Earlier text: Thy Kingdom ComeHenry Day, a New York lawyer, recently visited the Holy Land, and in a letter to the N. Y. Observer, gives the following description of a city whose name dates from the days of Abraham (Gen. 15: 2):— Every house in Damascus of any pretension, has a court around it, in which are blooming orange and lemon trees and exquisite flowers, while a fountain is throwing up its cooling spray in the center. Larger houses have a fine garden filled with trees, with a little stream of pure water purling through it. The whole city is filled with gardens and fountains. The inhabitants who have no such home comforts close their shops at three o’clock, and repair to the public gardens, where they take their coffee and spend the rest of the day in these shady retreats, where there is constant music of birds and of streams. The women go with their families to these gardens and spend the afternoon and evening, taking their food with them. This outdoor life seems a blessed resource in these hot climates. Here they have their amusements, and during the evening bands of music are playing under the trees, which are lighted up with lanterns of different colors. Everything is eastern, fairy and delightful, externally. The most noticeable feature internally, in Damascus, are its gardens, fountains, and bazaars. The bazaars contain the light fabrics of all nations, from Lowell prints to the richest cashmeres of Thibet, and all the intervening wares of all intervening nations. Here ladies like to purchase jewelry, embroidered tablecovers, and fabrics worked with gold and silver thread. Externally, Damascus is an oasis in a desert. The River Arbana runs through it, and Pharpar about three miles to the south. Their banks, as they stretch out into the desert, are lines of living green amid the sandy wastes, on the north-east of the city. Extending up from anti-Lebanon, far out into the desert, is a range of most desolate, forbidding-looking rocks, looking from their aridness like mountains of salt, with broken rocks piled in everlasting confusion around their bases. To the south-west rises Hermon, and to the east lies the desert waste. Only one building in Damascus possesses any great attraction for its magnificence, and that is the Grand Mosque. This was once an immense heathen temple. Afterward, as was customary where Christianity prevailed, the heathen temple was transformed into a Christian church, and this in its turn into a mosque by the Mohammedans. Traces of each of these eras, the heathen and the Christian, are still visible in this immense structure. Hundreds of feet in front of the present building, towering over the book-binders’ bazaar, who have their little stalls all around it, stands the propylon, or gateway to the court of the ancient heathen temple. The most striking thing which shows its Christian character still exists on the southern facade of the Mosque, notwithstanding the fanatical zeal of the Moslem to destroy every mark of its Christian character. By crawling up to and along the silversmith’s bazaars, which are built along the south wall, you come to a beautiful and lofty arch of an ancient doorway at the Christian church, which is now walled up. Cut in the stone over this doorway, and plainly visible, in Greek characters, are the words, “Thy kingdom, O Christ! is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth unto all generations.” Notwithstanding their hatred, here stands the most sacred Mosque of the Moslem, giving testimony age after age, to the eternal dominion of the hated Nazarene. Here in this Mosque is the tomb of the great Saladin, and over his tomb is preserved the immense turban which he wore, being nothing but a roll of green cloth, about four inches thick around the head and about two feet high. They will show you in Damascus the house of Ananias, the house of Judas where Paul was, and the house from which he was let down in a basket. Inasmuch as Damascus has been frequently sacked and burned by contending armies, we may be excused for incredulity as to these places. The street called Straight still exists, although somewhat crooked. It is now the chief bazaar of Damascus. The Damascenes are the most bigoted and fanatical of all the Moslem people. They glory in Damascus as the home of the great prophet, as the center of the triumphs of his religion, and as the capital of the great caliphs who once ruled from the Atlantic to the Euphrates. They like the Christian’s money, but they stand ready to lap his blood at any moment. In 1860 they killed in cold blood 6,000 Christians in one day. We saw one little Greek church where one hundred women and children in their terror had fled for refuge, and where they were all butchered like swine by the ruthless Moslem. Much of the zeal of these people arises from their pecuniary interest in their faith. They make a large amount of money from the annual pilgrimages to Mecca, which start in December of each year from one gate of Damascus, and return in the following April through another. Thousands of people of all conditions, from this city and surrounding countries, go on this pilgrimage in one mighty caravan across the desert. Bedouin chiefs of the surrounding tribes furnish the camels. Some go from holy zeal, some go for the notoriety and honor of the thing, and some for trade and profit. The great caravan is called the Hadji and every pilgrim who returns from the holy shrine is thereafter called a Hadji and wears the green turban. The Sultan appoints some persons of high rank to conduct the Hadji. They bear annually a new robe, a covering for the prophet’s tomb, and bring away in great pomp the cloth which has covered the tomb the year preceding. The camel which bears this cloth back, spread over him like a beautiful canopy, is called the holy camel, and is fed on almonds during the journey. The day of the return of the Hadji is a great festival at Damascus. We were so fortunate as to witness it. The great host were a whole day marching into the city. First came long lines of military guards. Next came the leader of the Hadji, a splendid looking man, gorgeously dressed in green, riding a beautiful horse. Long lines of Bedouins of the desert, mounted on lofty camels holding tall spears, and dressed in coarse, flowing robes, followed. Next came the pilgrims, thousands of every description—some rich, some poor—men, women, and children, all perched on camels, following each other in solemn, stately array. Persons of rank and wealth rode in elegant pavilions, each of which contained a family, borne on the back of a camel. Each pavilion was about eight feet square, and held two mattresses, one on each side of the camel, which were seats by day and beds by night. Some of these pavilions were most elegantly fitted up with curtains of colored silk and Persian rugs. The more common people rode on the ordinary saddle of the camel, with something like large bags slung each side, containing children, provisions, and utensils—a whole household on one camel. The garments of many of the Hadji were worn to shreds by the long and terrible journey. As the holy camel passed, bearing the sacred covering of the tomb, the whole populace crowded up to touch him and kiss the robe. The sight is most imposing. The whole city throng the streets to welcome their friends or greet the pilgrims; while the solemn-looking camels, bearing their ponderous burdens led by the wild-looking Bedouins, filed by for hours. Damascus is not so beautiful and striking a city as Cairo. There are no indications of Western influence and enterprise—no signs of improvement. The great idea which seems to actuate the people, and which is seen in everything, is: “Let us eat, drink, and take our ease.” Self-indulgence seems to be the law of life in Damascus. They need a railroad to start them on the march of progress, and its shrill whistle to awaken them from the slumber of ages.—Sel. A. M. LINDSLEY
By A. M. Lindsley
THE great annual meeting of the spiritualists of this county has just been held at Phoenix; and while I could see load after load going to the place, I felt truly that it was one of the striking signs of the times. The more we see this delusion spreading, just so fast the time is hastening on to the deliverance of the people of God. The great harvest is ripening. Satan is at work in every way he can to lead fallen humanity on to certain destruction. Spiritualism is his great master-piece by which he is to gather an abundant harvest. All unconsciously the poor victim of his deceptive lies is drawn into the snare which was being prepared many thousand years ago by his preaching in Eden, the garden of God. He sticks well to his text that he first preached to Eve. He said to her, Ye shall not surely die, but ye shall be as gods. He preaches the same to-day. He has kept the track good on which to run so strong a delusion, and by-and-by, we shall see the fruit of his skill and craftiness, for, according to the word of God, the spirits of devils working miracles, are to go forth to the kings of the whole world to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Only a few who arm themselves with the scriptural doctrine that the dead know not anything will be proof against him. If the dead are unconscious as the Bible teaches, that truth will save us from the delusion that they are able to come here to teach the living. How plainly it can be seen that the harvest is ripe. The reapers are sent first to gather the tares into bundles to be burned. Matt. 13: 30. The same work is being done to gather the wheat for the heavenly garner. While a certain class are being drawn after spiritualism, it will leave the coast more clear with those that remain to hear the warning voice of the present truth. By-and-by, Babylon will be filled up with every unclean thing, and the cry will swell louder and louder to God’s people, Come out of her, my people, and be not partakers of her sins, or receive of her plagues, which are soon to fall without a mixture of mercy on the heads of the wicked. The time hastens on. “O King of mercy, grant us power
Thy fiery wrath to flee;
In thy destroying angel’s hour,
O gather us to thee!” It is quite refreshing to find one fact mentioned in the Bible, which the modern men of science are willing to admit is confirmed by the progress of discovery. Mr. George Smith, of the British Museum, makes the subjoined most interesting account of the record of the deluge, which he has lately deciphered from the Assyrian monuments:— The cuneiform inscription which I have recently found and translated, gives a long and full account of the deluge. It contains the version or tradition of this event which existed in the early Chaldean period at the city of Erech (one of the cities of Nimrod), now represented by the ruins of Warka. In this newly discovered inscription, the account of the deluge is put as a narrative into the mouth of Xisuthrus, or Noah. He relates the wickedness of the world, the command to build the ark, its building, the filling of it, the deluge, the resting of the ark on a mountain, the sending out of the birds, and other matters. The narrative has a closer resemblance to the account transmitted by the Greeks from Berosus, the Chaldean historian, than to the biblical history, but it does not differ materially from either. The principal differences are as to the duration of the deluge, the name of the mountain on which the ark rested, the sending out of the birds, etc. The cuneiform account is much longer and fuller than that of Berosus, and has several details omitted both by the Bible and the Chaldean historian. This inscription opens up many questions of which we knew nothing previously, and it is connected with a number of other details of Chaldean history which will be both interesting and important. This is the first time any inscription has been found with an account of an event mentioned in Genesis.—Sel. Mr. Moody, at one of his meetings in Glasgow, turned to Matt. 17: 1–9, and after reading the account of the transfiguration, observed: “Luke says, ‘Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep.’ Asleep while Jesus was transfigured before them! Jesus in a glorified state, and they asleep so near the glory! This is a striking picture of the church of Christ in the present day. We are near the glory. No one can read the prophecies of Scripture with their eyes open and fail to perceive that the second coming of Christ and the glory of the millennium are near at hand; and yet those who ought to be watching are asleep.” Rev. F. Whitefield, M. A., in an address before the London Prophetical Conference last May, said: “The grand thought before us is—the Lord is coming. Are we living in the blessed hope? Are we putting off everything that will not bear the searching character of that day? Oh, it will try us—all of us! It will try our hearts, try our principles, try all within us, and all without us. It will bring a blush on thousands of faces, even of God’s own children! It will make many an important thing now lighter than the small dust of the balance! Oh, that day, that day! How it will make everything now in each one’s history fall into its right place, if only we bring it into everything? May each member of the church of Christ do this more and more, ‘as we see the day approaching.’” Dr. Horatius Bonar is the author of these remarks: “The church’s pilgrimage is nearly done, yet she is not less a pilgrim as its end draws nigh. Nay, more so. The last stage of the journey is the dreariest for her. Her path lies through the thickest darkness that the world has yet felt. It seems as if it were only by the fitful blaze of conflagrations that we can now shape our way. It is the sound of falling kingdoms that is guiding us onward. It is the fragments of broken thrones lying across our path that assure us that our route is the true one, and that its end is near,—that end, the morning with its songs; and in that morning, a kingdom; and in that kingdom, glory; and in that glory, the everlasting rest—the Sabbath of eternity.”—Messiah’s Herald. Brosen Zeitung, of Berlin, publishes an account of the military forces of the great powers of Europe, from which it draws the conclusion that “several of the powers which have hitherto been ranked as of the first class will, in consequence of their military development not having kept pace with that of other great powers, be incapable of going to war in future unless they have allies. This is especially the case with Austria and England, and also with Italy.” The strongest military power, says the writer, is Russia. The Russian army, which hitherto consisted of 773 battalions (equal to 771 German ones), is now raised to 228 regiments of infantry with 784 battalions, 228 rifle battalions, 250 reserve battalions under the new army organization, 73 regiments of the Guard and of the calvary of the line, 50 regiments of Don Cossacks (for service in Europe with 660 squadrons) and 701 batteries of eight guns each. Of this force 96 battalions, 20 squadrons, and 16 batteries belong to the Caucasian or Asiatic army, so that there remains a force of 816 battalions on active service, and 250 reserve battalions for disposal in Europe. Next comes Germany. This power, reckoning only the troops which are ready for the field, has 148 regiments of the guard and infantry of the line (equal to 445 battalions), 24 rifle battalions, 302 battalions, of the Landwehr, 120 cavalry regiments with 556 squadrons, and 382 batteries (including 72 reserves) of six guns each. The French army will, under the new organization, consist of 148 infantry regiments (including four Turcos regiments) and 30 rifle battalions, making in all 518 battalions on active service, and 228 reserve battalions. To these must be added 64 cavalry regiments, with 384 squadrons and 360 batteries of six guns each. Austria has only 80 infantry regiments (240 battalions), 40 rifle battalions, 41 cavalry regiments and 176 batteries of six guns each. Her 160 reserve and 140 Landwehr battalions are as yet raw troops, which it would take some time to train for active service. The Italian army is similar in strength to that of Austria. It consists of 80 infantry regiments, 10 of Bersaglieri, 20 cavalry, and 10 of artillery—270 battalions in all—and 160 batteries of six guns each. The last of the European States as a military power, concludes the Brosen Zeitung, is England, which can only muster for service in Europe 107 battalions, 92 squadrons, and 84 batteries of six to eight guns each.—Pall Mall Gazette. For the Christian Statesman.
By J. H. Waggoner
The Statesman, the organ of the “Religious Amendment” party, persists in treating with lightness the views, and as it says the fears, of Seventh-day Adventists. In its discussion with Elder Littlejohn, it gravely declared that the principles of the amendmentists were such that S. D. Adventists ought to unite with them to secure such an amendment to the Constitution. And it has constantly claimed that we are inconsistent, as advocates of order, morality, and Sabbath-keeping, in opposing their efforts to secure the very things we are advocating. That paper and their prominent speakers have ever represented that party as above all others consistent in their aims and actions. We must confess that we cannot see it in that light, but we honestly profess a willingness to be convinced. As that paper and the advocates of that movement have always professed a readiness to explain their positions, we request it to give us light on the following questions. 1. They have announced as their object to “place all Christian laws, usages, and institutions on an undeniable legal basis in the fundamental law of the land.” Do they use the term “legal basis” in its obvious and ordinary sense, as that the observance of these institutions shall no longer be optional, as at present, but be enforced by legal process? To be consistent with all their past declarations this must be answered in the affirmative. 2. Do they hold that the observance of the first day of the week, is a “Christian institution,” to be placed on a legal basis, so that its observance shall be enforced by law on those who are not professedly Christians? Their repeated avowals have already answered this, but we wish them to notice it here in connection with the following:— 3. Do they, in common with the body of Christians both past and present, hold that baptism and the Lord’s supper are “Christian institutions”? 4. Is it their desire and intention to have these also enforced by civil process upon unbelievers when this amendment is secured? If they answer this in the affirmative, then we further inquire:— 5. Do they think that Christianity and its institutions will be honored and the cause advanced by compelling non-professors to observe baptism and the Lord’s supper? But if the fourth question shall be answered in the negative, then we inquire:— 6. Why do they thus discriminate between what they hold to be Christian institutions? And how, then, are we to trust their profession of honest consistency when they tell us that “all Christian institutions, laws, and usages,” are to be placed on a legal basis in this government. The Statesman will not deny the relevancy of these questions. And they will sometime have to be decided. They are important, and we should wish to understand their position thereon clearly before we could give our assent to their movement. We will not so far call in question the frankness of their profession as to doubt that they will early give us information on these queries. The Second Coming of Christ.
By Uriah Smith
We have spoken of the importance of the subject of the second personal advent of the Saviour to our world. In developing a brief argument upon the question, we notice first, the absolute necessity that such an event should take place. Christ has undertaken the redemption of his people. God’s revealed will makes known to us the occasion for this work, and the means by which it is to be accomplished. Inasmuch as death has passed upon all men through Adam’s transgression, a restoration from that condition becomes a prime necessity. And inasmuch as, through sin, the curse has fallen upon the earth, the proposed redemption must remove its effects that it shall leave no trace behind. God has declared his purpose that the earth shall be inhabited, certainly by a race of holy beings, Isa. 45:18; that the meek shall inherit it, Matt. 5:5; that the righteous shall dwell in it, 2 Pet. 3:13. But he never would abandon his people to the eternal occupancy of a sin-polluted abode. The place will be made holy for a holy people. It was promised Abraham that he should be the heir of the world. Rom. 4:13. He died without having received the promise. Heb. 11:8, 13. How is it to be fulfilled to him? In the same way that he accounted that God was able to fulfill the promise concerning Isaac, when called to offer him up; namely, by a resurrection from the dead. Abraham is in his grave, and the earth is still under the defilement of sin. The earth is not now in a condition for the fulfillment of the promise, nor Abraham in a condition to receive it. But the promise will be fulfilled. Abraham will be raised from the dead; and the earth as the eternal abode of himself and his seed, will be purified from sin. That the resurrection is to be a literal coming up from the grave and a restoration to life is shown by the impressive vision recorded in Ezekiel 37. Sinews are laid upon the dry bones. Flesh comes up upon them. Skin covers them. From the four winds the breath of life is breathed into them; and they live, and stand up an exceeding great army. By what means is the resurrection of the dead to be accomplished? We inquire not now how it might have been accomplished. God is not limited in resources, and might have accomplished his purposes in any one of an infinite number of ways. But in what way has he seen fit that this event shall be accomplished, as revealed in his word? We answer, It is by the personal return of the Lord to this earth in power and glory. The resurrection, in reference to the means by which it is accomplished, is everywhere connected with this event, and everywhere made to depend upon it. The dead rise “at the last day,” John 11:24, “at the last trump,” 1 Cor. 15:52, when “the Lord himself descends from heaven,” 1 Thess. 4:16, at the literal voice of the Son of God, John 5:28, 29, when the righteous are rewarded, Luke 14:14, which is at the second coming of Christ, Rev. 22:12, when the quick and dead are judged, at his appearing and kingdom, 2 Tim. 4:1, and when such men as Paul, who have finished their course, receive their crown of life, in the day of his appearing. Verse 8. The resurrection of the dead is therefore necessary to the promised redemption. Without a future life the promises to Abraham and his seed cannot be fulfilled; and there is no other avenue to the future life except through the resurrection; for Paul in the most explicit language testifies that if there be no resurrection, then those that have fallen asleep, yes, even those that have fallen asleep in Christ, who certainly have a hope of eternal life if any one has, even they have perished. 1 Cor. 15:16–18. And unless Christ returns from Heaven with the archangel’s trump, and with his own divine voice wakes the slumberers in the silent tomb, they never will come forth from their dusty beds. Without the coming of Christ there is to be no resurrection. We know that men generally believe in a different method of obtaining eternal life. They tell us of a mysterious principle dwelling in every member of the human family, denominated the immaterial spirit, the immortal soul, which lives on unaffected by the death of the body, in more than earthly consciousness and activity, capable in its own nature of existing forever, and consequently passing right on at death into the realms of eternal life. Thus they have it that all are in possession of eternal life, though Christ should never return, and the dead should never be raised. But this is a way of their own devising. These are sparks of their own kindling. These are cisterns of their own hewing. They hold no water. They do not contain the gospel hope. The Bible knows nothing of that product of heathen mythology, the immaterial deathless spirit, which has peopled the pagan heavens with deified dead men, and robs the gospel of Christ of its foundation and its glory. Not by a spirit shooting off into space when the body dies, do we gain the other world, and the life to come, but by the personal return of the Lord to perform the crowning acts in his great scheme of redemption: to gather his people from the land of the enemy, Jer. 31:15, 16, clothe them with immortality, 1 Cor. 15:52–54, gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and them which do iniquity, Matt. 13:41, take his own long-promised throne, Luke 1:32, 33, and put into actual operation that kingdom the coming of which the disciples of Christ are taught to remember in constant prayer. Matt. 6:10; Luke 22:29; Rev. 3:21. The idea of the personal return of our Lord to complete his redeeming work, is in harmony with his whole course of action in regard to it thus far. He has manifested a personal interest in his work and often been personally present to carry it forward. In Eden man held personal converse with the deity. A divine being whom we have reason to believe was the Son of God, appeared personally to Abraham. Gen. 18:1. With the Israelites in the wilderness Paul assures us that Christ was personally present. 1 Cor. 10:1–4. And no Bible believer doubts his personal presence here on earth, when at his first advent he came to perform that act which lies at the foundation of the whole scheme by giving himself an offering for the world. Will he now remain away and leave the work to be finished in some other manner? Having shown himself here in his humility, will he not also appear here in his glory? Yes; for he is coming in glory with all the holy angels with him, Matt. 25:31, and they who beheld his sufferings and agony, they who were the instruments of his cruel death upon the cross, will behold his triumph. Rev. 1:7. We have seen how the resurrection is necessary to the future life, and how the resurrection itself is dependent on the coming of Christ. If now we drop out this doctrine that the Lord is to return, we drop out the link that connects this life with the future; the chain is broken, and the whole plan of salvation is nullified and destroyed. We thus see the necessity of the second coming of Christ. It is an event absolutely essential to the fulfillment of the promises of God. And having shown its necessity we have shown its certainty; for no promise of God will go unfulfilled. In the language of the pious Alleine we may well say:— “This is the day I look for and wait for, and have laid up all my hopes in. If the Lord return not, I profess myself undone—my preaching is vain, and my suffering is vain, and the bottom in which I have intrusted all my hopes is forever miscarried. But I know whom I have trusted; we are built upon the foundation of his sure word, and how fully doth that word assure us that this same Jesus who is gone up into heaven, shall so return. Oh! how sure is the thing! How near is the time! How glorious will his appearing be! What generous cordials hath he left us in his parting sermons and his last prayer; and yet of all the rest, these words are the sweetest: ‘I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also.’”
THE Louisville Courier-Journal gives the following description of the condition of society in Kentucky. It is from a Southern not a Northern pen, and therefore may not be presumed to be overdrawn. Moreover it is not written by one at a distance who is dependent upon rumor for his information, but by one who is on the very scene, or in the immediate neighborhood, of the evils described, and who therefore knows whereof he affirms. What must be the condition of society which calls forth such a description, from such a source. The Journal says:— “In the darkest and bloodiest days of the dark and bloody ground there was not a tithe of the murder done which has disgraced the soil of Kentucky during the present year. The law against the carrying of concealed weapons is a dead letter. Every coward and bully goes armed. Every case of manslaughter goes unpunished. Every case of shooting with intent to kill passes by as an amusing episode, provided there be no funeral. Even the most atrocious, cold-blooded, deliberate, malignant, dastardly assassinations have left no mark on the statute-books except the mark of acquittal purchased by money or intimidation. Red-handed murderers roam at large among respectable people. Red-handed murderers occupy places of responsibility and trust. . . . There are at this moment fifty cases of homicide on our criminal docket which ought to be recorded as murder cases, where the defendant is at large on bail, with the least possible danger of an adverse result. There are five hundred cases of petty shooting with intent to kill, which will never come to trial. . . . In a word, there is no security for life, because no law for those who take it, in Kentucky, and has not been this many a year.” THAT part of the first trumpet which says that “all green grass was burnt up,” seems to refer to a remarkably total devastation of the vegetation, which followed in the train of the Visigoths, in the eastern tripartite division, and also that of the other two bodies of northern barbarians who were at the same time attacking the empire in its middle and its western divisions. But it did not satisfy Alaric to overrun Greece. In A. D. 403 he was proclaimed “king of the Visigoths and all the tribes of kindred name.” With this appendage of power he contended for the empire of Rome about twenty-five miles from Turin, and was defeated. While we leave him arranging his plans for another attack upon the Romans, we will consider the operations of the other two bodies of barbarians before referred to, who were fleeing before the aggressive Huns, to the west and south of Europe. One of these divisions under Radagaisus crossed the Alps with a force of 200,000, attacked Florence, and was defeated. The other, composed of Burgundians, Vandals, Alans and Suevi, “burst over the Rhine,” overcame the Franks in their onward march (devastating, says Gibbon, seventeen provinces of Gaul), and continued their course into what is now called Spain—making a prey of the largest part of the western tripartite division of the Roman empire. Gibbon says, in speaking of this invasion: “The pastures of Gaul, in which flocks and herds grazed, and the banks of the Rhine which were covered with elegant houses and well-cultivated farms, . . . were suddenly changed into a desert, distinguished from the solitude of nature only by smoking ruins.” This was A. D. 407. This vast army divided the country which they subdued among their respective tribes, leaving the Franks in possession of what is now northern France. The Vandals settled in a part of what is now Spain. (Their kingdom, says Jornandes, the Gothic historian, was afterward transferred to Africa in about A. D. 428.) The Alans and Suevi settled in what is now Portugal, and the north-western part of what is now Spain. The Alans only maintained their independence for a short time. The Romans almost annihilated them A. D. 418, and the remnant of the nation incorporated themselves with the Vandals. (See Sheppard’s Fall of Rome, p. 537.) The Burgundians took what is now Switzerland and a parcel of what is now France and Germany. We see then that up to A. D. 407, seven powerful clans of barbarians, who were once subject to the Roman power, had established themselves as independent nationalities (kingdoms), and were engaged in attacking the empire on every hand. Gibbon says that this last invasion was what “sealed the fate of Roman civilization.” The forces of Alaric continued to ravage Italy. The footprints of their ruin were visible for more than a century afterward. In A. D. 410, Alaric141 died. In A. D. 412, the Visigoths left Italy, and in A. D. 414, under the brother of Alaric, the Visigoths re-established themselves in what is now southern France and a part of Spain. The expression “all green grass was burnt up,” very plainly illustrates the sweeping and withering effect which followed the invaders in the three parts of the empire. We thus see that by the year A. D. 407, seven of the ten toes of the image, or seven of the ten horns of the terrible beast, had been made apparent; namely, The Huns, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Franks, Vandals, Suevi and Burgundians. These dominant tribes retained their identities until the fall of Rome was completed. And some of them after a lapse of 1400 years are a standing proof of the prophecy which says: “They shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.” From A. D. 407 to A. D. 428 these seven independent powers (kingdoms) seemed determined to weaken and subjugate the already declining power of Rome; but the transferring of the Vandal kingdom to Africa, A. D. 428, brought in a new feature in the plans which the warlike clans adopted in order to fulfill the prophecy concerning the second trumpet of Rev. 8:8. Is the Fourth Commandment of the Same Nature of the Other Nine?
By Roswell F. Cottrell
SUPPOSE it is not; it is a commandment of God; and who has a right to disobey or evade it? Sinful nature is apt at excuses; and to say that that part of the law of God which we would excuse ourselves from obeying is of a ceremonial, and not of a moral nature, is thought to be a good excuse. But it is thought that men would know naturally, that is, without a revelation, that the ten commandments, except the fourth, are binding on men. But those who have not the light of revelation do not seem to know their duty in respect to the nine. They are more apt to worship false gods than the true and living God. A revelation was needed; and therefore it was given; and that revelation being our guide, each commandment of the moral law has equal claims with the others. Since it is revealed that there is but one living and true God, it is a moral duty to acknowledge and worship him, and no others; and since it is revealed that the Maker of the heavens and the earth has reserved the seventh day to himself, it becomes a moral duty to give him his own. God did not make a mistake, when with his own finger he placed the Sabbath commandment in the midst of his moral law. He has made no difference in the nature and obligation of the ten commandments. Who will presume to teach him that the fourth commandment differs in its nature from the other nine, and therefore is not binding upon men just as it reads? that it may be tampered with, changed, or wholly disregarded? It would be better to acknowledge that God knew best how to classify in regard to his law, and to know that what God has joined together, it ill becomes ignorant, sinful man to put asunder.