political prospects exchange these for the humble work of proclaiming the unpopular truths of the third angel's message, receiving merely a sustenance, and looking to the time "when the chief Shepherd shall appear," for a full reward of his labors, would subject him to pity and scorn. To do this would really be the height of wisdom. And though such a man were despised in the present, yet in the near future, if faithful, he would "shine as the stars forever and ever." Again, the power of faith was shown in the case of the Hebrew children in Babylon. They were worshipers of the true God. They felt that the ten commandments were sacred, every one of them. They knew that the second commandment was God's precept forbidding them to worship any image. The king of that great empire had set up a great image of gold. A certain day was appointed for its dedication. A vast assemblage from all parts of the empire was there. The decree went forth that every one of them should fall down and worship the image, under pain of being cast into a burning furnace. What did these three men do? They resolved to risk the consequences, they dared not disobey God. And so while the vast multitude fell prostrate before the idol, these three men stood erect as the servants of the Most High God. True, they89 were cast into the burning, fiery furnace, heated seven times hotter than it was wont to be heated. But God honored their faith. He delivered them. The heat had no power upon their bodies, there was not a hair of their heads singed, their coats were not changed, neither had the smell of fire passed upon them. Oh! for a like faith in these days! Had a similar command gone forth in our day, how few would have had faith enough to have done as these illustrious men did! How many to save their lives would have fallen down and yet would excuse themselves by saying, I will not worship the image in my heart, though I bow down to save my life? But in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, men had not become so shrewd as now, and now their shrewdness will not deliver them in the day of the Lord. The sacred writings bring to view the cases of other believers who were not saved from persecution and death, and yet remained faithful. Some "were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection." "Others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonments. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword, they wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; they wandered in deserts and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth." Faith with them was a powerful principle. It sustained them amidst these sore trials. This power enabled them to hold on to truth and right, while they viewed from afar the glorious home that God had promised to the faithful. So also those Christians who lived and died during the times of the pagan and papal persecution had great faith. They believed the truth of God; it was precious to them. They would not renounce it for any consideration. They were not afraid to die for the truth's sake. They laid hold on Almighty strength and triumphed in hope of a glorious resurrection. But how little of such faith is there now upon the earth? What an age of self-indulgence is this? How little are men willing to do or suffer for Christ's sake, and the truth's sake? When God calls upon men to make diligent efforts to prepare for the great and dreadful day of the Lord, which hasteth greatly, how many are willing to be rocked to sleep in the cradle of carnal security! How few are willing to forego their own convenience and brave the scoffs of the people, for the sake of obeying God's commandments, and so, of having a right to the tree of life, and an entrance into the holy city! Oh! how much is needed that faith which men of old possessed; that faith which overcomes the world! NAZARETH AS IT IS AND WAS.
NAZARETH lies among the hills, which extend for about six miles between the plains of El Bat-tauf on the north, and Esdraelon on the south. It is on the north side of the latter, and overlooks one of the numerous little folds or bays of the great plain, which are seen wherever the hills are open. The village lies on the northern side of this green bay, and is reached by a narrow, steep, and rough mountain path, over which the vil-lagers have to bring their harvests laboriously from the plain beneath, on camels, mules, and donkeys. If the traveler ride up this path in March, when Palestine is at its best, he will be charmed by the bright green of the plains and the beauty of the flowers, every where lighting up the otherwise barren hills, which, at best, yield scanty pasture for sheep and goats. The red anemone and the pink phlox are the commonest; rock roses, white and yellow, are plentiful, with a few pink ones; the cytisus here and there covers the ground with golden flowers, and the pink convolvulus, marigold, wild geranium and red tulip, are varied by several kinds of orchis. As the path ascends, the little fertile valley beneath, running east and west, gradually opens to about a quarter of a mile in breadth, covered with fields and gar-dens, divided by cactus hedges, and running into the hills for about a mile. Near the village, be-side the pathway, about an hour from Esdraelon, is a spring, from which the water pours from several taps in a slab of masonry, falling into a trough below, for camels, horses, asses, and cattle. The distant view of the village itself, in spring, is beautiful. Its streets rise in terraces on the hill-slopes, towards the north-west. The hills, here and there broken into perpendicular faces, rise above it in an amphitheatre round, to a height of about five hundred feet, and shut it in from the bleak winds of winter. The flat-roofed houses, built of the yellowish-white limestone of the neighborhood, shine in the sun with a dazzling brightness, from among gardens, and fig-trees, olives, cypresses, and the white and scarlet blos-soms of the orange and pomegranate. A mosque with its graceful minaret, a large convent, from whose gardens rise tall cypresses, and a modest church, are the principal buildings. The streets are narrow, poor, and dirty, and the shops are mere recesses on each side of them, but the narrowness shuts out the heat of the sun, and the miniature shops are large enough for the local trade. Numbers of dogs which belong to the place, and have no owner, lie about, as in all Eastern towns. Small gardens, rich in green clumps of olive-trees and stately palms, break the monotonous yellow of the rocks and houses, while doves coo, and birds of many kinds twitter, in the branches, or flit across the open. The bright colors of the roller, the hoopoe, the sunbird, or the bulbul, catch the eye as one or other darts swiftly past, and many birds familiar in England are seen or heard, if the traveler's stay be lengthened, for of the 322 birds found in Palestine, 172 are also British. The song of the lark floods a thou-sand acres of sky with melody; the restless tit-mouse, the willow-wren, the blackcap, the hedge-sparrow, the whitethroat, or the nightingale, flit or warble on the hill-side, or in the cactus hedges, while the rich notes of the song-thrush or black-bird rise from the green clumps in the valley be-neath. The wagtail runs over the pebbles of the brook as here at home; the common sparrow haunts the streets and house-tops; swallows and swifts skim the hill-sides and the grassy meadows; and, in winter, the robin-redbreast abounds. Great butterflies flit over the hill-sides, amongst the flowers, while flocks of sheep and goats dot the slopes and the little plain below. Through this a brook ripples, the only one in the valley, and thither the women and maidens go to fetch water in tall jars, for household use. It is the one spring of the town, and, hence, must have been that which the mothers and daughters of Christ's day frequented. It rises under the choir of the present Greek church, and is led down the hill-side in a covered channel. An open space near the church is the threshing-floor of the village, where, after harvest, the yoked oxen draw the threshing-sledges slowly, round and round, over the grain, in the open air. No wonder that in spring Nazareth should have been thought a par-adise, or that it should be spoken of as perhaps the only spot in Palestine where the mind feels relief from the unequaled desolation that reigns nearly everywhere else. Later in the year, the hills around lose the charm of their spring flowers. They are then gray and barren, divided by dry gullies, with no color to relieve their tame and commonplace out-lines, the same on every side. Nazareth lies nearly twelve hundred feet above the sea, and some of the hills which cluster round, and shut it in, rise about five hundred feet higher. It is a mountain village, only to be reached from the plain by a tedious climb. The free air of their mountain home seems to have had its effect on the people of Nazareth. Its bright-eyed, happy children and comely women strike the traveler, and even their dress differs from that of other parts. Through Palestine generally, the frequent and excessive changes of climate expose the peasants, or fellahin, to rheu-matism, coughs, and bronchitis; and, as a protec-tion, the men in many parts wear a sheepskin coat, on warm days as well as cold. The women, however, make no change in their dress, which usually consists of nothing but a long blue gar-ment tied in round the waist, a bonnet of red cloth, decorated with an edging or roll of silver coins, bordering the forehead and extending to the ears, reminding one of the crescent-shaped female head-dress worn by some of the Egyptian priestesses. Over this, a veil or shawl of coarse white cotton is thrown, which hangs down to the waist, serving to cover the mouth, while the bosom is left exposed, for Eastern and Western ideas of decorum differ in some things. The various customs which seem peculiar to Nazareth are not less striking [than those of the plain of Esdraelon]. The short abba or cloak of the men, and their gorgeous kefeyehs, or ker-chiefs, folded triangularly, and thrown over the head, so as to fall over the neck and shoulders; the white veil, the silk dresses, the broad scarfs, and many colored trousers, red, green, blue, and yellow, of the women, give a crowd a peculiarly picturesque appearance, and differ materially from the sordid dresses of the poorer southern villages. In a country where nothing changes, through age after age, the dress of to-day is very likely, in most respects, the same as it was two thousand years ago, though the prevailing color of the Hebrew dress, at least in the better classes, was the natural white of the materials employed, which the fuller made even whiter. One characteristic of the hills round Nazareth existing already in Christ's day, and, indeed, much earlier, is a striking proof of the denseness of the population of Palestine in former times, and of its restless industry and energy. Many of them are honeycombed with countless excava-tions of various kinds. Cemeteries of over two hundred tombs, cut in the soft rock, some of them large tunneled vaults, with separate hollows for twelve bodies; large numbers of cisterns, grape and olive presses, store or dwelling caves, wells and quarries, are everywhere abundant, as, in-deed, they are over the whole country, but es-pecially in the Shephelah or Philistine plain. The cisterns are from twenty to thirty feet deep, shaped like a church bell or inverted funnel, about two and a half feet across at the mouth, and fif-teen to twenty-five at the bottom, the whole cut out of the solid limestone, showing that Palestine must always have been, for a good part of the year, a waterless country, needing to store up the rains of autumn and spring. It is not un-common to find groups of from three to ten, or even more, of these fine excavations together. What must have been the density of the popula-tion, what its civilization and industry, to leave such remains in such numbers! The Nazareth hills are, for the most part, neg-lected now, but were utilized in Christ's day as the hill-sides along the Rhine or the lime-slopes of Malta are at present, by terrace cultivation. Traces of these ancient terraces may still be seen. All the loose stones were gathered and built into rough walls along the sides of the hills, like so many steps, as at Bethlehem still. The tops of the strips thus gained, after being leveled, pro-duced grapes and all kinds of fruit in great abundance. The supporting walls, having been long neglected, have fallen down, and well-nigh disappeared; the earth once behind them has been washed away by the heavy rains, and the slopes, except in spring, when the flowers are in their glory, show little but barren rock.—Geikie's Life of Christ, pp. 110-114. A FRIEND of ours last March, sailing down the coast, came on deck one morning to find the air pervaded by a fog so thick as to shut off the vision for even a few yards from the steamer. He had been aware during the night of a peculiar vigilance and activity on board, and ascertained that the fog had lasted since the previous evening. On inquiring of the captain concerning their whereabouts, he was told that they had passed Cape Hatteras in the night. “How did you know that? could you see the light?” “Oh, no, not in a fog like this!” Well, you certainly could take no observations without a star in sight?” “No, but we have other ways of seeing where we are, than those you have mentioned.” “How?” “By the lead. Our soundings told us when we were off the Cape, and when we had passed it.” The spiritual have other means of seeing than what we call our sight. They see by the lead. That lead is faith. All distinctively Christian seamanship consists in the use of this “vision and faculty divine.” There are nights when the heavens seem walled above our heads, and no light shines from the shore, when through the moaning and midnight seas we have to pass the stormy and perilous crisis of our life. But we go on, sounding the very depths that encompass and emperil us, and find in the rocks and shoals themselves our chart and our security. For we know by faith, not by sight.—Intelligencer. Repentance and Reformation
Dr. Whedon says: "The genuineness of our repentance depends less upon the emotional excitement than upon the strength of the volition by which we have renounced the past, and the reality of our reformation in the future." THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST.
By U. S.
HOW WILL IT AFFECT THE RIGHTEOUS?
In response to the cry which was heard out of the land of Seir, "Watchman, what of the night?" the watchman responded, "The morning cometh and also the night." Isa. 21:12. There are two very different classes of persons in the world, and there are two very different conditions before them into which they will respectively enter. Before one class there is a dark and interminable night; before the other a glorious and unending day. These classes are the righteous and the wicked; and the event that constitutes the dividing line between their present and their future, is the second coming of Christ. Before the wicked, unless they shall repent, there lies a state of such despair, remorse, and punishment, that, compared with their present state, it is as night compared with day; but before the righteous there lies a state of such surpassing happiness and glory that, compared with their present state, it is as day compared with night. This present state which the righteous and wicked both share alike, in which the righteous, aside from their heavenly hope, have no less of happiness, and no more of sorrow, than the wicked, is to the wicked a period of joyous day preceding a dismal night, their condition here is so much more favorable than what it will be hereafter; but to the righteous it is a period of gloomy night preceding a glorious day, their condition here is so infinitely below what it will be in the paradise of God. We noticed, last week, how the coming of Christ will affect the cases of the wicked. It leaves them no hope. It is the end of all their pleasures, their ambition, their wealth, their power. It turns their laughter into mourning. It fills their cup of joy with the gall of bitterness. And amid the convulsions in which our world shall go back to its original chaos, they shall be swept from the face of the earth. Now, let the reader imagine conditions which are infinitely the opposite of all these, and he will have some idea of what is given to the righteous at this time. To them it is the consummation of their blessed hope. Titus 2:13. It introduces them to that condition in which there are pleasures forevermore. Ps. 16:11. It is the fulfillment and satisfaction of their highest ambition. Phil. 3:12-14. It puts them in possession of that wealth which the Lord promised when he said, "All things are yours." 1 Cor. 3:21. It gives them the most glorious power a man can covet; for they triumph over death. 1 Cor. 15:57. It turns their mourning into laughter and shout and song. Luke 6:21. It takes their cup, and extracting every trace of bitterness, it fills it to the brim and runs it over, with exuberance of joy. Isa. 35:10. And amid the destruction of all things below, borne upward on the wings of those celestial beings revealed to us as the "morning stars," and "the sons of God," Job 38:7, they will rise to be forever with the Lord. Matt. 24:31; 1 Thess. 4:17. Sinner, we do not ask you which company you will wish to be with then. There is no question about that. We know well enough how it will be. But the decision must be made before that time; and the fearful probability is that you will put it off too long. We therefore ask you to decide now, and act accordingly. 1. The coming of Christ is to the righteous the hope of salvation. While the wicked are calling to the rocks and mountains to fall on them and hide them from the presence of Christ, the righteous gladly exclaim, "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us; this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation." Isa. 25:9. 2. The coming of the Lord is the hope of the righteous dead; for it brings the resurrection. The resurrection is sometimes spoken of aside from its connection with the coming of Christ, and the promise of that event is ample and sure; but there are other scriptures which show the inseparable connection between these two events, and that the resurrection cannot take place without the coming of Christ. See John 5:28, 29; 1 Thess. 4:16; 1 Cor. 15:52. 3. The coming of Christ brings the Christian's reward. Behold, I come quickly, he says, and my reward is with me to give to every man as his work shall be. Again the Lord, instructing his disciples in regard to their recompense for good deeds done to the poor, said: "and thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee; for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just. Luke 14:14. No other time of reward is given in the Scriptures, except at the coming of Christ, and the resurrection of the just. 4. The coming of Christ brings the overcomer's crown. The great apostle to the Gentiles thus speaks: "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." 2 Tim. 4:7, 8. The "day" of which he speaks is the day of Christ's appearing, and the crown is for all such as love that event. 5. The coming of the Lord ends the Christian's exile, terminates his pilgrimage, and brings him home to the many mansions of the Father's house. John 14:2, 3; Heb. 11:13-16; Rev. 22:14. 6. It is by this means that the absent members of Christ's body are gathered to their living head, and brought to enjoy his personal presence forever. When the disciples were filled with sorrow at the thought that their Master was soon to leave them, he bade them not to be troubled; for, said he, "I will come again, and receive you to myself; that [in order that] where I am, there ye may be also." John 14:1-3. Paul, after telling the Thessalonians that the righteous would be caught up to meet the Lord in the air at his second appearing, says, "And so [in this manner, or by this means] shall we ever be with the Lord." 1 Thess. 4:17. And John says, "It doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." 1 John 3:2. Since, then, the Christian's hope is thus all laid up in the coming of the Lord, is it any wonder that it should be loved and longed for by all his people? Their hearts being filled with love for him, there is no enmity but union between them. Feeling that he is their friend, they rejoice in the prospect of soon entering into his presence. All the difference between the righteous and the wicked is summed up in this one sentence—Christ an enemy, and Christ a friend. The one class have followed the leadings of the carnal mind, and have continued their opposition to him, and their alienation from him. The other have yielded to his holy requirements and have found his forgiveness and favor. So the thought of his coming fills the wicked with alarm, but the righteous with joy. And the manifestations of the day of his appearing, which to the righteous will fill the whole heaven with untold splendors, will be to the wicked sharp arrows of indignation and wrath; and the brightness of his coming, to the righteous a glad vision of "the King in his beauty," Isa. 33:17, will be to the wicked a "consuming fire." Heb 12:20. Let us share in the lot of the righteous; for though they may be in this life poor, humble, unhonored, and unknown, the portion of their inheritance hereafter is glory and blessedness forever. "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear." Matt. 13:43. THE TWO INSTITUTIONS.
By Eld. S. N. Haskell
BY ELD. S. N. HASKELL.
THE terms Sabbath and Sunday represent two distinct institutions. They originate in different sources. The meaning of the terms is entirely different, and the terms strictly belong to two different days. Sabbath is a Hebrew term, and signifies rest. “And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” Gen. 2:3. This rest-day of God was the seventh day of time. God commenced the work of creation on the first day, and completed it on the sixth, and he rested on the seventh. This being God’s rest-day he blessed it, because in it he had rested from all his work which he had created and made. The closing act was his hallowing or sanctifying it. The object for which it was made is plainly stated by the Saviour: “The Sabbath was made for man.” Thus we have the origin of the Sabbath at the creation of this world, the manner of its being made, and for what purpose it was made, viz., for man—not for any one class of men, but for the human race, for Adam and his posterity. The requirement for men to observe it, and the reason why it is enjoined, are distinctly stated in the moral law engraven on tables of stone by the finger of God. They are the only ten words he ever audibly spake to the fallen race. The seventh day (Saturday) has been observed by a portion of the human family ever since the creation. At that time, it was instituted91 and appointed by God for man, enjoined upon Mt. Sinai by Jehovah’s audible voice, observed by the Saviour while upon earth—“As his custom was, he went into the synagogue upon the Sabbath day”—; it was kept by the disciples at the crucifixion, and many Christians have observed it from that time till the present. But not so with Sunday. Its origin cannot be traced back so far, neither can it be given as definitely. Says the North British Review, “THE WILD SOLAR HOLIDAY (i. e., festival in honor of the sun) OF ALL PAGAN TIMES.” The origin of Sunday is lost in remote antiquity. It did not originate from any divine command, nor from piety towards God. It was set apart as a sacred day by the heathen world in honor of their chief god—the sun. It is from this fact that the first day of the week obtained the name of Sunday, a name by which it is known in many languages. Webster defines the word thus: “Sunday—so called because this day was anciently dedicated to the sun, or to its worship.” Worcester uses similar words in defining the name: “Sunday—so named because anciently dedicated to the sun, or to its worship.” Verstegan says: “The most ancient Germans being pagans, and having appropriated the first day of the week to the peculiar adoration of the sun, whereof that day doth yet in our English tongue retain the name of Sunday.” Again he speaks concerning the idols of our Saxon ancestors: “To the day dedicated unto the special adoration of the idol of the sun they gave the name of Sunday, as much as to say the sun’s day, or day of the sun. This idol was placed in a temple, and there adored and sacrificed unto, for that they believed that the sun in the firmament did with or in this idol correspond and co-operate.” Jennings makes this adoration of the sun more ancient than the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt; for in speaking of that deliverance, he represents the heathen as setting apart Sunday in honor of the sun. Upon this point the testimony of various first-day writers might be multiplied, but there can be no question in regard to it. Neither is the Bible entirely silent as to this heathen worship in the early history of the world. As early as 624 B. C. we find Josiah putting “down the idolatrous priests,” and “them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.” 2 Kings 23:5. Jeremiah also connects the sun worship with the ancient Egyptians, and says: God “shall break also the images of the sun that is in the land of Egypt, and the houses of the gods of the Egyptians shall he burn with fire.” (Margin.) Jer. 43:13. Thus we can see the reason why God should give his law and Sabbath to the Israelites when he brought them out of the land of Egypt, and why he should give them the warning found in Deut. 4:19: “And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldst be driven to worship them,” etc. Thus we trace Sunday back to the original heathen worship, and here is its birthplace. It has ever been prominently connected with idolatrous worship, but in these latter times has stolen the livery of Heaven—the position of a Christian institution. Shall we now as Christians fold our hands and shut our eyes to these important facts? Is it not our duty as men who profess to take the Bible, and the Bible alone, as the rule of our faith and practice, to vindicate God’s law, and let this heathen tradition, christened by the Papacy, appear in its true deformity?