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Review and Herald, Vol. 32, No. 2.

ADDRESS TO THE YOUNG

Review and Herald

Jun 30, 1868

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 30, 1868

ADDRESS TO THE YOUNG.

By L. D. Santee

BY L. D. SANTEE.
TEXT.—“Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.” Eccl. xii, 1.
The words of the above text contain a beautiful yet solemn address to the young. A large portion of the teachings of the wise man, are to those in the morning of life; those to whom the sterner duties of life are yet an untried reality; and how important it is that the heart be stored with the solemn and holy truths of the word of God, before it becomes hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, and filled with the multiplicity of business, and the love of the world. The mind of the youth is not apt to be filled with selfishness or the greed of gain, like the man that for years has followed the pursuit of wealth. One reason why more of the young do not engage in the service of the Lord Jesus, is because of the sombre, funereal cloak that Satan tries to throw around the hope of Heaven. We are sorry that he has so many aiders among professors of religion; but there are those among us who are doing an injury to the cause of Christ, by putting on a woeful countenance, and speaking of the Lord’s highway as a dreary, lonely path. Naturally enough, those in the springtime of life dread to enter the shadow, or to cloud the glorious life-sky of childhood and youth with darkness. The result is, that the young grieve away the heavenly visitants, in mercy sent to them to lead their thoughts and desires heavenward, and refuse to obey him whose loving kindness and tender care has rendered their lives bright and happy, even from infancy. How natural it is for the heart of the young to be as light and joyous as the flowers of spring. How fresh and gay we feel in youth. Our pulse beats quick, our steps are light and free, and in every fiber of our being, we feel a thrill of joy and gladness. The green grass under our feet appears more beautiful, than the costliest carpeting. The earth is beautiful, yea, lovely, with its glorious sunlight, its grand old forests, the blue sky above, and the melody of nature around us. Dear young friend, does not your heart ascend in gratitude to the Creator of all these beauties? Is there anything wrong in loving and serving him whose love has followed you all your life long? Come and let us reason together. Of course you are seeking for happiness. Every one is. But can you be happy with no hope in the hereafter? I think not. Who of you cannot look into the past and see loved ones, now enshrined in your hearts, who passed away from you into the land of the enemy? Dear young friend, can you be happy with no hope of meeting them again? I know you cannot; but we have the sure promise that if we are lovers of God, and live obedient to his requirements, we shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 1 Thess. iv, 17. Blessed, cheering hope! Long we have mourned for our loved ones, but there we shall meet them. They will be ours, and all of us the Lord’s.
As we said before, every one is seeking happiness. It is the grand object for which all are striving; but no great result can be achieved without toil. The student, in acquiring knowledge, spends his time and strength in obtaining that for which he is striving. His aching, overtaxed brain, and his eye growing dim, attest the labor with which he attains knowledge. Men, in amassing wealth, spend long, weary years of toil, until the wrinkles spread over their faces, and their heads whiten. The wreath of fame is worn only by those that leave their all to seek for it; that brave the perils of the battle field, and wade through seas of blood, in the attainment of their object. Are you seeking for happiness in the attainment of knowledge? “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” If you neglect this, you are unwise, for God hath made foolish the wisdom of this world. 1 Cor. i, 20. Are you looking to wealth for enjoyment? Listen to the words of one upon whom God conferred wisdom above all the men of the earth. “Labor not to be rich; cease from thine own wisdom. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make to themselves wings.” Prov. xxiii, 4, 5. Also, xxvii, 24: “For riches are not forever.” Let me present before your minds the teachings of the Son of God, whose blood was poured out on Calvary’s height for our sins. “Children, how hard it is for them that trust in riches, to enter into the kingdom of God.” Mark x, 24.
Are you longing for the applause of men, or a crown of worldly honor? Think you it would prove a diadem of eternal brightness? I tell you nay; for it could not light the glazed eye, or pierce the dull, cold ear of death. It will not be desired when the heavens reflect the glory of the coming King. The wreath of fame will appear dim amid the burning splendor of the day of God, now soon to burst upon us. These are reasons why you should seek first the kingdom of Heaven and its righteousness; why you should remember your Creator in the days of youth. He offers you pleasures unfailing. He offers you comfort when the lips whiten with pain, or the eye grows dark with anguish. He offers hope to the despairing heart that is filled with unrest. Everything earthly is passing away. The river goes on its way to the sea. The days are passing too. They come to us pure from the hands of God, and do we fill them with holy thoughts and good actions, as they are transferred to the silver setting of memory? Time that is past is gone forever, and how have we spent it? Perhaps we have made vows that years have strengthened; perhaps, alas! broken. It is a solemn thought that we must appear before the Judge of quick and dead, to render an account of the way that we have employed those fleeting moments. Dear young friend, God has been very good to you. He maketh his angels ministering spirits. Oh! do not reject the voice that speaks from Heaven. The Saviour’s mission to earth was one of mercy. He came to preach the gospel to the poor, to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind; to set at liberty them that are bruised. Luke iv, 18. Is not your heart stirred with tenderness and love for him? If you never have given your heart to the Saviour, I plead with you to do so now. The Psalmist says, “To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” To-day his arms are open to receive you. To-day his voice is crying, “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
How should we remember our Creator? Not simply that such a being exists. The devils believe in God and tremble; James ii, 19; and yet their faith will not profit them, for they will be cast into a fiery, burning lake and destroyed, together with the nations that have been deceived by them. Rev. xx, 10, 15. We should remember that he is our Creator, and that we owe all that we have and are, to him. He that created has a right to control. As says one of old: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” Rom. xii, 1. God has given us a law that is perfect, and promises us life everlasting, if we obey him. On the other hand, he threatens destruction, terrible and speedy, upon all that are disobedient and ungodly. Oh! how merciful and long-suffering is our heavenly Father. He gave his only Son to die for a race of rebels; then the Saviour pleads with us to accept the salvation purchased by his own blood. He says to us: “Repent, and turn yourselves from allyour transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. . . . For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God; wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.” Eze. xviii, 30, 32. Dear young friends, let us be wise, and give God that which is our reasonable service, viz., our whole heart. Should the tempter whisper to you that you are losing your liberty in yielding to God, listen not to his seductive voice. He is seeking your life; and his promptings are false. The person that loves God with all his might, mind, and strength, and his neighbor as himself, can escape the power of his temptations, and stand free from his wiles. Here, and here only, is perfect liberty. “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” John viii, 36.
While the evil days come not. The days designated in our text as evil days, are days of trouble and perplexity that come later in life. When the turmoil of business has obliterated the freshness and purity of youth, then, any appeal that is made in behalf of God and the truth, is met with the reply, “Go thy way for this time; when I have a more convenient season, I will call for thee.” If we reason to them of righteousness, temperance, and a judgment to come, our words fall on unheeding ears. Hope is a pleasing feature in the mind of youth; but when we are selfishly living for ourselves alone, without a thought of benefiting others, we find our hopes, as we near their fulfillment, vanishing into thin air, as the desert mirage appears in the distance, only to vanish at our nearer approach. Disappointment, instead of sanctifying the worldling, wrings the proud, selfish heart, and causes it to become desolate and harder; further from God and Heaven; further from purity and goodness. It is possible for those that have entered the shadow of the evil days, to turn to God, but alas! how seldom is such the case. They are Ephraim-like.
The salvation of the Lord is offered to all; but it is rejected. God loves the human family. He is not willing that any should perish. He loved Ephraim. He said: “How shall I give thee up, Ephraim! Mine heart is turned within me; my repentings are kindled together.” Hos. xi, 8. But alas! Ephraim was stubborn and rebellious, and the word went forth, “He is joined to his idols; let him alone.” So it is with those that refuse to yield obedience to the commandments of God.
And the years draw nigh when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them. It is an established fact, that we are all the time becoming better or worse. We are either advancing or retrograding. To illustrate: we suppose ourselves upon a rapid river, a short distance above the falls, in a small, open boat. We can reach the shore if we toil, but if we fold our arms, and let the oars lie idle, we drift rapidly down the river. As we near the falls, the current grows stronger, and our boat glides more swiftly. Perhaps, as we are drifting downward, we see a man on the shore, and his voice rings out over the waters, “The falls are below you! row for your life!” and we shout back, “I have no pleasure in toil, I prefer to float on.” The result would be, we would soon be engulfed in the eddying waters. It is comparatively easy to reach the shore at first, but our chances continually lessen. So, in youth the heart can easily be trained to love the Saviour; but as maturer years come, the heart is engrossed with the cares of the world, until, at last, the years come when every warning is thrust aside, and the world, the world, the world, engrosses every thought. The roar of the coming tempest is heard, but they heed it not. The skies are angry, but they cannot look away from the earth. The lurid lightning affords them light amid the gathering gloom, to gather a little more of this world’s treasure. The ground is trembling beneath them, but it cannot shake their mad security. Oh! that the Lord may help us to become his disciples; to remember him in our youth; to make our election sure while mercy lingers. For the harvest will soon be past, and the summer ended, “The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.” 2 Thess. i, 7–10. Oh! that we may be wise and make a right use of the time allotted us. Let us glorify God by a right use of the faculties that he has given us. Memory is a faculty of the mind calculated to draw us toward God. Would the mother forget the lovely babe that was laid to sleep under a tiny coffin lid? No, no; her heart thrills with love, as she thinks that God will raise to life her little one from the dead. Would you forget (though the remembrance of it fills your heart with a sacred sadness) the blue-eyed, fair-browed brother, who died in childhood? Memory brings again, to welcome you with outstretched hands, and a smile on her crimson lip, the dark-eyed sister who years ago, in her youth and beauty, was laid in the tomb. These, like broken urns, scattered along the pilgrim’s lonely way, fill the heart with sadness. When dear ones come up in memory, we raise our thoughts to Him who brought to light life and immortality; and we hope to meet them again in the realms of the blessed. Earth cannot find a balm for such sorrow. Time may bring a smile to the careworn face, but the sad heart can turn only to God for relief. When we think of the sorrows of the present, and the glory to be revealed hereafter, we slacken our grasp on the things present, and our desire is strengthened for a home in the earth made new. Memories of the past, mingled with hope for the future, give a radiance to the way leading to the eternal world. We can look back and see dark clouds in the distance. Before us, the brightness of the sun of righteousness, that shall arise with healing in his wings. The Lord is soon coming. We shall not have much longer to wait. He is coming to end our sorrows. He is coming to take his people home. The morning cometh. Glory to God! all our dangers will soon be o’er. “The way may be rough, but it cannot be long,” and it leads to glory, honor, and immortality. Dear young friends, let us remember our Creator in the days of our youth, and when the Lord cometh, may he find us watching!

I KNOW HIM NOT.

By C. P. A. W.

How oft we've been appalled at Peter's sin! If we within ourselves a search begin, Shall we not find there lurks a counterpart, Wherewith we're loading heavily the heart? If from the suffering, homeless ones we turn, For darkened paths no lamp of pity burn; By leaving them to their sad, dreary lot, Do we not plainly say, “I know Him not?”
If failing to refresh a thirsty foe, The joys of mercy we refused to know, If far from upright deeds we've turned away, And burdened thus anew the toiler's way, Sought not to guide the erring feet aright, Into the paths of peace and glorious light: Alas! ’twas surely then that we forgot, And of our Saviour said, “I know Him not.”
If with to-day we crowd to-morrow's care, Creating all around a fretful air; Murmuring at the hardness of our lot, As if for us our Father careth not; Where are our thoughts of that thorn-crowned Pierced, and for our souls bleeding? even now Forgetting Him who, mindful of our need, Watches in kindly love our lives to feed.
C. P. A. W.
New Bedford, June, 1868.

The Fourth Commandment and the Definite Seventh Day

By R. F. Cottrell

THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT: DOES IT REQUIRE THE OBSERVANCE OF THE DEFINITE SEVENTH DAY OF THE WEEK?

The most subtle manner of evading the force of the fourth commandment, resorted to at the present day, is to claim that a particular day of the week is not set apart by this commandment; that it only inculcates one day of rest after six days' labor; and hence, that no definite day is required, but merely a proportionate time, for the observance of the Sabbath.
We say, that this is a resort of the present day, because that in the early centuries of the Sabbath discussion in the Christian church, this argument was never used. The claim of the early advocates of the first day was, not that that day was the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, but that it had greater claims to our veneration than the Sabbath. They took not the ground that any one day of rest, after six of labor, would answer both the letter and spirit of the commandment; but they taught, as Calvin expresses it, that the old Fathers (or some other authority) put in the place of the Sabbath the day we now call Lord's day. And the Roman church to-day bases the claim not on the ductility of the commandment, but on the power of the church. "The church," say they, "by virtue of the power she has received from Christ, abolished the Jewish Sabbath, and substituted Sunday in its stead." (F. X. Weninger, D. D., 1862.) When this church arose to power, those that kept the Jewish Sabbath were denounced as Judaizers; and the term Sabbath, was never applied to Sunday during the first five hundred years of the Christian era. It remained for the moderns of the gospel age, those living this side of the Reformation, to discover that the fourth commandment was indefinite as to the particular day, only requiring a proportionate time, i. e., one day in seven, for its observance. We throw out this negative assertion to elicit the proof, if there is any, that the idea was ever broached before the Reformation. We believe the invention, with all its benefits, may be justly claimed by modern Christians, and that the apostles and early church can hold no claim to its discovery.
The civil laws which God gave the Jews as a nation, required that those who labored on the Sabbath should be put to death. Had the Jewish Sabbath-breaker understood this quirk, he might have escaped the penalty, provided he could make it appear that he had rested on one of the six days next preceding; for this, in modern phrase, would be keeping “both the letter and spirit of the command.”
It is generally admitted, that the arbitrary division of time into weeks of seven days had its origin in the fact, that at creation, God wrought six days and rested on the seventh. It is also a truth, that the week of the Old Testament corresponds precisely with that of the New; for “the first day of the week” mentioned in the latter, immediately followed “the Sabbath day according to the commandment” of the former. Mark xvi, 1; Luke xxiii, 56, and xxiv, 1. This, opponents admit. Therefore, if there has been any change from the regular succession of the week since the creation, it must have been made between the creation and the giving of the law at Sinai. It is now claimed that such a change was made—that the week, as given to the Jews, did not correspond with the week from the beginning. Thus the opposers of the only weekly Sabbath of the Bible, the seventh day of both dispensations, having utterly failed, in the discussion of these last few centuries, to prove one change of the Sabbath, have recently undertaken the double task of proving two!
To favor a first-day Sabbath, it is pretended that man's first Sabbath was the first day of his existence; that is, the day on which the Creator rested, at the end of the creation week. This is false, as shown by either one of two revealed facts. 1. The Sabbath of that week was not man's first day, but his second; for he was created upon the sixth day. This is near enough the truth, however, for errorists to build a theory upon; near enough to constitute the fulcrum of the lever by which to overthrow the law of God. 2. The Sabbath institution was not completed on the day that God rested. He spent seven whole days in giving an example, and his rest upon the seventh day made it his rest—or Sabbath day; but man had no right to the Sabbath, it was not given to him, until it was sanctified, set apart, for his observance. The blessing and sanctification of the day were subsequent to the Creator's rest. “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.” Hence the institution was not completed “for man,” till the Creator's Rest-day was in the past. The first week, that of the creation, had expired, the example of laboring six days and resting the seventh was completed, only at the close of the seventh day; consequently the act of sanctifying the day for man's observance and use, could not have taken place earlier than the first day of the second week. Here, therefore, on the first day after the Creator's example was complete, is the very time for God to reveal to man what he had done, and say to him, Follow my example. The sanctification of the day was doubtless the revelation to man of the fact, that he had reserved the day to his especial honor; that it was his holy day. He blessed the day, and sanctified it, after his rest upon it was completed; therefore, the blessing and sanctification have reference to the day in its weekly return from that time onward. From this point of time, namely, the first day of the second week, the earliest time that the completed rest and the sanctification of the day could be revealed to man, he had just six days to labor in the beautiful garden in which he was placed to dress and to keep it, ere the seventh day of the second week, the first Sabbath he was required to keep. The seven days of all succeeding weeks have ever since returned in their regular order.
As we are now prepared for it, before examining the fourth commandment, we will try the proportionate time theory, and see if in reality it has any advantage for our friends over that of a definite day. From the first week of time, there has been a regular succession of days, and consequently of weeks of seven days each. Therefore, when God at the beginning set man upon the right track, commanding him to keep the Sabbathevery seventh day, he could not change the regular order of the week, and yet maintain the proportion of one day in every seven for the Sabbath; and consequently must keep the same seventh day in its weekly return to the end of time. This would be almost, if not quite, equal to confining the Sabbath to a definite day. Now, whenever the Sabbath is changed to another day, this seventh-part-of-time arrangement—this one day of rest after six of labor—is broken. If Israel, at the exode, removed the Sabbath to what before was the sixth day of the week, their Sabbath that week would come after only five days of labor; and if in the apostles' days, the Sabbath was changed to the first day of the week, then they had seven days of labor before the one of rest, unless, indeed, they kept Sabbath two successive days, and this would equally break up the order, destroy the proportion, and would not answer the requirement of one day of rest after six of labor. But little interruptions like these are of no account with those who think the law of the Most High is so elastic, so much like a piece of rubber, that you may stretch it to almost any extent without breaking it. What is one day's variation from the law of God, as they expound it by the one-day-in-seven theory? But if the apostles could break in upon the established order, changing the Sabbath to the “eighth day,” by the same principle and precedent the people may now change it from Sunday to Wednesday, and so make one week consist of ten days, having one day of rest after nine of labor! Would this fulfill exactly the seventh-part-of-time theory? If not, then the least departure from the original seventh day is a breach of the law of God, according to the chosen theory of our opponents. Whenever the day was changed, this theory, as well as the law of God, was violated.
God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, that is, set it apart, or appropriated it, to the special worship and service of God; or he did not. The record says he did; our theorists deny, and say he did not.
You misjudge, say our friends; the meaning of the record is, that He blessed and sanctified any seventh day after six days' of labor.
Then he left it to men to set apart any particular day they choose. All days are alike blessed, or alike unblessed, according to the use we choose to make of them. There may be, then, in one community, seven blessed and sanctified Sabbaths of the Lord in a single week. This would be blessed and sanctified confusion. But, as “God is not the author of confusion,” such a state of things could not come, but by the violation of his law. Do you say, that it is not for men, but for God only, to change the day? This brings us back to the old question: Has he done it? There is no record of it.
We proceed to examine briefly the fourth commandment, and see whether God has, to avoid this confusion, appointed the day. And since it is admitted by all that the word Sabbath means rest, we will substitute rest for Sabbath in what we have to say, that the reader may better take the sense of the command.
1. The first word of the command is remember. Memory always looks back to the past. Something had been done in the past, of which the institution commanded is a memorial.
2. Remember what? The rest day. A rest day must be a day devoted to rest by some one.
3. Whose rest day is it? The seventh day is the rest of the Lord thy God. It is the Lord's rest day, and not some day on which we may choose to rest, that we are commanded to remember and keep holy.
4. What seventh day must we rest upon and keep holy to the Lord? The day, in its weekly return, on which he rested when he made the world. “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day.” We are to rest on the seventh day as it recurs once a week, because God rested on it in the first week.
5. Why did God hallow, sanctify, separate, or appoint this seventh day? Because that in it he had rested. Wherefore [for this reason] the Lord blessed the rest day, and hallowed it. See Gen. ii, 3. Thus we are pointed back to the creation for the origin of the week and rest day. Did God bless an institution that may be observed on any day? No; he blessed and sanctified the seventh day, the very day of the week, on which he rested. Did he rest on one day in seven, and no day in particular? Then he blessed each day of the seven alike, and sanctified—no, he did not set apart, devote, nor appoint any day, but we are left to choose for ourselves. Suppose we were commanded in the New Testament to observe weekly the day of Christ's resurrection, and the command informed us that he rose on the first day, and that for this reason the first day was sanctified for our observance. Could we change the resurrection day to another day, a day on which the resurrection did not occur? Could we obey the command by observing another day, calling a day on which he did not arise, his resurrection day? So no one can remove the Father's rest day to a day on which he did not rest. A command to keep any day you choose is no law; for you may choose to keep no day at all. Men may trifle with the law of the Most High, as they dare not trifle with the laws of the State, but they will find that God has a law, and that in that law he has reserved the day of his rest from secular employments, and appointed it to his own special honor and service.
But how can we tell which is the seventh day in regular succession from the creation? If you cannot discern this, by the use of the light which God has given, you certainly are not to blame for not keeping it. If he has not pointed out and preserved the day, by his word and providence, so that we can find it if we will, the fault of its non-observance is not with us. But how can we ascertain the day? 1. God, in his providence, has preserved the numbering of the days of the week, from the time of Christ to the present, so that Jews, Christians, and Mohammedans, are agreed in their number. 2. The New Testament instructs us that the first day of the week then immediately followed the Sabbath of the commandment; so that the week of the New Testament and that of the Old correspond precisely. Jews and Christians are agreed in numbering the week; the Jews still hold to the Sabbath of the commandment, while Christians hold to a change of the day. 3. The Sabbath according to the commandment, as we have seen, was that day of the week on which God rested from the work of creation. He knew the day in its regular succession from the beginning, and if it was not known to Israel, and he did not make it known when he gave his law, we are not to blame—the fault is not ours. But God told the people plainly, by Moses, which day was the Sabbath, and confirmed it by miracles in the giving of the manna. Ex. xvi. After this God commanded the Jews to put the man to death who should work on the rest day. If they, poor men, did not know which was the rest day, who is to blame? Not I, truly.
Candid reader, you can see how the impious theories of man would cast the blame of his disobedience upon the Almighty. Such poor evasions of the fourth commandment were not thought of in the Jewish dispensation, nor in the first centuries of the Christian; and they will not be accepted at the bar to which we are all hastening. For five hundred years and more after Christ, the first day of the week was never called the Sabbath by any writer whatever. Then, if you would obey the commandment of God, do not insult him by pretending that he has not revealed the day of the Sabbath—the day on which he rested in the first week. Keep holy the day the Jews were required to keep on pain of death; the day that, called by the prophet Isaiah, “my holy day;” and you will do what you can to obey this commandment. That day is no other than the seventh day of the week, the day now called Saturday. Is it a narrow conception to commit the Sabbath to a particular day? The commandment of God is just so narrow. Indeed, the way to life is much more narrow than men generally imagine. The broad way is not the way to life. Let us choose the narrow way, and live.—R. F. Cottrell in Sabbath Recorder.

WISDOM KNOWING ITS IGNORANCE

The celebrated Duval, librarian of Francis I, often answered questions by, “I don’t know.” An insolent man replied to him one day, “Why, sir, you ought to know; the Emperor pays you for your knowledge!” Duval answered, “The Emperor pays me for what I know; if he was to pay me for what I don’t know, all the treasures of his empire would not be sufficient.”

ASSIMILATION AND REPULSION.

By L. N. Stratton

Nature's laws are so arranged that certain elements spontaneously unite by reason of inherent affinities. Not only is this true of matter, but also of mind. Spiritual elements in this world are abundant, and naturally attract their affinities.
Human hearts are, in pride, ambition, love of praise and wealth, quite similar, and tend toward each other on that common ground. The religion of Jesus is a contrary element, and is a natural repellent of whatsoever things are of evil, crime, and sin. Heat repels cold, and light repels darkness, no more certainly than the religion of Jesus repels and drives sin away. They can no more occupy the same heart at the same time, than a fluid and a solid, or fire and frost, or light and darkness, can occupy the same space at the same time.
Jesus was so named because he came to “save his people from their sins;” and clean hearts were contemplated by the grand plan of salvation which the holy Christ came down from Heaven to establish. It was not contemplated to assimilate them to the world, but to separate them from its unsatisfying revelry. Wealth, honors, and human happiness, were to be sacrificed to it, and all things earthly, which would interfere with its thorough working, must be repelled.
But alas, that there should remain in human hearts an unconquered, unsubdued element, which naturally assimilates to the fatal ambitions of this fallen race. It is seen in the leaning of Christians toward this ungodly world.
The Agricultural Fairs of counties and States are closed for this year. On many of the handbills and posters of these exhibitions, we have seen the proffers to try the speed of horses for a citizens' purse of from $100 to $1,000, and sometimes the “citizens' purse” is mentioned as a “premium.”
Of course it is nothing less nor more than horse racing under the auspices of a County or State Fair.
In the first place, such rapid racing is not the normal condition of the horse. Horses are made for service and labor, and are seldom needed to travel at such a rapid rate. Therefore, the payment of such large premiums for what is not normal and necessary, and the payment of small ones for other qualifications of horse flesh, bears injustice on its face. Then, in the second place, on the ground that fairs are right, a man who invents some labor-saving machine worth millions of money to the world, for his nightly study and daily toil, receives a picture, a book, or a few dollars, not to exceed ten, while a ruffian, whose only property is in a horse, and whose only business is to sit around in a bar room, smoke, drink, and swear, and train his horse, corrupt the morals of the youth, disturb religious meetings, and constantly act as one of the consumers instead of a producer for society, receives the honors and surplus proceeds of that institution into which so many “Christian people” (?) pay their funds.
Proceeding upon the assumption that the exhibition of agricultural implements and products under such restrictions as to benefit parties interested in such pursuits, are right, we have, many years ago, witnessed dark corruptions, and have spoken against them.
But, in the third place, these popular races under the sanction of Agricultural Fairs, are attended by hundreds of church members, male and female, who would be ashamed to attend a common horse race; and yet, in no essential do the races, under the patronage of the Fair, differ from the races on any course on the Continent.—L. N. Stratton, in Earnest Christian.

Unstable Professors.

A quaint writer compares a certain class of professors of religion to "sheet-iron stoves heated by shavings." When there is a little reviving in the church, they all at once flame up and become exceedingly warm and zealous. They are ready to chide the pastor and elders for their coldness and want of activity. But, alas! the shavings are soon burned out, and then the heat goes down as rapidly as it went up. They are never seen in the prayer-room, or in spiritual meetings of the church again, until there is another excitement. If such people had not souls of their own to be saved, they would not be worth taking into the church. They encumber it, though they themselves may receive benefit from a connection with it.

Scripture Notes.

RESULT OF OBEDIENCE.

2 Sam. v, 25. And David did so, as the Lord had commanded him; and smote the Philistines from Geba until thou come to Gazer.
And David did so.] He punctually obeyed the directions of the Lord, and then every thing succeeded to his wish. Why are such directions and assistances not communicated now? Because they are not asked for; and not asked for because not expected; and they are not expected because men have not faith; and they have not faith because they are under a refined spirit of atheism, and have no spiritual intercourse with their Maker. Who believes that God sees all things, and is everywhere? Who supposes that he concerns himself with the affairs of his creatures? Who acknowledges him in all his ways? Who puts not his own wisdom, prudence and strength in the place of God Almighty? Reader, hast thou faith in God? Then exercise it, cultivate it, and thou mayest remove mountains.—Dr. A. Clarke.

IRREVERENCE PUNISHED.

CHAP. vi, 6, 7. And when they came to Nachon's threshing-floor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God, and took hold of it; for the oxen shook it. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God smote him there for his error; and there he died by the ark of God.
It may be supposed, that neither Eleazer, nor Uzzah, nor Ahio, had thus touched the ark during all the years it had remained with them. Uzzah, it is probable, had become too familiar with this sacred symbol of the Lord's especial presence. No doubt the Lord saw, in his conduct, what indicated irreverence and presumption; not wholly unlike the sin of Nadab and Abihu, when they offered strange fire before him; and therefore he smote him, perhaps in a similar manner, and for the same reasons. His death was a pointed rebuke and warning to David, to the priests, and to all Israel.—Scott.

SHAVING THE MESSENGERS.

CHAP. x. v. 5. When they told it unto David, he sent to meet them, because the men were greatly ashamed; and the king said, Tarry at Jericho until your beards be grown, and then return.
It was one of the most infamous punishments of cowardice in Sparta, that they who turned their backs in the day of battle, were obliged to appear abroad with one-half of their beard shaved, and the other half unshaved. The beard is held very sacred in the East. See Burder. It is a mark of authority and liberty in Mahometan countries. Among the Arabians, it is more infamous to have the beard cut off, than among us to be publicly whipped.—Niebuhr.

DAVID'S FOURFOLD PUNISHMENT.

CHAP. xii, 5, 6. And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die; and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.
Fourfold.] Is it indulging fancy too much to say, David was called, in a just Providence, to pay this fourfold debt; to lose four sons by untimely deaths, viz., this of Bathsheba's, on whom David had set his heart, was slain by the Lord; Ammon, his first-born, the pride of his excellency, and the beginning of his strength, murdered by his brother Absalom; Absalom, on whom he doted, slain by Joab; and Adonijah, the beautiful, whom his father would never bear to displease, 1 Kings i, 6, slain by his brother Solomon, at God's altar! How dreadfully then was David punished! Who would repeat his transgression, to share in its penalty! Behold the goodness and severity of God! Reader, lay all these solemn things to heart, and beware of the “well-circumstanced sin.”—Dr. A. Clarke.

SUPPOSED CRUELTY OF KING DAVID.

CHAP. xii, 31. And he brought forth the people that were therein, and put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the brick-kiln; and thus did he unto all the cities of the children of Ammon.
The charge of excessive cruelty will be removed, by following the translation of Danzius, which I think the words will bear: and he obliged the people that were in it to go out, and put them to the saw, to cut stones; and to the iron mines, to dig there; and to the axes of iron, to cut wood with; after he had made them to pass with their king out of the city.—Gill. So, nearly, Dr. A. Clarke, Boothroyd, Carpenter, &c.
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