WE are happy to present the following racy testimony against the modern follies of popular churches and Sunday-schools, from the Sunday-School Times of Jan. 17, 1880. But who can tell us why it is that when men of high position, and leading papers which are supposed to exert a controlling influence, speak so pointedly against these recent fairs, festivals, and theatrical performances, they are all the time increasing with such great rapidity? Is it not because the masses have broken away from all restraint, so that the few who see the evil and would check it, find the movement beyond their control?
If we are not mistaken, this has been an exceptionally good winter, so far, for Sunday-school theatricals, with no lack of the ordinary church fairs and festivals. For years it has been a common thing to open a Christmas celebration at a Sunday-school room with solemn exercises of worship, and then to introduce a dressed up “Santa Claus” for the distribution of presents to the children, as if to impress the young with the idea that “every good and perfect gift”—which Christmas symbolizes—cometh down the chimney from old “St. Nicholas.” But this year there is a demand for more of the “moral drama” in the Sunday-school than a single actor can supply. So there have been Christmas dramas and Christmas cantatas published and acted in great variety.
Here, for example, is a scene for a Sunday-school stage, from a “cantata” which is said to have “been most warmly commended by prominent clergymen on every side:” “A bed-room. Fritz, Carl, Lena, and Gretchen are seen dressed for bed, and with attendants, hanging up their stockings. After kneeling and singing their evening prayer, they retire to bed. Shortly after, the Goddess of Dreams, unseen by them, slowly enters, and approaches the bed; waving her wand over the children, she quickly puts them to sleep, during which time she is softly singing her lullaby.” There are four other goddesses in this drama, besides other divinities and attendant fairies. If the drama is to be counted a legitimate method of teaching truth, the old “passion play” of Ober-Ammergau certainly71has advantages over the modern Sunday-school stage with its incongruous mixing of Christian and mythological teachings. A Southern newspaper describing the performance of the bed-room scene in the new cantata, says, “One of the little ones fell out of bed, being awhile in the sheet amid the most innocent smile on her own face, and screams of laughter and joy from the audience. We cannot but congratulate the great school on its success.”
Another of these dramatic Sunday-school entertainments is described by a Canadian paper as opening “with a series of pantomime exercises,” followed by a “recitation of a collect from the church service,” and a Moody and Sankey hymn. The new year, “1880,” was represented by a little girl brought in in a cradle, while the boy who acted as the “new papa,” played his part so well that, “to use the hearty expression of one of the audience, he was ‘immense.’” “Flo. Kemp looked a sweet ‘Little Buttercup,’ and sang very prettily; and the two little sailors, who gazed so fixedly at her, made her arch solicitations to buy of her good things more effective.” This is in substance the story as it comes up from far and near of the popularity of the Sunday-school drama of to-day. That the attractions of this sort of entertainment are very different from those of ordinary Sunday-school exercises, cannot be denied. As to the legitimacy and desirableness of popularizing the Sunday-school in this way, there is a difference of opinion.
But it is not fair to ascribe the blame of such performances as these—or to give the credit for them, if you prefer that way of putting it—to the Sunday-school as apart from the church. Sunday-school theatricals are only an adaptation of the church-fair and church-bazaar idea. Here, for an illustration, is the programme of a bazaar recently held in one of our Western cities for the benefit of one of the principal evangelical churches of that city: “Monday: Grand Promenade Concert. Tuesday: Dramatic representation, ‘Happy Pair.’ Wednesday: Fancy Dress Concert. Thursday: Stereopticon Views. Friday: Dramatic Representation, ‘Lend me Five Shillings.’ Saturday: Dance, after which a superb basket of flowers will be awarded to the most popular young lady present.” One of the best known evangelists of America says, that soon after a series of meetings held by him in an Eastern city, a church which had been revived thereby arranged for “a day of fasting and prayer,” to be followed the next evening by “an old-fashioned spelling-down, corn-shelling, etc.” And he told of another place where, at a church fair, an attractive young lady offered herself to be kissed “at twenty-five cents a head,” “for the benefit of the church.” With the changes that have been rung on the church-fair and the church-bazaar plan for the raising of money for religious purposes, it is not to be wondered at that the Sunday-schools are induced to try their hands at something more taking than regular religious services.
The chief moral objection to all these plans—for raising money by church fairs and church bazaars, or for entertaining the Sunday-schools with theatrical performances—is, that they attempt the substitution of a lower form of attractions for a higher one; that they try to please the eye and tickle the ear, instead of arousing the mind and impressing the heart. And a principal practical difficulty in the way of their working is, that they can be successfully competed with outside of the church, and in hostility to church interests. If theatrical performances are desirable, the theaters can beat the Sunday-schools on every trial to meet this want; and as a rule their “moral dramas” are an improvement—judged by a literary or ethical standard—on the average Sunday-school play. And if young men are looking for an opportunity to vote for or to kiss pretty girls, they will hardly confine their visits to church fairs. Concert saloons will prove more than a match for church bazaars, with the same weapons. In fact, with the world as it is, the devil has an advantage over the church on every other score than that of pure and undefiled religion. There is where the church has its stronghold. “I tell you,” said a godly minister, “in the long run there is nothing that keeps up a church like piety.” It is the same with the Sunday-school as with every other department of the church. Those Sunday-schools which give chief prominence to religious truth and to religious training in all their exercises, gain most and best hold their gains, in a series of years. A Sunday-school where the children worship and offer gifts to the Lord at their Christmas services, instead of receiving presents and watching a poor play at their holiday gathering, has a life and attractiveness to it which are not to be secured in any other way.
Moreover, there is no so effective plea for gifts to the Lord’s cause as the Lord’s claim. When the church as the body of Christ appeals for aid in the name of its Head, all who are truly the Lord’s have the strongest possible inducement to respond as God has prospered them. Even those who are not the Lord’s are more likely to give at that call, wisely pressed, than they are to pay twice what a thing is worth at a church fair, on the score of benevolence. And in the one case they honor the church for its manly appeal to them, while in the other case they are tempted to despise it for its roundabout way of doing its proper work. If this be not so, why not try the coaxing method, the bartering method, the refreshment method, in all church collections? “And now, brethren, let us get up a supper, and eat ourselves rich,” said a witty Presbyterian elder, in keen satire on the church-fair plan, when his church was proposing indirect methods of raising the money for new and necessary expenditures. “Buy your food,” he said. “Then give it to the church. Then go buy it back again. Then eat it up, and your church debt is paid.” If that is the best way of getting all hands to contribute to a good cause, by all means let it be introduced into the churches for every Sunday service. Just think of it! The deacons or vestrymen passing around the boxes on Sunday morning, at the same time they offer to serve refreshments to all who give liberally. The pastor at his desk repeats appropriate sentences meantime. For example: Pastor: “Give, and it shall be given unto you.” Deacon (reaching out the contribution-box to a stranger in the congregation): “A plate of ice-cream goes to every person who contributes twenty-five cents or more. Can you help us this morning?” Pastor: “There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth.” Deacon (to the father of a family): “A bag of peanuts goes to each child who contributes not less than five cents. Lemonade to the father. Let all take hold to-day. We need the money.” That is the church-fair idea! If it works well in one place, why not in another? If it is the way of promoting God’s cause week-day evenings, why not make it available for the same cause Sundays?
Can there be any doubt as to the folly of this double-faced, indirect method of trying to raise money for the Lord’s cause, in contrast with the straight-forward, honest appeal to men to give of their substance to Him on whom they depend for all things? Why, one dead-in-earnest Christian man has raised more money for the payment of church debts by the appeal for Christ’s sake within the past two years than has meantime been netted by all the church fairs and bazaars in all the land! And one dollar given to the Lord out of a loving heart which in this way shows gratitude to him, is worth more to any church than a hundred dollars received for votes or kisses for “the most popular young lady” on exhibition in its bazaar. In short, of all the agencies to be depended on for the support of a church, or the attractiveness of a Sunday-school, there is nothing better than religion.
THE CHILD'S EARLY IMPRESSIONS.
A MOTHER once said to a clergyman, “When should I commence the religious education of my child?” He asked her, “How old is your child?” She replied, “Four years old.” The clergyman answered, “Madam, if you have not begun already, you have lost four years.”
I knew it was the custom of a certain mother, who had raised a large family, to let the child have its own way the first year, but after that she made it do her own will. An eminent statesman once said, in a public lecture, that the man was made between the ages of two and six years. Another great and good man once said, “Children always write with indelible ink; if they are wax to receive, they are adamant to retain, impressions.”—Selected.
Catholic Laity and the Public Schools
THE Educational Weekly, whose editor was born and bred a Roman Catholic, says: “The papal syllabus would annihilate the public schools; but somehow it doesn’t. So the papal bull, once upon a time, would annihilate the comet; but it didn’t. The public schools are necessary to the Catholic poor of this country, and they will be maintained, as they are maintained, by the suffrage and taxes of the people. Despite the medieval history of the church, despite the attitude of the Belgian Episcopacy, despite the fulminations of the syllabus, the Catholic laity believe in, support, and patronize the public schools, and by this fact they should be judged, regardless of the irrational vaporizing or petty squabbles of Father Scully.”
The Ideal College as a Spiritual Force
THE Methodist Quarterly (Prof. Harrington) says: “Is not the ideal college primarily and chiefly a spiritual force, whose first qualification is to possess in its officers of instruction men who unite with professional ability the highest types of faith and religious attainment, and whose proper work is to carry on all mental training with immediate reference to religious culture, and in all its operations and principles of action to show itself the uncompromising and foremost force of aggressive Christianity?”
True Modesty Versus False Modesty
NOTHING is more amiable than true modesty, and nothing is more contemptible than the false. The one guards virtue, the other betrays it.
THE PURE IN HEART.
By Alice Cary
“Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God.”
I ASKED the angels in my prayer,
With bitter tears and pains,
To show mine eyes the kingdom where
The Lord of glory reigns.
I said, “My way with doubt is dim,
My heart is sick with fear;
Oh, come and help me build to Him
A tabernacle here!
“The storms of sorrow wildly beat,
The clouds with death are chill;
I long to hear His voice so sweet
Who whispered, ‘Peace, be still!’”
The angels said, “God giveth you
His love—what more is ours?
And even as the gentle dew
Descends upon the flowers,
“His grace descends, and as of old,
He walks with men apart,
Keeping the promise, as foretold,
With all the pure in heart.
“Thou needst not ask the angels where
His habitations be:
Keep thou thy spirit clean and fair,
And He shall dwell with thee.”
—Alice Cary.
Our Gospel.
“A little balm, and a little honey, spices and myrrh, nuts and almonds.” Gen. 43:11.
—WHAT maintains one vice, would bring up two children.
—CHRISTIANITY commands us to pass by injuries; policy, to let them pass by us.
—A SPANISH proverb says: “Drinking water neither makes a man rich, nor in debt, nor his wife a widow.”
—NEVER chase a lie. Let it alone, and it will run itself to death. You can work out a good character much faster than any one can lie you out of it.
—HE that will constantly keep this world and the next before him, and look steadfastly at both, will find the latter growing greater, and the former less.
—WHEN you speak evil of another, you must be prepared to have others speak evil of you. There is an old Buddhist proverb which says: “He who indulges in enmity is like one who throws ashes to windward, which come back to the same place and cover him all over.”
—THERE is no trial so severe but God’s grace is sufficient; no night so dark that the light of his countenance cannot dispel the gloom; no sorrow so deep that his voice cannot soothe and comfort; none lying so low his hand cannot reach them; none so weak but in him they may be strong.
—EVERY promise of God rests on four pillars; his holiness and justice, which will not suffer him to deceive; his grace and goodness, which will not suffer him to forget; his truth, which will not suffer him to change; and his power, which makes him able to accomplish.—Rockwell.
—SHORT as life is, it is the seed-time for eternity. Whatsoever a man sows here he shall reap to all eternity. If he sows to the wind, he shall reap the whirlwind. If he sows to the flesh, he shall reap corruption. If he sows in righteousness, he shall reap in mercy. If he sows to the spirit, he shall reap everlasting life. This life is the day of grace, the season of mercy, when enduring riches may be secured. Many have seized the moments as they passed, and become immensely rich in faith, in good works, in bright hopes, and in a blessed inheritance beyond this life.—New York Evangelist.
LUCK AND LABOR.—Don’t charge your failure to “bad luck,” my boy. I’ll tell you what your trouble is, you are lazy. Learn Mr. Cobden’s proverbs about “Luck and Labor:”
Luck is waiting for something to turn up.
Labor, with keen eyes and strong will, will turn up something.
Luck lies in bed, and wishes the postman would bring him news of a legacy.
Labor turns out at six o’clock, and with busy pen or ringing hammer lays the foundation of a competence.
Luck whines.
Labor whistles.
Luck relies on chances.
Labor, on character.
Luck slips down to indigence.
Labor strides upward to independence.
Christians as Palimpsests: Old Writing Beneath the New
You know that the manuscripts that come down to us from the past were sometimes rubbed over with a substance which covered up the old writing, and were then used to write other things upon. They were called palimpsests,—parchments with double writing,—parchments on which writing was put on over other writing. Sometimes the original writing was good for nothing, and the after writing was valuable; but more often the original writing was valuable, and the after writing childish and unimportant. The way in which it was detected was, that oftentimes in palimpsests the old writing showed through, no matter what the new writing was. Now, Christian people are palimpsests. There is an old writing which the world has put upon them, and there is the new which grace has put over it; and the old writing shows through the new all the time; and, very often, putting the two together makes very queer reading.
Children Earning Their Own Gifts for Benevolence
The child that gives of his own earnings to the Lord’s work, receives a far better lesson in true benevolence than one who depends upon his parents or others to furnish the money for such gifts, as he calls for it. It is wise, therefore, to encourage children to earn in various ways whatever they wish to give into the Sabbath-school or church treasury. In many places it is quite common for children to plant corn, take care of it, gather the crop, sell it, and use the money for benevolent purposes. A small school in Chester Co., Pa., recently sent a contribution to the missionary work of the American Sunday-school Union, given by the children from their own earnings gained in this way.—S. S. World.
A QUESTION ON BABYLON.
“Is it considered by S. D. Adventists that the term ‘Babylon’ includes the S. D. Baptists? By answering the foregoing, you will greatly oblige a lover of truth. N. W. Irish.”
Ans. We do not deem it desirable, perhaps not becoming, certainly not necessary, to draw any invidious distinctions between those denominations which are called evangelical, on this subject. Nor will we insist upon bounding the mystical city by these denominational lines. We prefer to seek for the true principles which underlie the subject, and then adopt such conclusions as necessarily result therefrom.
We read in Rev. 18:24, that in her (Babylon) was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth. On the strength of this testimony, the conclusion seems inevitable that Babylon, in the broadest acceptation of the term, includes everything which in any age has opposed itself to the truth and people of God; namely, all forms of false and apostate religions. The term must include the different forms of false religion, idolatry and paganism; for they have all along been instrumental in oppressing and destroying the people of God. For the same reason, it must include those organizations under Christian names which have so far ignored, or apostatized from, the principles and spirit of the gospel as to become the opposers and persecutors of true Christians.
Among these one is prominently set forth in Rev. 17, in terms that point unmistakably to the great Romish apostasy, the papal church, the woman who has on her forehead a name written, “Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth.” But this language obliges us to extend the application beyond the limits of that particular church; for this organization is set forth as the mother of others occupying a position almost equally obnoxious in the sight of Heaven; and what have we, this side the papal apostasy, to answer to these daughters, except the national establishments which have come out, but unfortunately have come only partially out, from the church of Rome! And with these national, or State churches, we are content to limit the application of the term Babylon, in the Christian world, so far as ecclesiastical organization and constitution are concerned.
But there are other respects in which religious bodies are compromised with great Babylon; and that is by following the corruptions in practice and the errors in doctrine which have come into Christendom from that source. Hence on this point we would say, without any reference to denominational lines, that any individuals, or any classes of individuals, are connected with Babylon just so far as they cherish Babylonish errors and practices.
But unfortunately the majority of Protestant churches have some of the more prominent of these very errors incorporated into their creed as constituting its fundamental principles. Perhaps the very chief of these is the practice by which the law of God is made void, by keeping a man-made institution for the Sabbath, instead of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. And whoever throws off this error in creed and practice, we regard as having taken a tremendous stride toward coming out of Babylon. Seventh-day Adventists have thus come out; and in this particular S. D. Baptists were never in.
Another great error in faith and practice in the Protestant world is sprinkling for baptism, a practice through which, perhaps more than any other, that unlawful connection between the church and the world has been formed, which constitutes so heinous a sin on the part of Babylon. In this particular both S. D. Baptists and S. D. Adventists stand clear.
These are sufficient to illustrate the principle, without specifying such doctrines as the temporal millennium, the spiritual coming of Christ, the mystical Heaven beyond the bounds of time or space, etc., on which we would fain believe that the S. D. Baptists, as a denomination, stand on Scriptural ground.
But there is another doctrine, which though not so important as those concerning the Sabbath and baptism, is nevertheless one of no ordinary interest, and that is the doctrine of the nature of man, a doctrine which determines our views of the state of the dead and the destiny of the wicked. The popular doctrine of the immortality of the soul we regard as having come, like the Sunday Sabbath, and sprinkling for baptism, from the errors of the Romish apostasy, and this doctrine we suppose the majority of S. D. Baptists still maintain.
Our answer, then, to the question above proposed, is, in the light of the foregoing propositions, simply this: that S. D. Adventists regard the S. D. Baptists not as included in Babylon, but as cherishing one, at least, of its errors, which it would be pleasing to the Lord, and beneficial to themselves, for them to expunge from their creed.
WHAT ARE WE DOING?
By Roswell F. Cottrell
BY ELD. R. F. COTTRELL.
As we sow, so shall we reap. The reaping time is at hand. Is our interest lively in worldly things, and our care for spiritual and heavenly things faint? The Judgment, which will soon transpire, will reveal it. The coming of the Lord draws near. The Judge stands at the door; “and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor.” 1 Cor. 3:8. What are we doing which will insure a great reward? Are we doing in the cause of human salvation “one-twentieth part” of what we might do? Are we even73striving for ourselves to enter through the strait gate? Do we have any adequate view of the value of eternal life? Do we make it first, and of greater value than any earthly good?
But our interest and labors must go beyond ourselves. He that seeks only his own salvation, without caring for the salvation of others, will fail to secure that for which he seeks. Christ died to cure us of selfishness, the root of every sin. He “gave himself” for us. Does not his matchless love and condescension demand something in return? Have we done anything for Him who has done so much for us? “Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.” Matt. 25:45.
“Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” Rev. 22:12. The blessed Saviour is closing his work of reconciliation for our lost race. Soon his mediatorial work will be ended. Then the filthy and unholy will remain so, and receive the just reward of their doing. But we have yet a short time in which we may work, and secure the great salvation to ourselves and others. It behooves us, as individuals, to make the solemn inquiry, What am I doing?
IS IT POSSIBLE?
By Editor
For the past thirty years light upon the obligation of the Bible Sabbath in connection with the fulfillment of prophecy, has been shining forth with ever increasing luster. The sacredness of its claims has been impressed in line upon line and precept upon precept upon the minds of all who would either read or listen. Warning after warning has been given concerning the perils of the last days, and the dangers which would gather like a thick cloud about that portion of the journey where we now are, called the patience of the saints, when iniquity should abound, the love of many wax cold, and the tendency all the time be (with those who did not specially guard against it) to a weaker faith and a laxer life.
On these points, vital to success in the Christian race, it scarcely seems that anything more remains to be said. Yet with the light shining full in their faces it seems that some are so far falling under the influence of the drowsiness and stupor peculiar to this time, as to carelessly close their eyes; with the warning sounding in their ears, we fear some are suffering themselves to be led directly from the narrow way.
It is with astonishment that we hear of such looseness in reference to the observance of the Sabbath, as is mentioned below, on the part of those who know the truth and profess to love it. A sister, desiring to visit worldly friends, makes a journey of twenty-four miles upon the Sabbath for that object. Another sister, learning that there was a registered letter for her at the post-office, walks two miles on Sabbath morning, secures the money and returns, meanwhile leaving the Sabbath-school within half a mile of her own home without its secretary and treasurer. A brother buys a blacksmith's shop, furnishing shop, tools, and stock, to a man to work it on equal shares, the shop to be worked upon the Sabbath!
We are happy to believe that these are exceptional cases; but if these reports be true, the fact that there is a single case like those above mentioned among those who have taken their stand to remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, reveals the germ of a laxity in this respect which calls for the voice of remonstrance and alarm.
The Lord is coming. The great day which shall try every man's work by fire, is near and hasteth greatly. And those who then hope to ride upon the high places of the earth, and to be fed with the heavenly heritage of Jacob, will be found, while practicing other duties, also to have turned away their feet from the Sabbath, and to have refrained from doing their pleasure on God's holy day. They will have called the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord and honorable, and will have honored him, by not doing their own ways, nor finding their own pleasure, nor speaking their own words, upon his holy time.
AMERICAN POLITICS.
OUR COUNTRY’S WEAKNESS AND DANGER.
FROM the Prelude to one of Joseph Cook’s late Monday Lectures we give the following significant paragraphs:—
Confucius, wishing to give a lesson of supreme value in politics, pointed one of his pupils to a lofty obelisk, and said what we might say of the historic shaft on Bunker Hill, “Seest thou yonder tall object? in its uprightness is its strength.”
It may seem unpatriotic to affirm that there is more demand for uprightness in the United States to-day than supply. Where are the looms that weave honest statesmen? It is easy to point out the looms that weave tricky men and deceptive robes for unscrupulous enterprises. The rushing of the machinery which in this country prepares a large supply of unrighteousness in politics, is audible from side to side of the land. The mere politician is a spoilman. The spoils system tempts all fourth and fifth rate politicians to become merely spoilmen. If we had a system of retaining in office those who occupy posts in the civil service, and not turning them out except for bad behavior, we should find their chief attention devoted to the performance of good work, because that would be the root of the tenure of office. Millions and millions beyond what the people pay for the civil service are represented by the spoils which are at stake whenever great parties compete for the Presidential chair.
Are Louisiana and Maine needles which fraud has been threading for work in preparing the shroud of the American Republic? My generation in America is and always will be a remnant decimal. It is a tattered fragment left over after battle. It has only one arm left to it; and you must not blame those who represent my class in American society if we put this single surviving member a little roughly on the collar of current casualties. There is a bandage around this arm yet; and you must not accuse me of lack of patriotism, if, facing both political parties, and in likelihood of offending both, I unwind that bandage and use it as a rope with which to throttle the passing scoundrelisms of the hour, whether found in Maine or Louisiana.
On three occasions of great importance there have been undecided Presidential elections, and the vagueness of the Constitution as to the duty of the count has given trouble.
It has been historically proved, therefore, that the method of counting electoral votes in a closely contested Presidential election is the weak spot in our national Constitution.
Upon precisely the same rock which three times has endangered the ship of State in American politics, the republic is now drifting for the fourth time. Upon the one weak point in the Constitution, a terrific strain is likely to be brought; for the spoils at stake are greater than ever.
It is plainly the duty of Congress to determine beforehand the method of the count, and yet Congress takes no steps in this direction, and it delays because each party is watching for its own interests rather than for those of the people at large.
No amount of constitutional machinery, however, can save us, without an intense public sentiment created by discussion on the independent platform, in the press and in the churches.
For one, I would have every church-member who is convicted of taking or giving bribes in elections, large or small, expelled from God’s house. [A voice, Amen. Prolonged applause.]
The eyes of the world are fastened on the now thickening difficulties of the experiment of universal suffrage in the United States. Every disease of the suffrage here discourages republican institutions throughout the world.
THE GOD OF THE LIVING.
By Dudley Marvin Canright
BY ELD. D. M. CANRIGHT.
“As touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” See Matt. 22: 23-32. From this it is claimed that these old patriarchs must be conscious, living beings, probably in Heaven at the present time. But a slight examination of the text will show this conclusion to be wholly gratuitous. The question was not concerning the immortal soul or the state of the dead, but it was touching the resurrection. “The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him,” etc. Verse 23. They bring up the case of a woman who had lost seven husbands, and ask him, “Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven?” Verse 28.
Can their question be mistaken? They did not ask which of these seven souls her immortal soul will claim. They never thought of that; but they passed over to the resurrection. “In the resurrection whose wife shall she be?” is what they ask. What did Christ answer? “For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in Heaven.” Verse 30. Then he goes on to prove it. “But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” Verses 31, 32. The whole controversy between Christ and the Sadducees was on the subject of the resurrection. The Sadducees denied the resurrection; Christ affirmed it. This was the issue. They required Christ to prove his point. He referred them to the case of Abraham, as already quoted. Why did he appeal to this case? He did it to prove that the dead will be raised. How did he prove it? In this simple manner: After the death of Abraham, God said he was still the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and he is not the God of those who do not exist,—of those who are dead in the sense that the Sadducees held these persons to be dead, utterly annihilated, so as to have no existence. Christ claimed that inasmuch as God was the God of these patriarchs, even though they were dead in the ordinary sense of the term, yet they had not utterly perished, for God would raise them from the dead. They were simply sleeping.
As the language touching the case of the damsel and of Lazarus is directly to the point in this case, we will refer to it. “The damsel is not dead, but sleepeth.” “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.” “Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.” It will be noticed that while persons are really dead in the common way of speaking, yet Christ is particular to affirm that they are only sleeping, waiting to be raised from the dead. This we think is the truth of the matter in the case of these old patriarchs.
From the evidence presented, the reader must see that this passage has no bearing whatever upon the subject of the consciousness of the dead.
Emancipation.
By R. F. Cottrell
BY ELD. R. F. COTTRELL.
What a joyful sound to the enslaved and oppressed is this word “emancipation!” With what joy did the bondmen of the South hail the proclamation which was to make them free, forever free! Strange indeed would it have been had they preferred perpetual bondage, hugging the galling chains that bound them. Such a course would have been an astonishment to every rational being.
But there is a proclamation of emancipation that is not accepted by all who are under the galling yoke of slavery. It is proposed to set men free from the bondage of sin, and to deliver them from pain and death; and yet many slight this proclamation, and refuse to be set free! How strange that so few accept the terms. It argues conclusively that they are not of a sound mind. If they were willing to receive the spirit of a sound mind, God would give it. This would bring them into harmony with the moral law of God.
The transgression of physical law also brings into bondage. God is the author of natural laws, as well as moral, and the transgressor of these is a bondman. Many are the servile slaves of alcohol, opium, tobacco, tea, and coffee. And now the proclamation of emancipation is sounding throughout the camp of Israel. Science teaches, and the Spirit speaks expressly, that all these things are not only useless, but also hurtful to the human system. Their effect is evil and only evil, and that continually. Many are aware of this, and would be glad to be free from their habitual use. They even counsel the young to avoid these things; but for themselves they are hopelessly bound; they cling to their chains, and dare not attempt to accept the emancipation proclamation. Their language may be,—
I know the way I'm going leads to woe;
I know that woes attend on every side;
But ah! I cannot do as I would do—
This tempting stimulus can't be denied!
People take medicines which they expect will make them feel worse for a time, in hope of feeling better afterward. Why not leave off hurtful and poisonous stimulants, though suffering, for a time, may be the result? You may be free. Others have proved it so in their experience; and the first case of regretting the measure has not yet been recorded.
My brethren and sisters, God is the author, I humbly believe, of this health and temperance movement among our people. Apostles and prophets have left us their testimony in behalf of true temperance, which is a moderate use of that which is good and healthful, and total abstinence from stimulating and hurtful things. See Dan. 1. The testimony of the Spirit of God through his servants is still against injuring ourselves with these hurtful things. We have had light; but it has not been heeded as it ought to be. The organization of the Health and Temperance Association reveals this fact, and shows clearly that the movement was imperatively called for. It was much needed for our own people. And this proves to my mind that our Committee on Ways and Means have proposed the right plan, and have moved in harmony with the Spirit of God.
Convince me that God is not guiding in our work, and I have done with it. If he is, the health and temperance reform is as closely connected with our message as the right arm with the body. The reform is for our good. Let all accept with joy the proclamation of emancipation.
SABBATH HISTORY.
READER, have you ever reflected that you are not keeping the day which Christ, his apostles, and the primitive Christians observed? There is no evidence that the first day, or Sunday, was observed, even as a festival, until some time in the second century. The first law for Sunday was that of Constantine, in A. D. 321; from that time forward ecclesiastical and state influences were used with rigor to turn the people from the observance of the Sabbath, and oblige them to keep Sunday. Christians generally continued to keep the74Sabbath until the fifth century, as is evident from the oldest authorities on the subject, of whom are Morer and Geisler. To this effect Dr. Twisse quotes Baronius, Gomaris, and Rivet. The same testimony is given by Dr. Lyman Coleman of Philadelphia, in his “Ancient Christianity,” chap. xxvi. sec. 2: “The last day of the week was strictly kept for a long time after the overthrow of the temple and its worship. Down even to the fifth century the observance of the Jewish Sabbath was continued in the Christian church. During the early ages it was entitled ‘the Sabbath,’ this word being confined to the seventh day of the week, which, as we have already said, continued to be observed for several centuries by the converts to Christianity. No law or precept appears to have been given by Christ, or the apostles, either for the abrogation of the Jewish Sabbath, or the institution of the Lord’s day, or the substitution of the first for the seventh day of the week.”
The Abyssinians have always observed the Sabbath. Traces of Sabbath-keeping in Europe are found from the sixth century to the sixteenth. In the year 600 there was a class of Sabbath-keepers in Rome who were denounced by the pope. Erasmus speaks of Sabbatarians in Bohemia. Many of the Waldenses were called Sabbatati, because, as Benedict says, “they met for worship on the seventh day, and did not regard the first-day Sabbath.” From references by old authors, it appears that in the beginning of the sixteenth century there were Christian Sabbath-keepers in Germany, Holland, and England. The Sabbath controversy in England waxed great from 1585 to 1685. It has been continued in England and America ever since, but at no period has it assumed such proportions as within the past forty years. The present number of Christian Sabbath-keepers in Western Europe and America is supposed to be about 40,000, with an increase of more than a thousand annually. This does not include the Russian Sabbath-keepers, who are reported to number more than a million. Thus, from the time of the apostles until the present day, there have existed Gentile Christians who have faithfully adhered to and observed the seventh day,—the true Sabbath of the fourth commandment.—Sabbath Memorial.