OUR Meeting in this place, although commenced under unfavorable circumstances, closed leaving a good interest in the minds of a portion of that community. Quite a number came from the Capital, six miles from the place of Meeting. On First-day the Tent was well filled, mostly with the intelligent portion of the inhabitants, who gave strict heed to the word spoken, and when an opportunity was given for those who wished to understand more fully the reasons of our faith, to purchase books, our stand was immediately surrounded, and we sold in this place $12.00 worth of books.
We feel confident that many are brought under the sound of the present message by the curiosity they have to attend a Tent-Meeting, who would know nothing of our position were it presented in the usual way in a district school-house. Very many can attribute their conversion to the truth to curiosity which led them to attend Sabbath-keepers’ Meetings. We hope and trust with God’s blessing that many more will date their convictions of the truth to the time when they gratified their curiosity by attending Meetings in a Tent.
The way is opening before us. We shall not have time to visit all the places now in contemplation before cold weather. Therefore we have concluded to visit only those places, where the most good can be done in the shortest time. The cause is one, and our181anxiety is to get our position before the people in the shortest possible time.
The day of trouble is near. What is done for perishing souls must be done speedily! We need the prayers of the saints. Pray for us, brethren, that we may be so guided that an effectual blow may be struck for the cause in Michigan.
J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.
M. E. CORNELL.
Tyrone, July 29th, 1854.
Literary Theft
By Editor
LITERARY THEFT.—In our absence an article was published in the Review of June 13, entitled “Questions for the Candid,” over the signature of E. Harris, which was copied from Sabbath Tract No. 7. We make this statement as an act of justice to the American Sabbath Tract Society.
The Last No-Sabbath Argument
The last argument for no-Sabbath we have seen, is presented by G. A. Brigham, in the Harbinger, [now Expositor] for July 1st. He says:—“But little hope need be entertained of our ever embracing the seventh day while we have the use of our reason. It is said, ‘The Sabbath was made for man,’ we are men, therefore, we must keep the Sabbath. We would remark, circumcision was made for man, we are men, therefore circumcision was made for us, and we must be circumcised. We contend for the validity of one argument as much as the other.”
But it should be borne in mind that it was our Divine Lord who said, “The Sabbath was made for man;” while it is a frail mortal man who presumptuously asserts that “circumcision was made for man.” In contending for the “validity of one argument as much as the other,” B. must consider his own assertion of the same authority as the declaration of the Son of God!!
It is a plain fact, which will not be denied, that “man,” used in the broadest sense, means all mankind; therefore, when the Great Teacher declares that the Sabbath was made for man, he teaches that it was made for the entire race.
Of circumcision, the apostle says: “But he is a Jew which is one inwardly: and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit.” Rom. ii, 29; Col. ii, 11. Outward circumcision was not made for the entire race of man. The inwrought work of the Holy Spirit on the heart, took its place more than 1800 years since. Will those who teach that the Sabbath ceased with circumcision, be so kind as to show us what has taken its place in the gospel?
But we will let the great Apostle settle the question as to circumcision and the commandments of God in the gospel. He says:—“Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God is something.” Whiting’s Translation of 1 Cor. vii, 19. Now let him, who dare, place them upon a level! Such Extreme weakness as is apparent in this last argument for no-Sabbath by B., betrays great anxiety to prop up a tottering cause.
We are inclined to agree with B. that “but little hope need be entertained” of his “embracing the seventh day” for there can be little hope that one who will present so weak a reason for the abolition of the Sabbath, as he has, and then close his article with misrepresentations and slanderous statements relative to Sabbath-keepers, as he has, will ever appreciate real Bible argument, or feel the force of Divine Truth.
WHY DON'T YOU KEEP THE SABBATH DAY?
This question is put to Protestants by a Catholic. It is the title of a small tract in which the writer shows, that, in regard to the Sabbath, Protestants, who profess to follow the "Bible, and the Bible alone," do listen to the voice of "tradition"—do leave their own rule, and take that of Catholics.
We will here give the two rules, and leave the candid reader to judge, whether Protestants, so far as the first day of the week as the Sabbath is concerned, are not in the hands of Papists.
The Rule of Protestants: "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, THOROUGHLY FURNISHED UNTO ALL GOOD WORKS." 2 Tim. iii, 16, 17.
The Papists' Rule: "All Scripture, &c. Every part of divine Scripture is certainly profitable for all these ends. But if we would have the whole rule of Christian faith and practice, we must not be content with those Scriptures which Timothy knew from his infancy, that is with the Old Testament alone; nor yet with the New Testament, without taking along with it the traditions of the apostles, and the interpretation of the church, to which the apostles delivered both the book, and the true meaning of it." Note of the Doway (Catholic) Bible on 2 Tim. iii, 16, 17.
A Question for all Bible Christians.
I am going to propose a very plain and serious question, to which I would entreat all who profess to follow "the Bible and the Bible only" to give their most earnest attention. It is this: Why do you not keep holy the Sabbath-day?
The command of Almighty God stands clearly written in the Bible in these words: "Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work." Ex. xx, 8, 9. Such being God's command then, I ask again, Why do you not obey it? Why do you not keep holy the Sabbath-day?
You will answer me, perhaps, that you do keep holy the Sabbath-day; for that you abstain from all worldly business, and diligently go to church, and say your prayers, and read your Bible at home, every Sunday of your lives.
But Sunday is not the Sabbath-day. Sunday is the first day of the week; the Sabbath-day was the seventh day of the week. Almighty God did not give a commandment that men should keep holy one day in seven; but He named His own day, and said distinctly, "Thou shalt keep holy the seventh day," and He assigned a reason for choosing this day rather than any other—a reason which belongs only to the seventh day of the week, and cannot be applied to the rest. He says, "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it."
Almighty God ordered that all men should rest from their labor on the seventh day, because He too had rested on that day: He did not rest on Sunday, but on Saturday. On Sunday, which is the first day of the week, He began the work of creation, He did not finish it; it was on Saturday that He "ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made; and God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made." Gen. ii, 2, 3. Nothing can be more plain and easy to understand than all this; and there is nobody who attempts to deny it; it is acknowledged by everybody that the day which Almighty God appointed to be kept holy was Saturday, not Sunday. Why do you then keep holy the Sunday, and not Saturday?
You tell me that Saturday was the Jewish Sabbath, but that the Christian Sabbath has been changed to Sunday. Changed! but by whom? Who has authority to change an express commandment of Almighty God? When God has spoken and said, Thou shalt keep holy the seventh day, who shall dare to say, Nay, thou mayest work and do all manner of worldly business on the seventh day; but thou shalt keep holy the first day in its stead? This is a most important question, which I know not how you can answer.
You are a Protestant, and you profess to go by the Bible and the Bible only; and yet in so important a matter as the observance of one day in seven as a holy day, you go against the plain letter of the Bible, and put another day in the place of that day which the Bible has commanded. The command to keep holy the seventh day is one of the ten commandments; you believe that the other nine are still binding; who gave you authority to tamper with the fourth? If you are consistent with your own principles, if you really follow the Bible and the Bible only, you ought to be able to produce some portion of the New Testament in which this fourth commandment is expressly altered, or at least from which you may confidently infer that it was the will of God that Christians should make that change in the observance which you have made. Let us see whether any such passages can be found. I will look for them in the writings of your own champions, who have attempted to defend your practice in this matter.
1. The first text which I find quoted upon the subject is this: "Let no man judge you in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath-days." Col. ii, 16. I could understand a Bible Christian arguing from this passage, that we ought to make no difference between Saturday, and Sunday, and every other day of the week; that under the Christian dispensation all such distinctions of days were done away with; one day was as good and as holy as another; there were to be no Sabbaths, no holy days at all. But not one syllable does it say about the obligation of the Sabbath being transferred from one day to another.
2. Secondly, the words of St. John are quoted, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day." Rev. i, 10. Is it possible that anybody can for a moment imagine that here is a safe and clear rule for changing the weekly rest from the seventh to the first day? This passage is utterly silent upon such a subject; it does but give us Scriptural authority for calling some one day in particular (it does not even say which day) "the Lord's day."
3. Next we are reminded that St. Paul bade his Corinthian converts, "upon the first day of the week, lay by them in store, that there might be no "gatherings" when he himself came. 1 Cor. xvi, 2. How is this supposed to affect the law of the Sabbath? It commands a certain act of almsgiving to be done on the first day of the week. It says absolutely nothing about not doing certain other acts of prayer and public worship on the seventh day.
4. But it was "on the first day of the week" when the disciples were assembled with closed doors for fear of the Jews, and Jesus stood in the midst of them; and again, it was eight days afterwards (that is, on the first day of the following week) that "the disciples were within, and Thomas with them, and Jesus again came and stood in the midst:" (John xx, 19, 26:) that is to say, it was on the evening of the day of the Resurrection that our Lord first showed Himself to many disciples gathered together; and after eight days He again showed Himself to the same company, with the further addition of St. Thomas. What is there in these facts to do away with the obligation of keeping holy the seventh day? Our Lord rose from the dead on the first day of the week, and on the same day at evening He appears to many of His disciples; He appears again on that day week, and perhaps also on other days in the interval. Let Protestants, if they will, keep holy the first day of the week in grateful commemoration of that stupendous mystery, the Resurrection of Christ, and of the evidences which He vouchsafed to give of it to His doubting disciples; but this is no scriptural authority for ceasing to keep holy another day of the week, which God had expressly commanded to be kept holy for another and altogether different reason.
5. But lastly, we have the example of the Apostles themselves, "Upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight." Acts xx, 7. Here we have clear proof that the disciples came together for the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, and that they heard a sermon on a Sunday. But is there any proof that they had not done the same on the Saturday also? Is it not expressly written concerning those early Christians, that they "continued daily with one accord in the temple, breaking bread from house to house?" Acts ii, 46. And as a matter of fact, do we not know from other sources that, in many parts of the Church, the ancient Christians were in the habit of meeting together for public worship, to receive Holy Communion, and to perform the other offices, on Saturdays just the same as on Sundays? Again, then, I say, let Protestants keep holy, if they will, the first day of the week in order that they may resemble those Christians who were gathered together on that day in an upper chamber in Troas; but let them remember that this cannot possibly release them from the obligation of keeping holy another day which Almighty God has ordered to be kept holy, because on that day He "rested from all his work."
I do not know of any other passages of holy Scripture which Protestants are in the habit of quoting to defend their practice of keeping holy the first day of the week instead of the seventh; yet surely those which I have quoted are not such as should satisfy any reasonable man, who looks upon the written word of God as they profess to look upon it, namely, as the one only appointed means of learning God's will, and who really desires to learn and to obey that will in all things with humbleness and simplicity of heart. It is absolutely impossible that a reasonable and thoughtful person should be satisfied, by the texts that I have quoted, that Almighty God intended the obligation of Saturday under the old law to be transferred to Sunday under the new. And yet Protestants do so transfer it, and never seem to have the slightest misgivings, lest, in doing so, they should be guilty of breaking one of God's commandments. Why is this? Because, although they talk so largely about following the Bible and the Bible only, they are really guided in this matter by the voice of tradition. Yes, much as they may hate and denounce the word, they have in fact, no other authority to allege for this most important change. The present generation of Protestants keep Sunday holy instead of Saturday, because they received it as a part of the Christian religion from the last generation, and that generation received it from the generation before, and so on backwards from one generation to another, by a continual succession, until we come to the time of the (so-called) Reformation, when it so happened that those who conducted the change of religion in this country left this particular portion of Catholic faith and practice untouched.
But, had it happened otherwise—had some one or other of the "Reformers" taken it into his head to denounce the observance of Sunday as a Popish corruption and superstition, and to insist upon it that Saturday was the day which God had appointed to be kept holy, and that he had never authorized the observance of any other—all Protestants would have been obliged, in obedience to their professed principle of following the Bible and the Bible only, either182to acknowledge this teaching as true, and to return to the observance of the ancient Sabbath, or else to deny that there is any Sabbath at all. And so, in like manner, any one at the present day who should set about, honestly and without prejudice, to draw up for himself a form of religious belief and practice out of the written Word of God, must needs come to the same conclusion; he must either believe that the Sabbath is still binding upon men's consciences, because of the Divine command, "Thou shalt keep holy the seventh day;" or he must believe that no Sabbath at all is binding upon them, because of the Apostolic injunction, "Let no man judge you in respect of a festival day, or of the sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is Christ's." Either one or the other of these conclusions he might honestly come to; but he would know nothing whatever of a Christian Sabbath distinct from the ancient, celebrated on a different day, and observed in a different manner, simply because Holy Scripture itself nowhere speaks of such a thing.
Now, mind, in all this you would greatly misunderstand me if you supposed I was quarrelling with you for acting in this matter on a true and right principle, in other words, a Catholic principle; viz., the acceptance, without hesitation, of that which has been handed down to you by an unbroken tradition. I would not tear from you a single one of those shreds and fragments of Divine truth which you have retained. God forbid! They are the most precious things you possess, and by God's blessing may serve as clues to bring you out of that labyrinth of error in which you find yourselves involved, far more by the fault of your forefathers three centuries ago than by your own.
What I do quarrel with you for is, not your inconsistency in occasionally acting on a true principle, but your adoption, as a general rule, of a false one. You keep the Sunday, and not the Saturday; and you do so rightly, for this was the practice of all Christians when Protestantism began; but you have abandoned other Catholic observances which were equally universal at that day, preferring the novelties introduced by the men who invented Protestantism, to the unvarying tradition of above 1500 years. We blame you not for making Sunday your weekly holiday instead of Saturday, but for rejecting tradition, which is the only safe and clear rule by which this observance can be justified. In outward act we do the same as yourselves in this matter; we too no longer observe the ancient Sabbath, but Sunday in its stead; but then there is this important difference between us, that we do not pretend, as you do, to derive our authority for so-doing from a book, but we derive it from a living teacher, and that teacher is the Church. Moreover, we believe that not every thing which God would have us to know and to do is written in the Bible, but that there is also an unwritten word of God, which we are bound to believe and obey, just as we believe and obey the Bible itself, according to that saying of the Apostle, "Stand fast and hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by word or by our epistle." 2 Thess. ii, 14. We Catholics, then, have precisely the same authority for keeping Sunday holy instead of Saturday as we have for every other article of our creed; namely, the authority of "the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth;" [2 Tim. iii, 15;] whereas you who are Protestants have really no authority for it whatever; for there is no authority for it in the Bible, and you will not allow that there can be authority for it anywhere else. Both you and we do, in fact, follow tradition in this matter; but we follow it, believing it to be a part of God's word, and the Church to be its divinely-appointed guardian and interpreter; you follow it, denouncing it all the time as a fallible and treacherous guide, which often "makes the commandment of God of none effect."
LOVE:
By Lois J. Richmond
“A NEW COMMANDMENT I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” John xiii, 34.
No one can say but this commandment is binding in all its fullness, as it was given by the great head of the Church, Jesus Christ. His love to us is inexpressible, yet free and undeserved; so great that he condescended to leave the realms of glory, and come into this dark world of sin and sorrow, to lead a life of suffering. He came a babe in the manger; and as we follow him along through life, we hear him declare, “The foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.” The world knew him not; he came to his own, and his own received him not. View him in the garden of Gethsemane—there in his agony he prayed, and he sweat as it were great drops of blood, falling down to the ground; and from thence he is led away to Pilate’s judgment hall, and there buffeted, mocked and spit upon, yet he opened not his mouth. But all is not yet over. Up Calvary’s rugged height he bears the cross, upon which he is nailed, and there spills his precious blood, groans and dies. And for what? For a friend or brother? No, no! but for poor, sinful man, who had forfeited all right to life and immortality, whose doom was death, eternal death. O what love! “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” 1 John iii, 16. We may profess to keep the commandments of God, and outwardly observe the ten precepts; yet if we are destitute of the great principle of love in our hearts, it will profit us nothing.
Says the prophet Isaiah, “Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.” Chap. viii, 16. That this prophecy applies to the present time, is evident from the following texts: “And I will wait upon the Lord that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.” Verse 19. “And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them.” As this prophecy is fast fulfilling before our eyes, in the many that are seeking to the dead for knowledge, I think the time has fully come for the testimony to be bound up, and the law sealed among the disciples. I understand the testimony and law here to mean the same as in Rev. xii, 17. “And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” The testimony of Jesus embraces all the requirements of the New Testament. To bind up the testimony while a certain portion of it is being trampled under foot, would be impossible; therefore it must first all be restored and kept by the true Church. Says the apostle Paul, “Put on charity, [love,] which is the bond of perfectness.” Love then is the bond which binds up the testimony, makes perfect the child of God, that they may receive the seal of the living God. Without love we are nothing. Says Paul, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, [love,] I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. All these gifts are good, but unless we put on love, which is the bond of perfectness, and which unites us to the true vine, Jesus Christ, we are nothing. Charity suffereth long and is kind; envieth not; vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things; charity never faileth.” 1 Cor. xiii, 3–8. Praise the Lord! O that these words might be written and engraven in the fleshy tables of our hearts. Love thinketh no evil. O you that are looking with suspicion upon your brethren, and watching for iniquity, think of this! Cast an eye within and ask yourself if the great principle of love dwells there. A certain lawyer once came to Christ and inquired of him what he should do to inherit eternal life. He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? And he answering, said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do and thou shalt live.
Many there are at this day who say the ten commandments are not binding upon us; that they are abolished, dead and buried, &c.; but at the same time will admit these two quoted by the lawyer, to be binding, and to be kept that we may have eternal life. We would answer them in the language of our Saviour, This do and thou shalt live. Here, then, is a standard to which we may come and try ourselves and see wherein we come short, and while we thus try ourselves by the word of God, let us ever remember that he has said, Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. God’s words will stand, and if we would stand amid the burning wrath of God in the seven last plagues, our feet must be firmly planted upon his Word. Truth alone must be our shield; through it we are to be sanctified. A theoretical knowledge of the truth, without reducing it to a constant practice, will do us no good. We are commanded by God the Father, [Lev. xix, 18,] and by Jesus the Son, [Matt. xix, 19,] to love our neighbor as ourself. Are we living in obedience to this command? I would ask the question to those who say that God’s ten precepts are abolished, when we urge upon you the necessity of keeping the fourth commandment, we are often met with the reply, Show it to us in the New Testament and we will keep it. Now here is a plain command both in the Old and New Testaments, to love our neighbor as ourself. Do you do it? Perhaps you will answer as did the young man who came to Jesus: All these have I kept, what lack I yet? But suppose Jesus, to test the sincerity of your love, should say as he did to the young man, Go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, would you not go away sorrowful? No doubt but this young man outwardly observed every precept of the law, yet he was not perfect: there was a lack of love to his neighbor; for if there had not been he would not have gone away sorrowful, but joyfully distributed his goods to the poor, and followed Jesus. Again we are commanded to look, not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Phil. ii, 4. Love seeketh not her own. Our blessed Saviour did not seek his own ease or comfort, but the welfare of others. If we would be owned and approved of him when he comes to make up his jewels, we must be found following in his footsteps.
Love worketh no ill to his neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Rom. xiii, 10. If we love our neighbor as ourself, we shall not break one of the last six commandments, which show our duty to him; and if we love God with all our hearts, we shall keep the first four, which show our duty to him. Love is the fulfilling of the law. On these two commandments, love to God and love to man, says Jesus, hangs ALL the law and the prophets; and if all hangs there, one jot or one tittle has not passed away, and we may keep the Sabbath without being Judaizers, or falling from grace. Praise the Lord! Says John, This is the love of God that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous.
While I look into the word of God and contemplate upon the way which leads to life, and what we must be to enter there, I feel to exclaim in the language of our blessed Saviour, Strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Matt. vii, 14. Let our station in life be never so high, our profession what it may, if we are not living by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord, we shall at last be weighed in the balances and found wanting. O the solemnity of the time in which we live! Did we but realize it, our minds would not be taken up with things around us, but in seeking the preparation needful to stand in the coming storm of the wrath of God. The last sands of time are crumbling beneath our feet; the mighty men are awake; the nations are angry; dark clouds are already gathering over a guilty world; men’s hearts are failing them for fear, and for looking for those things that are coming on the earth.
But is there no way of escape? no shelter beneath which we may be secure in that day? O hear the voice: He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. . . . A thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. Because thou hast made the Most High thy habitation, there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. Ps. xci. Truth alone will shield us. Says the Psalmist, Thy law is the truth. And let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. Eccl. xii, 13. Our Saviour says, This do, and thou shalt live. Luke x, 28. James says, Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. Chap. ii, 10.
The warning voice of the third angel is waxing louder and louder, the standard is raised, the banner unfurled, on which is written the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. On the one hand are the commandment-breakers, and on the other commandment-keepers; on which side will ye be found? Choose ye this day whom ye will serve. If the Lord be God, serve him—keep his commandments; if Baal, then serve him, and keep the traditions of men. As for me I will serve the Lord and keep his commandments,183that I may have right to the tree of life, and enter in through the gates into the City.
LOIS J. RICHMOND:
Ashfield, Mass., June 18th, 1854.
LESSON FROM GOD'S WAYS.
DAVID, the shepherd boy, the musician, the hunted fugitive, the mighty king, the sweet singer, the humble penitent, the inspired writer, the afflicted father, in his varied life, studied the ways of God, in his word and in his works. When his mind was full of this contemplation he exclaims: “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me: it is high, I cannot attain unto it.” The Lord himself admonishes his people against presumption by saying, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” When the Prophet had uttered these awe-inspiring words, he proceeds to foretell that glorious time, when, instead of the thorn, shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the briar, shall come up the myrtle-tree: and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.” Isa. lv, 13. Man, with his limited thoughts, is inclined to look for the fulfillment of this prophecy in the present state, while his cities, palaces, ships, towers, and monuments are mingled with the renovated works of God.
But a reverent study of God's word will correct this childish fancy. The earth is subjected to the curse while sin remains in it. Sin will remain till Christ comes, for his coming shall find the earth as it was before the flood. The earth and the works that are therein, shall be burned up: but from the melted remains, God can create a new earth as easily as he created a glorious Paradise for Adam out of chaos. This, it is manifest, will be God's way, but it is widely different from
MAN'S THOUGHTS.
Man, who rejoices in the inventions of the steam-engine, and the magnetic telegraph, as the child rejoices over his last play-thing, imagines that God will delay the promised renovation of all things, till the wonderful powers of these inventions have been tried a little longer. He exults in the fact that he can guide steam so that it will transport him from New York to Washington in one day instead of four, and that he can send the letters which spell out his thoughts on magnetized wires with a swiftness a million times greater still. Men become “boasters,” as the Apostle foretold, and talk great swelling words about the wonderful changes they are going to bring about. In a few years, they say, we will penetrate the western forests, and thriving villages shall dot the banks of the Columbia river. We will pierce the earth's surface, and dig out its gems and gold, its iron and coal. Surely, the end will not come to cut off these important enterprizes in their midst. In such strains men often talk, “but they are vain words.”
“But God delights in the improvement of his creatures,” says one, “and therefore he will give us time to improve.” But has he not tried us six thousand years, and is he pleased with our progress? Adam and Eve had a thirst for “progress,” and “improvement,” when they aspired to be as gods, and not satisfied with the constant enjoyment of unmingled good, partook of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The same ambitious spirit prompts to most of our boasted “advancement in arts and sciences.” Has God, who met it then with a frown, before which the earth trembled, and clothed itself in sackcloth, become better pleased with it, after observing its operations for sixty centuries? By no means!
Let us see how he has regarded
MAN'S DEEDS.
When Eve, led on by appetite and thirst for knowledge, had partaken of that tree, whose fruit was desired to make one wise, and had found her husband willing to join, then God, who knew the awful consequences of having those hands destitute of employment, to which such hearts gave impulse, immediately brought the world, in its Eden state, to an end; for a rougher discipline was now needful. Then the Lord began to execute that glorious scheme which is designed to bring many sons into glory. But men resisted the Holy Ghost, and rejected the counsel of God against themselves. The Lord had commanded them while in Eden, to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. The earth, being very good, was designed as the abode of righteous persons. After the curse took effect, it was the manifest purpose of God to provide a remedy suited to every disease. But men continued to seek out many inventions. Their multiplication was not good in itself, and it was checked by death. When the discipline of life had been continued till its purpose was effected, in the preparation of the righteous for glory, or the wicked had corrupted their way, and hardened themselves beyond recovery, then that discipline ceased, and the individual died. The shortest lives we read of before the flood, were those of Abel and Enoch. It is often said that God will not burn up this earth, because it has not yet been all peopled. To this he has furnished an answer by the flood. Mankind were fast filling the earth then, and there were great and strong races of giants among them, but they were rebels against God, and therefore the flood swept them away.
“But God will give us time to perfect the arts,” says one. Go back and read the answer to this which God has written for 4000 years, as if to have it in readiness now. The tower of Babel was a magnificent conception, and it was rapidly advancing to its completion. But he who loves a humble and contrite spirit, severed the united family of man into fragments, to stop it in its progress. Nebuchadnezzar was a great patron of the arts, but Jehovah was not dazzled by his brilliant works. He was struck down from his rank as a man, that he might learn humility; and that great city, Babylon, the greatest wonder of the world, has crumbled into dust and passed away. The arts in Egypt were many of them far beyond the reach of modern imitation. But Thebes, their renowned city, with its temple two miles in circumference, has been in ruins for thousands of years, and Egypt has long been “the basest of kingdoms.”
Herculaneum and Pompeii are now known to have made great advances in all the arts which adorn society, and give luxury to life, but their many thousands of inhabitants were swallowed up in an instant, because their guilt was like that of Sodom.
The Lord seeth not as man seeth. The improvements which have changed the face of society so completely from what it was in the days of Abraham, have not made the characters of men more pleasing to God. On the contrary, the wonderful advances in the sciences and arts, increase pride, and worldliness of spirit. If we look at the world as God sees it, we must see that the incessant strivings after novelties are an acting forth of the spirit which led Eve to partake of the forbidden fruit. If all that is said of Mesmerism is true, we see not how secret things can be said to belong to God. For there seems to be nothing in the universe beyond its reach. While men are thus penetrating into the secret laws which govern mind and matter, infidelity abounds, and God may see that now is the time to manifest himself to the humble who have waited for him, and to abase the pride of those who have not liked to retain God in their knowledge.
Pride is a characteristic of this age. “The glorious nineteenth century” is the theme of every day's boast. But “pride goeth before destruction,” as God has taught us in his works as well as in his word. The angels kept not their first estate, doubtless because they sought something higher, and they were cast down to be kept in chains under darkness. They presented the same temptation to our first parents, who, seeking to be as gods, brought shame and death on themselves. Pride kept the people of the old world from submitting to God, and the flood swept them away. Pride led to the confusion of Babel, and it has continued a Babel-like confusion among the works of God to this day. But the day is at hand when the Lord alone shall be exalted. For that day let us wait in faith, and while it tarries, let us watch and be sober, always abounding in the work of the Lord.