Earlier text: HARMONY BETWEEN THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTSBy their Fruits.
By Dr. J. G. Holland
Was it Thackeray who said that the difference between genius and talent was the difference between the length of two maggots? It was worthy of him, at least, and like him. When a man gets large enough to know that he is almost infinitely small, he is tolerably ripe. When he becomes wise enough to realize that his wisdom is folly, his profoundest learning ignorance, and his opinions, drawn from partial views of truth and its relations, of little value, he has risen into a realm where he drops his robe of pride, and drapes himself in the garment of docility. The simplicity and the teachableness of great men have been the wonder of the vulgar through all time. At the beginning of our late civil war, a capitalist from the country came to New York for the purpose of acquiring a stock of financial information. What was to be the effect of this war upon the finances of the country? How should he manage to save his wealth? How should he manage to increase it? These were the questions he put to the wisest financier he knew. The old man pointed to an apple-woman across the street. “Go and ask her,” he said; “she knows just as much about it as I do.” Yet opinions in Wall street, were as plenty as blackberries, while the results of the war, as they accumulate, proved that they were beyond human sagacity to foresee, and that the man most competent to foresee them had no more financial prescience than the ignorant apple-woman. There is a realm of inquiry—indeed, there are many realms of inquiry—where the opinions and speculations of one man are just as valuable as those of another man—no more so, no less—for those of both are valueless. The speculations of such a man as Mr. Tyndall on the origin of life attract a great deal of attention; yet Mr. Tyndall knows just as much about the origin of life as the apple-woman on the corner, and no more. The speculations about development and atoms, and molecules, form, perhaps, an elevated amusement. They are better than the hippodrome and the negro minstrels, without being more instructive. It is better to speculate on the atomic theory than to play battledoor and shuttlecock. It is better to speculate a personal God out of the universe than to go on a spree—better to ignore his work than to mar it. But the whole thing rises no higher than elevated amusement. It does not give even the smallest basis for sound opinion. All these speculators, wrapped around with scientific reputations, battering vainly against the limits of thought and scientific knowledge, and coming back with their reports of having seen something more than their fellows, are pretenders—to be praised, perhaps, for their enterprise, but laughed at for their conclusions. Mr. Tyndall finds in matter the promise and the potency of all forms and qualities of life. Who put the promise and the potency there? Ah! that is the question, and Mr. Tyndall has not solved it. He goes no farther, perhaps, than to say that he finds them there. Has he found them there? In what form have they presented themselves to his scientific investigation? Can he show what he has found? Alas! he has found nothing new—seen nothing that others have not seen. He has only come to a personal conclusion and indulged in a personal speculation, and that conclusion and that speculation are not only unscientific, but they are valueless. Is there not some way—some scientific way—in which a just conclusion may be arrived at concerning this great subject? If we should stand at the beginning of the world, and know the want of bread, would it not be very unscientific for us to get together a bundle of seeds or germs and speculate as to which would be the most likely to give us bread? Would it not be better to plant every seed, label its bed, watch its growth, and examine its fruits? Would not that be the scientific way of ascertaining the nature and characteristics of the great power that was to feed us? Certainly that seed which would yield the best results, and address itself most directly and beneficently to our wants, would be the one to which we should give our faith. To do anything else would be to rebel against the law of our nature. To do anything else would be irrational and unscientific. Well, certain seeds have been planted in the world of mind. They have borne, in various times, and in many countries, their legitimate fruits. Can we not find, in the adaptation of those fruits to human want, a scientific conclusion concerning the tree or plant that bears them? Is it not strictly scientific to conclude that the better the fruit, and the better its results, the more thoroughly is the seed vitalized by everlasting and essential truth? If certain ideas of the nature and character of God, and of the immortality of the soul—if certain ideas of human responsibility—have dignified humanity more, elevated it more, civilized it more, purified its morals, sweetened its society, stimulated its hopes, assuaged its sorrows, developed its benevolence, and repressed its selfishness, more than any other ideas, are not those ideas scientifically ascertained to be nearer the truth than any others? If they are not, then we misunderstand the nature and the processes of science. There has been abroad in the world, for many centuries, an idea, advanced and maintained by more religions than one, that there is at the head of the universe an Almighty God—a Spirit who has created all material things, and informed them with law—a Spirit that is in itself the source of all life. There has been the further idea that this God is a person, who, though his mode of being is beyond human ken, recognizes the persons he has created, loves them, regards them as his family, and holds them personally responsible to his moral law. There has been the further idea that mankind, in consequence of their common parentage, are a band of brothers and sisters, who owe to one another good-will and unselfish service. There has been the further idea that this personal God is a being to be worshiped as the sum and source of all perfection—to be thanked, praised, prayed to, in the full recognition of filial relationship, and a full faith in his providential and paternal care. Out of this group of ideas has come the world’s best civilization. Out of it have come churches and schools, and colleges, and hospitals, and benign governments and missions, and a thousand institutions of brotherly benevolence. From it have sprung untold heroisms. It has recognized human rights. It has had no smaller aim than that of human perfection. It has armed millions of men and women with fortitude to bear the ills of life. It has made society safe wherever it has been dominant. Associated with a thousand dogmas invented by mistaken men, it has still done all that has been done to redeem the world to peace and goodness; and if this group of ideas has not scientifically demonstrated itself to be nearer the truth than are all the negations and speculations of scientific dreamers, then there is no such thing as science. —Dr. J. G. Holland; Scribner for April. We were never so deeply interested in reading the foreign news as at the present time. The European nations are advancing so rapidly toward the great anticipated national struggle, and the war tension has become so great that it seems impossible that a general rupture can be much longer delayed. The pope and Bismarck are rapidly approaching each other, prepared for a deadly and final conflict. The new ecclesiastical laws of Germany are driving the Jesuits to desperation. Every mail brings news of advanced steps taken by these fierce uncompromising antagonists. Germany demands that the new king of Spain define his position as to being controlled by the Jesuits, or by policy, independent of the pope’s dictation. She still echoes her demand that her marred honor, in the recent insult of her flag by Ultramontane pirates, shall be speedily repaired. She is about to demand that all her trusted sons in civil service shall take a particular oath of allegiance; which means loyalty or death. The political elements in Italy are like the pent-up, boiling, surging lava of her Vesuvius, ready to burst forth into a flame of destruction. Austria is straining her credit to its utmost capacity to obtain money to bring her army up to the present European standard, and furnish it with the latest and most destructive scientific armor. Russia’s great Autocrat is beginning to boldly unroll his long-concealed programme, shaking his head significantly at England, and speaking defiantly to the sultan’s representative. England is profoundly desirous of peace, but she finds herself perfectly entangled in both the Eastern and Western snares; and if she attempts to relieve either foot, the other is fatally caught. If she arms to withstand the encroachments of Bishop Manning and the pope, thus supporting Bismarck and Victor Emmanuel, Russia is ready to wave her triumphant banner over all the East, laying her hand upon Constantinople and England’s vast possessions in India. The last scratch of the bear, and menace of the old beast, has evidently aroused the lion to a sense of approaching danger, so that the regiments of the English army in India are ordered to be prepared to march at a moment’s warning. The Queen’s Premier exhorts his government to be prepared for an approaching unprecedented “religious war.” The Jesuitical party are evidently just as bloodthirsty as they were during the days of racks and fagots. Read the history of Bismarck for the last few months. See how he has to be guarded night and day, to preserve him from the fatality of their poison and steel. Read of their recent bloody deeds in Mexico, Brazil, and other places, where priest-directed mobs have shed the blood of those who dare to open their lips against the proud mother of the harlot family. It seems to us that the angel hand has written the “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin” so plainly upon the Roman palace wall that every anointed Christian eye may read and correctly interpret it. God’s predictions and foreshadowing types turn the unerring index to this grand period of universal excitement and unprecedented preparation for world-wide revolution. All things portend a new era;—the passing away of the old, and the ushering in of a new earthly administration. The great heart of every class of men upon the earth is throbbing with increasing restlessness, dissatisfied with the status of its own government and worship, and with that of other classes, and is seeking, with a determined purpose, to improve its own, and to overthrow all others. The Monarchists are straining the tension of their governments to the breaking point, to suppress the multitudinous classes who are combining and threatening to disrobe the old, effeminate dynasties of their prostituted sovereignty, in order to establish their royalty upon a more firm and secure basis than they now enjoy. The papacy firmly believes that God has determined to make bare his arm immediately, and make the pope the absolute head of all earthly governments, as arbiter of both church and State. The Protestant church understands that this is the period appointed of God for her to triumph over all opposition, and become the ruling class of the world. The Greek church entertains the same views in relation to its destiny. Republicans, Internationalists, Communists, spiritualists, each class, everywhere, is determined to immediately improve its own condition by subduing and overturning all other classes who are in opposition. Such a state of things cannot be protracted indefinitely; either this excitement and determination for a change must cease, or war and revolution must inevitably follow. Such great and powerful currents of human passions, of aspirations and revenge, never lose their velocity, as do the waters of a river quietly flowing into a lake or sea; but they inevitably increase, until they leap from some terrible precipice into the roaring confusion of the maddened waters below. Reader, do you not see that these terrible currents have wonderfully increased within the last twelve months? We are evidently nearing the falls. The nations are “rushing like the rushing of many waters; but God shall rebuke them;” therefore, escape, O sinner; leap upon the rock which you are just passing, that you may be saved from the perdition into which you are now plunging. Wait not an hour; set your helm for the shore; catch the breeze just now; for a few moments’ delay may prove your eternal ruin.—J. Couch. The disciples at one time asked: “Are there few that be saved?” Jesus gave no direct answer, but said: “Strive to enter in at the strait gate.” Whatever may be the destiny of others, if we would be saved, we must be in earnest about it. There are difficulties in the way, and an earnest effort is needed to overcome them. The way is open, but we must strive to enter in. Christ has died, but we must believe in him if we would be saved. We must be new creatures in Christ Jesus; we must be born again. And we must be watchful and prayerful, and persevere unto the end. For if Jesus tells us not whether many or few shall be saved, he does tell us who shall be saved—he that endureth unto the end, the same shall be saved. He that endures! To endure, we must believe in Christ, we must depend on his grace and we must use the means he has appointed; we must read the word, watch and pray, walk in the strait and narrow way, and ever confide in him who alone can keep us unto the end. May we endure unto the end, so that we may be saved.—Sel. TESTIMONY OF THE APOSTLES OF CHRIST CONSIDERED.
In calling attention to the teachings of the apostles, touching the Law and the gospel, we should understand that their epistles and their acts were written after the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, and the day of Pentecost. These inspired men wrote after all the changes from the first covenant to the second had taken place, and the Christian church had been fully established, and had passed down in her history in the Christian age a number of years. And as no dispensational changes have taken place since that time, it follows, as a matter of indisputable fact, that what they wrote in the first century, relative to the object and work of the divine law, applies with equal force in the nineteenth century. Having briefly defined the bearing which the writings of the apostles have upon truth and duty in the Christian age to its close, we will now examine some of their most direct statements as to the relation of the law of God, and the gospel of his Son, in the conversion of men from sin to obedience and holiness. 1. The address of Paul to the elders of the church at Ephesus, whom he called to Miletus. The apostle appealed to them in the most touching manner as follows: “Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews; and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you, and have taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” Acts 20 : 18-21. The great apostle, on the important occasion of addressing the leaders and representatives of the Christian church at Ephesus, makes no point more prominent than that in true conversion the sinner has to do with both the Father and the Son. The gospel which Paul preached calls sinners first to the Father to exercise repentance toward him, as the author of the divine law which they have transgressed, and then to Christ to exercise faith toward him in order to obtain pardon. The gospel, as taught by the great apostle, first shows the sinner the nature and extent of his sins by the moral code, and then invites him to come to Jesus as the only means of pardon. The most eminent gospel ministers the world has ever known have spoken very plainly of the object and work of the divine law. “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law; for sin is the transgression of the law.”—John. “Where no law is, there is no transgression.” “I had not known sin, but by the law.”—Paul. “Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”—James. And what makes these declarations a standard, before which false opinions fall in the minds of Bible readers, is the fact that they were written by inspiration of God. The eminent Paul would show the nature and extent of the malady of sin, by the law, before presenting the remedy in Jesus Christ. His manner of teaching is a plain rebuke of the surface work carried on in the popular revivals of our day, where sinners are invited to come to Jesus Christ before they are instructed as to the nature and extent of their sins. Genuine conversion cannot result from such teachings. When the excitement produced by the sensational revivalist has passed off, the victims of this surface work fall back into a far more hopeless condition. These ministers who with a velvety tread have walked all around the ten commandments, and have avoided to touch the sins of the people, and have not taught repentance toward God, as necessary to true conviction of sin before coming to Christ for pardon, have, in the words of Pollok, — “With quackish ointment healed the wounds
And bruises of the soul, outside, but left
Within the pestilent matter unobserved,
To sap the moral constitution quite,
And soon to burst again incurable.” 2. Paul’s statements in his epistle to the church at Rome concerning the work of the law and its relation to the gospel in the conversion of sinners. Whether the reader shall consider that the apostle is describing his own personal experience, or that he is delineating the true process of genuine conversion to Christ, his good words have equal force. He says, “I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.” Chap. 7 : 7. He here quotes from the tenth commandment to show that by the word law he means the ten precepts of the moral code. The law of God is the appointed means to discover sin. “I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came sin revived and I died.” Verse 9. The law is the means of producing conviction upon the mind of the sinner before he can come to Jesus Christ understandingly, and in a manner to secure true conversion. In view of the great work of the law in the conversion of sinners, the apostle states his opinion of its holy character for the benefit of the Christian ministry and the church. “Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” Verse 12. “For we know that the law is spiritual.” Verse 14. “I delight in the law of God after the inward man.” Verse 22. And let it be borne in mind that the epistle to the Romans was written A. D. 60, more than twenty-five years later than the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, and the day of Pentecost. Whatever, therefore, was the character and work of the ten precepts of the moral code when this epistle was written, is their character and their work in the conviction of the sinner at the present time. In another chapter Paul declares that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Rom. 3 : 23. And in the verses that follow, the apostle speaks of the only remedy through Jesus Christ. “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.” Verses 24, 25. The divine law must stand as firm as the throne of Heaven, while a system of pardon and justification is introduced through Christ by which God “might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” Verse 26. We may now feel the force of the apostle’s concluding declaration in the last verse of this chapter: “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law.” The justice of the Eternal Throne must be maintained. And such was the changeless nature of the divine law, that God could be just in pardoning the unworthy transgressor of his holy law only through the worthy name of his Son. If that law could have been changed, Christ need not have died. But because the law of God must stand as firm as the changeless throne of Heaven, Christ died for sinners. Here, then, is the burden of the gospel of the Son of God as taught by Paul. It is not that Christ died to change or abolish the divine law, but that he died for our sins. With great power the apostle appeals to the church at Corinth, that he had made this fundamental principle first, and most prominent in the gospel of Christ which he had preached to them. “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand, by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.” 1 Cor. 15 : 1-3. Editorial Correspondence.
By John Nevins Andrews
The time has now come when it is duty for me to return to Switzerland. I have spent nearly five weeks here in earnest labor with Bro. Ertzenberger, wherever the way has opened. Though the work has taxed our strength severely it has been to us a period of deep and solemn interest. We have not been without many things to try our patience and our courage, yet God has made all things work for our good, and in the end has every time given us the victory. God has greatly blessed the labors of Bro. Ertzenberger, and made his help very valuable to me. We have found in these German Sabbath-keepers a class of persons that we feel to respect as upright, worthy, Christian people. Though none of them are very wealthy all of them are in comfortable circumstances, and some of them possess what may be considered a competence. Nearly or quite every family owns the house in which they live, and a small piece of land adjoining. The most of these families are weavers. They use very complicated looms, and their work requires much skill, yet all the children are taught to do this work, and they work with much dexterity. The fabrics which they weave are silk, or silk and cotton. Some of the silk is very rich in its appearance, being woven with very beautiful figures. Their looms are in their own houses. The keeping of the Sabbath does not bring men to poverty. The seventh day of rest is preceded by six days of industry. The people who have principle to keep the rest-day of the Lord have no disposition to spend their money in dissipation, and so it follows that Sabbath-keepers are not often found in deep poverty, unless, like Lazarus, they are prostrated by disease. We have made the utmost of our time, holding meetings in public halls and private houses, wherever the way has opened, and we have spent much time in visiting from house to house. Of course, we have seen faults, and found some errors. But we have found an industrious people; for even the children are taught skilled labor, and we have found neatness everywhere. The last few days we have devoted wholly to the brethren. There were very many things that I wished to say before returning. We have therefore, for some days past, had just as many meetings as they could attend. The friends who live near Holland came to spend Sabbath and first-day with us, and they have just left for home, our meeting having closed some two hours since. I spoke to them yesterday forenoon, three hours, and I think they did not count the meeting tedious for nearly all were weeping when it closed. It was not an appeal to their sympathies which drew the tears, but a plain, faithful testimony concerning their faults. In the afternoon I spoke two hours, taking up many things. God gave me freedom in speaking and to Bro. Ertzenberger much liberty as he interpreted in German. In this discourse I pointed out some errors in their manner of keeping the Sabbath, and as they have hitherto observed it from six in the evening to the same hour again, I set before them the sunset time. Then I spoke on Systematic Benevolence, and some other things. When I had finished they arose almost as one man and said that they were satisfied that what I had spoken was right. They pledged themselves at once to adopt Systematic Benevolence according to the plan set forth. The difference in circumstances between their country and the United States requires some thought and labor in arranging this matter, but Bro. E. will aid them in the details of the business. I shall assist him in this before I leave. To-day, as we could have but one meeting, I have spoken four hours. I have principally occupied the time with an account of our work in America, and of the manner in which God, by his providence, has led our people. I have given the reasons for our views of Spiritual Gifts from the Bible, and I have spoken also of the sacrifices made by some of the older Sabbath-keepers in the commencement of our work. We have had a very important series of meetings the past two days, and I feel certain that lasting good has been done. I do not approve of such long meetings as I have here reported except upon extraordinary occasions, and then we have the example of Paul in their support. As the result of our month's labor, this company of about fifty Sabbath-keeping Christians in the German Empire are ready heartily to co-operate in the work which God has given us as a people to do. Since we have been here a few have embraced the Sabbath of the Lord, though our work has not been long enough in one place to accomplish much for those not walking in the truth. God has given to Bro. Ertzenberger much of his blessing, and we have secured a convenient hall at moderate expense in the village of Hilden in which Bro. E. is to give a course of lectures. We had such an attentive hearing in that village some two weeks since that I cannot but hope that there is there an ear to hear the truth. Our German brethren assume all the expense of this course of lectures, and of Bro. E.'s labor here in Germany. Moreover they will pay back unto the Swiss treasury all the money expended by us in making this journey. Our work in Germany, therefore, bids fair to be self-sustaining at once. May God forbid that Satan should be able to bring trouble and reproach upon this sacred work. I would gladly stay and labor in Germany, but the work is now in that condition that I think Bro. E. can do alone nearly all that we two could do together. I have great confidence that he will stand in the counsel of God and that God will make him mighty to the pulling down of the strong holds of Satan. My duty is clear to return to Switzerland, and if God will I shall set out at noon to-morrow. I cannot help feeling most intensely. I have the past week received intelligence which I think is authentic concerning two other companies or bodies of Sabbath-keeping Christians. It really seems that God has been at work without ministers in Europe, raising up a people to keep his commandments. If God will, I will know of these people before long. I pray God that his work may prosper in Switzerland. I shall make every effort to this end that is in my power to make. I have no doubt that God will help there in a very special manner. Something must be done very soon to help the friends in Italy. And we must have publications in all these languages. If it were possible to labor without cessation, how gladly would I thus work. But the work is the Lord's, and when we have done the little that it is possible for us to do it is his prerogative to give the increase. Our German brethren do not believe in bearing arms. One of them was imprisoned at Düsseldorf two years for refusing to serve in the recent war with France. A daughter of one of our brethren was converted at the age of fourteen and felt a strong conviction of duty to be baptized. Her parents thought her too young and told her she must wait. Shortly after this she was attacked with the small-pox and her life was despaired of. Then she felt deep distress that she had not obeyed God, and her anguish was so great that her parents sent for the elder of the church in the night, and having provided a suitable place in the house she was buried with Christ in baptism. The next day she was much better, and her recovery was very rapid. On arriving in Prussia the first thing is to go to the authorities and present your passport and obtain permission to remain. In fact, unless you do this within twenty-four hours the person who entertains you is liable to a fine. Also, if one is to speak to the Prussian people he must send a note to the proper authorities stating that fact, and they will return the note with their seal affixed which gives the right to speak, and saves you from the violation of the law. But such regulations seem to an American very unreasonable, and they are certainly quite inconvenient. Elberfeld, Prussia, March 7, 1875.