Earlier text: ORIGIN OF THE FIRST SEVENTH-DAY BAPTIST CHURCH IN AMERICANORTHERN EUROPE.
By J. G. Matteson
THE days are short now in Norway. In this place (Christiana) the sun rises at present about 9 o,clock, and sets at 2:52. The days are gloomy and dark; the sun is quite low at midday. Yet people are as active as ever, if not more so; and the winter is the best time for evening meetings. The meetings in our own hall, Akersveien No. 2, are well attended. The tide has turned very much in favor of the truth, and the influence of this reaction in public sentiment has gone out to other places. A religious paper published at Goteborg, Sweden, has commenced a series of articles on the religious sects of our day, and begins with the S. D. Adventists. The paper devotes two columns to this matter. The article contains, first, a very fair extract from Bro. U. Smith's History of S. D. Adventists in Die Stimme der Wahrheit; and then the editor speaks favorably of the work in Norway. He says: "Miss-ionaer Matteson, who is stationed in Norway, labors with much zeal; but he has also met strong opposition, especially from the Methodists." And again: "It cannot be denied, that the Adventists have some good reasons for their faith; and it is certain that they can more easily defend their belief concerning Saturday, that it should be the Sabbath in the place of Sunday, than the idea which they also defend, that the wicked shall be destroyed. Yet this idea has lately gained many adherents." The editor promises to give, from time to time, more information concerning the Adventists, from The Signs of the Times. A Lutheran paper printed in this city, also contained a notice of our work in an article filling a little more than two columns. Is was written by one of our brethren, by request of the editor. They notice our Sabbath-school and printing office with respect, and speak well of us. This is beyond my highest expectations, and it is wonderful, in view of the fact that nearly all papers in this country are swayed by the Lutheran church, because that carries with it the weight of public opinion. In Denmark, also, my work and name ran through the papers, but only to be misrepresented and ridiculed. Here it is different. The Lord has given us an opportunity successfully to carry through a battle with the theological faculty of the State University, the bishop, and most prominent theologians of the country. Our church stands acknowledged by the State as a Christian church, and we have taken our place in the rank of dissenters, with as many privlleges as any of them. The determined efforts of the Methodists against us have resulted in great loss to them. Their editor, who was the main leader in this opposition, has given up his office, and has gone to another city to preach. Many of their members flock to our meetings, and at present their meetings are not so well attended as ours. Even our worst opposers have publicly acknowledged that our coming here has stirred the people, and wrought a great change in them in regard to searching the Scriptures. Printing work is especially favored in this country. The liberty of the press is unbounded. This is not the case in Denmark or Sweden. Here we can print all we wish and sell all printed matter without any license or tax. But we could not sell so much as a pencil without paying quite a sum for citizenship. Then the publications can go freely into our sister kingdom, and Tidernes Tegn can be carried by mail twice a month for one year to one subscriber at a cost of 5 1/2 cents. Bro. Brorson is steadily gaining ground in Denmark. Six brethren and sisters have lately been baptized. Others are coming into the truth. Brn. Jasperson and Roseqvist are at work in Skien. Bro. J. writes lately that Bro. R. does good service, and that he has excellent abilities for preaching. Indeed, he says he thinks he is not behind any of our Scandinavian preachers in America. Bro. Olsen is doing good in Sweden. He has translated a small tract (concerning the word eternity), which he very much needed. It is now in type, and will soon be printed. A Swedish brother writes from Amot (the first place Bro. Olsen visited after he left us) that his visit did the friends good. There are five believers who have since commenced to keep the Sabbath. Several persons from Amot have attended our meetings here in Christiana, and many tracts have been scattered by them. The truth is spreading largely there. I have also just received a letter from Bro. Tockzelius in Sweden, who came here with another brother last fall. They were both baptized. Bro. T. has been a preacher for several years. He has been advocating the truth diligently, and it is stirring many souls. A Baptist preacher has accepted the truth and is also spreading it among others. Then I receive letters from other places in Sweden, where little companies here and there are investigating. Truly, the fields are white for the harvest. Next week I commence to give a series of lectures in a new place where we have rented a hall—Stromsveien No. 64. Yet the meetings in this place are not diminished. So every day in the week will be occupied. This will open a new field to us. Aid us, dear brethren, in the distant West, with your prayers. We need very much the help of God; for who is sufficient for these things? May we get our work done at last, and meet in the kingdom.
J. G. MATTESON.
Christiana, Norway, Dec. 13, 1879. LIGHT IN DARKNESS.
By Horatius Bonar
It was out of the cloud that the deluge came, yet it is upon that the bow is set! The cloud is a thing of darkness, yet God chooses it for the place where he bends the arch of light! Such is the way of our God. He knows that we need the cloud, and that a bright sky without a speck or shadow would not suit us in our passage to the kingdom. Therefore he draws the cloud above us, not once in a lifetime, but many times. But lest the gloom should appall us, he braids the cloud with sunshine, nay, makes it the object which gleams to our eye with the very fairest hues of heaven. Yes, it is not merely light after the darkness has fled away. That we shall one day know—how fully! But it is light in darkness; light beaming out of a ray produced by that darkness! Water from the rock; wells from the sand; light from the very cloud that darkens; life in the very midst of death! This is the marvel, this is the joy. Peace in trouble, gladness in sorrow; nay, peace and gladness produced by the very tribulation itself; peace and gladness which nothing but that tribulation could have produced! Such is the deep love of God; and such is the way in which he makes all things work together for good to us.—Horatius Bonar. GENERAL GRANT ON TOBACCO.
“THERE are very few tobacco-users who would commend their example to the young. They are ready enough with excuses for their own course; but they would shrink from advising bright and pure boys to do as they do. A great deal of prominence has been given to the fact of General Grant’s love of cigar-smoking. Now it ought to be made equally prominent that on his recent visit to Girard College, he expressed the hope that the boys there were not allowed the use of tobacco; for if kept from it while under training, they would be far less likely to indulge in the practice when they went out. It may well be said to the boys, concerning these men who use tobacco and advise others not to: ‘All, therefore, whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works; for they say, and do not.’”—S. S. Times Sound Traveling Over Water
It happened once on board a ship sailing along the coast of Brazil, one hundred miles from land, that the persons walking on deck when passing a particular spot heard most distinctly the sound of bells, varying as in human rejoicing. All on board listened and were convinced. Some months afterwards it was ascertained that at the time of observation the bells of St. Salvador, on the Brazilian coast, had been ringing on the occasion of a festival. The sound, therefore, favored by a gentle wind, had traveled over one hundred miles of smooth water, and striking the wind-spread sail of a ship, rendered concave by a gentle breeze, had been brought to a focus and rendered perceptible. They say this life is barren, drear, and cold,
Ever the same sad song was sung of old,
Ever the same long, weary tale is told,
And to our lips is held the cup of strife;
And yet—a little LOVE can sweeten life. They say our hands may grasp but joys destroyed,
Youth has but dreams and age an aching void,
Which Dead Sea fruit, long, long ago has cloyed,
Whose night with wild, tempestuous storms is rife;
And yet—a little HOPE can brighten life. They say we fling ourselves in wild despair
Amid the broken treasures scattered there,
Where all is wrecked, where all once promised fair,
And stab ourselves with sorrow's two-edged knife;
And yet—a little PATIENCE strengthens life. Is it then true, this tale of bitter grief,
Of mortal anguish finding no relief?
Lo! midst the winter shines the laurel leaf:
Three angels share the lot of human strife,
Three angels glorify the path of life. Love, Hope, and Patience cheer us on our way,
Love, Hope, and Patience form our spirit's stay,
Love, Hope, and Patience watch us day by day;
And bid the desert bloom with beauty vernal
Until the earthly fades in the eternal.
—Frazer's Magazine. A LITTLE CANDLE, SHINING FAR.
By Wendell Phillips
A MOTHER, on the green hills of Vermont, was holding by the right hand a boy, sixteen years old, mad with the love of the sea. And as she stood at the garden gate one morning, she said:— “Edward, they tell me—for I never saw the ocean—that the great temptation of seamen's life is drink. Promise me, before you quit your mother's hand, that you will never drink liquor.” “And,” said he, for he told the story, “I gave the promise, and went the world over, to Calcutta, the Mediterranean, San Francisco, and the Cape of Good Hope, the North and South Poles. I saw them all in forty years, and I never saw a glass filled with sparkling liquor that my mother's form at the gate did not rise up before my eyes; and to-day I am innocent of the taste of liquor.” Was not that sweet evidence of the power of a single word? Yet that is not half; “for,” still continued he, “yesterday there came into my counting-room a man of forty years. “‘Do you know me?’
“‘No.’
“‘Well,’ said he, ‘I was brought into your presence on shipboard; you were a passenger; they kicked me aside; you took me to your berth, and kept me there until I had slept off my intoxication. You then asked me if I had a mother. I said I had never heard a word from her lips. You told me of yours at the garden gate, and to-day I am master of one of the finest ships in New York harbor, and I have come to ask you to come and see me.’” How far the little candle throws its beams, the mother's words on the green hills of Vermont! God be thanked for the mighty power exerted by the utterance of a single word.—Wendell Phillips. "FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES."
A story is told of a certain nobleman of Alexandria, who complained bitterly to the bishop of that city of his enemies. While in the midst of his tale the bell sounded for prayers, and bishop and nobleman dropped on their knees, the former leading in the Lord's prayer, and the latter leaving for the time his story untold. When the bishop came to the petition, "Forgive us our trespasses," he stopped suddenly, leaving the other to go on alone. The nobleman attempted to continue, but, startled by the sound of his own unaccompanied voice, and recalled by his companion's silence to the significance of the petition, stammered, ceased praying, and rose from his knees, a hopeless man, until he afterward found hope in a better disposition toward his neighbor. It is an easy thing to say, "Forgive us our trespasses" by rote; it is difficult, sometimes, to say it understandingly. If we stop at this petition when we are repeating the Lord's prayer until we have taken in the idea of it, how many of us will go on? Creating Doubts to Quiet Them
By Spurgeon
It is never worth while to make rents in a garment for the sake of mending them, nor to create doubts in order to show how cleverly we can quiet them.—Spurgeon. OBITUARIES.
By R. F. Cottrell
THERE is a remarkable difference between Bible obituaries and those of the present day. We quote a few obituary notices from the Bible as specimens: “And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died.” “So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Bethpeor; but no man knoweth of his sepulcher unto this day.” “Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented him and buried him in Ramah, even in his own city.” In Heb. 11, the apostle speaks especially of the faithful of the times then past. In this chapter we find the following, which we may call a model obituary on the occasion of the death of the faithful: “Died in faith, not having received the promises.” The following is extracted from a modern obituary, seemingly Christian: “On Saturday, when apparently dying, her sister said to her, ‘Lucy, if the angels come for you, and you see father and mother, let us know it, if you can.’ She said she would. In a few hours she revived again. Sunday morning she said in a whisper, ‘Yes, yes, they have come.’ Her sister asked, ‘Who have come!’ ‘Father, mother, and all of them! Glory! glory! glory!’ . . . . And now Jesus has come and taken her to himself. . . . The clouds at length separated; Jesus came as he promised; and her disembodied spirit ascended to the church triumphant.” What a contrast between this and the utterances of the Bible! Does the Bible teach that dead men and women are angels? No. But Jesus promises the righteous that they shall be “as the angels,” or “equal unto the angels.” When? After they are “accounted worthy” of a part in the world to come, and are raised from the dead. Luke 20:35, 36. When do the angels come for the people of God? When Jesus comes again and raises them from the dead. Matt. 24:30, 31. When does Jesus take them to himself? At his second coming. John 14:1-3; 1 Thess. 4:16, 17. In what clouds does Jesus come again? and how? In the clouds of heaven, and as he went away. Matt. 24:30; Acts 1:9-11. When do the saints join the church triumphant? When they can shout victory over death and the grave at the resurrection. 1 Cor. 15:52, 55. Where is the text of Scripture that speaks of disembodied spirits? It is not. Such an entity is nowhere recognized in the Scriptures. What consolation do the Scriptures offer to those who mourn for the dead in Christ? The resurrection from the dead at the second personal coming of Christ. 1 Thess. 4:13-18. What to pious mothers who mourn the death of their infant children? That “they shall come again from the land of the enemy.” Matt. 2:16-18; Jer. 31:15, 16. Is there a text in the Bible which contradicts the harmonious, teaching of all those referred to above? There is not. What then of the case of the rich man and Lazarus? By a figure the dead are represented as living and speaking, as in other texts of Scripture. Isa. 14:9-11; Eze. 32:21, 27. The hell of the rich man and Lazarus is the hades of the Greek language, and the sheol of the Hebrew, in which place or state inspiration has positively affirmed that “there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom.” Eccl. 9:10. - Gen. Grant is in Florida.
- The Liverpool wheat market is dull.
- Frank Leslie, the well-known publisher, recently died.
- Diphtheria has become an epidemic at Deadwood, D. T.
- Jules Favre, the French statesman, died January 19th, aged 71.
- George Storrs, well known among the early Adventists, is dead.
- The Union and Kansas Pacific Railroads have been consolidated.
- It is reported from Berlin that Bismarck is much improved in health.
- The City of Peking arrived at San Francisco Jan. 19, with small-pox on board.
- The Pope is surprised and indignant at Cardinal McCloskey's reception of Parnell in New York.
- The people of Sydney, New South Wales, have subscribed $10,000 for the Irish sufferers.
- There are indications that the distress in County Kerry, Ireland, is likely to become a famine.
- Insanity will be the defense of Gonzales, who attempted to assassinate King Alfonso of Spain.
- A conflagration at Hakodate, Japan, Dec. 6th, destroyed 2,300 houses. Twenty lives were lost.
- Richard Wagner, the German composer, is recovering from what was considered a fatal illness.
- It is said that Irish laborers in America have sent back to Ireland, in the last twenty years, $65,000,000.
- During the year ending Sept. 30, 1879, 405 persons were injured by railroad collisions in this country, 45 fatally.
- The report of the Capitol Commissioners of New York show that the total expenditures up to December 1st were $10,299,000.
- Diphtheria is prevailing to an alarming extent in the city of Boston, and fears are entertained that it will become epidemic.
- Secretary Shurz insists that the Utes concerned in the late massacre shall be surrendered, dead or alive, and that the rest of the Utes shall leave Colorado.
- The Louisville, Ky., Savings Bank is closed for repairs, the cashier being a defaulter in the sum of $67,000, which he lost in California tule-land speculations.
- During the years 1878 and 1879, there were two attempts upon the life of King William, one upon King Alfonso, and upon King Humbert, and two upon the Czar.
- The village of Alcala del Jucar, Province of Albacere, Spain, has been destroyed by a landslide. Several persons were killed, and fifty families rendered homeless.
- A colored boy has filed a petition in the U. S. Court in Cincinnati, claiming large damages from a teacher and the trustees of a district school in Clermont county, for ejecting him from the school.
- During the past year, in the United States, 101 persons were judicially strangled, and 74 persons lynched. Texas leads in the first matter with 12 hangings; and Kentucky in the second, with 8 lynchings.
- The papers have reported that the population of Palestine has been doubled in ten years by Jewish immigration. Mr. Hay, late United States Consul-General, says, "As a resident of the country since 1867, I can positively deny this statement."
- The Republican Legislature of Maine has possession of the State House, and the Fusionists have recourse to sidewalk sessions. Daniel F. Davis has been elected Governor by the Republican body, and General Chamberlain has recognized his authority.
- The Vermont Bible Society has canvassed ninety-nine towns in the State, and found American families destitute of any portion of the Bible in all but four. Of the 25,394 families visited, 2,323 were without a copy of the word of God, 524 of whom were American families.
- Four deputies in the western part of Meeker county, N. C., were recently fired upon by illicit distillers. Organizations had been made by them to drive the revenue officers from the county, and that section has been thoroughly raided. Ten distillers and two men who did the shooting, were captured.
TITHES AND OFFERINGS.
By James White
We call especial attention to the lengthy article in this paper, which quite fully sets forth the position of S. D. Adventists on the subject of tithes and offerings. We wish our real positions understood. Those who misrepresent us from malice do not deserve that notoriety which a review would give them. We choose to keep about our work, state our views frankly and fully, and leave those who slander us, to settle the matter at the bar of God, provided they chose to have their cases go up to the higher court. We suggest however to those clerical gentlemen, and all others who join with them in the false statements, that S. D. Adventists require of new converts one-tenth of their property on uniting with the church, and that we compel all our members to give one-tenth of what comes into their hands during the year, and that we exact sums of money from the poor, that they settle this matter with the Lord at once and quit. Here we wish to state in a few words, 1. No S. D. Adventist minister during the period of our brief history has asked any man on joining the church to give any specified sum to the cause. 2. During our history, giving has never been made a condition of church membership. 3. For nearly twenty years, S. D. Adventists have taught through their prints, and their ministers have preached from their pulpits, systematic benevolence as set forth in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. If any one, claiming to be a S. D. Adventist, has at any time urged systematic compulsion to obtain means, let the gentlemen referred to tell us who did it, when and where was it done. Will they please point it out in any of our prints. 4. Our system of benevolence, suggesting a tithe of our income, which is explained to be a tithe of what we earn, makes a light draft upon those who are simply in comfortable circumstances of life. Those of this class are the most cheerful givers of their small free-will offerings. 5. S. D. Adventists make provisions for their worthy poor. While the salary of the president of their General Conference is only $624 a year, the Battle Creek church alone gives not far from $1000 annually for the support of the poor. The addresses of Charles W. White and Wm. Harmon, members of the Oakland church. Anyone knowing the whereabouts of the above mentioned individuals will confer a favor by sending their addresses to GEO. MANUEL, Church Clerk, Oakland, Cal. Support the Seamen’s Mission
In the quarterly report of missionary work by the State Society, 232 visits to ships are reported. These visits were made to 159 different vessels, and when we take into consideration the amount of reading matter distributed, and the many good words spoken, the importance of this work may be in a measure realized. These 159 vessels, with their consignments of precious truth, go to all parts of the world and teach as they go. Thus we see that this branch of our tract and missionary work does proportionately far more than any other agency toward the grand end of gathering a people for the Lord, out of every nation, kindred, and tongue. Verily, the Seaman’s Mission should be liberally supported. DIED, of diphtheria, at Lemoore, Cal., Jan. 14, 1880, Willie, son of Bro. J. E. and Sr. Jennie Yoakum, aged sixteen months and eight days. Funeral discourse by the writer, from the words of Paul: "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." 1 Cor. 15:22. Business Department.
By Editor
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By James White
TEXT : Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. John 1:29. THE circumstances which called forth these words mark an important era in the history of the ages. The world's Redeemer had appeared in humility, as predicted by the prophets, and had been baptized of John, when the heavens opened, the Spirit like a dove descended upon him, and there came a voice from Heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Mark 1:10, 11. Two persons of note are introduced in the text; one is John the Baptist, who is the speaker, the other is Christ, of whom he speaks. The mission of John was to prepare the way for Jesus. His baptism was the great event of his time. "Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan," went out to be baptized of him. Matt. 3:5. John was not a settled pastor; but as the herald of Christ, to prepare the way for his mission, the field of John's labors and the range of his influence were extensive. "He came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins." Luke 3:3. The life and habits of John were humble and simple, yet he was a mighty man of God. The prophetic description of his mission and of the greatness of his work is given thus: "The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain; and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." Isa. 40:3-5. John was a plain and practical preacher. He appealed to the multitude that came to be baptized of him in these cutting words: "O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance." Matt. 3:7, 8. And while he boldly and faithfully rebuked the sins of the people, he pointed them to the great remedy as expressed in the words of the text: "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." In the typical system the sacrificial lamb pointed to the great Sacrifice for the sins of the world. The people whom John addressed were familiar with this service. The time was at hand when the shadowy sacrifice was to be lost in the death of Christ. And as He who was soon to die for the sins of the world stood before the anxious multitudes, who were smarting under the lashes of truth by the unsparing hand of the Baptist, and were trembling on account of their sins, John raised his voice in that vast assembly, and pointing to Christ, said, "Behold the Lamb of God." Christ is called the Lamb of God because the Father has given him as a sacrifice for the sins of a lost world, and because a lamb is an appropriate symbol of the meekness of our adorable Redeemer. The prophet speaks of him in these touching words: "He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth." Isa. 53:7. When all was lost in Adam, the plan of redemption through Jesus Christ was immediately instituted; hence he is represented as the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." Rev. 13:8. In the patriarchal and Jewish ages, Christ was slain in figure. In the Christian age he is slain in fact. The Scriptures reveal but one plan by which fallen men may be saved. It is true that in the development of the plan of grace through Christ there has been in each dispensation an increase of light. But there is no intimation in all the Bible of three plans, one for the patriarchal age, one for the Jewish, and one for the Christian age. Jesus Christ is the Redeemer of sinners in all the ages of human probation. "Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." Acts 4:12. It was not possible for sinful man in the ages past to secure a fitness for the inheritance of the saints in light by the divine law alone. There is no ability in law to redeem the transgressor. It is not the province of law, human or divine, to pardon the transgressor of law. The moral law is a rule of right action, condemning the transgressor, and holding him as such until he shall suffer the penalty. The divine law can do no more for the sinner. It is the gospel alone that offers pardon and salvation. And without the gospel of the Son of God none of the men of the patriarchal and Jewish ages could be saved. The gospel is the joyful message of redemption through Jesus Christ. We inquire, How early in the sad history of the fallen race was the gospel proclaimed? Was it first given in the days of Christ? of Moses? of Abraham? or of Adam? We distinctly trace the faith and hope of the gospel of the Son of God in that early denunciation of wrath upon Satan, that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head. Gen. 3:15. In this decree against the author of sin and death, we hear the gospel of the Redeemer as verily as in the song of the angels over the plains of Bethlehem, to the shepherds as they watched their flocks by night, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." Luke 2:8-14. And when the first sons of Adam brought their offerings to the Lord, Cain in unbelief brought of the first-fruits of the ground. But Abel, in faith of the great Sacrifice for sin to be manifested in the distant future, brought of the firstlings of his flock. Through that lamb, Abel saw the Lamb of God, the Redeemer of the world, and set his hope upon him. In the blood of that firstling, Abel saw the blood of Jesus Christ as truly as we see the dying Saviour in the broken bread and the fruit of the vine at the Lord's supper. In these emblems we see Christ shedding his blood on the cross for our sins. Abel saw the same in the bleeding, dying firstling which he offered. "And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering; but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect." Gen. 4:4, 5. The sacred narrative states that while Abel's act of faith in the Redeemer to come sealed his righteous character, cost him his life, and placed him at the head of the holy martyrs of Jesus, Cain's infidelity was regarded as sinful, and was the stepping-stone to the high crime of the murder of his brother, which sealed his character as a vagabond in the earth. The apostle places Abel at the head of the faith-ful worthies. He speaks of his righteous act of faith in offering to the Lord in sacrifice the type of the Redeemer to come, in these emphatic words: "By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and by it he being dead yet speaketh." Heb. 11:4. Abel laid hold of the hope that was set before him of the Redeemer to come, and in type embraced Christ. And as he set the seal to his faith in presenting before the Lord the most fitting emblem of the dying Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, high Heaven bestowed the signal witness that he was righteous. And for nearly six thousand years this eminent preacher of the gospel, though dead, has been speaking of his faith in Christ. The beloved John, in contrasting the infidelity and murderous spirit of Cain with the confiding faith, pure love, and obedience, of those who revere the commandments of God and lay hold of the faith of Jesus Christ, says, "Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous." 1 John 3:12. Abel performed a righteous character, not only in laying hold of the Redeemer to come, by faith through the figure of the firstling of his flock, but by perfecting that saving faith in the act of presenting the sacrifice before the Lord God. We pass down the sacred record of the fallen race to Abraham, and there we find the joyful news of redemption through Jesus Christ, to be extended to the nations of the earth, proclaimed to the trusting, obedient patriarch. Paul speaks of the gospel to the father of the faithful thus: "And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed." Gal. 3:8. The apostle here quotes from the promise of God to Abraham, where the same promise is extended to his seed: "All the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever." Gen. 13:15. The gospel of the Son of God was proclaimed to Abraham in this promise, in that it is really a promise of Christ, as argued by the apostle in Gal. 3:16: "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ." The promise to Abraham, that in him all the families of the earth should be blessed, embraces Jesus Christ as the only hope of salvation for men from all the nations, as stated by the apostle in verse 14: "That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ." The faith of Abraham embraced Christ as its glorious object. This is seen in Christ's reply to the Jews, who boasted in Abraham as their father: "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it, and was glad." John 8:56. The gospel was preached to the children of Israel in the days of Moses as truly as in the days of the apostles of Christ. That the gospel of the Son of God has been preached since the days of John the Baptist is a settled fact in all Christian minds, while but few take in the idea that it was preached in the patriarchal and Jewish ages. But Paul, in his epistle to the Hebrews, treats the matter as settled beyond all doubt, that the gospel was preached to the Hebrews, and then states that it was preached to the Christians of his day, as well as unto them. He says: "Unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them," Heb. 4:2, making it appear that the gospel of the Son of God was common to the Jewish and Christian ages. Moses and the believing Jews had the faith and hope of the gospel. Through the blood of the sacrificial offerings, they saw Christ, and by faith embraced him. Their hopes of the future life were not in the law, but in Christ. The typical system was but the shadow of good things to come, of which Christ, as a sacrifice and mediator, is the center. These good things are the body that casts its shadow back into the Jewish age. The bleeding sacrifices of the former ages were but the shadow, while Christ bleeding on the cross was the great reality. The blood of beasts offered by the Jews, understandingly, and in faith, as clearly pointed forward to the blood of Christ as the Lord's supper and baptism point back to his sufferings, death, burial, and resurrection. Christ was with Moses, in the wilderness, the invisible leader of the children of Israel. This appears evident from the remarkable statements of the apostle: "Brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ." 1 Cor. 10:1-4. 1. It was important that the matter of which the apostle speaks should be understood by the church at Corinth—"Brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant." The lesson taught is no less important to the Christian church of our time. 2. Christ is declared to be "that spiritual Rock" that followed the Hebrews. The marginal reading—"that went with them"—makes the point stronger. 3. The apostle did not regard the ministration of the visible leader of the children of Israel as void of the spiritual light and life of Christ, as popularly held in our day. He says that they "did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ." 4. Paul exhorts: "Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents." 1 Cor. 10:9.