Earlier text: SPIRITUALITY OF THE LAW OF GOD“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.” When experience and reason, based upon physiological facts, threaten the table of the epicure, not unfrequently is he found resorting to some doubtful text of Scripture to support a theory which he supposes will allow him to gratify his appetite. By doubtful texts, we do not mean doubtful as to their authenticity, but to their meaning. When an argument is presented, showing that flesh-meat is not the best food for man, quite often the above scripture is used against it. We propose, in this article, to briefly consider some points in reference to this portion of Scripture. Some men reason upon this text thus: The word “creature” in the fourth verse of this chapter corresponds with “meats” in the third verse. The fourth and fifth verses are only a conclusion drawn from the first three verses. The third verse speaks of meats “which God created to be received with thanksgiving;” and if God created certain meats to be received with thanksgiving, there can be only one conclusion, namely, “every creature of God is good.” And as meat signifies flesh, the individual who offers the fact that animals are diseased, hogs being scrofulous and measly, containing trichinæ, as an argument sufficient to look upon a flesh-diet with suspicion, and as not being fit for food, is setting himself up above the knowledge of God, and is a heretic and infidel; yes, one that has departed from the faith and given heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. The apostle must have considered this subject as one of no little importance, if we may judge by the expressions he uses. 1. “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly.” 2. He states that those of whom he speaks “shall depart from the faith,” leave the Bible, “giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.” 3. He says of the nature of their teachings, “Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;” insensible to sin. Perhaps there is no class of people that more fully answer to this description than that class who deny the existence of sin, and call it a progression, a development into a higher life. This is not the doctrine of men, but of devils. Bloomfield says, “Doctrines suggested by demons.” Thus, man is only a medium through which the devil speaks. “Through the hypocrisy of liars who are seared in their own consciences.”—Macknight. But it purports to come from the dead. Wakefield renders this verse, “Giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines about dead men, through the hypocrisy of liars, with a seared conscience.” The apostle proceeds to say what this people will teach: “Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.” The word “forbidding,” in the English language, conveys a stronger meaning than was designed by the apostle. “Recommend abstinence from marriage” is Macknight’s comment. Greenfield renders koluo, the word translated forbidden, “To impede, hinder, to dissuade.” Robinson gives the same rendering. The teachings of those referred to here will be principles subversive to the marriage institution, and will also teach the necessity of other kinds of food than those which God created to be received with thanksgiving. The expression, “and commanding,” are supplied words. A more mild term would answer as well. Wakefield says, “Giving commands about abstinence from marriage and from meats,” etc. There is a peculiar fitness of all this with the writings of a certain class of spiritualists who have written on the subjects of marriage, flesh-meats, tobacco, alcoholic drinks, etc. The writings and teachings of the ones referred to here will pertain to both marriage and diet. We now raise the important inquiry, What meats has God created to be “received with thanksgiving,” and who are those referred to by the apostle, who “believe and know the truth?” It is that truth or knowledge which includes an understanding concerning those meats which God created to “be received with thanksgiving.” The word meat does not necessarily mean flesh. Webster defines meat, “Food in general, anything eaten for nourishment either by man or beast.” The Greek word broma bears the same signification. “Meat; food.”—Greenfield. “Eatables; food.”—Robinson. The American Bible Union renders the word translated meat in this verse, “food.” So does Newcomb’s version. The question relates to the meat or food which God created for man to subsist upon; not what man was permitted to eat after the flood, or after the introduction of the Mosaic economy, or any other age subsequent to the creation. Every Bible student well understands that certain requirements and permissions oftentimes grow out of the circumstances under which the people of God are placed, and the condition in which they may be. Matt. 19:8, furnishes an illustration of this kind. “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you,” etc. But the question under consideration carries the mind back to the creation. What kind of meat did God CREATE for the human family? It would be folly to suppose that God would create a human being, making his life dependent upon what he ate, and then make no provision for his physical wants. We therefore inquire for the original bill of fare given to man in the garden of Eden, before sickness, pain, or a perverted appetite had affected the human frame. In Gen. 1, we find a brief account of the creation of this world, and the creation of the representatives of the human family. In the 29th verse, we have the original bill of fare given to the united head of the human race in their sinless and upright condition. “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.” If ham and eggs, beef, pork, and sausage, are meant by such expressions as “herb,” “fruit of a tree,” etc., then we might reasonably conclude that the word creature in 1 Tim. 4:3, is animal food; but who would ever think this? Yet this was the MEAT given to the representatives of the human race. Who believes and knows this truth, if it is not the Bible hygienist? Daniel and his three friends understood it when they refused to eat the king’s meat, and desired pulse. See Daniel 1. But do we not read that “every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving?” and does not creature mean animals? If this text proves that animals should be eaten because of the expression, creature, then the cannibals are not far out of the way in taking a roast of human flesh, for in James 1:18, we read, “Of his own will begat he us, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.” The same Greek word rendered creature in the epistle of James, is rendered creature in 1 Tim. 4. And certainly, are we not as much creatures as the lower animals? The word creature cannot be confined to the lower animals; but when taken in its broadest and unqualified sense, it embraces all that God created. “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” Heb. 4:13. The same word that is here rendered creature is rendered building in Heb. 9:11. It is also rendered creation in Mark 13:19. “From the beginning of the creation which God created.” It embraces “the fruit of the tree” and the “herb” that was given to man for meat. Bloomfield says, of 1 Tim. 4:4, “Ktis̄ma; this means anything provided by God in creation.” The sweet Psalmist of Israel sings in the following strain: “And herb for the service of man; that he may bring forth food out of the earth.” Ps. 104:14. But it may be asked, If the word, ktisma, can be taken in such a broad and unlimited sense, by what authority is it restricted in the passage under consideration? and if it is to be restricted, how much? To what part of the creation of God shall we limit the expression, “every creature of God”? We answer, 1. The word must be restricted in its meaning to those articles of diet which were created for man. 2. The apostle must have reference to some scripture upon this point, for he says, “It is sanctified by the word of God.” We therefore present Gen. 1:29, as that scripture, for we, as yet, have never been able to find any scripture that presents any other article of diet which was created for man. If Gen. 9 be offered as proof that God gave flesh to man for food, we answer, that there is not the slightest evidence by what is here recorded that animals were ever created for this purpose. One of the reasons why God here permits man to eat animal food, is strongly intimated in verse 5; and this reason agrees with physiological facts. We have not space to give them here. Some men have learned this truth from science, others from the word of God in connection with science; for true science and the word of God always agree. Whenever this truth has been practically received, and a proper amount of wholesome grains and fruits constitute man’s diet, the fact that “every creature of God is good,” is confirmed by its effect upon the human system. There are thousands, to-day, who experimentally know, and bear witness to this important truth. There are thousands whose hearts swell with praise and thanksgiving to God that they have ever learned that every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. The apostle calls this the truth. And we have found where it was sanctified, set apart by the word of God. 1 Tim. 4, therefore, instead of teaching that those who advocate a vegetable diet instead of a flesh diet are in error, is found to teach just the reverse. Intellectual Without Moral Culture.
By Talmage
“KNOWLEDGE is power” for good if consecrated; but it is a power for evil if unrestrained and unguided by moral principle. Robespierre and Rousseau and Byron were illustrations of men with splendid intellect, but no moral culture. Better for them had they lived on the lowest round of ignorance than that they should have risen by their mental qualifications and cursed the world by their cruelties. We want something more than geographies and grammars and vulgar fractions to prepare our youth for good citizenship. The curse of the land to-day is the educated villains. These men know enough; they know everything; they know too much. But they have no moral restraints. Intelligence without some kind of moral principle is a plague. There is nothing more wonderful than a locomotive. There it stands, axle, piston-rods, crank, cylinders, driving-wheel, throttle-valve. You let the steam on. The machine starts. After it gets under full headway, the engineer jumps off. Now that useful machine becomes an instrument of destruction. There is nothing more beautiful than the human intellect when its faculties are in full play. How active and how mighty! But if there be no moral principle to guide, control, and engineer it, then it works one long line of ruin and desolation through all the communities where it marches. Ignorance is bad. But intelligence is worse if immoral. There is hardly anybody who makes a speech who does not refer to the wonderful things in Greece and Rome. Well, they had great philosophers and great poets and orators; but how about their morals? Why is it that when a man is traveling in Italy to-day with his family he is stopped at the door of the museum by the janitor, who tells him, “You may come in, sir, but not your family”? It is because the sculpture and paintings of those boasted times were abhorrent to all decency, and learned Greece and Rome, and splendid Corinth, and magnificent Pompeii, were worse than “Five Points” in their worst days. It is not what you knew, it is what you are. You might better multiply the moral and religious influences in your school rather than subtract from them. Instead of driving the Bible out, you should drive the Bible farther in.—Talmage. Reason and Conscience.
By Cremer
WHERE truth is, there righteousness must be, and only where truth is can righteousness be. Where reason is, there is conscience; where conscience is, there is reason. They must not be separated from each other and cannot be separated. Now since reason and conscience capacitate us for the truth, for its apprehension and its transference into life, they require the truth, both for us and of us. With the capacity for it is closely connected its need; and only when man has abandoned the morally earnest use of his reason, and foolishly and wilfully separated himself from the impulses and requirements of his conscience, can he become insensible to his need, and as a beggar, who insanely imagines himself to be a king, be proud in the rags of his poverty. Whatever comports with reason and conscience must spring from the truth, and only the whole truth can satisfy reason and conscience. Reasonableness and necessary assent of conscience form the standard of truth, and by this standard must be measured the thoughts of men, as well as that which calls itself a divine revelation. Not until man has found the truth does he attain to peace with himself. It alone can give him knowledge of himself. It gives him the direction, the line in which, not only he must proceed, but in which alone he can freely and without hindrance order his life. The truth for man, and man for the truth—this is the mutual relation in which all yearnings and seeking of the spirit come to rest. Reason and conscience cannot say, I am the truth. The truth is above us, it must come into us since reason and conscience are adapted to unite with it, wherever it meets us.—Cremer. The Seventh-Day Adventists.
By Uriah Smith
A BRIEF SKETCH OF THEIR ORIGIN, PROGRESS, AND PRINCIPLES.
Public speakers being few, in comparison with the calls for labor, a plan has been devised designed to give all an opportunity to act some part in the promulgation of our views. This organization is called the Tract and Missionary Society. In this organization, the State is divided into districts, each district being composed of a certain number of churches, adjacent to each other. For each district a director is appointed, who appoints a librarian for each church in his district, to take charge of distributing tracts to the members, and a district secretary to keep an account of the whole working of the district. The district directors, a president, secretary and treasurer, constitute the officers of each State T. & M. Society. This Society has now been organized in each of the thirteen State Conferences. These State Societies then unite and form a General Tract and Missionary Society, with its proper officers. The object of this organization is to systematically canvass the country with books, tracts, and pamphlets setting forth the things we hold to be special truths for this time, to obtain subscribers for our various periodicals, visit the sick, call upon, and converse and pray with, families and individuals; and the general organization is designed to seek out openings and supply calls for help, in all the world. This Tract and Missionary organization is quite recent, the present year, 1874, being the first year with most of the State Societies. Yet the funds raised for the work of this Society now amount to over $15,000, and during the past year reports show that between three and four millions of pages of reading matter have been distributed, mostly given away, thousands of bound volumes placed in public libraries, nearly ten thousand families visited and prayed with, and 15,000 trial subscribers obtained for the different periodicals, aside from the regular subscription list above reported, while publications have been sent to England, Scotland, Ireland, Italy, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, and to every missionary station on the coast of Africa. Missions are now in successful operation among the Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, and French, in this country. The Danish and Swedish papers have already been noticed. Quite a number of books and tracts are already issued in these languages, as also in the French and German, and papers in the two languages last named are in contemplation. Our views have also gained a permanent foothold in Switzerland in Europe. There are now some seventy-five believers there. Two of their number have been sent to this country to learn the English language, and become more fully instructed in S. D. Adventist views. Sept. 15, 1874, Eld. J. N. Andrews left this country for that field of labor. The first camp-meeting of S. D. Adventists was held under the management of Elders White and Andrews, in the town of Wright, Mich., Sept. 1–7, 1868. The results of this meeting were so encouraging that the plan of holding meetings of this kind during the summer months was soon generally adopted among this people. The past season, two camp-meetings were held in the State of Michigan, and one each in the twelve other Conferences, making fourteen in all. At the first Michigan meeting of this season, held in Battle Creek, Aug. 6–17, there were ninety-one tents, and between twelve and thirteen hundred persons permanently encamped upon the ground. Others lodging away from the ground, but daily attending the meeting, swelled the number to nearly fourteen hundred. This was the largest company of Christian observers of the seventh day known to have assembled since apostolic times. These meetings, as conducted by S. D. Adventists, are designed to be occasions of great spiritual profit to all who attend, promoting a revival spirit, and deep, and vital piety. Complete order is maintained, proper hours for rest are secured, and everything passes off with as much order and decorum as would be observed in a house of worship. In 1868, Elders J. N. Loughborough and D. T. Bourdeau were sent by the General Conference on a mission to California, and, with a large tent taken with them, commenced the work. From this point the cause of Seventh-day Adventism has grown quite rapidly on that coast. In 1872, Eld. White and wife visited that State, and aided in organizing a State Conference. They again visited California in the latter part of 1873, remaining until August, 1874. On this last visit, perceiving that the growing cause in that distant locality needed a medium of communication nearer than the publishing house in Michigan, Eld. W. commenced in Oakland, Cal., the publication of The Signs of the Times, the first number of which was issued June 4, 1874. It was started as a weekly the same size as the REVIEW AND HERALD. The wants of the cause, and the action of the General Conference of Aug. 10, 1874, calling Bro. W. east, the California Conference assumed the publication of the Signs. At their camp-meeting at Yountville, Oct. 1–12, 1874, nineteen thousand dollars were pledged for this purpose. As indicating the progress of the cause in California, it may be stated that, at the camp-meeting just referred to, there were some 85 tents pitched, and at the height of the meeting nearly six hundred Sabbath-keepers upon the ground. The churches belonging to this Conference now number fourteen. A mission is now progressing encouragingly in Oregon and Washington Territory, under the management of Eld. I. D. Van Horn and wife. The subject of education among S. D. Adventists, and the founding of a denominational school, was brought to the attention of this people by Eld. James White and wife, in the early part of 1872, and several meetings, at their call, were held in Battle Creek, Mich. May 11, 1872, the matter was put into the hands of the General Conference Committee, who, during the summer and autumn of 1873, solicited subscriptions to this enterprise, obtaining pledges for over fifty-four thousand dollars. March 16, 1874, an association was formed, under the law of Michigan “for the incorporation of institutions of learning,” and ground was broken, in May, for the erection of a suitable school building. The site is a beautiful plot of twelve acres, in the highest part of the city, opposite the grounds of the Health Institute. The building, of brick, 37 by 71, with two hall wings, each 17 by 37, three stories high, capable of accommodating between four and five hundred students, will be ready for use Jan. 1, 1875. The school itself, has been in progress, in such accommodations as it could secure, some two years. Light from the Sanctuary.
By R. F. Cottrell
One distinguishing doctrine of S. D. Adventists is that of the sanctuary and its cleansing. Though it is clearly taught in the Scriptures, yet no other people teach it. The typical nature of the sanctuary of the “first covenant” is clearly shown in the letter to the Hebrews, and the priesthood of Christ and the sanctuary of the new covenant are shown to be the antitype of the earthly sanctuary and priesthood, so that by a reference to the arrangement and cleansing of that sanctuary, we have the true light on the ministration of our High Priest and the cleansing of the sanctuary of the second covenant at the end of the 2300 days. The disappointment at the end of those days in 1844, led to the examination of the subject of the sanctuary of which Christ is the minister, which must be the one to be cleansed in the close of this dispensation; and as light on the sanctuary was obtained, light from the sanctuary was also received. In the earthly sanctuary, the law of God, the ten commandments written by the finger of God on tables of stone and enshrined in the ark of the covenant, was placed in the inner sanctuary, the holy of holies—that law which is now held by the many to be changed or abrogated. But that sanctuary was typical of the true; Heb. 8:1-5; and if the 2300 days have expired, the time has come for the closing work in the latter to be performed by Christ, the High Priest, the work of removing the sins of his people from the sanctuary, which is called its cleansing. And if the days are ended, and consequently prophetic time is “no longer,” Rev. 10:6, 7, the seventh angel must commence his sounding; for it is in the days of his voice, “when he shall BEGIN TO SOUND,” that this closing work, which is the finishing of the “mystery of God,” should be accomplished. Accordingly we read, “And the seventh angel sounded . . . . And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament.” Rev. 11:15-19. It was at the end of the 2300 days in 1844 that the inner apartment of the temple was opened for the cleansing of the sanctuary—the closing work of our great High Priest—and as the result of the inquiry after the cause of the great disappointment of those who then expected the second advent of Christ, “there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament.” Here was indubitable proof of the perpetuity of the entire code of ten commandments, down to the sounding of the seventh trumpet at the close of the dispensation. And from the holy of holies, where the ark was seen, the third angel takes his credentials and goes forth to preach “the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” The commandments are to be kept; they are to be restored to the true Israel of God, while Christ is before the mercy-seat, the covering of the ark, to make reconciliation for his people and blot out their transgressions of that holy law. And thus the mystery of the gospel of God is to be finished by the last work of our High Priest in Heaven and the last message of the gospel on earth. A flood of light pours forth from the sanctuary. We believe in God. We believe in his “sure word of prophecy,” and in his providence in its fulfillment. Since 1844 the light from the sanctuary on the perpetuity of the moral law came to me before I ever heard of a Seventh-day Adventist. I was taught the true Sabbath from my infancy, and never kept any other. And knowing that in this we were in advance of first-day keepers, I did not take that interest in the early advent movement, originating as it did with those who were the transgressors of this holy law, as I otherwise should. Consequently I was not disappointed at their disappointment. I expected it, though blind and ignorant as to the truth in the matter. But after those days, as I was reading this chapter in my family, I remarked that there was an evidence of the perpetuity of the ten commandments that I never noticed before. In all my association with S. D. Baptists, hearing preaching and reading their publications, I do not remember of ever meeting with this argument, clear and unanswerable as it is. It might have been used without professing faith in the advent at hand; but it was reserved to the time of the sounding of the seventh trumpet, to be brought out in fulfilling the prediction: “And the seventh angel sounded, . . . . and the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament.” And now my former brethren cannot use this powerful argument in favor of the Bible Sabbath without incurring the risk of being called Adventists. But they are welcome to the use of it; and it is one of the clearest and most conclusive and unanswerable arguments that can be adduced. Light from the sanctuary!—from the place where God sits enthroned between the cherubim, above the mercy-seat, beneath which is the holy law—the fundamental principles of his government. “Justice and judgment are the habitation [foundation] of his throne.” Ps. 89:14. This is the true source of light. “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” 1 Jno. 1:5. AND the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; and the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died, and the third part of ships were destroyed. We will here repeat, that the first four trumpets in the series of the seven bring to view the division of the Roman Empire into its ten parts, and also the special calamities which befell Rome in her decline and fall. Already has it been shown that up to A. D. 407 seven powerful clans of Barbarians had seized upon large parts of the empire, established governments (kingdoms), and were managing things in their own way. These kingdoms retained their identities until the last vestige of civil power in the Roman commonwealth was obliterated.165 We are now down in the stream of time, when the Huns, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Franks, Burgundians, Vandals, and Suevi are desolating the classic fields of Rome and often bringing her armies under subjugation. The word Vandalism has become commonplace among historians. In speaking of the decline of Rome, it is recorded that “Vandalism desolated her classic fields.” The hero of Vandal aggression and destruction was Genseric. A Latin author describes him as follows: “He was a more frightful barbarian than any who had as yet arisen among the foes of Rome. Lame and hideous in aspect, of slow speech, but of iron will, inconceivable duplicity and boundless ambition, he had never been known to listen to the voice of justice or mercy; he had never recoiled from any act of perfidy or blood which he believed his interests to demand. He is admitted to have been temperate in his personal habits, but utterly incapable of controlling himself when aroused to anger. His perspicacity saw to the bottom of everything. He never missed an opportunity; he carried out a project in less time than others spent in meditating upon it.” We understand that the above prophecy of the second trumpet was fulfilled by the Vandals. This tribe who at first settled in what is now Spain, saw brighter prospects for themselves in Africa, consequently about A. D. 428 their kingdom was transferred there, making Carthage their head-quarters. Here Genseric soon gained the greatest maritime power of his age. His noted conquests were mostly naval. His great object was to destroy the power of Rome, and his attacks were mostly on the middle tripartite division of the empire. Majorian, the emperor of the West, who retained only the middle tripartite division of the empire, (as it was divided by Constantine the Great), fitted out a fleet to operate against the Vandals, but Genseric outgeneraled him. He burnt and sunk in a day what cost Majorian three years of labor at a great expense. For many years he was the tyrant of the sea, and imagined that he himself was fated to be the scourge of the Romans. He pillaged Rome, and carried away the sacred vessels of the temple which Titus took from Jerusalem. His success at sea and his desperate assaults upon Majorian, so enraged Leo, the emperor of the East, that he sent him word that, if he did not desist from his ravages, he would send a force sufficient to exterminate the Vandal power entirely. For this purpose a fleet left Constantinople A. D. 468, and arrived before Carthage. It consisted of 1113 vessels at a cost of 5,200,000 pounds sterling, and soldiers and mariners, about 100,000. As soon as this fleet arrived, Genseric asked for a truce of three days. During this time he fitted up vessels filled with combustible materials, impelled them against the unsuspecting Romans at night, and thus set fire to their whole fleet, and gained a complete victory. In A. D. 429, he began his attacks upon the Romans, and in A. D. 468, his crowning feat was accomplished. This naval warfare is symbolized by a great burning mountain cast into the sea. The third part of the sea became blood, seems to have reference to the terrible slaughter of man in this division of the empire. (Africa was included in this division by Constantine the Great.) The third part of the creatures which were in the sea and had life died. This may include the mariners engaged in this warfare. But why, says one, do you call the creatures here men? Are not creatures sometimes inferior animals, as fish? They are. But the great burning mountain symbolizes a great warfare. Now the fish had nothing to do with the warfare; hence such creatures as men or horses which are used in a battle could only supply the analogy in the symbol. And the third part of the ships were destroyed. This doubtless refers to the complete ruin of Leo’s fleet. While Genseric was reducing the Roman power by sea, there began to be carried on a confederate attack of the other above-mentioned tribes by land, under Attila, the king of the Huns, which brings us to the third trumpet. For other particulars in regard to these trumpets, the reader is referred to Thoughts on the Revelation, published at Battle Creek, Mich. The Health Reformer in Neuchatel.
By John Nevins Andrews
In crossing Lake Neuchatel two days since, I was agreeably surprised to see a copy of the Health Reformer in the side pocket of a gentleman’s overcoat. I was the more surprised as he was evidently a European. I learned on entering into conversation with him that he was a native Swiss and that he had lived sixteen years in the United States, but was now returned to Switzerland with the intention of making Neuchatel his home. I soon found that he was deeply interested in the subject of health reform, and that he was familiar with the writings of Graham, Trall, and Jackson, and with the various health periodicals. He gave the decided preference among the latter to the Health Reformer. When he learned that I was interested in the Reformer, he was as much rejoiced as though he had found an old friend. We had a very interesting interview. He is anxious to awaken his friends to the importance of living according to hygienic principles. He wishes me to aid him and I feel interested to do it. He is a man of extensive general information, and very candid in his statements. I hope to interest him in the moral law as fully as he is now interested in the laws of health and in the subject of proper living. Perhaps the readers of the REVIEW may not understand that it is necessarily more difficult to introduce health reform in this country than in the United States. But first it is nearly impossible to procure any graham flour. And what is a more serious difficulty to contend with, the stoves are constructed in such a manner that it is not possible to bake bread of any kind in them. The people depend upon the bakers for bread and take such as they can get. They think that stoves like those in America consume more fuel than they can afford. But I think the real reason to be that this is the kind of stove that they received from their ancestors, and they cannot think of anything better. I can hardly see how we are ever to make any general change from baker’s bread to graham. The gentleman of whom I have spoken procured with much difficulty a small quantity of graham flour, and as he could not bake it, he took it to the baker’s and gave him instructions. The result did not encourage him to repeat the experiment. There is a plenty of water in Neuchatel. Fountains of running water from the mountains behind the city, abound. But the water is all hard. I think there are no good filters for rain water in this country. And as to ventilation, the windows open as doors, so that in cold weather they are not very well fitted to change the air of a room without making the room cold to the feet. These items will serve to illustrate the case. Our friends here are anxious to walk in the light of truth, and are desirous to know the best way in everything. I believe them to possess the spirit of consecration and of sacrifice for God. J. N. ANDREWS. Neuchatel, Switzerland, Oct. 28. Sabbath-keepers in Russia.
By John Nevins Andrews
In the new edition of my Sabbath History, pp. 464–467, I have shown that there are many Sabbath-keeping Christians in Russia, and that their history dates back at least one century earlier than the reformation under Martin Luther. I have just met with an interesting confirmation of this statement. There lives in this vicinity a sister by the name of Pigueron, who with her daughter removed in 1871 to Roumania, a province of the Turkish Empire which borders on Russia. She returned last year. She states that the brother of her daughter’s husband visited Russia, and on his return told her that there were people in Russia who keep the seventh day as the Sabbath. He said that they had churches, but that they were much scattered by persecution; that there are many of them, and that they kept it from their forefathers. I will in due time give a further account of these observers of the ancient Sabbath. Sowing Kindness and Friendship Along the Way
It is a good and safe rule to sojourn in every place as if you meant to spend your life there, never omitting an opportunity of doing a kindness or speaking a true word, or making a friend. Seeds thus sown by the wayside often bring forth abundant harvest.