Earlier text: THROUGH ALMOND EYESDOES ANYBODY KEEP SUNDAY?
By Frank P. Hall
It is the custom of those who keep Sunday to commence the day Saturday at midnight, and close it Sunday night at midnight. It is our purpose, in this article, to show that those who do this observe a part of two days, and no day in full; for in a scriptural sense, every day begins with the evening. Gen. 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31; Lev. 23:32; Neh. 13:19. The query now arises, When does the “evening” commence? It commences at sunset. There is abundant Scripture evidence on this point. See Lev. 22:6, 7; Deut. 23:11; Josh. 8:29; 10:26, 27; compare these with Matt. 8:16; Luke 4:40; Mark 1:32. There is nothing plainer than that a day, according to the Bible method of reckoning time, commences at sunset and closes at sunset. This being true, all those who observe Sunday according to custom, that is, commence the day at midnight and close it at midnight, fondly contradict their own teaching. (However, if this was the only instance of the kind, they might be excusable.) They keep three-fourths of Sunday, the first day, and one-fourth of Monday, the second day. Consequently, they profane one-fourth of Sunday. Strange as it may seem, our opponents cannot take a single position against the Sabbath which will fit, harmonize, and hold together in all its parts. In connection with this subject, we will notice one text that is relied upon by our opponents as giving strength to first-day doctrine. It is Acts 20:7, which records Paul’s meeting at Troas. There are only two views that can be taken in regard to this passage, either of which destroys all Sunday argument. 1. The meeting was held on Saturday night, lasting until midnight, and the next morning Paul started off on his journey of six-hundred miles, breaking the Sunday Sabbath. Or, 2. The meeting was held on Sunday, after sunset, which, in a strictly Bible sense, is the second day of the week. The latter view cannot be correct, because the very language is different. “And upon the first day of the week,” etc. But see what a predicament Paul gets into, when we place the condition of things according to the former view in a syllogism. Sunday is the Sabbath day, Paul started on a journey of six hundred miles on Sunday. Therefore, Paul was a Sabbath-breaker. This event occurred A. D. 59, long after the Sunday Sabbath was instituted, if it was ever instituted at all. It does not take a logician or a philosopher to see that the second view is incorrect; hence it necessarily follows that the first position is the right one. The meeting was held on Saturday after sunset, and continued late. Paul traveled next day, Sunday, and did not violate any Sabbath law in doing so. The truth is, our present system of reckoning time is of Roman origin. The Sabbath and its laws, together with many other gospel doctrines, have been corrupted by Romish popes. Pope Gregory, and other high potentates of old Rome, have had their fingers in it. THE AUTHENTICITY OF GENESIS.
By John W. Burgon
You are invited to observe (and this is the one point which I propose to bring before you) that, although Moses wrote the first chapter of Genesis, it is certain that in the authorship of the ten commandments he had no share whatever. They were exclusively the work (as the two tables on which they were originally written were exclusively the workmanship) of God. The record on this head is altogether express and unmistakable: “The tables were written on both sides. On the one side and on the other were they written. And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.” You will have already anticipated all I would further say. In the fourth commandment God has seen fit to pledge himself to the historical truth of the first chapter of the book of Genesis. This is a fact with which every child is familiar. The seventh day is to be kept holy, “for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is.” Here, then, God solemnly sets his seal to the Mosaic narrative of creation. He recapitulates the essential feature of it, viz., that the work was a six day's work, and, moreover, a work of precisely such a nature as in Genesis is described. The reference, in fact, to this first chapter of Genesis is unmistakable and undeniable. Here, then, we are presented with the extraordinary spectacle of Almighty God providing for the authority of the first page of his own Book by solemnly adding his seal to it; not by the hand or agency of another, but with his own hand or, at least, his own “finger.” Jehovah, Almighty God, without any intervention of man whatever—the divine element, for once operating alone, so as to silence cavil and shut up unbelief effectually—the divine element, I say, without the slightest admixture of the human element, hath deliberately singled out the Mosaic history of the world's creation as the one passage supremely worthy (or else pre-eminently in need) of his own eternal and effectual sanction. No other part of the historical scriptures is adverted to in the course of the ten commandments but this. But for this God comes down from Heaven. He singles it out. He makes comments upon it. He rehearses it. He draws practical inference from it. He interweaves it with his imperishable law. And the result is solemnly deposited by God's own express command within the ark, beneath the mercy-seat, under the shadow of the wings of the cherubim; reserved in the holy of holies, alike of the tabernacle and of the temple. For “the priests at the dedication of the temple brought in the ark of the covenant of the Lord unto his place, into the oracle of the house, to the most holy place, even under the wings of the cherubims; for the cherubims spread forth their two wings over the place of the ark. There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone which Moses put there at Horeb.”—John W. Burgon. Only Christ's Blood Purifies the Conscience
NOTHING purifies the conscience but the blood of Christ, and everything that denies it is high treason against the King of kings. ADDITIONAL LIGHT.
By Charles A. Rausch
Three weeks ago we published an article entitled, “The Sabbath and the German Bible,” in which the obscurity of the common German Bible on those texts which refer to the first day of the week was pointed out with much definiteness. Below we give additional information on the same subject, which those who use the German language will do well to preserve, as well as the article referred to above. Has not the time fully come for this Sabbath fog in the Protestant German Bible to be dissipated? We may add that the following article is from the pen of an able German scholar and translator:— EDITORS REVIEW: With pleasure I saw the article in the Review headed, “The Sabbath and the German Bible.” I would thank you, in behalf of my countrymen, that you have in this article, called their attention to those passages which have reference to the Sabbath. The obscure readings of the Protestant German Bible on those texts which speak of the Sabbath have beclouded the minds of many to such a degree, that it is very hard for them to understand the Sabbath question. But light has sprung from a source least expected. Dr. Kistemaker and Prof. Leander van Ess have brought out the true light on these obscure passages referring to the Sabbath. I hope it may result in great good. As you have already given Kistemaker’s version of the eight texts which refer to the first day of the week, I will now give that of Prof. van Ess, with a free English translation; and may God’s precious cause be thereby promoted:— Matt. 28:1: “In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week.” Van Ess: “Nach Verlauf des Sabbats früh am ersten Wochentage.” Translation: “After the expiration of the Sabbath, early on the first day of the week.” Mark 16:2: “And very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulcher at the rising of the sun.” Van Ess: “Sehr früh am ersten Tage nach dem Sabbat, während die Sonne aufging, kamen sie zur Gruft.” Translation: “Very early on the first day after the Sabbath, during the rising of the sun, they came unto the sepulcher.” Mark 16:9: “Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week.” Van Ess: “Er aber, der sehr frühe am ersten Tage nach dem Sabbat auferstanden.” Translation: “But he who had risen very early on the first day after the Sabbath.” Luke 24:1: “Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning.” Van Ess: “Aber am ersten Tage nach dem Sabbat.” Translation: “But on the first day after the Sabbath.” John 20:1: “The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark.” Van Ess: “Am ersten Wochentage kam Maria Magdalena sehr früh.” Translation: “On the first day of the week came Mary Magdalene very early.” John 20:19: “Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week.” Van Ess: “Da nun die Jünger am Abend des ersten Wochentages beisammen waren.” Translation: “Now when the disciples on the evening of the first week day were gathered together.” Acts 20:7: “And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread.” Van Ess: “Am ersten Wochentage, als wir zusammen gekommen waren das Brot zu brechen.” Translation: “On the first day of the week, when we had gathered together to break bread.” Van Ess: “Jeden ersten Wochentag.” Translation: “Every first day of the week.” Toledo, Ohio, July 25, 1877. VISIT TO NAPLES, ITALY.
By John Nevins Andrews
For several months past I have been in correspondence with Bro. Ribton relative to visiting him at Naples. My arrangements for this journey were nearly completed when the REVIEW came to hand, containing an important article from Bro. White relative to Europe, and in which he counseled me to visit Naples at once. The only thing which I waited to do was to print the first number of our second volume, which was then almost ready for the press. Then without an hour’s delay I set out for this place. I thought it duty to call on Bro. Bourdeau, and to make a short stay with him. I found him in rather feeble health, but toiling very hard and making some progress. The laws of France are extremely oppressive to those who wish to preach our faith, or even to those who would distribute our tracts. Though our paper is permitted to enter France by the mails, yet it is examined by the police on the frontier to see if it has anything in it touching politics. I should say many things in our paper concerning the present movement of the French government against religious liberty, but it seems not to be prudent. Bro. B. has nearly twenty keeping the Sabbath with him, and there is reason to hope in the case of others. But perhaps it is not wise for him to remain and struggle with such difficulties when he could preach in French Switzerland without any hindrance from the law. After leaving Bro. Bourdeau, I came with as little delay as possible to this place. I have found in Bro. Ribton a man of a choice spirit. I have every reason to believe that he truly fears God. He is about forty-five years of age. He was formerly a professor in the University of Dublin. He can preach in English, French, and Italian. He is also master of the ancient languages. Bro. Ribton is very anxious to give himself to the work of God. His wife is in perfect accord with him in walking in the truth, and they will be baptized, as also their only child, a daughter of twelve years. Perhaps also there will be some others to be baptized. I improve every hour that our friends can listen in speaking from the Bible. When they have not time to listen, I prepare articles for LES SIGNES DES TEMPS. In a few days I will write again. I cannot doubt that God has a place in his work for Bro. Ribton to fill. In Europe, where everybody, almost, is lulled to sleep by the idea of salvation by grace without obedience, and certain of eternal life because they have professed to be converted, it is to me very refreshing to find a man who has just ideas of obedience, and who does not count the victory won till self and sin and Satan and the world are vanquished. I can hardly esteem this a promising field of labor. The laws of Italy are not very restrictive. There is a good degree of liberty so far as the civil law is concerned. But the power of the priesthood is almost omnipotent. If a man rents you a hall, the priests can put him under anathema. If he attends your meeting, they can forbid his customers to continue to deal with him. And so in a thousand ways, by means of the confessional, they can exercise great power to thwart you. But this is not the real trouble. It is found in the morals of the people. The church of Rome has had unlimited sway in Southern Italy for many generations. It was, until the fall of the Bourbons a few years since, sustained by the civil power in all its purposes. And now mark the result and give to Romanism the credit. The people have lost all ideas of truthfulness, of honesty, and of chastity. To lie, to steal, and to break the seventh commandment, are very light matters, of which they do not even feel ashamed. Whether it is possible to save men so sunk in pollution is more than I know. Some can be saved I hope, but the prospect is not cheering among such people. Other parts of Italy are less contaminated. Probably Bro. R. will change his field of labor, though his state of health demands that he continue in a hot climate. There are, however, in this city a great number of foreigners, and among them may be found many persons who are capable of conversion to God. I wish to give as just an idea as possible of the condition of the common people. It would be not wide of the truth were I to say that the mass of the people is totally given to idolatry. Their prayers are addressed to Mary, and before her picture they offer their adoration; but God and Christ are forgotten. God made this a beautiful country and gave to its inhabitants many choice blessings, but they have turned his blessings into a curse, like the inhabitants of the cities of the plain. God pity such a ruined people. ALSTRUP, DENMARK.
By John G. Matteson
The interest in this place and vicinity is continually increasing. I cannot attend to one-half of the calls. Souls are awakening to see their need of salvation. I have preached eleven times this week. Two of the meetings were in another town. I had to walk eighteen miles to and from these appointments. In the Sabbath meeting, a few commenced to pray. The law of God and his holy Sabbath have been presented, as well as the three messages and the prophecies. The evidences that our Lord will soon return to reign in glory are generally received with willing hearts. Many are convinced that we are right on the Sabbath question, but so many difficulties attend the keeping of the Lord’s Sabbath that we cannot expect that any will keep it until they are converted, and truly love the Lord. Sunday afternoon, between two and three hundred people attended our meeting in a large barn. The best of attention was given, and the good Spirit moved deeply upon their hearts. Some are inquiring how they must begin to serve the Lord. But very few of the people have ever known anything about experimental religion. We have sold tracts this week for $3.00 and obtained two subscribers for the TIDENDE. Pray for us that the Lord may direct for his own glory. JOHN G. MATTESON. What Did the Jews Believe?
The idea seems to prevail to some considerable extent that it is important to understand what the Jews believed, in order to understand what the New Testament teaches, especially concerning the nature and destiny of man. In accordance with this idea, the two following questions have been handed in for S. D. Adventists to explain:— 1. “Does not the Jew believe in an intermediate state that is entered upon immediately after death; and do they not call it paradise? If so, would not the words of Christ addressed to the thief on the cross leave the impression on the minds of those that heard him that that was the paradise to which he referred.” 2. “Is it true that the Jews believed in the conscious state of the dead? If so, did not Christ give assent to this doctrine by his silence on the subject in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus?” On this point Bro. J. H. Waggoner has furnished the following excellent thoughts and conclusive answer:— The question is almost always put thus: “Do the Jews believe,” etc. But the answer to this question is of no interest whatever, so far as the subject is concerned. The truth is, the Jews now believe almost everything. The reformed Jews, as they call themselves, are infidels. They have no belief in the Bible. The orthodox Jews of the present day are Restorationists, believing in the ultimate salvation of all. But they believe in a hell or purgatory, where the righteous are confined four weeks, and the wicked eleven months, before their restoration. They also believe in the transmigration of souls, with many other vagaries. These beliefs are the outgrowth of their traditions, which are gathered from various sources. There are few people more superstitious than the Jews of the present day. We are convinced that it is not possible to ascertain at this time what traditional views the Jews held in the time of the Saviour. The best informed Jews don’t pretend to know. They don’t think it can be known. They had but one reliable source of information on such subjects; namely, the sacred Scriptures. Outside of this they may have imbibed their views from the nations with which they held intercourse. But of that we cannot be certain, and they must have been as vague as we know the fancies of the heathen nations were. The searcher for truth on this subject is shut up to the writings of the prophets, or writers of the Hebrew Scriptures. These were models of the Jewish faith, so far as they had any tangible faith. And we have the confession of the most eminent men, both Jews and Christians, that the writings of the Old Testament give no countenance to the Platonic idea of the soul, or the heathen notions of hades. It is true the confession is not greatly needed; for every reader must be struck with the fact that both Jesus and his apostles always appealed to the Scriptures as the source and ground of belief, and it is sufficient to conclude that what the Scriptures did not contain, they did not enforce or sanction. The Hebrew sheol and Greek hades represented a state of death, of darkness and silence from which the resurrection alone was expected to deliver man. When Christ, the Son of God, died, we learn that his soul was not left in sheol, Ps. 16:10; hades, Acts 2:3; hell, English version. Now if the soul of the Saviour went to paradise, we are forced to conclude that the paradise is no other than sheol of the Old Testament, the hades of the New, the hell of our English rendering; and if so, the paradise is a place of darkness and silence, and no knowledge; for in this our Saviour’s soul was not left nor did his body see corruption, the resurrection rescuing him therefrom. What say the Scriptures? How readest thou? Here is the only source of light and truth. Now, if the Saviour’s words can be explained in harmony with the teachings of the Scriptures, we need look no farther. We confidently say they can be, and therefore rest without conjecturing what somebody else may have believed. TO CORRESPONDENTS.
By Uriah Smith
Why is the word Sabbaton (σαββάτων), genitive plural, translated in Matt. 28:1, Sabbath, in the singular, in one case, and in the other by first of the week, the day being a supplied word? M. S. S. Ans. The word Sabbath in the New Testament is from two words, sabbaton (σαββάτον), a noun of the second declension and singular number, and sabbata (σαββάτα), a noun of the third declension and plural number. This latter is used mostly in the dative or genitive with a singular signification, as in Matt. 28:1. It is translated week in the second instance of its occurrence in that text, because it follows a numeral adjective denoting the day of the week. See the tract on Sabbaton published at this Office, which fully explains this construction. S. B. Alexander: The idea that the three days and three nights, during which the Son of man was to be in the heart of the earth, are to be reckoned from the time he was betrayed into the hands of wicked men, is held by some, and may be made to appear very plausible. We see no objection to the idea. Are our sins forgiven and blotted out up to the time we believe and accept the Saviour, or not? D. S. J. Ans. We understand that there is a difference between the forgiveness, or pardon of sin, and the blotting out of sin. Our sins are pardoned, or forgiven, when we repent, and up to the time of our repentance, but they are not blotted out till Christ makes the atonement in the Heavenly sanctuary, which will be, when it comes to the living, the end of their probation. What are the two immutable things spoken of in Heb. 6:18? D. S. J. Ans. The promise and the oath of God. God first gave his promise; and that alone was sure, it could never fail; but he being “willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel,” added his oath, sworn by himself. How do you prove that Michael is Christ? E. H. Ans. The language of Dan. 12:1 would clearly indicate this; for he is “the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people.” There is no other personage to whom such language can apply but to Christ. Again, Michael is to stand up or reign; but there is no future reign predicted but that of Christ. The direct testimony, however, on this point is found in the New Testament. Jude 9 says that Michael is the archangel, or ruler over angels. Paul, in 1 Thess. 4:16, says that when the Lord appears at his second coming the voice of the archangel is heard. And our Lord himself says in John 5:27, 28, that when the dead are raised, they hear the voice of the Son of man. The testimony of these three references is absolutely conclusive. First step, the dead hear the voice of the Son of God, or Christ. John 5:28. Second step, they hear the voice of the archangel, 1 Thess. 4:16; and as there is but one voice then heard, this archangel is Christ the Son of God. Third step, the archangel is Michael, Jude 9. Leaving out the second step, which serves simply to connect the other two, and we have the fact that Christ, the Son of God, is Michael. Heb. 12:11. Exercised by “chastening” or by “righteousness”? which? N. Orcutt. Ans. By “chastening,” or discipline. The Greek literally reads as follows: “And all chastening [or discipline] for the present is not esteemed [a matter] of rejoicing, but of grief; but afterward to those who are trained by it, it gives the peaceable fruits of righteousness.” M. M. S.: For an explanation of Matt. 10:28, see “State of the Dead,” published at this Office, pp. 88–95. J. Starr: The Bible gives no countenance to the idea that the day begins in the morning. When it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, as recorded in Matt. 28:1, the Sabbath was past; for that is the meaning of the expression, “in the end of the Sabbath.” Mark says plainly, “when the Sabbath was past.” The Sabbath ended at sunset the evening before. With the evening, or sunset, the day commences, according to Bible reckoning, as clearly as language can express it. U. S. TOBACCO
By Roswell F. Cottrell
The Bible does not mention this filthy and poisonous plant by name, but it does teach purity and cleanliness; that we should cleanse ourselves of “all filthiness of the flesh and spirit;” and that we should present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. This is our reasonable service. Now just think of offering to God, as holy and acceptable, a body reeking with self-pollution and the fumes of tobacco! Adventists are not the only ones that see and deplore the evil of tobacco-using. There is a strong anti-tobacco element in almost every church in our land. The most virtuous and pure are opposed to it. They would banish it from the church as unfit to be tolerated in moral and Christian society; but it is in their midst, and they are powerless to get it out. Now, who can complain of the Adventist Church—the church that is being gathered out from the world and all the churches, to prepare to meet the Lord at his coming and to be translated without death into his kingdom—for keeping the nuisance out while it is out. Men of the best minds, worldlings or church members, will approve it. This growing evil is the bane of society; and thousands of the youth are destroying themselves by it. Brother, or sister, as the case may be, look at this subject from a new stand-point. You are looking upon it as if we would take from you your rights and deprive you of your enjoyment; and that, as you suppose, without warrant from the Scriptures. It is not so; we desire your good; and if you will take our advice, you will ever be thankful for your escape from the slavery of this vice. Thousands are to-day deploring the fact that they are slaves to tobacco, a bondage from which they feel themselves powerless to escape; but no man that has become free from it ever regretted his deliverance. So, my brother, when you have risen in the might of manhood, and, by God’s help, have shaken off the shackles, you will ever be grateful to those who aided your escape. Let us sum up: Tobacco is a virulent poison, and consequently is at war with life in every system into which it enters. Nature’s laws are uniform; and the use of this poison has killed many a one. Some say it does not hurt them, but agrees with them; but such lay nature, physiology, and common sense, in the lie. It is injurious in every case. It is expensive. You profess, my brother, to believe and obey the last message to man, and sigh that you can do no more with your means to help forward the work and save men. But you pay more for this useless and injurious indulgence of a perverted appetite in one year, than you do for the cause of God and the salvation of men in five or ten years. When you pay this sum into the treasury of the Lord, you will prove the sincerity of your love; and you will be the better for it. It is filthy. It is disgusting and offensive to all, male or female, who have not become habituated to its presence. In the house of God “incense,” or the “sweet cane from a far country,” is “an abomination” to God, when offered by the hand of sinners. Isa. 1:13; Jer. 6:20. What then shall be said of the stifling fumes of tobacco in the house dedicated to the service of a pure and holy God? Those who would cleanse themselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God, and who are addicted to the use of the filthy weed, can find no better place to begin the work than here. Driving out tobacco will be a good foundation and a stepping stone to higher attainments. CONFUSION OF TONGUES.
By R. F. Cottrell
On a baptismal occasion, of late, I heard the discourse. The speaker recommended immersion as the mode concerning which there could be no doubt. For himself, no other mode would answer his conscience; yet if any desired to be sprinkled or poured, he would administer the rite in that way. Baptism was the answer of a good conscience, and if their consciences were satisfied with either of these modes, he would not bind their consciences. Now there can be no doubt that one of the principal reasons why he chose to be immersed and could not be satisfied with anything else is, that baptize means to immerse. How, then, could he say to a candidate, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” when he knew that he did not baptize him at all? He need not be conscience for others. If any wished to be sprinkled, and call that baptism, they could do so, provided they could find one to administer whose conscience was like theirs; but how could one, whose conscience, in his own individual case, could accept of nothing but immersion, because he believed that nothing else is baptism, conscientiously thus lie to another in the most solemn manner, in the sacred names of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? The Lord’s Bible is no such book as the confusion of creeds represents it to be. Say they, “I can’t see it as you do.” But it reads just alike and speaks the same things to all who will let it mean what it says. The duties required by the Bible are plain to those who will open their eyes. The fault is in the reader, not in the revelation. R. F. Cottrell. Students of meteorology have had their attention strongly drawn to the extraordinary phenomena developed during the present season. It may be said to have begun with the great forest fires along the northern boundary of the United States, almost before the winter snows had melted; and fires unusual in number, and some very destructive, have marked the calendar, until it comes down to the sweeping conflagrations of St. John and Marblehead. These, like the great fires at Chicago and Boston, arose from beginnings that at an ordinary time would readily have been extinguished by the fire apparatus of the respective cities; but, as in those greater calamities, the flames seemed from the very first to have assumed an uncontrollable character. Respecting fires of this magnitude, it would seem that there is much to be learned, and it is not at all improbable that careful study of the atmosphere and electrical conditions under which they occurred may prove of great advantage in suggesting precautions against such occurrences in future, just as the Signal Service, by its storm signals, now enables navigators to take steps for protection from shipwreck. In this connection the Philadelphia Ledger calls attention to the fact that about the time of the Chicago calamity there were most disastrous forest and prairie fires in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and that intelligent witnesses testified that in Wisconsin “hot blasts swept the country in advance of the fires; that luminous balls traversed the air in the afflicted districts; and that new flames started up at considerable distances from the main body of the conflagrations. There would seem to have been something in the air of that region, at that time, which gave it extraordinary potency to excite combustion, to feed fire, and carry it long distances.” The questions naturally arise, Are there any relations between these coincident circumstances; and, Does the atmosphere at times get into a condition to make it extremely susceptible to fire? While great losses have in this season been sustained from fire, the total destruction by floods and storms has been scarcely less in the aggregate. Hurricanes began even in April, and Mount Carmel is but a marked sample of destruction from similar causes over a wide range of our country. The investigation of these phenomena comes directly within the scope of the Signal Service Bureau, and all that may be learned about them will be collected and digested by the best and most experienced meteorologists. While these atmospheric convulsions have troubled our country, other parts of the earth have experienced an unusually severe earthquake with prodigious disturbance of the seas. We learn that new volcanic action has also been established in Colorado. And a curious fact in this connection we give on the authority of a gentleman who is a resident of the oil regions of Pennsylvania. He says that one of the great blowing wells there, which had been a long time discharging immense volumes of gas, stopped as suddenly and completely as if an ordinary gas light had been extinguished by turning off the gas by the stopcock, and has not since emitted even a smell of gas; and that subsequently, when the news of the South American earthquake was received, it was found that the shocks there and the stoppage of this well occurred at the same time, as precisely as could be ascertained. These phenomena may all be mere coincidences. But it is not at all impossible that they may all have some dependence on the same operating cause, atmospheric, electrical, or astronomical. It is to be hoped that scientists will not cease their investigation until all is learned that can be in the premises, and it is made to appear if there were any relations existing between the occurrences of this extraordinary season.—Cleveland Leader. PHOTOGRAPHY
By Albert Stone
Photography is the art of taking pictures by the action of light on a chemically prepared ground. The picture thus obtained is called a photograph. This art has attained a considerable degree of perfection. An ingenious optical instrument called the camera obscura, the office of which is to throw the images of external objects on a screen in the dark, is used in the formation of these pictures. Though art cannot imitate nature perfectly, yet through the achievements of science it makes some striking approximations. Perhaps in no case is this more fully manifest than in the analogy that exists between the pictures taken by this art, and those which are daily impressed, in infinite numbers, upon the human mind. The power to form photographic impressions upon the tablets of the hearts of others is one of the choicest gifts of the Creator, and one which every person possesses. Also to receive them by the acts of others is the gift of all. This part of man's mechanism runs naturally and easily, and from childhood to old age the art gallery of the soul is being daily replenished with new specimens of the art, while at the same time the receiver is imparting the same to others. An impressive word or action spoken or done in the presence of fifty persons, is but to strike off, in a moment of time, as many photographic likenesses, and set them in fifty hearts. Words and actions have a character, either good or evil, moral or immoral, and their tendency is to assimilate, to do good or evil, according to their character. To illustrate: The Christian mother desires that the image of Jesus may be impressed on the heart of her child. She believes, with God's help, it can be done. She reasons thus: This child's mind is like an album that is blank, just ready for the setting of pictures. If I do not fill this blank, Satan will take possession and fill it to his own liking. I must do all in my power, that my child may have eternal life. Its future will largely depend on the images formed upon the mind at this early age. She gives her child religious instruction. She teaches it to kneel by her side, and pray to Him who said, “Suffer little children to come unto me.” These things are new to the child, and wonders are impressed upon its mind. Pictures are thus formed upon the tablet of its little heart, which will remain, and the incidents of future life will often bring them in sight. As a legitimate result, the child obtains the knowledge of God, and becomes a subject of saving grace. On the other hand, if the child's religious training is neglected, and it grows up in the midst of evil counsels and examples, corresponding pictures will be photographed upon the mind, and these will remain to be turned to view by the incidents of future life. Now, the legitimate result of these things is, in the one case, the child is started in the way of life, and becomes an heir of Heaven; in the other case, the child's unguarded surroundings make their own impressions and form their own images, and the child is pushed on in the road to destruction. Let parents, as they read these lines, inquire, Are these things so? Am I, by a law of my being, daily impressing upon my children and others, that which will so greatly affect their salvation or their condemnation? Does this awful responsibility rest on me as a father, a mother, a neighbor, a church member? And while I am forming a character for myself, am I exerting an influence to mold the characters of all with whom I come in contact, whether I will it or not? Is it true that my daily words and actions are photographed upon the tablets of other hearts, and touch chords that will vibrate as long as eternity shall last? Yes, it is true. God help us all. THE JEWS AND THE GENTILES.
By Jos. Clarke
Once it was customary for the Jew to look down from his high position upon the Gentile, as all unworthy his regard or respect; now the Gentile, in his turn, despises the Jew, whose ancestors urged on the Roman governor Pilate to crucify the Son of God. The Gentile nations, in their zeal to honor their crucified Lord, have done all in their power to destroy the Jew, and in their treatment of this outcast people have shown all the cruelty and bitter persecution that was manifested by the Jews in their treatment of Christ and his followers. These nations, in their blind and bitter rage and contempt for the Jews, and whatever they have imagined was peculiar to them, have made a fatal and lamentable mistake. Like all narrow-minded bigots who usurp the sword of the persecutor, they have set aside reason and truth, and have allowed passion, and bigotry, and ignorance, to rule the day, until they really think they are doing God service in compelling the Jew to abandon, in effect, the old, time-honored institution of the Sabbath. Do they think to convince the Jew that God has set aside the fourth precept of the decalogue? or, failing in this, to weary the poor Israelite with customs and statutes, heavy and oppressive, until he abandons the most excellent of all the laws of his fathers? Are not the Gentile nations responsible for the violence and oppression which the Jews have undergone in the past? Do they think thus to please the Lord, who prayed his Father to forgive his persecutors? The prophets foretold the troubles which would come upon the Jews, but did they justify the cruelty of the oppressor? But the anti-Jew spirit went beyond all bounds when it attacked the ancient Sabbath of the Lord, which was made for Adam and all his race, and in itself is an institution world-wide in its scope and influence. But the responsibility of Sabbath desecration rests upon the nations of Christendom, which, to carry out their dislike for the Jew, have foisted into their creed a day unknown to the sacred writers; and this day they blindly, persistently, put forward as the true Sabbath, without regard to evidence. And it is a sad comment upon Gentile policy that thus they are weakening the Jew in the little virtue he may yet possess. Jos. Clarke. WHAT COMMANDMENTS?
By R. F. C.
THAT we are in the last days, all Adventists admit. The last test of probation is the tremendous warning against the worship of the beast and his image; and the people who stand the test and are prepared for the coming of the Son of man are described as those who “keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” When the test is brought to bear upon the people, it cannot be otherwise than that there will be much discussion and contention about these commandments—whether or not it is duty to keep them. The approved of God will keep them. But, says an objector, “What commandments will they keep?” The very ones that are in dispute. These are the ten commandments. Those of the Jewish ritual are not in dispute; consequently, there is no test upon them. No Christian people holds them to be binding; but the whole Christian world are in agitation about the ten commandments. We repeat it with emphasis, The test is coming upon the very commandments which are in dispute. What shall we do in order to stand the test? say they have been changed or abolished? No; keep them.