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Review and Herald, Vol. 62, No. 8.

NOTES OF TRAVEL

Review and Herald

Feb 24, 1885

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 24, 1885

NOTES OF TRAVEL.

By Ellen G. White

A SERMON ON THE CARS.

BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
Sunday afternoon, Dec. 14, 1884, we were at Daggett, Cal. Our train stopped here several hours, and we improved this favorable opportunity to hold a meeting. The employees about the station came in, also many of the citizens of the place, among them the editor of the local paper. The car was full, and both the platforms crowded. I spoke to them a short time from Matt. 6:25-34. All gave respectful attention, and some said it was the first sermon they had heard in many months. The Sermon on the Mount contains lessons of great practical value. In the teachings of Christ the constant aim is to take the mind from things that are of a temporal nature, and fix it upon those that are spiritual and eternal. The relative value of the things of this life and those of the future immortal life are made plain.
Said the Great Teacher, in this memorable discourse: “Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?” Will not He who has given you the blessing of life, with all its rich possibilities, give you also that which is less,—the things that are needful to sustain that life?
But the time and energies of a large class are almost entirely absorbed in eating and dressing. The great question with them is, “What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?” They forget that Jesus said: “Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?” And “why take ye thought for raiment?” Why devote so much time to the apparel, and so little to the healthful conditions of the body it is to clothe? “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you;” for “your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.”
In many circles it is customary to serve a variety of highly seasoned dishes at a meal. In this way much time and money are spent unwisely. An unnecessary expense is imposed on the provider, and great care and weariness on the cook who prepares the food, when a few simple dishes, free from condiments and spices, would be much more healthful, and would soon be enjoyed with a keener relish. We commit sin when we indulge appetite at the expense of physical and mental soundness, or sacrifice health and comfort for the sake of outward show; for the physical and mental powers are God’s gifts, and like all the blessings that he bestows, should be used to his glory, instead of being made to minister to pride or perverted taste. “Ye are not your own. Ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
The great danger of this age, and one which brings much unhappiness to individuals and families, is an intense and increasing worldliness. The love and fear of God, reverence for his name, and thoughts of heavenly things, are banished through busy, anxious seeking for the things of the world. God has made his claims known, but men pay no heed to them. Religious principle becomes extinct in the family. Parents do not realize what obedience to God would do for their children, nor that their eternal interests are affected by the habits formed in this life; and they allow the little ones intrusted to their care to grow up without a knowledge of God or of the future life.
In obedience to the word of God, and in harmony with his will, there is happiness. The family that is governed by right principles is a witness to the world of the power of a pure and holy faith; the influence of such households has a tendency to check in the church and in society the corrupting, polluting influences that are now coming in like a flood. The religion of Jesus is powerful to lift up the fallen, and to bring to reason the intemperate, that they may be found sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in their right mind.
If men were more in love with natural simplicity, and cared less for the artificial and for fashionable show, they would escape many of the perplexities of life, and would find much more peace, quiet, and rest than they now enjoy. God does not impose heavy burdens upon his creatures; they bring them upon themselves by their unwillingness to conform to nature’s laws, and their eager desire to meet the demands of fashion. It is this that wears the human machinery by bringing a constant strain upon mind and body. “God made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.” And these “many inventions” have brought in their train suffering and woe that would never have been known, had natural simplicity been preserved.
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves [mark the word,—for yourselves] treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
In oriental countries thefts and robberies were of common occurrence; and whenever there was a change in the ruling power, those who had large possessions were put under heavy tribute. As a consequence, it was a study with the rich to devise some means to preserve their wealth from thieves and extortioners. For centuries it had been their custom to hide gold and jewels in the field. The place of concealment was often forgotten; death might claim the owner, imprisonment or exile separate him from his treasure; and the wealth he had taken such pains to preserve was left to the fortunate finder.
In some instances this buried treasure was found, and the impression was made that immense sums might lie buried in any man’s field or garden, with no one living to claim them. Many on finding a trifling sum, became crazed, and seemed to imagine that their land was lined with gold. An expectation was aroused that they might at any time happen on great wealth hidden in the earth; and treasure hunting was taken up to the neglect of other business.
Jesus calls the attention of his hearers to an infinite treasure, which all who seek may find. “The kingdom of heaven,” he says, “is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.” There is no danger of losing this treasure. It is not necessary to place an armed guard over it, or to hide it in the earth. It is for us individually to decide whether we will bend our energies to the accumulation of property with no surety of keeping it, or devote our God-given powers to a better purpose, and secure the treasure that is of enduring worth.
In many cases the devotees to mammon become life-long invalids, no comfort to themselves or any one else. In their eager pursuit of wealth, they have neglected the body, and so have lost the present life, while heaven is lost to them through their neglect to make preparation for the future. And though they may have amassed a large fortune, life to them is a miserable failure. This experience was often repeated among the early settlers of California.
Thirty-five years ago we were holding meetings in the State of New York; and in several places that we visited there were men who had a mania for visiting the gold mining regions of California. They were comfortably situated where they were, and most of them had wives and children. With many tears these wives entreated their husbands to remain at home; but the love of gold excluded every other consideration, and one man even left his wife in a dead faint on the floor.
The companions who were left behind never expected to see their husbands again, and some of them never did. The traveling facilities then were in wide contrast to those of the present day. These men went in a company, overland. They endured privations that in their comfortable homes they had never thought it possible for them to live under. They suffered from hunger and cold and from the burning heat of the desert. They were waylaid by Indians, and many of them died without a sight of the gold for which they had sacrificed so much.
If such hardships were imposed upon those who would gain immortal life in the Paradise of God, there might be some ground for murmuring and complaint at the roughness of the way; but Jesus places upon his followers no such burdens. He says: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden [this is an invitation to those who are seeking earthly treasure to the neglect of the heavenly], and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
By adopting the world’s standard, and seeking to conform to its customs and accumulate its wealth, we place a grievous yoke upon our necks and grasp a heavy burden in our arms, and thus encumbered it is impossible for us to make any progress in the highway cast up for the ransomed of the Lord to walk in. Many are groaning under these self-imposed burdens. Even professed Christians go stumbling along, tired and careworn, because they carry such loads that are all unnecessary, and that would never be placed upon them if they would “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” Earthly things would then keep a subordinate place, and they would have time for prayer, and to study the chart that points out the way to the city of God.
He who loves us speaks to us of his tender care in the works of nature. They are the evidences of his wisdom and power, and are designed to impress us with the fact that there is a living God, and that in him we may trust. “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin; and yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” The hand of God formed every bud and every blooming flower; it was his wisdom that gave them their varied and delicate tints. What beauty has he bestowed upon these silent soulless things, which are to-day in the field, to-morrow cast into the oven. If God so clothe the tender, perishing grass of the field, “how much more will he not clothe you, O ye of little faith?”
On our journey westward we have been watching to catch everything new and interesting in the scenery. We have looked upon the lofty, terraced mountains in their majestic beauty, with their rocky battlements resembling grand old castles. These mountains speak to us of the desolating wrath of God in vindication of his broken law; for they were heaved up by the stormy convulsions of the flood. They are like mighty waves that at the voice of God stood still,—stiffened billows, arrested in their proudest swell. These towering mountains belong to God; he presides over their rocky fastnesses. The wealth of their mines is his also, and so are the deep places of the earth.
If you would see the evidences that there is a God, look around you wherever your lot may be cast. He is speaking to your senses and impressing your soul through his created works. Let your heart receive these impressions, and nature will be to you an open book, and will teach you divine truth through familiar things. The lofty trees will not be regarded with indifference. Every opening flower, every leaf with its delicate veins, will testify of the infinite skill of the great Master Artist. The massive rocks and towering mountains that rise in the distance are not the result of chance. They speak in silent eloquence of One who sits upon the throne of the universe, high and lifted up. “Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.” All his plans are perfect. What awe and reverence should his name inspire! how should a knowledge of his works quicken our perception of his attributes!
God is himself the Rock of Ages, a refuge for his people, a covert from the storm, a shadow from the burning heat. He has given us his promises, which are more firm and immovable than the rocky heights, the everlasting hills. The mountains shall depart, and the hills shall be removed; but his kindness shall not depart, nor his covenant of peace be removed, from those who by faith make him their trust. If we would look to God for help as steadfastly as these rocky, barren mountains point to the heavens above them, we should never be moved from our faith in him and our allegiance to his holy law.
Then why not seek for the things that make for your peace? Why not, dear brethren and sisters, make the kingdom of God and his righteousness the first consideration, assured that your heavenly Father will add unto you all things necessary? He will open ways before you, and all you do shall be blessed; for he has said, “Them that honor me I will honor.” Christ died for your redemption. Shall he have died for you in vain? Will you not take his proffered hand, and walk with him in the humble path of faith and obedience?
God is full of love and plenteous in mercy; but he will by no means acquit those who neglect the great salvation he has provided. The long-lived antediluvians were swept from the earth because they made void the divine law. God will not again bring from the heavens above and the earth beneath waters as his weapons to use in the destruction of the world; but when next his vengeance shall be poured out against those who despise his authority, they will be destroyed by fire concealed in the bowels of the earth, awakened into intense activity by fires from heaven above. Then from the purified earth shall arise a song of praise: “Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever.” “Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.” And every one who has made the heavenly treasure the first consideration, regarding it as of priceless value, will join in the glad triumphant strain.

OUR GOD.

By Eliza H. Morton

BY ELIZA H. MORTON.
In darksome night or radiant morn, Our God is there. We know his voice, we trust his word, We feel his care.
The witness sure we have within, Our God is true. He hears us pray, our faltering faith He will renew.
The “bruised reed he will not break,” Our God is love. The healing oil, the soothing balm, Are from above.
In days of sickness or of health Our God is near; The cry of pain, the song of joy Both reach his ear.
Amazing grace! Oh wondrous thought! Our God will come; To beauteous mansions all prepared, He’ll take us home.
Portland, Me.

THE TEMPLE IN HEAVEN.

By W. H. Littlejohn

THE FALL OF THE CHURCHES EXAMINED FROM THE STANDPOINT OF THEIR GROWING UNBELIEF IN THE CREATION OF THE WORLD AND OF ADAM AS NARRATED IN THE SCRIPTURES.
BY ELD. W. H. LITTLEJOHN.
Mr. Biblist.—Perhaps I have already said as much as it is necessary to say in regard to the fall of the churches when looked upon from the standpoint of their complaisance toward Rome. I think that you must see that, as stated at our last interview, the present situation of things cannot be attributed to a reformation of the papacy; since, according to the prophecies cited hitherto, such a reformation is never to take place. This being the case, we are shut up to the conclusion that a change for the worse has taken place in Protestantism, by which its affiliation with a power that it once spurned as worthy only of contempt and loathing, has been made possible.
There are two or three points more that should be touched upon before leaving that branch of the subject which relates to the demoralized condition of orthodoxy. They would probably come under the head of unbelief.
Nothing is more plain than the teachings of the word of God respecting the creation of the world and all that it contains. In that word it is clearly stated that by an exercise of the Divine energy the present order of things was brought into being within the space of six days. According to the record the crowning act of the creation week was the bringing into being of Adam, the progenitor of our race. It is said in so many words 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.” All this is easily understood, and believers in all ages have accepted the account given in Genesis as a narrative of creation, setting forth at least two facts upon which all could agree; viz., the formation of the body of Adam out of the dust of the ground, and the breathing into the nostrils of the inanimate body thus produced, the vivifying breath of life, which instantly transformed the shapeless though dead mass into the living, thinking Adam, who was destined to become the father of all living. From Moses to Christ, and from Christ to the last writer of the canonical Scriptures, the inspired penmen proceed upon the hypothesis that God was personally present at the creation of the world, and that within the space of a literal week, the earth, the air, the grass, the trees, the animals, man, and indeed, everything that pertains to this planet of ours, were made, each in its proper order and of its particular kind, as the result of a series of distinct acts on the part of Jehovah. So far as the creation of Adam and Eve is concerned, the account as found in Genesis is everywhere treated as strictly literal.
Let me refer to two instances where it is mentioned for the purpose of settling controverted points. I will read from Mark, the 10th chapter, commencing with the 4th verse, after premising that the words that I shall read from that chapter were uttered by Christ in the discussion which arose between him and the Pharisees on the subject of divorce: “And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away. And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.”
Note these words! Beyond dispute the reference is to the creation of Adam and Eve in the beginning, and to their being united at that time in the sacred bonds of wedlock by the fiat of the Mighty God. The reasoning of the Saviour is this: “In the beginning of the creation Jehovah made one pair of one flesh, and only one pair. Had he designed that men should at will put away one wife and take another, he would not have created but one woman in the outset, and made her of the same flesh of which her husband was made, thus signifying that the twain were as nearly one being as two persons possibly could be. Be careful, therefore, that you do not treat with contempt the example furnished to you in the case of Adam and Eve, by dissolving for trivial causes the marriage relation.”
How beautiful and forcible is such logic in the light of the record given by Moses in the first book of the Pentateuch! It proves that in creating one male and one female in the outset, forming the latter from the rib which he took from the side of the former, Jehovah meant to teach by these two acts to all coming generations the perfect oneness of man and wife and his approval of the system of monogamy, by which one man and one woman are expected to sustain to each other the relation of wedlock to the exclusion of all other persons.
Again, commencing with the 12th verse, I read from the 2d chapter of First Timothy: “But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.” Here, as in the former text, an issue is pending. Paul is deciding the pre-eminence of the two sexes as it regards their relative capacity for teaching and exercising authority. It does not accord with my present purpose to enter into a discussion of the question which relates to the kind of “teaching” or that of the “authority,” here spoken of by the apostle. Suffice it to say that the “teaching” and the “authority” mentioned, whatever they may have been, were of such a nature that Paul decides, virtually, that in the practice of the one and the exercise of the other the man is the superior of the woman. His premises are these: Adam was first formed, then Eve. Adam was not deceived; but Eve was, being the first in the transgression. The conclusion drawn from these premises is this: As Adam was made first, and as he was the last to transgress, he must have been the superior of Eve in the direction of controversy; since priority of creation and subsequence in sinning and freedom from being deceived, proves the pre-eminence of the one respecting whom these things are true over the one of whom the opposite is true.
Now will any candid person deny that in this logic, Paul intended to be understood as using for the purposes of his argument the narrative in which Moses sets forth the temptation and fall of our first parents? If he does, however, he must have considered that the narrative itself was correct; else there would have been no force in his argument. When we remember also that it was not Paul alone, but rather the Holy Spirit speaking through him, who thus endorses the account of the fall as given in Genesis, the force of the passage upon the question at issue is magnified to an infinite degree, since God himself never trifles with his creatures. Having, therefore, the authority of Holy Writ for the accuracy of the account of the apostasy of Adam and Eve, he would be incredulous indeed who should refuse to accept as literal the account of their creation as found in the same connection.
Maud.—But I cannot see, father, how it was possible for God to make a man out of the dust of the ground.
Mr. B.—Perhaps you cannot, Maud; but the Scriptures say that God did that very thing; and we must not measure God’s capacity to do the thing in question by our ability to comprehend how he is able to do it. Neither you nor I, nor any other person, however wise he may be, can fathom the methods by which God holds his universe together; and yet we know that he does this, despite our ignorance of the principles involved. It is no more marvelous that the Lord should have created a man from the dust originally than it is that he should re-construct him from that material several times in our day, during his natural life. You, Mr. Thoughtful, must be about forty-nine years of age. If so, the tissues of your body, according to scientific authorities, have been cast off and entirely replaced at least seven times. In other words, since your birth you have been rebuilt seven times. Now I ask, Where did the material come from that has been employed in these repeated re-constructions? The answer is obvious: It has been drawn from the mother earth by vegetables, grains, fruit, etc., and after several transmutations has been converted into the tissues of either your present body or your former bodies.
We are not to understand the Scriptures as teaching that God formed Adam from the dust of the ground in the sense that he collected it together and molded it into the form of a human being in its crude and unchanged state. Reason and observation would teach the contrary. All that the record requires us to believe is that in the outset Jehovah obtained from the ground the necessary material and elements which entered into the physical organization of Adam. Glass, for example, is made from sand; and yet when it is finished, it is very different from the material out of which it was produced. Just so with flesh. In its present form it is not dust or earth; still, all of its constituent elements are found in the soil of our globe, as proved by the fact that from that soil, either directly or indirectly, comes the food which by digestion is converted into the solids and fluids of our bodies.
In conclusion on this point let me repeat that though infidels may ridicule and scoff at the Bible statement that man was originally made from the dust of the ground, the facts of science are against them and in favor of the Mosaic record; since they demonstrate the soundness of the theory that we are constantly undergoing physical changes which result in the casting off of the old body and the putting on of a new one which is made up of elements found in the very dust from which it is said Adam was formed. As said before, it is no more wonderful that Adam should have been created out of dust than that his posterity should be continually in a process of re-creation out of dust. Furthermore, as the bodies of men are now sustained and built up from the earth, it is but reasonable to suppose that the Creator would have constructed them in the beginning from materials drawn from the same source as that from which they were to be sustained and re-constructed thereafter.
Mr. T.—I thank you, sir, for your suggestions on this point. I confess that you have brought relief to my own mind. Never before have I known exactly how to meet the cavils of infidelity on this subject.
Mr. B.—Now it is time to return to the objective point of my argument.
Maud.—I think as much, father; for I don’t know where we are, or whence we came.
Mr. B.—Nevertheless, Maud, there is a connection between all that has been said. I started out with the proposition that the Bible account of the creation is plain and literal, and that Christians in all ages had agreed in understanding it to teach that God made the world in six natural days, creating Adam in the meantime from the dust of the ground by a distinct act. We were then diverted for a few moments by the consideration of the question whether such a view was logical as well as Scriptural. Having decided that it was, we are now ready to test the doctrines of modern orthodoxy by this standard. I ask now whether the church of to-day is in harmony with the church of the past and with the Bible on this subject. Unfortunately for them, generally speaking, the answer must be in the negative. On this point they have departed to an alarming extent from the faith of their fathers, as well as that which was once committed to the saints. As a rule, the doctrine now preached from the pulpits respecting the length of time occupied in the creation of the world is that it covered millions of years.
It is not an uncommon thing also to hear ministers of the gospel publicly advocating the view that the first man instead of being brought into existence by a direct exercise of the creative power of God, had to trace his genealogy back for countless ages through a line of apes, orang-outangs, chimpanzees, monkeys, baboons, etc., etc., until he reached the original monad or germ away back somewhere—nobody knows just where—from which sprang at first the lowest forms of animal life. The fact is—deny it those who may—God is crowded out of the creation pretty much entirely by many of the theologians of to-day, so far as his specific work as Creator is concerned. Law,—mysterious, unexplainable law,—has come to be the source to which the origin of everything is attributed. It has now become quite fashionable to sniff at anyone who persists in holding on to the old-time faith respecting the creation. He is looked upon as one who is behind the age, which, it is claimed in religion as well as in other things, is eminently progressive.
Mr. T.—Then what will you do with the opinions of scientists in regard to the probable age of the world?
Mr. B.—Why, I will not trouble myself about them any more than I would about a thousand other matters which are purely speculative in their character. The theories of scholars in reference to this question are so numerous, so varied, so contradictory and so changeable that it would not be safe to adopt any one of them even though they were not all in conflict with the word of God. I think that if we were to wait a few years the scientific gentlemen who advocate so strongly their anti-scriptural views in reference to the time required for the creation of the world, would so completely demolish the theories of each other that we should have no need to fear them any longer. Let me read you a paragraph from a little book entitled “The Soul and the Resurrection.” The author is Dr. J. H. Kellogg, a gentleman of no small scientific attainment. I will commence on page 24:— “Lord Lyell claims to prove by incontestable evidence that the world must have occupied at least 20,000,000,000,000 (twenty million millions) years in reaching its present state. He asserted that the changes which had taken place must have occupied at least this space of time. In the few years which have elapsed since his time, further observations have shown that many changes occur with much greater rapidity than was formerly supposed, and so the time has been reduced to 200,000,000 years, a period of time 100,000 times less than the old estimate. If the period should be reduced one-third as much during the next quarter of a century as in the last, geologic time would agree with the Mosaic record.”
Here I will close our talk for this evening by fulfilling the promise made to Maud to the effect that I would show its logical connection with the general subject under discussion. That subject is the fall of the churches. I submit, therefore, that in proving that the orthodox denominations of to-day tolerate in their midst thousands of ministers and tens of thousands of lay members who scout the Bible doctrine concerning the creation, and adopt the absurd theory of evolution and its concomitant errors, I have called attention to a state of things which can only be accounted for on the hypothesis that those churches are in a fallen condition.

Truth as Our Only Armor

By Ralph Waldo Emerson

—How it comes to us in silent hours that truth is our only armor in all passages of life and death!—Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Giving Gifts Now Rather Than at Death

By Bishop Hall

—Those who defer their gifts to their death-bed, do as good as to say, “Lord, I will give thee something when I can keep it no longer.” Happy is the man who is his own executor.— Bishop Hall.

Keeping Good Resolutions Firm Through Prayer

—Good resolutions are often like loosely tied cord,—on the first strain of temptation they slip. They should be tied in a hard knot of prayer. And then they should be kept tight and firm by constant stretching Godward. If they slip or break, tie them again.

ALL IS WELL.

By Viola E. Smith

BY VIOLA E. SMITH.
Oh, the peace of simply trusting, On our Father's strong arm resting, None can tell; Though life's storms come fast and faster, E'en to feel amid disaster All is well.
When the lightnings sharp are flashing, And above our heads the crashing Thunders roll, O'er the clouds the sun is shining, And beyond their silver lining All is well.
Thus the sailor on the ocean Though the waves in wild commotion Sound his knell, Feels while on his God relying That in living or in dying All is well.
List, ye tried of every nation, Hear the watchmen from their station. Loud foretell, “Soon the morn shall break in gladness, Soon shall flee earth's care and sadness; All is well.”
Oh, the peace of simply trusting, On our Father's strong arm resting, None can tell; Though life's storms come fast and faster, E'en to feel amid disaster All is well!
Mapleton, Ia.

DEDICATION

By Joseph Clarke

BY JOSEPH CLARKE.
“AND the officers shall speak unto the people, saying, what man is there that hath built a new house and hath not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in battle, and another man dedicate it.” Deut. 20 : 5. From this it is to be inferred with certainty that it was a customary practice in those days to dedicate, or set apart religiously and solemnly, to the protection and care of God, houses intended for dwellings. Certainly it was a beautiful custom; and why should not a dwelling-house be as fit an object for dedication as a church? and why is it not as suitable and proper to thus dedicate a building in which families are to be established, where the young are to be educated and trained for the conflicts of life, and whence they go forth to do and to conquer?
The dedicatory prayer and address of Solomon at the dedication of the Temple, as given in the 6th chapter of 2d Chronicles, shows that the act of dedicating a house to God was well understood, and that appropriate exercises were considered necessary and proper. Now no one doubts that this was right and exceedingly appropriate for the Israelites, who were established in a country situated in the midst of deadly foes and bitter enemies; but in a land of freedom and liberty like ours it is argued that there is no such necessity nor propriety. Let us see how that argument will stand. Are our houses safe from the hand of the ruffian? safe from fire? safe from the cyclone and the hurricane? Are we insured from death, from sickness, and disease? Are our houses protected from lightning, from earthquakes and hail? I have often asked myself when dwellings are swept like feathers before the winds, Did the builders dedicate those houses to the care, oversight, and protection of God?
Perhaps, my friend, you object, and say that the elements are subject to laws. Ah! but do you not know that laws are subject to God? See the boiling, seething lake arise over Sodom in a moment, and consume the city with its people in an hour. Again see the tempest cease in an instant at the command of Christ, and a great calm ensue when he only said, “Peace, be still!”
I do not say in an age like ours of bold blasphemous slanders, and ridicule of all that is in advance of the times, that there should always be a public dedication of a house intended for a home. Care may well be taken not to provoke criticism unnecessarily; but it does seem eminently proper for the people of God to dedicate all their buildings intended for human habitation, or for worship, even if only for a day or a week, whether those houses are built of wood or cloth, of brick or stone, to Him who rules the people and the elements. If this were always faithfully attended to, I have no doubt there would be few houses, whether built for public or private use, for worship or for dwellings, ever wrecked or disturbed in any way. There is cold skepticism on this point. I leave it with you, dear reader.
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