Earlier text: Our Saviour’s New LawTHE following able contrast between Luther and Calvin, is drawn from the life of Calvin, by Dr. P. Henry, of Berlin, translated by Dr. Stebbing, and an article in the North British Review:— “Luther was the man of the people—Calvin of the divines. Luther was drawn on to greatness in spite of himself—Calvin became great on system, by a holy energy and an intense feeling of duty. The one was bold, abrupt, impetuous—the other, systematic, accurate, severe. Luther struggled much for sound doctrine—Calvin struggled yet more for piety and holy practice. Luther overthrew—Calvin constructed. The German originated deep feeling—the Frenchman elicited profound thinking from men. “Their contrasted characters are in some degree seen and read in their portraits; Luther, bluff, jovial, and well-conditioned—Calvin, emaciated, thoughtful, piercing. Their diverse mental temperaments are exhibited in their views of Satanic agency. Luther, it is well known, thought, or dreamed, or was persuaded himself, that he had frequent personal conflicts with Satan visibly—Calvin approached that awful subject with faith as firm, but with the fancy less fixed, than Luther. In this respect, as in others, the Genevese divine may be deemed the complement of the German. Calvin strove as energetically as Luther; but Luther aroused—Calvin tranquilized. The watchword of the one was war—that of the other, order. “We do not present this contrast as if Luther and Calvin were rivals. Their mission and their spirit were one. They were alike God’s witnesses and remembrancers—Heaven sent of a truth. Hence, though they never saw each other, they never felt as strangers, but entertained a mutual respect, while each expressed his belief according to his particular character.” Sunshine and Sleep.
By Dr. Hall
No sirup of poppies, no tincture of opium, no powders of morphine, can compare in sleep-inducing power with sunshine. Let sleepless people court the sun. The very worst soporific is laudanum, and the very best is sunshine. Therefore, it is very plain that poor sleepers should pass as many hours of the day in sunshine, and as few in the shade, as possible. Many women are martyrs, and do not know it. They shut the sunshine out of their houses and hearts, they wear veils, they carry parasols, they do all that is possible to keep off the subtlest and yet most potent influence which is intended to give them strength, and beauty, and cheerfulness. Is it not time to change all this, and so get roses and color in your pale cheeks, strength in your backs, and courage in your timid souls? The women of America are pale and delicate; they may be blooming and strong, and the sun-light will be a potent influence in this transformation.—Dr. Hall. Apologies: Counsel to Young Ministers
APOLOGIES.—Do not make them, dear young brethren, just entering upon the noblest of vocations—the Christian ministry. Your self-respect, respect for your audience, the high character of your office, all require that you should feel the solemnity of the occasion, the fitness of the theme, and your ability to improve the opportunity. If you have failed to qualify yourself for the service, an apology will not benefit you—it will excite distrust or commiseration, and thus rob the cause of a certain power. Better fail once, twice, many times, and let these failures teach you a salutary lesson, than to get into a habit which so ill befits the pulpit, excites too much personal interest on the part of your friends, and tempts some in the congregation to suspect your sincerity. Do not apologize, no matter what has happened. If it is your duty to be in the pulpit, it is your right to be there without a word of explanation or apology. Our Ground of Hope.
By D. Downer
“THE Lord will perfect that which concerneth me.” Psalms 138:8. This text promises that God will do for us just what we want done, but never can do for ourselves. The psalmist did not say, “I have grace enough; my faith is strong enough; my love is warm enough, and nothing can move me.” No; his dependence was in the Lord. If we have a confidence not founded in God that confidence is worse than none. If I must depend upon myself for salvation, I am lost. Our confidence must not rest in what we have done or promised to do, but entirely in God. If we had to fashion ourselves into vessels of honor for the Master’s use, we might well despair. The psalmist said, “The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me.” His confidence was for the future. I have heard people say of an individual, I will trust him as far as I can see him. That is just as far as some trust God. They believe he will provide as long as meat is on the table, but would they believe if the table was bare? No; their faith is strong when they see the ravens coming, but if no ravens could be seen would they believe their bread and water sure? May our faith be increased before the time arrives that we are to have nothing but bread and water, and have to trust God for that. The psalmist looked through life, and for our encouragement gave the assurance that “the Lord will perfect that which concerneth” us. Oh! we who tremble, let us now rest in this sweet promise. How often we look into the future, and see strange things which portend some trouble. Let us leave the future all to God. Once in my early experience, I was reproved by an older Christian because I expressed myself as having confidence that God would save us through this message. He thought I was presumptuous, but I now believe my confidence was proper. I believe the truest Christians are those who dare not doubt God. What an opportunity there was for Moses to doubt when told to hold his rod over the sea. How easily might unbelief have come in when Abraham was called upon to destroy his only son. They faltered not at God’s promises, and we are permitted to read the history of the results of perfect faith and obedience. It is right to speak diffidently of ourselves, but confidently of God. “The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me.” What a wonderful work! There are those who believe they are perfect. I believe that a state of perfection can be reached, but many professing sanctification are full of faults. Ministers professing sanctification war against God’s holy law, and many of them declare their holiness with lips stained with tobacco juice. How must God look upon them? I talked with a man recently who prided himself on the belief that he was sanctified. He invited me home. I expressed a willingness to visit such a man, and receive instruction from one so fortunate as to have reached such a nearness to God. I began to talk of God’s rule of righteousness, the law, and his face was red with anger. Preach Christ, said he, preach Christ. I convinced him that we must see our sins by the law, then preach Christ. Does God sanctify people, then give them holy indignation against his law? To talk sanctification and shelter themselves under it while in willful transgression of God’s law is as useless as to hide under a sieve and expect protection from a shower of rain. It is a cloak that will be rent from them in the day of God, and they will be numbered among hypocrites. Oh! it is sweet to know God will perfect all his saints; but sweeter still to know we may be numbered among them, and thus his promises extend to us. And here is implied a personal work to be done by each of us. What a noble work is toiling onward to perfection. When we begin, the cross is our battle cry. When the enemy gathers for battle, it is still the cross. The battle fought and victory won—then what? It is the cross still. Good works alone will no more carry us through than they would have held Peter above the waves. Works are essential; but to trust in them is fatal. Form is not power; but we seldom see the power where there is no form. Where is the church which has departed from God’s forms that has not suffered spiritually, and lost the power? Take care, despisers of forms, despisers of the Sabbath and the ordinances of God’s house, God may smite you as he did the Philistines who despised the ark. Lastly, let us all subject ourselves to God’s pruning-knife, till all our fruitless branches are lopped off. Let us leave ourselves passive in his hands; for He is faithful who has promised, and will “perfect that which concerneth” us. D. DOWNER. EARNEST study strengthens the mind, as vigorous exercise strengthens the body, or solid food the stomach. He who avoids hard labor grows feeble; he who avoids healthy food grows sickly; and he who avoids hard study grows simple, flat, and foolish. Many young persons read fiction till they lose all taste for fact, and pore over novels until they are unfit for anything else. Says the College Courant: “Exclusive and excessive novel-reading is to the mind a kind of intellectual opium-eating in its stimulant effects upon the fancy and its stupefying and bewildering influence on the judgment. An inveterate novel-reader speedily becomes a literary roue, and this is possible at a very early period of life. It now and then happens that a youth of seventeen becomes almost an intellectual idiot or an effeminate weakling by living exclusively upon the enfeebling swash or the poisoned stimulants that are sold so readily under the titles of tales and novels. An apprenticeship at a reform school in literature, with a spare diet of statistics, and a hard bed of mathematical problems, and the simple beverage of plain narrative, is much needed for the recovery of such insane and half-demented mortals.” Do not live on such “swash” as that. What is the use? When you have read novels a thousand years, what do you know more than you did at first? What does it all amount to? Men need facts, not fictions, and when the world is full of good books containing information, fact, history, science, and a thousand matters of interest, what a shame it is to waste time reading the lying yarns of novel writers. He that “loveth and maketh a lie” has little blessing in this world, and little hope for the next.—Seb. “THE future looks dark. How can I bear this burden on and on?” Stop a moment. “Can you not bear your burden of to-day—this one day?” “Oh, yes, I can get through this day.” Well that is all that is required of you. Did not the blessed Jesus say, “Take no thought for the morrow?” Try it to-day, and at night you shall lie down upon your pillow with your hand in his and sleep sweetly. How well he knew what is good for us! “He in his days of feeble flesh” was tempted as we are. The cross lay at the end of his journey, and who shall say that he had no temptation to think the way onward to be rough and hard? But he yielded not, and in the strength of his own experience he could say, “Take therefore no thought, . . . . Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” Besides, none ever know the infinite tenderness of the Guiding Hand but those who do implicitly trust all to the Heavenly Father. See the child at play on the carpet with its toys. How happy it is as long as its mother is at hand. But let that mother be withdrawn for a little, and it soon puts up its lip to cry. When it gets more experience the parent can leave it for a longer time, but then it must be frequently assured that mother is only in another room and will come back soon. Just so we soon grow doubtful if the face of our Heavenly Father is hidden from us. Let us take his word, and trust him in dark days as well as in the cheerful sunlight.—Sel. An interesting experiment was recently tried in connection with Mounts Ebal and Gerizim, for the purpose of meeting the doubts sometimes expressed as to whether the blessings and cursings recorded in the twenty-seventh chapter of Deuteronomy could be heard in the valley below. On this point a correspondent of the London Sunday-school Times relates the following incident:— “On the 22d day of March last, I stood myself on Gerizim—not on the top, but on a spur, like a platform, on its side, above the valley; and there is a similar platform opposite, on Ebal. A friend stood on Ebal, opposite. There was a congregation of from twelve to fifteen below us. My friend on Ebal first read the curses (see Deut. 27), one by one, and the people below shouted ‘Amen’ after each of them. I followed, reading the blessings in the next chapter, and our friends below responded to the same with their ‘Amen.’ Then we read several verses in the first chapter of John, the one and the other reading every alternate sentence. Not only the people in the valley below, but I myself, standing on the side of Gerizim, could hear most distinctly every word that my friend read on the side of Ebal, and vice versa. We did not measure the distance, but it was estimated by the party to be nearly a mile.” The Maine Camp-Meeting.
By Uriah Smith
THIS meeting was held at Richmond, Me., at the time appointed, Sept. 2-6, 1875. And as we write this heading we are almost tempted to omit the letter e from Maine, and write it “the main camp-meeting;” for it has been one of the best of the season. Twenty tents were erected, and about two hundred brethren and sisters were present, men and women of substantial worth, as sound and solid as the granite of their native State. Fifteen discourses were given in all, and the speakers from the first enjoyed freedom in presenting the truth. The social meetings increased in interest from the beginning to the end; but especially toward the close were they excellent. The cheering testimonies brought in, in rapid succession, showed an intelligent standing in the truth, a great appreciation of its value, and a joy in the hope of soon-coming deliverance, when the storms and trials of the way will all be past, and we shall meet the loved and lost in the kingdom of our God, a kingdom peaceful, perfect, and eternal. The place of the meeting this year was a new place for such meetings of our people, and the announcement of it had not gone out so fully as it will go another year; yet on Sunday the crowd was large, numbering probably not far from twenty-five hundred people. Bro. and sister White had most excellent freedom in speaking to them. And in their testimony on this day, and the many other occasions upon which they spoke, a good impression was made, and much prejudice was removed. We do not believe that the prejudice raised by the low and bitter work of opposition carried on by some against sister White and her labors has been able to survive a single discourse of hers, when the person affected has been present to see and hear for himself. At any rate, we have known of many who came with prejudice and went away confessing that they had been deceived, that their prejudice was gone, and that the spirit of opposition manifested against sister W. was not of God. In no State probably has her name been more meanly handled than in Maine. Hence it is especially gratifying that here she should have the opportunity of speaking for herself, that the nature of her work may be seen, and the deceptive and unchristian character of the opposition against her may be exposed. The crowd was very orderly and attentive during Sunday, and no disturbance was experienced at any time during the meeting. The people of Richmond and vicinity are entitled to our thanks for the respect and courtesy shown to this gathering of our people. A good number came forward for prayers on the Sabbath. On Monday two were baptized by Bro. Corliss in the Kennebec River, near by the camp-ground. This was not a large number, but as it was the first scene of the kind that has occurred in connection with the S. D. A. Camp-meetings in this State it was an item of no small encouragement. Among the features of interest connected with the meeting the singing should not be passed by. There are good voices among the brethren and sisters here, and they gave us some rare and excellent songs of Zion calculated to inspire joy and a spirit of devotion in all our hearts. To understand the good this meeting is calculated to produce, it is necessary to understand the state of things in this Conference more fully than those not living or laboring here can do. Quite a feeling of discouragement has prevailed here during the past year. It was evident that much was depending upon this camp-meeting. If it should prove a failure, the result would be disastrous; and on its success seemed to depend very largely the future prosperity of the cause in this State. Hence much anxiety was felt by those who have at heart the interests of the cause here, in this meeting. The relief of such at the success that has attended this effort cannot well be described. But the existing state of discouragement kept many from the meeting who would otherwise have been present. Such lost much by staying away. It would be interesting to give the different words that were used in describing the meeting by the brethren and sisters present. One says, “It has been a smooth meeting from beginning to end.” Another says, “I have always had pretty good courage, but my courage has been greatly increased by this meeting.” Another says, “They who have not been here, do not know what they have lost.” Another, “This has been not only the best camp-meeting but the best meeting I ever attended.” And so we might go on. In the parting meeting at 5:30 Tuesday morning sixty spoke in the hour allotted to that exercise, all testifying to the blessing and encouragement they had received from this occasion, and that they were determined to show it in their lives the year to come. The brethren who labor in this Conference will now take hold of the work with renewed courage, and the brethren, according to their resolution passed in Conference session, will take hold with greater interest to second their efforts. There is a feeling and hope that the cause is destined to rise in this part of the field; and the workers in Maine have this to stimulate them in their efforts, that they have as precious souls here for whom to labor as can anywhere be found. U. S. Did Moses Write on the Tables of Stone?
By James White
A special effort having lately been made to prove that Moses wrote the ten commandments on the tables of stone, we are induced to write out a few thoughts on that subject. Those who claim that Moses did write on the tables of stone rest entirely on the 28th verse of the 34th chapter of Exodus, which reads thus:— “And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.” The case turns on this one question: When a pronoun is repeated without a substantive intervening, does it necessarily in each case refer to the same antecedent? Without any regard to the context or to other texts, and with modern ideas of grammatical constructions, it would be decided at once that Moses wrote on them. But no candid student of the Bible will contend that a text must be taken without regard to the context or to other texts speaking on the same point. It should also be considered that the Hebrew is a very brief language, leaving far more to be gathered from the context than do modern languages. Learned Jewish Rabbis consider the Christian teachers greatly at fault in trying to bring down the Hebrew to the grammatical precision of Western languages. The great proportion of supplied words in many texts gives force to this objection. Without these supplied words we have barely the skeletons of sentences, to be filled out according to the connection. What, then, was the usage of early writers of the Hebrew in regard to the pronoun? Every observing reader must have noticed that they used pronouns often when we, for the sake of greater clearness, would insert the proper name. A few instances will suffice to show this. 1 Sam. 16:21: “And David came to Saul, and stood before him; and he loved him greatly; and he became his armor bearer.” It was Saul that loved David greatly, as he said of David in verse 22, “He hath found favor in my sight.” According to modern ideas of grammar we must decide against the evident meaning of the text. Isa. 37:36: “Then the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand; and when they arose in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.” Here there is no antecedent expressed but the Assyrians who were slain; we are left to infer that it was the remaining Assyrians who arose and found one hundred and eighty-five thousand corpses in the camp. Zech. 6:13: “Even he shall build the temple of the Lord; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne.” Although the pronouns in this text are not the same, the construction is similar, so much so that some have strenuously claimed that he and his refer to the same person. But the context shows that it is upon the throne of the Lord, the Father, that the Branch, or the Son of God, sits a priest. “The counsel of peace shall be between them both.” Heb. 7 and 8 show positively that our Saviour, the King of peace, is a priest on his Father's throne. And this is in distinction from his own throne, upon which he will never be a priest, as is said in Rev. 3:21: “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.” This method of expression is not confined to the Old Testament. We find a striking instance of it in Paul's language in 1 Cor. 15:25: “For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.” Here, according to our rules of grammar, we must decide that he who reigns is the same who puts all enemies under his feet. But the context and other scriptures show that he is not. In the two preceding verses, both the Father and the Son are introduced, and the two instances of the pronoun in verse 25 apply, the first to the Son, the second to the Father, exactly as the pronouns refer to Moses and to God in Ex. 34:28. In Ps. 110:1, the Father says to the Son, “Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” He is now sitting at his Father's right hand from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. 1 Cor. 15:28 shows positively that the Father puts his enemies under the feet of his Son: “And when all things shall be subdued unto him [the Son], then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him [the Father] that put all things under him [the Son], that God may be all in all.” This verse also presents the same interchange of pronouns that we find in Ex. 34:28, and it shows that the same rule of grammar which would make Moses write the ten commandments on the tables of stone, would make the Son become subject to himself, instead of becoming subject to the Father who will put all things under him. And verse 25 stands thus:— “For he [the Son] must reign, till he [the Father] hath put all enemies under his [the Son's] feet.” And thus in Ex. 34:28: “And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he [Moses] did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he [the Lord] wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.” The context and other texts show that this is the true reading of the text. See verse 1 of this chapter:— “And the Lord said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first; and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest.” This alone fully justifies our application of the pronouns as above. But it is placed beyond all possibility of doubt in Deut. 10:1-5. We will copy entire; they are the words of Moses speaking to Israel:— “At that time the Lord said unto me, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and come up unto me into the mount, and make thee an ark of wood. And I will write on the tables the words that were in the first tables which thou brakest, and thou shalt put them in the ark. And I made an ark of shittim wood, and hewed two tables of stone like unto the first, and went up into the mount, having the two tables in mine hand. And he wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which the Lord spake unto you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly; and the Lord gave them unto me. And I turned myself and came down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made.” The opposers of the truth have waxed so bold as to even deny that God wrote upon the first tables except through Moses as his agent. In Deut. 5:22, Moses said: “These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice; and he added no more. And he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me.” Also Deut. 4:12, 13. So far from its being true that Moses wrote on the tables, the Lord prepared the first tables and wrote upon them before he called Moses up into the mount to receive them. See Ex. 24:12: “And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there; and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments, which I have written; that thou mayest teach them.” Accordingly Ex. 31:18, says they were “written with the finger of God.” And Ex. 32:16, says: “And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.” God prepared the tables and wrote upon them the ten commandments before he called Moses up to the mount to receive them. This is too plain to be denied by any candid man. They only who regard theories more than truth will deny the evident teachings of these scriptures. Unfortunately there are many in these days who strive for the mastery without regard to the contradictions in which they involve the Scriptures. They who “tremble at the word” of God will ever seek to harmonize the Scriptures and to bring them into agreement one with another. And they will also try to bring themselves into harmony with the whole truth of God, instead of distorting the word to make it conform to their own opinions.—J. H. W., in Signs of the Times. A Word to the Tract Societies.
By S. N. Haskell
The heat of summer is past, and we are approaching that season of the year when more time can be devoted to the tract and missionary work. The officers of the various Tract Societies should be laying their plans to enter the missionary field with renewed courage and zeal. As we see the present truth extending its influence in every direction, and permeating the public mind, broader plans should be laid and executed with caution and zeal. There never was a more important time than now. Instead of the contemptuous sneer with which at times in the past we have been spoken of in the secular papers, classing us with those disorganized bodies that call themselves Adventists, there is a disposition to do us justice. The public generally are beginning to understand the difference between Seventh-day Adventists and those who are constantly setting the time for Christ to come, and dwelling upon some peculiar hobby of their own invention. This is owing largely to our orderly camp-meetings, and also to the extensive distribution of our periodicals and publications, and their influence upon the public mind. We have reached an important crisis in this work. To fold our hands and slacken our energies at the present time is a sin which will bring upon us a curse no less awful than that which came upon Meroz. To rush madly forward without duly considering the importance of the work is a crime of no less magnitude. Plans for operation wisely laid by those whom God has so well fitted for the task by their long experience in this work should be cheerfully executed, and pushed forward with courage at whatever cost. The utility of the Tract Societies has been proved. Their united strength and ability to accomplish almost anything they undertake, by way of spreading the truth, is a problem which has been practically demonstrated. Therefore, the question is no longer whether or not much can be done. But the question is, How shall we direct our efforts so that the greatest amount of good can be accomplished in the brief space of time we have allotted us. Soon the Hygienic Almanac for 1876 will be ready to be placed in the hands of those interested in the principles of health reform. One hundred thousand copies is a small number to be judiciously distributed, if all unitedly engage in the work. We have some ten thousand members of the Tract Society and not one need plead that he can do nothing in this direction. All have friends, and every family wants an almanac. One hundred and fifty thousand firesides should have a Hygienic Almanac this coming autumn. It is the determination of those who have the matter in charge to have it the best almanac in the world. More particulars concerning it will be given hereafter. Then there is the Health Reformer, which should by no means be neglected. Hundreds are rejoicing to-day in present truth to whom the Reformer was its pioneer. We have a knowledge of facts which justifies us when we say that there is no health journal which is as acceptable to all classes as this. It is religious, but not sectarian. It offers health and happiness to the thousands who practically embrace the wholesome principles which it contains. Those conducting it are men who fear God, and understand well how to meet the reading masses. The Signs of the Times and the REVIEW AND HERALD, our weekly denominational periodicals, should find not less than a hundred thousand interested new readers this coming season. The Youth’s Instructor, also, should not be forgotten by the missionary workers. There are many Sunday-schools to-day that welcome its monthly visits, and hundreds more would be glad of it, were it properly presented before them. There are families, too, in every community that would esteem it a privilege to pay the small subscription price for the wholesome instruction it contains. And there are the Tridente and the Harold which each successive month find their way into different parts of the world, wherever the Swedish, Danish, or Norwegian language is spoken. Their circulation should be increased. In the missionary work no barrier of nationality or color exists. All are invited to become members of the Tract and Missionary Societies, and to co-operate for the advancement of the cause of God. God “hath made of one85 blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth.” “Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created us?” “There is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free; but Christ is all, and in all.” To save confusion at the Office, the business should be done through your State secretaries, unless special arrangements are made by the Tract Societies to have it done otherwise. Then if mistakes occur they can easily be rectified. For all business done in this manner the Tract Society becomes responsible. The secretary should have a stated time (not less than once or more than twice a week) when all business should be sent to the Office. The money received can be paid by the members of each district to the director of the same, and he will see that it goes to its place of destination. For particulars of officers’ duties see the True Missionary, bound, which every Tract Society should have on hand for its officers and members. To all our old members we say, Be sure you have the armor on in season, and see how many individuals who have recently embraced the truth can be brought into working order. Precious souls have embraced the truth by reading, and by the tent labor in different parts of this country and also in other portions of the world during this past season. They should be instructed in the missionary work, and invited to share in the benefits of the Tract Societies, as well as in its sacrificing labor. The great Sabbath truth is extending to every part of the globe as never before. People are calling for our publications both at home and abroad. And now is the time for us to act our part in warning the world. Our influence should be upon the right side. We should examine well our hearts, ever keeping in mind that this is God’s work, and that it is those who have clean hands and pure hearts that God makes instrumental in doing good. S. B. WHITNEY
By S. B. Whitney
“For men shall be . . . covetous, . . . lovers of pleasure.” On one of the far-famed thousand islands of the St. Lawrence River has been fitted up, by an international association formed for that purpose, a camp-ground on which to hold meetings for the promotion of holiness and salvation, and a meeting has been held there the present season for the ostensible object. But judging from reports emanating from the ground and brought by those returning, it has more the character of a place of resort for pleasure and pastime than anything else. The covetous tendency of those having control of the ground is well illustrated by an incident of recent occurrence. A union Sunday-School excursion and picnic was gotten up in this section, and as a boat was employed that had an agreement with the association to land its S. S. parties on the ground free of charge, when the meeting was not in session, it was advertised that they would visit the ground. But when the steamer rode up to the landing with about six hundred on board, the temptation was too strong, and they were refused admission without paying a fee. After a brief consultation, as the party controlling the ground was inexorable, they hauled in their lines and left in disgust. Sanctification of the Sabbath.
On the sanctification of the Sabbath, Mr. Baird is self-contradictory. He says:— “A preacher parading a Hebrew Bible and Lexicon before a popular audience, and attempting to show that the statement in the second chapter of Genesis, with regard to God’s hallowing the seventh day, is equivalent to a positive enactment regarding the Sabbath, shows nothing so plainly as he shows his utter ignorance of Hebrew.” By this we are led to believe that Mr. Baird considers himself capable of deciding who is and who is not ignorant of Hebrew. Of this we will soon enable the reader to judge for himself. Yet it is quite certain that the words quoted above are a mere flourish, to ward off the force of a plain truth. Gen. 2:3 says God sanctified the seventh day. Ex. 20:11 says he hallowed the rest-day, which is the same thing; for sanctified and hallowed are from the same word, and the seventh day is the rest-day. Of the Hebrew original, Gesenius says it signifies “to sanctify, to make holy, to appoint, to consecrate.” Dr. Clarke says it “signifies to consecrate, separate, set apart a thing or person from all secular purposes to some religious use.” Of the English word sanctify, Webster says: “To make sacred or holy; to set apart to a religious use.” Also, “To secure from violation; to give sanction to.” “The Sabbath was made for man.” Man was to be the observer of the day, and of course it could not be set apart, consecrated, appointed to be sacredly used, secured from violation, and sanction given to it, except by commanding man to refrain from secular labor upon it. A day cannot be appointed for man’s observance, and guarded from violation, and sanction given to it, and man not be informed of it. Instances might be given to show its use in the Bible, but it is not necessary. They all correspond to the following, in Joel 2:15: “Sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly.” A fast could only be sanctified, or appointed, by informing the people and directing them to observe it. He who says the sanctification of the Sabbath was not its appointment for observance shows himself ignorant, not only of the Hebrew, but also of the English as given by Webster. But Mr. Baird contradicts the position he assumes against “a preacher.” On page 8, speaking of their knowledge of weeks as shown in Genesis, he says:— “The blessing and hallowing of the seventh day, spoken of in the second chapter of Genesis, refers to the making that day a blessing to mankind, by setting it apart as a day of rest and sacred observance.” Of course this could not be done and man not be informed of it. And when man was informed that God appointed, or “set it apart, as a day of rest and sacred observance,” that information carried with it the obligation to so observe it. The reader will now be ready to justify our assertion that his declaring “a preacher” ignorant of Hebrew was a mere flourish to cover up the truth; a truth, too, which he elsewhere virtually confessed.—Waggoner’s Review of Baird, pp. 17, 18. THE nineteenth century has witnessed many and great discoveries. In 1809, Fulton took out the first patent for the invention of the steamboat. The first steamboats which made regular trips across the Atlantic Ocean were the Sirius and the Great Western, in 1830. The first public application to practical use of gas for illumination was made in 1802. In 1813, the streets of London were for the first time lighted with gas. In 1813, there was built in Waltham, Mass., a mill, believed to have been the first in the world which combined all the requirements of making finished cloth from the raw cotton. In 1790, there were only twenty-five post-offices in the whole country, and up to 1837 the rates of postage were twenty-five cents for a letter sent over four hundred miles. In 1807, wooden clocks commenced to be made by machinery. This ushered in the era of cheap clocks. About the year 1833, the first railroad of any considerable length in the United States was constructed. In 1840, the first experiments in photography were made by Daguerre. About 1840, the first express business was established. The anthracite coal business may be said to have begun in 1820. In 1836, the first patent for the invention of matches was granted. In 1845, the first telegram was sent. Steel pens were introduced for use in 1803. The first successful trial of a reaper took place in 1833. In 1846, Elias Howe obtained a patent for his first sewing-machine. The first successful method of making vulcanized Indiarubber was patented in 1839.—Sel. Wait on the Lord.
By Roswell F. Cottrell
“Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart; wait, I say, on the Lord.” Our cause, is with the Lord. He knows our case better than any other. Whatever takes place with us, if not by his direct and special providence, is nevertheless by his permission, and, if rightly received, will work for our good. Enemies may seek our harm; friends may be mistaken and err concerning us, but the Lord knows our cause and seeks not our harm, is not deceived or misled, but only seeks our good. It is always safe to wait for and trust in him. “Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him.” Only wait patiently, and wrongs will be redressed and errors corrected. The Lord will direct those who truly trust in him. “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand.” Our every cause is in safe hands. The judgment will be right. “Wait on the Lord, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land.” Truly, wait, keeping the Lord’s way, and the reward is sure. R. F. COTTRELL.