No reformation has ever existed without the existence of some form of fanaticism. But when the friends of reform can see the cause move forward, overcoming fanaticism, obtaining a precious experience, thus fortifying against the wiles of the Devil, they have great cause for rejoicing. Fanaticism and Seventh-day Adventism won't mix. Hence, honest souls will in time renounce the former, and cling to the latter.
The writer of the following frank statement is welcomed to the sympathy of the friends of the Lord, to share their prayers. But such should walk humbly and cautiously, especially if the scales have but partially fallen from their eyes. In this blinded state, they will be much safer to be led than to lead. When the scales fully fall from their eyes, and they clearly see their past dangers, and their own merciful, hair-breadth escapes, they will have no desire to lead, but will be in happy submission to the admonitions of those who have stood in the light, and are capable of giving them counsel.
We believe these statements to be in harmony with the plain teachings of the New Testament. Yet the self-righteous spirit of fanaticism will denounce them as oppressive, and an abridgment of gospel liberty. Here is where the friends of good order and Christian discipline will ever differ with the unteachable and untamable spirit of fanaticism.
Our friends in the East who are coming into the ranks, heart-sick of the administration of S. C. Hancock, deserve the sympathy of the body. They had been left as sheep without a shepherd. They were under the more direct influence of the loose and reckless spirit that attended, more or less, the movement of 1854, and which exists, to a great extent, among New England Adventists. But now that they have the efficient labors of Elders Loughborough and Cornell, they are finding their places with the tried friends of the cause. And still they come. May all such speedily hear the Shepherd's voice, and joyfully join the ranks.
J. W.
Bro. White: I feel that it may be a duty that I owe to you and to the cause, to give you a little of my experience, hoping thereby that some may be benefited. Permit me to say in the first place that my acquaintance with the Advent people dates back only a few years. It was my lot to come out with the '54 time movement. It was about that time that I heard the Advent doctrine for the first time, and gladly embraced the view that Jesus would come in the fall of 1854. But alas, my hopes were blasted. The time passed away. I found myself still here in this cold and dark world; and being full of zeal and interest, I was in that place where I was ready to believe anything that had the appearance of truth.
Just at this time a class arose who claimed that they had the true light on "rising and trimming their lamps," "the latter rain," and "the gifts being restored in the church." I searched the Scriptures and found that the gifts were for the church, and believing that we were the people of God, I went fully with that movement and received in a short time what I then really believed to be the "gift of tongues," and sincerely followed in this way until about six months ago, when my mind became unsettled in regard to their genuineness, as there were some things which seemed very strange to me at times. I heard things in the "tongues" which I had no confidence in, and after seeing results, was still more shaken in my position.
At our conference in Portland, about three months ago, I became completely disgusted with our position as a people, and I then saw that we had been building upon a false foundation, and that many things that we as a people had taken for special evidence that the Lord was with us, now began to manifest themselves in their true light, and instead of advancing the truth served rather to disgust sensible persons, and drive them from the truth.
I will specify a few exercises: Talking with tongues, dancing in the Spirit, and swimming in the Spirit. With the tongues I was in full sympathy, but not with the dancing and swimming, which were exercises peculiar to Eld. Hancock.
More I might speak of, but let this suffice. I can say now that I am thankful that my117eyes have been opened to see these delusions which I have sympathized with in part since '54; for I partook of the same views and spirit with those with whom I was united.
Five years ago this present winter I became interested in the true Sabbath of the Lord which I embraced with all my heart, and connected myself with the Sabbath-keepers in this city. I continued with them for more than one year; during which time I gave one message in the "tongues." Nothing was said against it at that time by the brethren and sisters; and in a short time other messages were given. Soon a spirit of opposition was raised against those messages. But believing as I did that all was from God I could not give up to my brethren and sisters and a separation took place. This was not without a struggle on my part; for I loved them all very much. I soon became acquainted with others who believed as I did, which strengthened me in that position.
Permit me to say here that I do feel thankful to God that he sent some of his servants to labor in Portland, who are not afraid to lay the axe to the root of the tree. May God bless their labors in Portland, and may the honest-hearted be brought out from their hiding places which must soon be swept away. Let me say here I desire the truth as it is in Jesus. I feel that I have great reason to rejoice in God's goodness in leading me to take a stand with his true people, who are keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, which is the spirit of prophecy.
Yours in Christian fellowship.
Mrs. D. A. Parker.
Portland, Me., Jan. 26, 1865.
Can God Work?
By Editor
THERE are no limitations to God's power; but there are conditions which determine the direction in which he will manifest it. He cannot smile upon unrighteousness, nor uphold iniquity in individuals or nations. If they would have his blessing they must turn from their wickedness. If they do evil, they must expect his judgments. This general rule the Lord laid down by the prophet more than six hundred years before Christ: "At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to pull down, and to destroy it; if that nation against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; if it do evil in my sight that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them." Jer. xviii, 7-10.
But God, in his workings in the earth, is not confined to his people, nor does he work exclusively with them. He rules in the kingdoms of men, and uses whomever his purposes require. When the Canaanites had filled up the measure of their abominations, God employed Israel as the ministers of his vengeance, to rid the earth of their foul presence; and he took the responsibility of all the lives they destroyed, and the blood they shed, in executing criminals against himself.
Israel sins and departs from the Lord, and he commissions the king of Babylon to inflict upon them his sore judgments; not because Babylon was the especial favorite of Heaven; for when God had accomplished through that kingdom his designs against Israel, it was itself punished for its own sins.
The seventy years of the captivity of Israel draw near their close. The bands of their oppression must be loosed. Babylon will not loose them; for Babylon had thought that its own sword had achieved its victories; and it dreamed in its pride and arrogance of holding them forever. What does God do? He summons the Mede and Persian, who fall like a mighty avalanche upon the haughty kingdom, and the pride of its power is broken, the crown of its glory taken away, and Cyrus, in obedience to the divine purpose, issues a proclamation for the return of Israel to their native land.
Nor does God make use of his people alone in imparting instruction to the children of men; for to Nebuchadnezzar, a heathen king, God gave the first great comprehensive symbol of the world's history from the days of the first universal empire, to the end of probationary time. Yet he does nothing with which his people are not concerned, if not in some way directly connected. For though a Pharaoh dreams, a Joseph must explain; and though to Nebuchadnezzar was given a symbol of earthly governments for years to come, Daniel must come in to give the interpretation. And though there have been commotions in the earth, kingdoms arising and falling, it has been but the casting down and setting up by the Lord to open a way for his people—God going before his church, like a pillar of cloud by day, and fire by night, to pilot them through their fearful journey of six thousand years, in a world blighted by the curse, and made perilous by sin.
The few instances to which we have referred, and of which the history of the world presents almost an unbroken series, are sufficient to show God's methods of dealing with the race, and the principle and conditions upon which he specially interposes in human affairs.
The time has come, as we believe, when the special interposition of God in national affairs in behalf of his people is again needed. The mighty struggle of our nation is retarding seriously the work of present truth in the land, and threatening to stop it almost entirely.
Is the state of the nation such that God can work in its behalf, and for his people?
We go back two and three years, and what do we see? Traitors in authority on the Union side, rebels at heart occupying places of trust in the Union army, plotters to treason holding by swarms the Federal offices, generals in the army returning to rebel masters the escaped bondmen, the rights of the oppressed slave ignored and trampled upon by those who had the right and the power to vindicate and defend them, the nation slow to acknowledge their guilt, and to see the hand of God in their calamities, and laboring to leave untouched the great sin which was the occasion of all their woes. Could God bless and work for a nation in such a state as this? Let the almost unbroken succession of defeats, misfortunes, disasters, and evils accumulating to the Union cause on every hand, answer. Traitors were made glad. Enemies of the Union, even those occupying its places of trust and profit, could scarce conceal their joy. Lovers of their country, of humanity, liberty, and right, were sad and despondent, and the day of triumph and cessation of trouble was so rapidly receding as to occasion with many most serious apprehensions that it would never be reached.
But the times are changed somewhat; and how is it now? We have good reason to believe that Federal offices, especially those of influence and power, are pretty thoroughly purged of villainous sympathizers with slavery and treason. The Executive has issued his proclamation emancipating the slaves of the rebellious States. Three of the border States where slavery was left to the disposal of the people, have decreed its immediate abolition. Slaves are no longer returned to their masters, but wherever our armies touch, thither freedom comes. The rights and the manhood of the slave have been to a great extent recognized, notwithstanding all that yet remains to be done in that direction, ere the demands of justice are fully met. The nation has been, though slowly, committing itself on the side of the right. And to crown the whole, the national Congress has passed the Constitutional amendment, by which the Constitution of the United States is made to expressly and forever prohibit slavery on every inch of territory over which it has jurisdiction. A concurrence of three-fourths of the States is necessary ere this can take effect, and though it is probably lost for the present, because Delaware, Kentucky, and New Jersey, have rejected it, still the good intentions of Congress, and the will of the nation as expressed by them, stand the same.
Upon these actions and efforts it seems that God must look with approbation. And we now ask, Is not the nation taking a position where God can favor it, and crown its efforts with success? Let the late Union victories, and the rebel disasters, answer. Let the crumbling power of the Confederacy answer. Let the fall of Savannah, Wilmington, and Charleston, answer. Let the giant grip which Grant holds upon the demon of rebellion before Petersburg and Richmond, while Sherman by his triumphant march through the heart of Georgia and South Carolina, deals death-blows to its very vitals, answer.
What the course of events in the future may be, we cannot tell. We pray for the holding of the winds, the cessation of this strife, the relaxation of this pressure from the nation and the people of God, till the final work of mercy can be accomplished, and the servants of God be sealed. A series of successes, unbroken and remarkable, have of late crowned the Union cause; and it would seem that a few more signal victories would break the power of the rebellion beyond recovery, and close the strife, at least so far as it interferes with the progress of the truth. We would not speak too definitely. We only suggest that Providence seems to point in this direction for a fulfillment of Rev. vii, 3, while the consideration that the nation has taken such steps as would make it seem in harmony with the attributes of God to grant it success, is calculated in no small degree to strengthen that faith.
Meanwhile strong in our trust that God will work in his own good way and time, we wait for the speedy holding of the winds, the last loud proclamation of the truth, and the not-far-distant consolation of Israel.
The Lord Is Near to Those Who Call
The Lord is nigh unto all that call upon him.
A Gloomy Doctrine.
By John Nevins Andrews
THE sleep of the dead is often designated thus, and many refuse to listen to the testimony of the Bible on this subject, choosing rather to remain "ignorant concerning them which are asleep," than to consider the stern realities of death and the grave. "Your doctrine," say they, "is chilling, repulsive, forbidding. The sleep of the dead! why, the very idea is enough to freeze one. But the immortality of the soul, and the reward of the saints at death, this, this is the very marrow and fatness of the gospel; this is indeed that blessed hope."
But stop friends a few moments. It may be that you are blinded by prejudice. Be not too hasty. If you are not willing to devote the needed time for weighing this subject in the balances of the Scriptures, will you not wait long enough to try the justice of this objection in the balances of reason?
You say the doctrine is full of gloom, and that the departed saints have experienced a bitter disappointment in being consigned to the cold grave for long ages, instead of being received into glory. You think the idea full of gloom to the living, and dreadful to the dead. But you forget that if the doctrine be true, there is no chill, no gloom, no darkness, no disappointment, no lapse of time, no waiting through long ages to the dead. The interval between their decease and their resurrection will to them be no time at all. The twinkling of an eye, in which the righteous will be changed to immortality, will be to them as long as the whole period will be to righteous Abel that he has slept in death. And to him, so far as his own knowledge of the case is concerned, it will be precisely as though he entered Heaven the very moment he was slain.
You say that this helps the matter a little; but that for all this, the sleep of the dead will no more compare in consolation with the soul's immortality and the reward at death, than the desert of Sahara will compare in beauty with the garden of Eden. Do not be too hasty friends. You may discover facts that will change this opinion. You find great consolation in the thought that the soul is immortal, and that men are rewarded as soon as they die. Answer me a few questions. How large a part of mankind lead lives of holiness and die with good evidence of their acceptance with God? Truth compels you to answer that a minority are all that can be said to do this. What becomes then of this great majority of men who have died out of Christ and entered their reward? Oh, they have gone into the furnace of fire where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth. What is the condition then at this very moment of the greater part of the dead according to this cheering doctrine of yours? You have to answer, They are in unspeakable torment. You admit that this dreadful fact somewhat abates the consolation you have hitherto found in this doctrine. But I want you to answer one question more. If the soul is immortal as you affirm, how long are these impenitent men thus to suffer? You answer again, and this time surely with a shudder, THEY MUST SUFFER TO ALL ETERNITY. Before we part will you not own that yours is the gloomy doctrine? Is it not a relief to your mind to think that men are to be judged BEFORE they are rewarded or punished? and that till the day of judgment men wait for their reward? And is not that doctrine best which teaches that immortality is the gift of God, and that it is given only to the righteous?
J. N. A.
R. F. COTTRELL
By R. F. Cottrell
"God is not the Author of Confusion." No. 1.
ThERE seem to be different estimates of the weight of testimony. To some minds, the agreement of the different witnesses, which are brought to prove any particular point, is of the utmost importance to establish the truth; to others, this seems to be of no consequence, that is, so far as relates to the particular circumstances, provided the witnesses agree in the ultimate point to be proved. Of the former class were those disciples who wrote the history of the trial of Jesus. Concerning the witnesses brought to condemn the Lord it is said, "Their witness agreed not together." But they were all agreed in one thing—that he was "guilty of death." Those that condemned him upon such discordant testimony were of the latter class, as also are many at the present day, as will appear.
To illustrate, we will suppose three witnesses on the trial of a person for murder. They all testify that they were eye-witnesses of the affair. The first says he saw the prisoner shoot the deceased with a pistol on the shore of lake Ontario; the second, that he thrust him through with a sword in the city of Buffalo, and the third, that he beat him to death with a club in a wood about half way from Buffalo to Rochester. One class of judges are of the opinion that such testimonies are calculated to cast doubt over the whole affair. But the other class, overlooking the little discrepancies respecting the unimportant circumstances of time, place and manner, see a remarkable coincidence in the main point to be proved, and conclude that so many witnesses, all testifying to the same point, must remove all doubt and make the matter exceedingly clear.
There are several witnesses at the present time, who agree in their testimony that the present dispensation will close within the boundaries of 1866 to 1868. The first witness testifies thus, because, as he holds, the 1260 years of Papal rule will end there. The second, because the great period of 2300 years will end there. The third, because the 2300 years with 45 added to them will end there. The fourth, because that instead of 2300, the text ought to read 2400, and this 2400 years will end at that point. The fifth, because the 1335 years will there terminate. Thus they all agree in the same conclusion, though they arrive at it through such a variety of conflicting premises.
Now some will see such a remarkable coincidence in these different and contradictory writers, that they will gather assuredly, from such a vast accumulation of evidence, that the Lord will come, or the Millennium will begin, or something else will take place in 1866-8; while others will see nothing but a perfect Babel in the testimony of these witnesses, and will exclaim, in the language of an apostle, "God is not the author of confusion, but of peace." One thing is certain, the Lord will come, but he has not sent these witnesses to herald his coming.
That the prophetic periods were given to be understood, there can be no reasonable doubt. And that they were to be preached to the world as a special proclamation, is evident from the Scriptures. Rev. x, 5-7. xiv, 6, 7. The Bible declarations, that "the scriptures must be fulfilled" and "cannot be broken," being true, the ending of some prophetic period which brings us to a time called the "hour of God's judgment," a period in which the seventh angel begins to sound and the mystery of God is soon to be finished, will be loudly proclaimed to men. But this may be done, and men still remain in unbelief, as in the days of Noah.
And now as it is evident that the end is at hand, and also that God is not the author of the existing confusion on the prophetic periods, we inquire, Has the great proclamation of time been made in the past? We go back to a period a few years previous to, and ending in, 1844, and we find a proclamation of the prophetic periods, extensive and harmonious, and every way worthy of God, as being the fulfillment of his word. All who took part in the work were perfectly united, there was no dissenting voice. The argument was clear and conclusive, and its force was felt, as the Spirit of God moved out the solemn cry, "The hour of his judgment is come!" That the prophetic numbers were unsealed and understood was demonstrated, in 1840, by the fall of the Ottoman supremacy, at the close of the sounding of the sixth trumpet. The argument on time was so clear that even the opposition declared it to be our strongest point. That argument remains to-day in all its strength. Like a strong tower, it lifts its majestic head above every wind of doctrine in relation to the prophetic periods, calmly resting upon its immovable base—the word and providence of the Almighty. The fulfillment of the time message of Rev. x, 6; xiv, 7, at the end of the 2300 days, in 1844, is a pledge of God's faithfulness, a token that he has not forgotten his word. He promised this message near eighteen hundred years ago; it has been fulfilled in our own times. This work bore the impress of Divinity, it was characterized by unity, harmony, and peace. This is the true hill, it is approved by the detector. All the time messages that have followed it are counterfeits, and bad imitations at the best. "Confusion" is the inscription which they bear; and "God is not the author of confusion, but of peace."
R. F. COTTRELL
Conversation with a Spiritualist.
By James White
PHILOSOPHY AND MIRACLES.
THE following is a part of a conversation held with an intelligent Spiritualist on the subject of miracles. The other parts of the conversation were on other subjects.
Spr.—You believe in miracles?
W.—I do.
Spr.—Therein I hold that your faith is unphilosophical.
W.—Philosophy aims at the reason of things. What reason do you offer for your belief?
Spr.—The laws of nature are unchangeable; therefore a miracle is impossible.
W.—Do you discover any evidence of wisdom in the laws of nature?
Spr.—Certainly; they are harmonious which is evidence of their wisdom.
W.—You would be puzzled to prove that assertion, from your stand point. But granting that they are harmonious and wise; this further proves that they were framed by design; or, in other words, that there is intelligence manifested in their construction. Do you believe that nature is intelligent?
Spr.—Ourselves and all that we see, are parts of nature; therefore there is intelligence in nature.
W.—You do not reach the point. Neither ourselves nor anything we see made the laws which you call the laws of nature; they are above, and independent of us. We are subject to them as yourself admit by saying we cannot change them. Do you hold that nature is intelligent, and capable of designing or planning?
Spr.—I cannot say that I do.
W.—Then it is evident that nature did not make the laws by which she is governed, and of course, there must be some wise power above nature that ordained or framed these laws.118
Spr.—Well, that appears reasonable, and must be admitted.
W.—That power I call God. Now if there be a God who made these laws, he must as maker, be above and superior to his own work. Do you admit that?
Spr.—Of course I must.
W.—Very well; and as he is above these laws, and made them, they are matters of choice with him; therefore he might have made them different from what they are had he chosen.
Spr.—It is but reasonable to suppose so.
W.—It is more than a supposition; it is unavoidable. But if he made them as they are from choice, and could have made them differently, it is equally unavoidable as a conclusion that he might now change them, and form other combinations equally harmonious as those which we now see. This you admit?
Spr.—I could not deny it.
W.—And, of course, if he is the author of these laws, above them, and could substitute others for them, or change or supersede them, he might also suspend them for a time, if he saw fit. And this is just what we understand by a miracle: a temporary suspension or counteracting of a law of nature by Him who made them and controls them. So you believe in miracles, or at least their possibility and reasonableness, as well as myself when you reason on the subject. And that philosophy which denies miracles is a blind philosophy, not founded on any just reasoning whatever; or rather no philosophy at all.
J. H. W.
Report from Bro. Loughborough.
By John Norton Loughborough
Since my last report which was made at Middletown, R. I., I have held meetings as follows:
At Middletown Bro. Rodman and myself spent a week, and held six meetings. Some few felt desirous to hear and know these things, but the most were so busied with preparing for, and attending, a Sunday-school exhibition, they did not seem inclined to stop and listen to the doctrine of the Lord's coming, or of the proof of the claims of the Lord's Sabbath upon them.
From Jan. 27 to 30, we had seven meetings at South Kingston, R. I., where there are still some fifteen that embraced the truth there, besides five or six that have moved to other places. While there, we organized s. B. for 1865, amounting to about $70.
At Ashaway, R. I., I gave a discourse in the hall of the Seventh-day Baptist Academy, which was listened to with good interest. While here, s. B. was organized for the few in Ashaway, amounting to about $30 per year.
Ashaway is the residence of Bro. Rodman. Here our pleasant interview together closed. This Bro. is trying to devote himself wholly to the work, and to grow in the knowledge of the truth, so as to save others. May the Lord speed him on in his work.
Sabbath and first-day, Feb. 4 and 5, had six meetings at Kensington, Ct., in which I tried to impart words of comfort and warning to the little flock, and to correct wrongs in the church. Here, also, s. B. was re-organized, amounting to $82,68 a year.
At Springfield, Mass., I held three meetings, evenings of Feb. 7 to 9. A few came in to hear. But little interest is manifested in large and popular cities where there is everything to divert the mind from the truth. A slight storm indisposed some to come and hear the truth; but we saw throngs of people going to a place of amusement that evening, who did not seem to notice the storm. Indeed, "Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God," or of God's truth, are everywhere to be seen. While here, Bro. Johnson gave his figures for s. B. 1865, $28.
Sabbath, Feb. 11, held meeting at the house of Bro. Clarke of East Otis, Mass. It was so bleak and stormy on the mountain that our public meeting was abandoned. Snow was three feet deep on a level, and drifting at a terrible rate. While here, Bro. Daniels and Clarke and family entered their names on s. B. for 1865, $46,80; all to N. E. mission.
On Monday, Feb. 13, we went some ten miles through the cold to New Boston, where Bro. Daniels had prepared a place by cutting the ice in the river, and there we baptized Bro. and sister Clarke, and sister Cowdrey of Colebrook, Ct.
Wednesday evening, preached again in Springfield to a few interested hearers.
Sabbath and first-day, Feb. 18 and 19, preached four times in Ashfield, Mass., and held a meeting to organize the church there. Tuesday evening, Feb. 21, completed the organization of the church in Clinton, Mass., and re-organized s. B. for 1865, increasing the figures, with the same members, from $54.60 to $106,60 a year. Our visit here was refreshing to me, and I trust of profit to the little flock. In Boston, visited with the few who keep the Sabbath, but had no opportunity for public meeting.
At Manchester, N. H., Feb. 24 and 25, found the few firm in the truth. Had two meetings with them, and felt encouraged to press on and endure hardness with the little flock. Some are still interested in Manchester, and we hope they may be induced to embrace the whole truth.
I have felt for some time that there must be some change, if this message was to effectually arrest the attention of the people. May the Lord hear the cries of his people, "hold the winds till the servants of God are sealed in their foreheads;" and may we all arise to fight valiantly for the truth.
J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.
North Berwick, Maine, March 1, 1865.
The Desolation of War.
The correspondent of the N. Y. Tribune thus speaks of the appearance of Charleston, S. C., as entered by the Union forces, after its evacuation by the rebels.
"The wharves looked as if they had been deserted for half a century—broken down, dilapidated, grass and moss peeping up between the pavements, where once the busy feet of commerce trode incessantly. The warehouse, near the river; the streets as we enter them; the houses and the stores and the public buildings,—we look at them and hold our breaths in utter amazement. Every step we take increases our astonishment. No pen, no pencil, no tongue can do justice to the scene. No imagination can conceive of the utter wreck, the universal ruin, the stupendous desolation. Ruin—ruin—ruin—above and below; on the right hand and the left: ruin, ruin, ruin, everywhere and always—staring at us from every paneless window; looking out at us from every shell-torn wall; glaring at us from every battered door and pillar and verandah; crouching beneath our feet on every sidewalk. Not Pompeii nor Herculaneum, nor Thebes nor the Nile, have ruins so complete, so saddening, so plaintively eloquent, for they speak to us of an age, not ours, and long ago dead, with whose people and life and ideas we have no sympathy whatever. But here, on these shattered wrecks of houses—built in our own style, many of them doing credit to the architecture of our epoch—we read names familiar to us all; telling us of trades and professions and commercial institutions, which every modern city reckons up by the hundred: yet, dead, dead, dead; as silent as the grave of the Pharaohs, as deserted as the bazaars of the merchant princes of Old Tyre. Whoever among us wished to know how his spirit would feel if he were to revisit by the pale glimpse of the moon, the ruins of his native city, after the present civilization shall have passed away, learned it to his complete satisfaction on the morning of last Monday here. It was early—few stragglers were abroad; just enough to make the desolation the more desolate by contrast; and the stillness, not of the Sabbath, but of the desert, hung heavily over all. Hardly a building in all this part of the city—and this the business part—has escaped the terrible crashing and smashing of the shells. And right in the center of it, are at least, (I should judge) ten acres of ruins, the monuments of the great fire which occurred three years ago. This is an open space—only blackened walls and solitary chimneys remain in it. And, all around this area of desolation, are the ruined houses that still stand—'Gillmore's town,' as the negroes call it; a triumph of military skill—of the art destructive of all arts; a proof to the Christian that God's judgments are sure, and that the cries of the poor are heard at The Great Throne, and avenged by the All-righteous Judge. They acted, the men who lived in these mansions and trafficked in these stores and marts, as if God were dead; as if their own will was the only standard of right—they mocked at any 'higher law;' they sold the poor men in their avarice, and killed the good man in their hate; when, lo! the people whom they despised rose up against them and subdued them, and the race whom they enslaved, trode their streets under the banners and as the comrades of their conquerors!"
Again he says:
"At the beginning of the Rebellion or of the threats of Rebellion, Mr. Caleb Cushing predicted that the grass would grow in the streets of Boston and New York if a civil war resulted from Mr. Lincoln's election. The prophecy has failed—rather signally; and I inclose you a handful of proofs of it. I pulled this clover and grass at noon to-day in front of the Charleston Hotel and the Mills House—which before the Union was dissolved, (according to Mr. Cushing's Southern friends) were always the busiest parts of Meeting-st, the chief business street of the city. I wish you to send it to the Boston Athenæum for permanent preservation, to be bound up, if possible, with Mr. Cushing's speech. Could a better reply or fitter illustration be devised for it?"
What people love, that they strive to obtain. It is hard work, all hard, up-hill work, to do what we dislike to do, and he who for fear of penalties or in hope of rewards, tries to serve God, is always taking up crosses, always doing something disagreeable to himself, in order to please a being whom he supposes to be God.
Without love to God, he renders an unwilling, cold, calculating, service to God, very much such a service as some men render to their employers, all for the pay, careless of the interests and feelings of their masters.
With such men the day is too long, and the meals too far apart, and the work is too hard, the master is unreasonable; and nothing is so agreeable to them, as the pay and the pay-day.
The Christian loves God and his service, loves his law and his testimony, loves the character of God, and loves all his attributes. He loves the people of God. He loves the work assigned him, whether he, like Daniel, is prime minister to the Emperor, or whether he delve with John the writer of the Revelation, in the mines of Patmos; he does all for love.
Love makes labor light. As the mother with lightsome heart toils night and day for the comfort and credit of her family, as the faithful father patiently labors at the most fatiguiug avocations, for the support of his household, comforting his soul daily with the sweet prattle of the little ones, each of whom is a little light to him in the dark recesses of life, as the dutiful son braves the dangers of the stormy ocean, that he may minister to the wants of his widowed mother, and her little fatherless children; as all these work for love, as these all work cheerfully and perseveringly for the love they cherish toward their kindred, dearer to them than life, so the Christian works for love.
He first admires, then loves, virtue and holiness, for their own sake; and finding in God the origin and source of all good, the embodiment of all that is virtuous and holy, and finding that the truth and testimony of God is rejected by the world at large, finding the people of God outlawed in the past, and only tolerated at the present time, he would at first glow with indignation at the ingratitude and disloyalty of the creatures whom God has made in his own image.
But heavenly wisdom changes his mind, and his indignation becomes pity; and, like his Master, the good Shepherd, he goes forth to seek the lost; and all for love.
His besetments are overcome by love; for cherishing this sacred love, he soars above the carnality and grossness of his sinful nature, and thus living in the love of God, he has little taste for worldly pleasures.
He does not abate in the ardor of his love, but daily119adds fuel to this sacred fire, by the constant practices of the Christian virtues. He delights in the society of saints here, and in prayer and meditation, and in reading God's word he often gets a taste of heavenly joys.
Love to God prompts, and spurs him to action. Thus love sustains him on the wing, amid storm and tempest. It is a love which many waters cannot quench nor floods drown.
JOSEPH CLARKE.
The Betrayal
Selected for the Review.
The Betrayal.
Among the mountain trees,
The winds were whispering low;
And night's ten thousand harmonies,
Were harmonies of woe;
A voice of grief was on the gale,
It came from Kedron's gloomy vale.
It was the Saviour's prayer,
That on the silence broke,
Imploring strength from Heaven to bear,
The sin avenging stroke;
As in Gethsemane he knelt,
And pangs unknown his bosom felt.
The fitful starlight shone
In dim and misty gleams,
Deep was the agony he felt,
And large the vital streams
That trickled to the dewy sod,
As Jesus raised his voice to God.
The chosen three that stayed
Their nightly watch to keep,
Left him through sorrow's deep to wade,
And gave themselves to sleep.
Meekly and sad he prayed alone,
Strangely forgotten by his own.
Along the streamlet's bank,
The reckless traitor came,
And heavy on his bosom sank
The load of guilt and shame;
Yet unto those who waited nigh,
He gave the Son of God to die.
Among the mountain trees,
The winds were whispering low,
And night's ten thousand harmonies,
Were harmonies of woe;
For cruel voices filled the gale,
That came from Kedron's gloomy vale.