James White
ADVENT REVIEW,
AND SABBATH HERALD
[Graphic of the Ark of the Covenant with the inscription beneath,]
“And there was Seen in His Temple
the Ark of His Testament.”
“Here is the Patience of the Saints; Here are they that keep the Commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus.”
VOL. XX. - BATTLE CREEK, MICH., THIRD-DAY, AUGUST 12, 1862. - NO. 11.
JWe
IS PUBLISHED WEEKLY, BY
The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association
TERMS.-Two Dollars a year, in advance. One Dollar to the poor and to those who subscribe one year on trial. Free to those unable to pay half price. Address ELDER JAMES WHITE, Battle Creek, Michigan. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 81.1
JWe
O LORD! thy praise is great,
All things thou didst create.
Thou madest all.
All things thy blessings share;
All are beneath thy care,
Both great and small.
Thou dost the lilies clothe, the ravens feed,
Number the sparrows and supply their need.
Help me thy providence to see,
And ever, ever trust in thee.
In this vain world of care, and sin, and sorrow,
Ills from the future may I never borrow,
But ever leave with thee the doubtful morrow.
’Tis mine to hope, and trust, and praise,
And thine to plan for future days.
The dangers that now seem to lower,
May change their course in one short hour,
And vanish from my anxious eye,
Proving they came my faith to try,
To show the vanity of care,
And teach me never to despair.
Sufficient are the evils to the day,
Nor will I brood them or prolong their stay.
When foes surround my path,
Mustered in rage and wrath,
To make me fly;
To catch me when I rove,
Or make me trembling move,
Be thou still nigh.
Blest Saviour do not leave me ever,
But guide me by thy gracious favor.
Counsel I need, and aid,
Friends have their trust betrayed,
Snares for my feet are laid,
On thee my hope is stayed
Now and forever. E. W. DARLING.
Beaver, Minn. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 81.2
JWe
BY JOHN MILTON
Author of “Paradise Lost.”
(Concluded.) ARSH August 12, 1862, page 81.3
THUS far proof has been given of the death of the whole man. But lest recourse should be had to the sophistical distinction that, although the whole man dies, it does not therefore follow that the whole of man should die, I proceed to give similar proof with regard to each of the parts - the body, the spirit, and the soul, according to the division above stated. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 81.4
First, then, as to the body, no one doubts that it suffers privation of life. Nor will the same be less evident with regard to the spirit, if it be allowed that the spirit, according to the doctrine previously laid down, has no participation in the divine nature, but is purely human; and that no reason can be assigned why, if God has sentenced to death the whole of man that sinned, the spirit, which is the part principally offending, should be alone exempt from the appointed punishment; especially since, previous to the entrance of sin into the world, all parts of man were alike immortal; 1The author’s view on this point we are not prepared to endorse. and that, since that time, in pursuance of God’s denunciation all have become equally subject to death. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 81.5
But to come to the proofs. The Preacher himself, the wisest of men, expressly denies that the spirit is exempt from death: Ecclesiastes 3:18, 20, “As the beast dieth, so dieth the man; yea, they have all one breath (Hebrew, spirit), .... . all go unto one place.” And in the twenty-first verse he condemns the ignorance of those who venture to affirm that the way of the spirits of men and of beasts after death is different: “Who knoweth the spirit of man (an sursum ascendat), whether 2This translation is according to the Septuagint, Vulgate, Chaldee Paraphrase, Syriac, and Arabic versions. it goeth upward?” Psalm 146:4, “His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.” Now the thoughts are in the mind and the spirit, not in the body; and if they perish, we must conclude that the mind and spirit undergo the same fate as the body. 1 Corinthians 5:5, “That the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” The apostle does not say “in the day of death,“but “in the day of the Lord Jesus.” ARSH August 12, 1862, page 81.6
Lastly, there is abundant testimony to prove that the soul (whether we regard by this term the whole human composition, or whether it is to be understood as synonymous with the spirit), is subject to death, natural as well as violent. Numbers 23:10. “Let me (my soul, Hebrew, anima mea, Lat. Vulg.), die the death of the righteous.” Such are the words of Balaam, who, though not the most upright of prophets, yet in this instance uttered the words which the Lord put into his mouth. Job 33:18. “He keepeth back his soul from the pit.” Job 36:14. “They die in youth.” (Heb., their soul dieth. Lat. Vulg., anima corum.) Psalm 22:20. “Deliver my soul from the sword;” 78:50. “He spared not their soul from death.” 89:48. “Shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave?” 94:17. “My soul had almost dwelt in silence.” Hence, man himself, when dead, is spoken of under the name of “the soul.” Leviticus 19:28; 21:1, 11. “Neither shall he go in to any dead body.” (Hebrew, dead soul.) Isaiah 38:17. “Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption.” The just and sufficient reason assigned above for the death of the soul, is the same which is given by God himself. Ezekiel 18:20. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die;” and therefore on the testimony of the prophet and the apostle, as well as of Christ himself, the soul even of Christ was for a short time subject unto death on account of our sins. Psalm 16:10, compared with Acts 2:27, 28, 31. “His soul was not left in hell, neither did his flesh see corruption.” Matthew 26:38. “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” Nor do we anywhere read that the souls assemble, or are summoned to Judgment, from heaven or from hell, but they are all called out of the tomb, or at least they were previously in the state of the dead. John 5:28, 29. “The hour is coming in the which all that are in their graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth.” In this passage, those who rise again, those who hear, those who come forth, are all described as being in the graves, the righteous as well as the wicked. 1 Corinthians 15:52. “The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised.” 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17. “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope; for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him; for this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep; for the Lord himself shall descend, ....; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain, 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.” They were asleep; but the lifeless body does not sleep, unless inanimate matter can be said to sleep. “That ye sorrow not, even as others who have no hope;” but why should they sorrow and have no hope, if they believed that their souls would be in a state of salvation and happiness even before the resurrection, whatever might become of the body? The rest of the world, indeed, who had no hope, might with reason despair concerning the soul as well as the body, because they did not believe in the resurrection; and therefore it is to the resurrection that Paul directs the hope of all believers. “Them which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him;” that is, to heaven from the grave. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 81.7
“We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.” But there would have been no reason to fear lest the survivors should prevent them, if they who were asleep had long since been received into heaven; in which case the latter would not come “to meet the Lord,“but would return with him. “We,“however, “which are alive shall be caught up together with them,“not after them, “and so shall we ever be with the Lord,“namely, after, not before, the resurrection. And then at length “the wicked shall be severed from among the just.” Matthew 13:49. Daniel 12:2. “Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” ARSH August 12, 1862, page 81.8
In such a sleep I should suppose Lazarus to have been lying, if it were asked whither his soul betook itself during those four days of death. For I cannot believe that it would have been called back from heaven to suffer again the inconveniences of the body, but rather that it was summoned from the grave, and roused from the sleep of death. The words of Christ themselves lead to this conclusion: John 11:11, 13. “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go that I may awake him out of sleep; howbeit Jesus spake of his death;” which death, if the miracle were true, must have been real. This is confirmed by the circumstances of Christ’s raising him. Verse 48. “He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth!” If the soul of Lazarus, that is, if Lazarus himself, was not within the grave, why did Christ call on the lifeless body which could not hear? If it were the soul which he addressed, why did he call it from a place where it was not? Had he intended to intimate that the soul was separated from the body, he would have directed his eyes to the quarter from whence the soul of Lazarus might be expected to return, namely, from heaven; for to call from the grave what is not there, is like seeking the living among the dead, which the angel reprehended as ignorance in the disciples. Luke 24:5. The same is apparent in raising the widow’s son. Luke 7:14. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 81.9
JWe
On the other hand, those who assert that the soul is exempt from death, and that when divested of the body it wings its way, or is conducted by angels, directly to its appointed place of reward or punishment, where it remains in a separate state of existence to the end of the world, found their belief principally on the following passages of Scripture. Psalm 49:15. “God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave.” But this proves rather that the soul enters the grave with the body, as was shown above, from whence it needs to be redeemed, namely, at the resurrection, when “God shall receive it,“as follows in the same verse. As for the remainder, “their redemption ceaseth forever,“verse 8, and they are like the beasts that perish, verses 12, 14. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 82.1
The second text is Ecclesiastes 12:7. “The spirit shall return unto God that gave it.” But neither does this prove what is required; for the phrase, the spirit returning to God, must be understood with considerable latitude; since the wicked do not return to God at death, but depart far from him. The Preacher had moreover said before, Ecclesiastes 3:20, “All go unto one place;” and God is said to have given and to gather to himself the spirit of every living thing, whilst the body returns to dust. Job 34:14, 15. “If he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath, all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust.” See also Psalm 104:29, 30. Euripides, in the Suppliants, has, without being aware of it, given a far better interpretation of this passage than the commentators in question. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 82.2
Each various part That constitutes the frame of man, returns Whence it was taken; to th’ ethereal sky The spirit, the body to its earth. Line 599 Potter’s Trans. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 82.3
That is, every constituent part returns at dissolution to its elementary principle. This is confirmed by Ezekiel 37:9. “Come from the four winds, O breath.” It is certain, therefore, that the spirit of man must have previously departed thither from whence it is now summoned to return. Hence perhaps originates the expression in Matthew 24:31, “They shall gather together the elect from the four winds.”1The more natural meaning of the expression, “four winds,“in the instances above referred to, is the four points of the compass, or four quarters of the globe denoting not the elements from which the elect are gathered, but the directions from which they come. For why should not the spirits of the elect be as easily gathered together as the smallest particles of their bodies, sometimes most widely dispersed through different countries. In the same manner is to be understood 1 Kings 17:21. “Let this child’s soul come into him again.” This, however, is a form of speech applied to fainting in general. Judges 15:19. “His spirit came again, and he revived.” See also 1 Samuel 30:12. For there are many passages of Scripture, some of which undoubtedly represent the dead as devoid of all vital existence; but what was advanced above, respecting the death of the spirit, affords a sufficient answer to the objection. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 82.4
The third passage is Matthew 10:28. “Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul.” It may be answered that properly speaking, the body cannot be killed, as being in itself a thing inanimate: the body therefore, as is common in Scripture, must be taken for the whole human compound, or for the animal and temporal life; the soul for that spiritual life with which we shall be clothed after the end of the world, as appears from the remainder of the verse, and from 1 Corinthians 15:44. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 82.5
The fourth text is Philippians 1:23. “Having a desire to depart (cupiens dissolvi, having a desire for dissolution) and to be with Christ.” But, to say nothing of the uncertain and disputed sense of the word [Gr]analusai, analusai, which signifies anything rather than dissolution, it may be answered, that although Paul desired to obtain immediate possession of heavenly perfection and glory, in like manner as every one is desirous of attaining as soon as possible to that, whatever it may be, which he regards as the ultimate object of his being, it by no means follows that when the soul of each individual leaves the body, it is received immediately either into heaven or hell. For he had “a desire to be with Christ;” that is, at his appearing, which all the believers hoped and expected was then at hand. 2Because Paul here looks forward to the appearing of Christ as the time when he should be with him, and expresses a desire for that time to come, as he does also in Romans 8:23, and 2 Corinthians 5:2, it does not follow that he thought that event to be at hand. Indeed, his second epistle to the Thessalonians, written ten years before, shows that he not only did not expect it himself, but also taught others not to expect it in that age. In the same manner one who is going on a voyage desires to set sail and arrive at the destined port (such is the order in which his wishes arrange themselves), omitting all notice of the intermediate passage. If, however, it be true that there is no time without motion, which Aristotle illustrates by the example of those who were fabled to have slept in the temple of the heroes, and who, on awaking, imagined that the moment in which they awoke had succeeded without an interval to that in which they fell asleep; how much more must intervening time be annihilated to the departed, so that to them to die and to be with Christ will seem to take place at the same moment? Christ himself, however, expressly indicates the time at which we shall be with him. John 14:3. “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” See Colossians 3:4. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 82.6
The fifth text evidently favors my view of the subject. 1 Peter 3:19. “By which also he went and preached to the spirits that are in prison;” literally, in guard, or as the Syriac version renders it, in sepulchro, in the grave, which means the same; for the grave is the common guardian of all till the day of judgment. What therefore the apostle says more fully, chap 4:5, 6, “Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead; for, for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead;” he expresses in this place by a metaphor, “the spirits that are in guard;” it follows, therefore, that the spirits are dead. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 82.7
The sixth text is Revelation 6:9. “I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain.” I answer, that in the Scripture idiom the soul is generally often put for the whole animate body, and that in this passage it is used for the souls of those who were not yet born; unless indeed the fifth seal was already opened in the time of John; in the same manner as in the parable of Dives and Lazarus, Luke 16, though Christ, for the sake of the lesson to be conveyed, speaks of that as present which was not to take place till after the day of judgment, and describes the dead as placed in two distinct states, he by no means intimates any separation of the soul from the body. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 82.8
The seventh text is Luke 23:43. “Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, to-day shalt thou be with me in paradise.” This passage has on various accounts occasioned so much trouble that some have not hesitated to alter the punctuation, as if it had been written, “I say unto thee to-day;” 3Some Greek copies have the point after “to-day.” The punctuation is the work of uninspired men. The thief did not ask to go to heaven when he died. Christ did not ascend to heaven that day. See John 20:17. that is, although I seem to-day the most despised and miserable of all men, yet I declare to thee and assure thee, that thou shalt hereafter be with me in paradise, that is, in some pleasant place (for properly speaking, paradise is not heaven 4The author seems to overlook 2 Corinthians 12:2, 4, Revelation 2:7; 22:2, which taken together, show conclusively that paradise is in the third heaven, where God has his residence and throne., or in the spiritual state allotted to the soul and body.... Nor is it necessary to take the word, to-day, in its strict acceptation, but rather for a short time, as in 2 Samuel 16:3; Hebrews 3:7. However this may be, so much clear evidence should not be rejected on account of a single passage, of which it is not easy to give a satisfactory interpretation. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 82.9
The eighth text is Luke 23:46. “Into thy hands I commend my spirit.” But the spirit is not therefore separated from the body, or incapable of death; for David uses the same language, Psalm 31:5, although he was not then about to die: “Into thine hand I commit my spirit,“while it was yet abiding in and with the body. So Stephen, Acts 7:59: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit, .... . and when he had said this he fell asleep.” It was not the bare spirit divested of the body that he commended to Christ, but “the whole spirit, and soul, and body,“as it is expressed, 1 Thessalonians 5:23. Thus the spirit of Christ was to be raised again with the body on the third day, while that of Stephen was to be reserved unto the appearing of the Lord. So 1 Peter 4:19. “Let them commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing.” ARSH August 12, 1862, page 82.10
The ninth passage is 2 Corinthians 5:1-20. It is sufficiently apparent, however, that the object of this passage is not to inculcate the separation of the soul from the body, but to contrast the animal and terrestrial life of the whole man with the spiritual and heavenly. Hence in the first verse, “The house of this tabernacle,“is opposed not to the soul, but to “a building of God, a house not made with hands,“that is, to the final renewal of the whole man, as Beza also explains it, whereby “we are clothed upon,“in the heavens, being clothed, .... . not naked. This distinctly appears from the fourth verse: “Not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.” So also verse 5. “Now he that hath wrought us for the self same thing is God;” not for the separating the soul from the body, but for the perfecting of both. Wherefore the clause in the eighth verse, “to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord,“must be understood of the consummation of our happiness; and “the body” must be taken for this frail life as is common in the sacred writers, and the absence spoken of, for our eternal departure to an heavenly world; or perhaps to be at “home in the body and to be absent from the Lord,“may mean nothing more than to be entangled in worldly affairs, and to have little leisure for heavenly things; 5We think Scripture should always be taken literally where there is nothing to make a spiritual interpretation necessary; accordingly we regard the author’s first exposition of 2 Corinthians 5:1-20, as much better than the second. the reason of which is given, “for we walk by faith and not by sight;” whence it follows, “we are confident and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord; that is, to renounce worldly things as much as possible, and to be occupied with things heavenly. The ninth verse proves still more clearly that the expressions, “to be present with the Lord,“and, “to be absent,“both refer to this life: “Wherefore we labor, that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of God;” for no one supposes that the souls of men are occupied from the time of death to that of the resurrection, in endeavors to render themselves acceptable to God in heaven; that is the employment of the present life, and its reward is not to be looked for till the second coming of Christ. For the apostle says, “We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.” There is, consequently, no recompense of good or bad after death, previous to the day of judgment. Compare 1 Corinthians 15, the whole of which chapter throws no small light on this passage. The same sense is to be ascribed to 2 Peter 1:13-15: “As long as I am in this tabernacle,“etc., that is, in this life. It is however unnecessary to prolong this discussion, as there is scarcely one of the remaining passages of scripture which has not been already explained by anticipation. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 82.11
JWe
ON a certain “first-day” afternoon - more than 1800 years ago - two men set out on foot from Jerusalem to the little village of Emmaus. The journey covered seven miles, but they were not easy miles to travel, for much of the way lay over rugged hill country and through deep ravines. The village toward which they walked is perched, like a birds nest, on the cliffs that look off toward the Mediterranean Sea. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 82.12
It is in the month of Nisan - corresponding by the calendar to our April, but later still by the almanac of the leaves and flowers. On the day that these pedestrians walked to Emmaus, spring was giving place to the soft warmth of opening summer. The air was moist from the “early rains” just over; the hills smelled sweet from the fragrance of budding vines; the valleys laughed with the pomegranates bursting into flower, and the barley crops whitening for the harvest. It was a bright vernal landscape that smiled around them; but sad hearts were they that moved slowly over the hills toward the mountain village. Talking sadly and despondingly of the terrible tragedy that had just been enacted on Calvary, the two disciples walked onward. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 82.13
A stranger accosts them by the wayside. They do not know him. Their “eyes are holden.” A supernatural obstruction blinds their vision for the time. So they address him as a stranger. “Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem,“inquires Cleopas, “and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?” ” What things?” Then they begin and give a brief, artless narrative of the barbarous tragedy that had ended in the judicial murder of him whom they had hailed as the Redeemer of Israel. “O fools, and slow of heart,“exclaims the mysterious stranger, “ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?” And beginning at Moses and the prophets, he pours out upon them a stream of rich, instructive, and precious talk, that makes the road seem short to Emmaus. They are there before they are aware, and so charmed with their delightful companion, that they court his society for the night. “Abide with us,“is their hospitable invitation. The kind offer is accepted. He comes into their house - reclines beside them at their table - and while he is breaking bread with them, he breaks the illusion, too, and lo! the affable comrade of the journey is no less a personage than their adorable Master! Wonderful companion! Wonderful guest! Wonderful instructor! “Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked with us by the way?” said one. “Mine did,“replies the other. And well they might. For the light that had beamed on them, and the heavenly warmth that had kindled their souls, poured from no less a source than the divine heart of the Lord Jesus Christ. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 83.1
Thanks for this delightful episode. I learn from it one precious lesson - that Christ Jesus is willing to be the companion of my life-journey until I reach my heavenly home. Blessed is the man whose heart burns within him from the constant presence and inspiration of the Saviour. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 83.2
I. The first benefit to the believer from having Christ with him, is that the life-journey will be a safe one. He need never miss the right road. He will never be led astray. Christ knows the whole pathway thoroughly from the “City of Destruction” to the City of the Great King. And wherever Christ directs us to walk, there we ought to go. It matters not that we cannot see the end from the beginning. Christ sees; that is enough. He sent Paul on many a perilous path of duty, and when the boiling deep threatened to engulf him, Jesus stood by him, and said, “Fear not, Paul; thou must yet stand before Caesar.” The courage that quailed not in Nero’s judgment-hall is easily explained by the heroic apostle’s assurance, “The Lord stood with me and strengthened me.” What Christ did for Paul, he will do for you, my brother. Invite him to be your companion. Ask his direction; never take a decisive step in life without it. Covet his fellowship, for he that walketh with Jesus, “walketh surely.” ARSH August 12, 1862, page 83.3
II. The life-journey, in the second place, is made pleasant by having the Saviour as our constant associate. You all know the charm that is imparted to a voyage by having a genial friend to pace the deck with us in confiding conversation, to gaze with us on the glories of the changeful ocean, and drink in the witchery of the sunrisings and the sunsettings. The road to Emmaus may have seemed long to Cleopas and his companion in other times, but when the affable stranger joined them, how fast the furlongs were measured off! How unweariedly they climbed the rugged hills! Charming was that excursion from the charm of such society. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 83.4
Christian believer! you may walk your daily life-journey with the same celestial companionship if you keep a good conscience and a praying heart. Begin each day on your knees with a cordial invitation to Jesus Christ to vouchsafe to you his presence. Think of him all the while as close by you. The busy bustle of the counting-room did not hinder the fellowship with Christ of Henry Thornton, of Garret Bleecker, and many a godly-minded merchant like them. Many a farmer has communed with Jesus as he followed his plow, until the acres that he trod had “the smell of a field that the Lord had blessed.” Many a pious housewife has made the hours seem short as to the merry music of her wheel her heart has sung — ARSH August 12, 1862, page 83.5
“No journey is without its cares,
Life’s journey, too, the spirit wears,
It is not all a path of roses;
The road is narrow, foes are strong,
And oft mislead me to the wrong,
The tangled thorn my way opposes;
o’er sorrows wilds I’m forced to go,
And groping, march the journey through. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 83.6
“But Jesus, once a pilgrim too,
Will be with me a pilgrim true,
Of all my anxious cries a hearer.
Thy warning words in mind I’ll keep,
And by thy guidance every step
Shall bring me to salvation nearer,
Till to my journey’s end I come,
And live with thee in yonder home.” ARSH August 12, 1862, page 83.7
We may have hard and trying places just before us on our life-march. Sick rooms and beds of suffering may be a few weeks or months in advance. But no part of our pilgrimage is more cheerful than that which is spent in the sick room, with the blessed Saviour as the companion of our meditations and devotions. “Here I lie,“said the heroic Halyburton, “pained without pain; without any strength, and yet strong. I am not faint; I am refreshed with the spiced wine. Christ comes to me in the watches of the night and draws aside the curtains, and says, It is I, it is I, be not afraid.” His heart burned within him with a holier glow as he neared the journey’s end. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 83.8
III. Once more. Christ’s presence with believers shames them from sin, and stimulates them to duty. Paul assures us that Jesus is “made unto us sanctification” as well as redemption; i.e., his Spirit is a Spirit of holiness. And when we live in union with Jesus, it has a tendency to make us holy. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 83.9
The sense of Christ’s immediate presence is a perpetual check upon our lusts and passions - a perpetual spur to our spiritual indolence. Are we tempted to hurry off in the morning under the pressings of business without our usual season of devotion? The thought that Jesus witnesses the petty larceny of his few moments, is enough to send us mortified and penitent to our closet. Does an irritating vexation prompt the sharp answer or the angry blow? One look from the all-forgiving Lamb is enough to hush the tumult and smooth the ruffled brow. Am I tempted to a keen bargain? “Why not?” ” It is all fair in business.” Yes! but what will Christ say? And so on through all the calendar of besetting sins. The sin-hating eye of my spotless Saviour follows me by day and by night; and while in his holy fellowship how dare I play the coward, the cheat, the sensualist, or the poltroon? ARSH August 12, 1862, page 83.10
“How will my wicked passions dare Consent to sin while Christ is there?” ARSH August 12, 1862, page 83.11
He who walks in the blessed company of Jesus while he lives, is sure of the same divine companionship when he reaches the dying bed. And then, when all earthly loved ones are giving, through tears and sobbings, their last farewells, this Friend that sticketh closer than a brother sweetly whispers, “Fear not, I will never leave thee. Where I am, ye shall be also. Having loved my own, I love them to the end. Thou shalt be for ever with the Lord.”- Cuyler. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 83.12
JWe
I RECENTLY heard a Wesleyan Methodist minister preach from the passage, “Behold I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” He remarked that when the word “Behold” is used in this way, we may be sure that something of peculiar importance and demanding special attention, is about to follow. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 83.13
It at once occurred to my mind that if the principle thus laid down was allowed to have its perfect work, there would be no danger of the doctrines of the Second Advent and the Restitution being cast into the shade, or lost sight of; for in the Apocalypse, from which the text was taken, the following passages are found: “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, amen.” ” Behold, I come quickly; hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.” ” Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.” ” Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.” ” Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” ” And I saw a new heaven and a new earth .... . and I heard a great voice from heaven saying, Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And he shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.” ARSH August 12, 1862, page 83.14
If the minister was correct in the rule of exegesis which he announced, then the coming again of Christ and the new creation are “of peculiar importance, and demanding special attention;” and it is not surprising that John Wesley should publish a sermon on the words, “Behold, I make all things new.” H. - Millennial News. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 83.15
JWe
WHEN a man becomes a Christian, he acts as a free man; and whatever power has been exerted over him, no violation has been done to his liberty, nor has he done anything which has not been to him a matter of preference or choice. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 83.16
The converted sinner acknowledges the power of God in his change. He is sensible that he has become what he is by an influence from on high. It was some such mysterious power that arrested his attention, that alarmed his conscience, that induced him to give his heart to God. But he has been sensible of no violation of his freedom. He has done nothing which he has not done freely. He was not converted by bringing a deep sleep upon him, as Eve was formed from the side of Adam, nor was an unnatural stupor diffused over his frame, benumbing all his faculties, and leaving him to be molded as the clay; but he was converted in the full exercise of his faculties, and with the entire consciousness of acting as a free man. He has done nothing which he did not prefer to do; he has abandoned no sin which he did not choose to abandon; he has formed no new plan of living, by becoming a Christian, which he did not choose to form. One of the most free and unfettered acts of his life was that when he gave himself to God; and he became a Christian with as much conscious freedom, and with as much of the spirit of rejoicing, as the imprisoned father leaves the gloomy cell where he has been long immured, to visit his children when his prison-doors are thrown open, or as the galley-slave exults when the chains fall from his hands. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 83.17
There is no act that man ever performs more freely than that of becoming a Christian. His whole heart is in it; and no matter what sinful course he abandons, what sacrifices he makes, and what friends he is constrained to leave, or what amusements he is required to abjure - he does it most freely. And no matter what trials he may see before him, no matter though his embracing religion may require him to forsake his country and home to preach the gospel in a heathen land - it is all cheerfully done. It is the act of a free man. He prefers it. He would not, for all the gold, and diamonds, and coronets, and crowns of the earth, have it otherwise. And though he is conscious - for who could not but be so in such a change? - that this has been brought about by the power of God, and will always ascribe it to the agency of the Holy Ghost, yet he feels that no law of his nature has been violated, and that one of the most free acts of his life was then when he gave his heart to God. - Barnes’ “Way of Salvation.” ARSH August 12, 1862, page 83.18
Live by the day; you will have daily trials, and strength accordingly: leave to-morrow to the Lord. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 83.19
Reading may make you a pleasant companion, but private prayer will make you a spiritual Christian and a useful companion. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 83.20
No Authorcode
“Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth.”
BATTLE CREEK, MICH., THIRD-DAY, AUGUST 12, 1862.
JAMES WHITE, EDITOR
JWe
FOR the past ten years the Review has taught that the United States of America were a subject of prophecy, and that slavery is pointed out in the prophetic word as the darkest and most damning sin upon this nation. It has taught that Heaven has wrath in store for the nation which it would drink to the very dregs, as due punishment for the sin of slavery. And the anti-slavery teachings of several of our publications based upon certain prophecies have been such that their circulation has been positively forbidden in the slave States. Those of our people who voted at all at the last Presidential election, to a man voted for Abraham Lincoln. We know of not one man among Seventh-day Adventists who has the least sympathy for secession. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 84.1
But for reasons which we will here state, our people have not taken that part in the present struggle that others have. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 84.2
1. The hope which stimulates others, that the war will soon terminate with the freedom of the millions of “bond-men and bond-women” of North America, and that a period of peace and millennial glory is to follow, we do not cherish. We think we see, through the prophetic word, the continuation of slavery down to the end of all earthly governments. One text to the point must suffice. Revelation 6:12-17. “And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a figtree casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bond-man, and every free-man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?” Amid the terrors of the day of God, which closes this mortal state, bond-men as well as free-men, call on rocks and mountains to hide them from the presence of the Lord. The minister who stated that these bond-men were those who were bound in their trespasses and their sins, found difficulty in explaining how free-men, free from trespasses and sins, were in terror calling on rocks and mountains to hide them. These bond-men are evidently slaves. Behind the cloud that now darkens our national horizon we see one still more terrific in the seven last plagues of Revelation 16, to be poured out upon great Babylon. Her sins reach far up to heaven, and call for vengeance which will be rewarded unto her double for all her sins. Then the merchants of “slaves and souls of men” will mourn and lament because their hellish traffic has come to an end. Revelation 18. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 84.3
2. The position which our people have taken relative to the perpetuity and sacredness of the law of God contained in the ten commandments, is not in harmony with all the requirements of war. The fourth precept of that law says, “Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy;” the sixth says, “Thou shalt not kill.” But in the case of drafting, the government assumes the responsibility of the violation of the law of God, and it would be madness to resist. He who would resist until, in the administration of military law, he was shot down, goes too far, we think, in taking the responsibility of suicide. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 84.4
We are at present enjoying the protection of our civil and religious rights, by the best government under heaven. With the exception of those enactments pressed upon it by the slave power, its laws are good. We may call in question the policy of the present administration in keeping the precious blacks, who are worth several hundred dollars each, out of the dangers of war - on whose account the present war is - and sending the valueless white man, not worth a dime in market, to fall in battle by thousands. But whatever we may say of our amiable president, his cabinet, or of military officers, it is Christ-like to honor every good law of our land. Said Jesus, “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.” Matthew 22:21. Those who despise civil law, should at once pack up and be off for some spot on God’s foot-stool where there is no civil law. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 84.5
When it shall come to this, that civil enactments shall be passed and enforced to drive us from obedience to the law of God, to join those who are living in rebellion against the government of Heaven, see Revelation 13:15-17, then it will be time to stand our chances of martyrdom. But for us to attempt to resist the laws of the best government under heaven, which is now struggling to put down the most hellish rebellion since that of Satan and his angels, we repeat it, would be madness. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 84.6
Those who are loyal to the government of Heaven, true to the constitution and laws of the Ruler of the universe, are the last men to “sneak” off to Canada, or to Europe, or to stand trembling in their shoes for fear of a military draft. Is God their Father? He is a mighty God. “Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance. Behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.” Isaiah 40:15. Is Christ their Saviour and Redeemer? He is a mighty conqueror. He will soon come down the blazing vault of heaven, followed by the armies of heaven, having on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. Revelation 19. If the hope of immortality at the soon coming of Jesus Christ, whether living, or sleeping in the dust, will not sustain a man in these perilous times, nothing will. The Lord God omnipotent reigneth. He has the nation in his hand, and will order events for his glory, and the best good of his loyal people. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 84.7
JWe
So revolting is the doctrine of everlasting torment to every sentiment of humanity, as well as to an enlightened reason, that it is no wonder that eminent men have been constrained at times to bear such testimony as the following against the unscriptural and unnatural theory. Apart from the Bible testimony on the subject, the quotation from J. C. Calhoun furnishes an objection to the doctrine from which it will be utterly and forever unable to free itself. The following are a few of the utterances alike creditable to the heads and hearts of those who made them. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 84.8
U. S.
JWe
“The dreadful dogma is not to be found in Christianity. It is the most vain, most pernicious, most groundless conceit.” ARSH August 12, 1862, page 84.9
JWe
“It is a sufficient refutation of the doctrine of endless punishment that it is incomprehensible. For a righteous law-giver would never ordain a penalty which his people could not understand.” ARSH August 12, 1862, page 84.10
JWe
“Hopeless misery - I acknowledge my inability to admit this belief, together with a belief in the divine goodness. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 84.11
JWe
“The dogma was always repulsive to my matured reason. Against that miserable dogma every Christian heart feels some revolt, and where theological notions will not let it be confessed, there is often in reserve a kind of secret hope that in some way God’s infinite mercy and wisdom will find a way of escape from the terrible anomaly of a scene of eternal torment existing in the empire of the God of love. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 84.12
JWe
“This subject (endless misery) is immeasurably awful, and beyond all others affecting. Few persons can behold it in clear vision with a steady eye.” ARSH August 12, 1862, page 84.13
JWe
“I sink under the awful weight of my subject. It renders society tiresome, pleasure disgustful, nourishment insipid, and life itself a cruel bitter!” ARSH August 12, 1862, page 84.14
JWe
“When I consider the boundless nature of eternity, when I consider the limited duration of man, I can scarcely bring myself to believe that the sins of a few brief years are to be punished throughout a duration that has no end.” ARSH August 12, 1862, page 84.15
JWe
FROM PEACE TO WAR. - We doubt whether any nation can be shown to have changed its character from a peaceful to a warlike power, in the short space of time in which this has been accomplished by the United States. When the rebellion commenced, this nation was emphatically a nation of peace. Its millions of people knew nothing of war, and its warlike preparations, either for land or sea, were comparatively nothing. A little over one short year has elapsed, and behold the change. The number of men that will have been called to arms in the North alone, when the last call from the war department shall have been filled, will be not far from one million and two hundred thousand; while the following facts show what has been done in the navy department: “Eighty vessels of war of all kinds have been added to the United States’ navy within the past year. Of these 32 were wooden gunboats, 12 side-wheel steamers, 4 steam frigates, and 32 iron-clad boats, rams, and vessels. All, save the iron-clads and frigates, are finished and afloat.” ARSH August 12, 1862, page 84.16
THE MANUFACTURE OF GOVERNMENT ARMS. - With its change of circumstances, the government is increasing its facilities for the manufacture of arms. The following authentic statements show with what extraordinary rapidity it can now supply itself with implements of death: “The armory in Springfield, Mass., makes 14,000 stands of arms a month. In a short time that establishment, with the five private shops in operation there, will be able to manufacture 35,000 guns per month. In a few months we shall be making first-rate arms, better than the best Europe can afford, at the rate of 600,000 per annum.” ARSH August 12, 1862, page 84.17
MORE PREPARATIONS. - It is reported that the iron gunboat business is going on bravely. Four new vessels of this kind are to be forthwith built, three at New York, and one at Boston. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 84.18
THE BROAD ROAD - TO HEAVEN! - It appears that with some of the popular city churches, the worship of God is getting to be considered too hard work for the hot summer months, and so to make things easy and agreeable, they suspend that worship till a more favorable season of the year, meanwhile recruiting their spiritual health, no doubt, in such moral localities as Niagara Falls, Saratoga, the White Mountains, etc. The N. Y. Tribune of Aug. 2, says, “The summer vacation of the city churches was announced last Sunday. For the next four or five weeks, most of the houses of worship will be closed.” ARSH August 12, 1862, page 84.19
GROWING OLD. - The earth is every day giving forth new signs of age and decrepitude. New and unheard of diseases are attacking both the animal and vegetable creation. Massachusetts furnishes a new instance of this, according to the following: “The Cape-Cod Republican reports that the cranberry crop has been much injured in its vicinity by a peculiar blight which has come upon it, withering the fruit. The cause is unknown, as nothing just like it has happened before.” ARSH August 12, 1862, page 84.20
STRENGTH OF THE FRENCH NAVY. - “The last official reports of the strength of the steam navy of France, show that that power has 360 war-vessels propelled by steam, of which number 172 are in commission, and 30 are iron-clads. Ten iron-plated ships are being built, each carrying 36 guns, besides the 6 iron frigates, and 12 floating batteries now complete.” France is evidently preparing for something. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 84.21
U. S.
Receive all your temporal mercies gratefully; use them with moderation; and acknowledge them constantly as favors bestowed. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 84.22
Guilt will turn a palace into a prison; but the favor of God will turn a prison into a paradise. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 84.23
JWe
THE struggle in which this nation is engaged is evidently under the control of a higher power than that of man; else why is it that with all the vast outlay of men and means that has been made, no more has been accomplished? So evident is the restraining power upon our armies that some have already felt constrained to ask whether the Lord was for or against us. Read the following from the American Missionary: ARSH August 12, 1862, page 85.1
“Many of the acts of the President and Congress have caused joy throughout the free States, still the state of the country fills all loyal hearts with unwonted solicitude. Notwithstanding we have a President whose amiable qualities, honest intentions, and remarkable prudence have gained for him general confidence, although the Cabinet is composed of able, industrious, and experienced men, although we have an immense army, loyal, brave, and well equipped, commanded mainly by skillful Generals, although our navy is unmatched in armament and courageous commanders, although the wealth of the country is poured out like water to supply the necessities of government, and although the people are patriotic and united, still we do not make headway in quelling the rebellion. The rebels, with inferior numbers and resources, exceed us in union, in determination, in the use of means, in esprit de corps. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 85.2
“Why is it thus? This is a natural inquiry. The people are agitating it. The providences of God are forcing it upon their attention. It must find a solution. Is the great Ruler and Governor for or against us? “If God be for us, who can be against us?” If he be against us, in vain do we marshal armies and navies, employ intrepid and valorous officers, and summon all the material and moral forces of the free States to contend with the conspirators against our government. If he be against us, we shall not succeed, and the enemy will triumph in spite of all we can do with our troops, our wealth, our superiority in numbers, and our conviction that we are engaged in a just and righteous cause.” ARSH August 12, 1862, page 85.3
If this nation is now receiving a just chastisement on account of the sin of slavery, which is very generally conceded, then it follows that God could not consistently give success to any policy which did not regard with just abhorrence that accursed system. Such has not been the policy of the administration up to the present time; it is but partially so now. Through its own seeming obstinacy the nation is learning its present lesson in justice at a fearful cost. The only consideration that can keep a person calm amid our national reverses and the excitement of the hour, is that He who sitteth in the Heavens, and before whom the nations are but as the small dust of the balance, has this matter in his own hands, and will conduct it according to the unerring counsel of his will. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 85.4
U. S.
JWe
THE conversion of the world is utterly beyond the reach of any instrumentality that man possesses. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 85.5
The following extracts are taken from a work of the Rev. J. C. Ryle, on the Parable of the Ten Virgins. His views on other subjects have been published and widely scattered by the “American Tract Society.” It should be known by all that this same J. C. Ryle, is an out and out Adventist. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 85.6
I see no warrant of Scripture for believing that sin will gradually dwindle away in the earth, consume, melt and disappear by inches, like the last snowdrift in spring. Nor yet do I see warrant for believing that holiness will gradually increase, like the banyan-tree of the East, until it blossoms, blooms, and fills the face of the world with fruit. I know that thousands think in this way. All I say is, that I cannot see it in God’s word. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 85.7
I fully admit that the gospel appears sometimes to make rapid progress in some countries; but that it ever does more than call out an elect people, I utterly deny. It never did more in the days of the Apostles. Out of all the cities that Paul visited, there is not the slightest proof that in any one the whole population became believers. It never has done more in any country from the time of the Apostles down to the present day. There never yet was a parish or congregation in any part of the world, - however favored in the ministry it enjoyed, - there never was one, I believe, in which all the people were converted. At all events I never read or heard of it, and my belief is, the thing never has been, and never will. I believe that now is the time of election of universal conversion. Now is the time for the gathering out of Christ’s little flock. The time of general obedience is yet to come. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 85.8
I fully admit that missions are doing a great work among the heathen, and that school and district-visiting are rescuing thousands from the devil at home. I do not undervalue these things. I would to God that all professing Christians would value them more. But men appear to me to forget that gospel religion is often withering in one place, while it is flourishing in another. They look at the progress of Christianity in the West of Europe. They forget how fearfully it has lost ground in the East. They point to the little floodtide of Tinnevelly and Krishnaghur. They forget the tremendous ebb in North Africa, Egypt, and Asia Minor. And as for any signs that all the ends of the earth shall turn to the Lord, under the present order of things, there are none. God’s work is going forward, as it always has done. The gospel is being preached for a witness to every quarter of the globe. The elect are being brought to Christ one by one, and there is every thing to encourage us to persevere. But more than this no missionary can report in any station in the world. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 85.9
I long for the conversion of all mankind, as much as any one. But I believe it is utterly beyond the reach of any instrumentality that man possesses. I quite expect that the earth will one day be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. But I believe that day will be an entirely new dispensation: it will not be till after the Lord’s return. I would not hesitate to preach the gospel, and offer Christ’s salvation to every man and woman alive, but that there always will be a vast amount of unbelief and wickedness until the second advent I am fully persuaded. The gospel laborers may possibly be multiplied a thousand-fold, and I pray God it may be so; but however faithfully they may sow, a large proportion of tares will be found growing together with the wheat, at the time of harvest. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 85.10
Reader how is it with your own soul? Remember that till the Lord Jesus Christ comes again, there always will be wise and foolish in the world. Now which are you? ARSH August 12, 1862, page 85.11
JWe
Men have got into a habit of putting a strange sense upon many of those passages which speak of the coming of the Son of man, or of the Lord’s appearing. And this habit has been far too readily submitted to. Some tell us that the coming of the Son of man often means death. No one can read the thousands of epitaphs in churchyards, in which some text about the coming of Christ is thrust in, and not perceive how wide-spread this view is. Some tell us that our Lord’s coming means the destruction of Jerusalem. This is a very common way of interpreting the expression. Many find Jerusalem everywhere in New Testament prophecies, and like Aaron’s rod they make it swallow up everything else. Some tell us that our Lord’s coming means the general judgment, and the end of all things. This is their one answer to all inquiries about things to come. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 85.12
Now I believe that all these interpretations are entirely beside the mark. I have not the least desire to underrate the importance of such subjects as death and judgment. I willingly concede that the destruction of Jerusalem is typical of many things connected with our Lord’s second advent, and is spoken of in chapters where that mighty event is foretold. But I must express my own firm belief that the coming of Christ is one distinct thing, and that death, judgment, and the destruction of Jerusalem, are three other distinct things. And the wide acceptance which those strange interpretations have met with, I hold to be one more proof that in the matter of Christ’s second advent the church has long slumbered and slept. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 85.13
The plain truth of Scripture I believe to be as follows. When the number of the elect is accomplished, Christ shall come again to this world with power and great glory. He shall raise his saints, and gather them to himself. He shall punish with fearful judgments all who are found his enemies, and reward with glorious rewards all his believing people. He shall take to himself his great power, and reign, and establish an universal kingdom. As he came the first time in person, so he shall come the second time in person. As he went away from earth visibly, so he shall return visibly. As he literally rode upon an ass, - was literally sold for thirty pieces of silver, - had his hands and feet literally pierced, - was numbered literally with the transgressors, - and had lots literally cast upon his raiment, - and all, that Scripture might be fulfilled, - so also shall he literally come, literally set up a kingdom, and literally reign because the very same Scripture has said that it shall be. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 85.14
JWe
And I have long felt it is one of the greatest shortcomings of the church of Christ, that we ministers do not preach enough about this advent of Christ, and that private believers do not think enough about it. A few of us here and there receive the doctrine, and profess to love it, but the number of such persons is comparatively very small. And after all, we none of us live on it, feed on it, act on it, work from it, take comfort in it, as much as God intended us to do. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 85.15
JWe
It proves nothing against the doctrine of Christ’s second coming and kingdom, that it has sometimes been fearfully abused. I should like to know what doctrine of the gospel has not been abused. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 85.16
It proves nothing against the second advent of Christ, that those who hold the doctrine differ among themselves on many particular points in prophecy. Such differences need never stumble any one. Luther and Zuinglius differed widely in their views of the Lord’s Supper, - yet who would think of saying that therefore Protestantism is all false? Fletcher and Toplady were both clergymen in the Church of England, but differed widely about Calvinism, - yet where would be the sense of saying that all Evangelical religion was therefore untrue? In common fairness this ought to be remembered when people talk of the differences among those who study prophecy. It is possible for men to differ much as to the meaning they place on the symbols in the book of Revelation, and yet on the matter of Christ’s coming and kingdom they may be entirely and substantially agreed. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 85.17
It proves nothing against the doctrine that it is encompassed with many difficulties. This I fully concede. The order of events connected with our Lord’s coming, and the manner of his kingdom when it is set up, are both deep subjects, and hard to be understood. But I firmly believe that the difficulties connected with any other system of interpreting unfulfilled prophecy are just twice as many as those which are said to stand in our way. I believe too that the difficulties connected with our Lord’s second coming are not half so many as those connected with his first, and that it was a far more improbable thing, “a priori,“that the Son of God should come to suffer, than it is that he should come to reign. And after all, what have we to do with the “how” and “in what manner” prophecies are to be fulfilled? Is our miserable understanding of what is possible, to be the measure and limit of God’s dealings? The only question we have to do with, is, “Has God said a thing?” If he has, we ought not to doubt it shall be done. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 85.18
For myself, I can only give my own individual testimony; but the little I know experimentally of the doctrine of Christ’s second coming, makes me regard it as most practical and precious, and makes me long to see it more generally received. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 85.19
And now is there any one among the readers of this tract who cannot receive the doctrine of Christ’s second advent and kingdom? I invite that man to consider the subject calmly and dispassionately. Dismiss from your mind traditional interpretations. Only examine the texts which speak of it as calmly and fairly as you weigh texts in the Romish, Arian, or Socinian controversies, and I am hopeful as to the result on your mind. Alas! if texts of Scripture were always treated as unceremoniously as I have known texts to be treated by those who dislike the doctrine of Christ’s second advent, I should indeed tremble for the cause of truth. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 85.20
JWe
I suspect there is a vague notion floating in men’s minds, that the present order of things will not end quite so suddenly. I suspect men cling to the idea, that there will be a kind of Saturday-night in the world, a time when all will know the day of the Lord is near, - a time when all will be able to cleanse their consciences, look out their wedding garments, shake off their earthly business, and prepare to meet their God. If any reader of this tract has got such a notion into his head, I charge him to give it up forever. If anything is clear in unfulfilled prophecy, this one fact seems clear, that the Lord’s coming will be sudden, and take men by surprise. And any view of prophecy which destroys the possibility of its being sudden, - whether by interposing a vast number of events as yet to happen, or by placing the millennium between ourselves and the advent, - any such view appears to my mind to carry with it a fatal defect. Everything which is written in Scripture on this point confirms the truth that Christ’s second coming will be sudden. “As a snare shall it come,“says one place. - “As a thief in the night,“says another. - “As the lightning,“says a third. - “In such an hour as ye think not,“says a fourth. - “When they shall say peace and safety,“says a fifth. (Luke 21:35; 1 Thessalonians 5:2; Luke 17:24; Matthew 24:44; 1 Thessalonians 5:2.) + + + + + + ARSH August 12, 1862, page 86.1
“Ah!” I can imagine some reader saying, “this is all foolishness, raving, and nonsense; the man is beside himself. This is all extravagant fanaticism. Where is the likelihood, where is the probability of all this? The world is going on as it always did. The world will last my time.” Do not say so. Do not drive away the subject by such language as this. This is the way that men talked in the days of Noah and Lot, but what happened? they found to their cost that Noah and Lot were right. Do not say so. The Apostle Peter foretold eighteen hundred years ago that men would talk in this way. “There shall come in the last days scoffers,“he tells us, “saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” (2 Peter 3:4.) Oh! do not fulfill this prophecy by your unbelief. Where is the raving and fanaticism of the things which I have been saying? Show it to me if you can. I calmly assert that the present order of things will come to an end one day. Will any one deny that? Will any one tell me we are to go on as we do now forever? I calmly say that Christ’s second coming will be the end of the present order of things. I have said so because the Bible says it. I have calmly said that Christ’s second coming will be a sudden event, whenever it may be, and may possibly be in our own time. I have said so, because thus and thus I find it written in the word of God. If you do not like it, I am sorry for it. One thing only you must remember, - you are finding fault with the Bible, not with me. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 86.2
JWe
If we would grow in grace, and have a more lively hope, we must seek more preparedness for Christ’s second coming. I know of no doctrine more sanctifying and quickening than the doctrine of Christ’s second advent. I know none more calculated to draw us from the world, and make us single-eyed, whole hearted, and joyful Christians. But alas! how few believers live like men who wait for their Master’s return! Who that narrowly observes the ways of many believers would ever think that they loved and longed for their Lord’s appearing? Is it not true that there are many hearts among God’s children which are not quite ready to receive Jesus? He would find the window barred, - the door shut, - the fires almost out; - it would be a cold and comfortless reception. Oh! believing reader, it ought not so to be. We want more of a pilgrim’s spirit; - we ought to be ever looking for and hastening to our home. The day of the Lord’s advent is the day of rest, the day of complete redemption, the day when the family of God shall at last be all gathered together. It is the day when we shall no longer walk by faith, but by sight: we shall see the land that is far off - we shall behold the King in his beauty. Surely we ought to be saying daily, “Come, Lord Jesus, let thy kingdom come.” O let us set Christ’s advent continually before our eyes. Let us say to ourselves every morning, “The Lord will soon return,“and it will be good for our souls. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 86.3
JWe
I exhort you to watch against everything which might interfere with a readiness for Christ’s appearing. Search your own hearts. Find out the things which most frequently interrupt your communion with Christ, and cause fogs to rise between you and the sun. Mark these things and know them, and against them ever watch and be on your guard. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 86.4
Watch against sin of every kind and description. Think not to say of any sin whatever, “Ah, that is one of the things that I shall never do!” The spirit may be sometimes very willing, but the flesh is always very weak. You are yet in the body. Watch and pray. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 86.5
Watch against doubts and unbelief as to the complete acceptance of your soul, if you are a believer in Christ Jesus. The Lord Jesus finished the work he came to do; - do not tell him that he did not. The Lord Jesus paid your debts in full; - do not tell him that he left you to pay part. The Lord Jesus promises eternal life to every sinner that comes to him; - do not tell him, even while you are coming, that you think he lies. Alas, for our unbelief! In Christ you are like Noah in the ark, and Lot in Zoar, - nothing can harm you. Doubt it not. Pray for more faith. Watch and pray. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 86.6
Watch against inconsistency of walk and conformity to the world. Watch against sins of temper and of tongue. These are the kind of things that grieve the Spirit of God, and make his witness within us faint and low. Watch and pray. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 86.7
Watch against the leaven of false doctrine. Remember that Satan can transform himself into an angel of light. Remember that bad money is never marked bad, or else it would never pass. Be very jealous for the whole truth as it is in Jesus. Do not put up with a grain of error merely for the sake of a pound of truth. Do not tolerate a little false doctrine one bit more than you would a little sin. O reader, remember this caution! Watch and pray. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 86.8
Watch against slothfulness about the Bible and private prayer. There is nothing so spiritual but we may at last do it formally. Most backslidings begin in the closet. When a tree is snapped in two by a high wind, we generally find there has been some long-hidden decay. O, watch and pray. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 86.9
Watch against bitterness and uncharitableness toward others. A little love is more valuable than many gifts. Be eagle-eyed in seeing the good that is in your brethren, and dim-sighted as the mole about the evil. Let your memory be a strong box for their graces, but a sieve for their faults. Watch and pray. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 86.10
Watch against pride and self-conceit. Peter said, at first, “Though all men deny thee, yet will not I.” And presently he fell. Pride is the high road to a fall. Watch and pray. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 86.11
Watch against the sins of Galatia, Ephesus and Laodicea. Believers may run well for a season, then lose their first love, and then become lukewarm. Watch and pray. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 86.12
Watch not least against the sin of Jehu. A man may have great zeal to all appearance, and yet have very bad motives. It is a much easier thing to oppose anti-Christ than to follow Christ. It is one thing to protest against error: it is quite another thing to love the truth. So watch and pray. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 86.13
O, my believing readers, let us all watch more than we have done. Let us watch more every year that we live. Let us watch, that we may not be startled when the Lord appears. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 86.14
Let us watch for the world’s sake. We are the books they chiefly read. They mark our ways more than we think. Let us aim to be plainly written epistles of Christ. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 86.15
Let us watch for our own sakes. As our walk is, so will be our peace. As our conformity to Christ’s mind so will be our sense of Christ’s atoning blood. If a man will not walk in the full light of the sun, how can he expect to be warm? ARSH August 12, 1862, page 86.16
And above all, let us watch for our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake. Let us live as if his glory was concerned in our behavior. Let us live as if every slip and fall was a reflection on the honor of our King. Let us live as if every allowed sin was one more thorn in his head, one more nail in his feet, one more spear in his side. O let us exercise a godly jealousy over thoughts, words, and actions, over motives, manners, and walk. Never, never let us fear being too strict. Never, never let us think we can watch too much. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 86.17
Legh Richmond’s dying words were very solemn. Few believers were ever more useful in their day and generation. Of few can it be said so truly that he “being dead, yet speaketh.” But what did he say to one who stood by while he lay dying? “Brother, brother, we are none of us more than half awake!” ARSH August 12, 1862, page 86.18
JWe
SINCE my last report of the discussion on the Sabbath question, Bro. Ingraham has discussed the following propositions: 1. Do the Scriptures teach that the kingdom of Jesus Christ was fully set up on the day of pentecost? Eld. Moss, Disciple, affirmed. The arguments I have not time to give, but so far as I have heard, the people generally think he made a failure. Then Eld. Mitchel, Disciple, affirmed, The Scriptures teach that the first day of the week is the Lord’s day, and was set apart by divine authority as a day of religious worship. Here the people say he made a complete failure, which surely must have been the case, as there is not one text that says the first day of the week is the Lord’s day, or that it was set apart by divine authority. I have heard a great many say that there is no evidence for Sunday-keeping. The Disciple preachers rallied all the strength they have in this part of the country, and have failed, so that their batteries are all silenced. They find it hard business to fight against God’s law. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 86.19
We are now going on with our lectures, and shall have no more discussions while the tent remains here. The prospect here for quite a company of Sabbath-keepers is flattering. Pray for us that the Lord may give the increase. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 86.20
ISAAC SANBORN.
JWe
WE hear it repeated, We must have evidence of a thing before we can believe. This is very true. But beyond a certain amount of evidence there is knowledge; hence faith is precluded, and its fruits. Thomas might have believed in a risen Saviour from the numerous testimonies of those whose veracity he had no good reason to question; hence the reproof, “Blessed are they that believe, though they have not seen.” ” By grace are ye saved, through faith.” But, says one, I have faith in the Bible. Jesus said to those whom he chose to bear his name, and endowed with the gifts, “He that receiveth you, receiveth me; and he that receiveth me, receiveth Him that sent me.” Matthew 10:40. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 86.21
If the spirit of prophecy is not with us, where may we look for it? I have been tried on this point as sorely as any one, perhaps, but I invariably came out on the side of the gifts that are with us; and feel the approbation of God in defending them. May God save us from refusing him who speaketh from heaven, is my fervent prayer. Have the scripture prophecies been fulfilled? So have these. I can see no separating them. These are but links in the same great chain. May I and you, my brother and sister, be found standing firmly, but meekly, in all the truths connected with the third angel’s message. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 86.22
Satan is pleased to see us halt and stumble over the very thing that is to unite God’s remnant people. God is calling us to union. The gathering call is sounding. This occasions great joy to those who are longing to see the church come into the unity of the faith. May we be saved from a fault-finding, dividing spirit. Let us pass by on the other side. It is of its father, even Satan. 1The declarations of scripture on this point, must be understood as referring to the wicked only; for we are plainly told that believers “are not in darkness” that that day should overtake them as a thief. 1 Thessalonians 5:4. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 86.23
O the sheep! the poor sheep! scattered and torn; many of them without any shepherd but Jesus; and him they follow at a distance. When will God arise and shake himself like a man of war, and go forth with our host? Then will we be glad and lift up our heads in joyful hope. When shall we run, not as uncertainly, and fight, not as one that beateth the air. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 87.1
A. P. LAWTON.
West Winfield, N. Y.
JWe
LONG had I prayed, long had I wept,
No comfort o’er my spirit crept,
Till meek and penitent with grief,
I looked to Jesus for relief;
“What shall I do?” in anguish cried;
A tender, loving voice replied,
“If thou wilt my disciple be,
Take up thy cross, and follow me.” ARSH August 12, 1862, page 87.2
Blest Saviour, since that happy hour,
Oft have I felt the tempter’s power,
To lure me from the heavenly road,
So narrow and so little trod;
For worldly wisdom turns away,
To tread the broad and flowery way;
But ah! I knew this flowery path
Led down to everlasting death! ARSH August 12, 1862, page 87.3
The rugged, thorny path I viewed,
And oft irresolute I stood.
The worldly throng seemed glad and gay,
And Pleasure beckoned me to stay:
“Come taste this cup of joy,“said she,
“These fairy flowers I’ll twine for thee,
Why should’st thou spend youth’s spring-time gay,
In toiling up that rugged way?” ARSH August 12, 1862, page 87.4
How oft I yielded to the spell,
My aching heart recalls too well.
The withered flowers I might forget,
But ah! the thorns, I feel them yet!
The cup that I so madly sought,
I found with sad repentance fraught;
And I reviewed the misspent years,
With bitter, self-upbraiding tears. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 87.5
Then half-despairing, half in hope,
Saviour, I dared to thee look up,
And in my darkness and despair,
I saw a gleam of pity there.
In accents gentle, but severe,
Again these words fell on my ear;
“If thou wilt my disciple be,
Take up thy cross, and follow me.” ARSH August 12, 1862, page 87.6
Dear Saviour, up the rugged way,
I strive to toil from day to day;
A light upon the path has shone,
Strengthened and cheered, I’m pressing on;
My heart is fixed the end to see,
Where fadeless joys are waiting me;
What care I for the worldling’s frown?
Brighter will shine the immortal crown. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 87.7
Press on! press on! ye worn and faint!
Rest soon will soothe the weary saint.
There’s one sweet hope our hearts to cheer,
Redemption’s day is drawing near.
A voice rings on the startled air
In thunder tones, “Prepare! prepare!
Ye soon shall my salvation see,
Who faithfully have followed me.” R. C. FARRAR.
Deerfield, Waushara Co., Wis. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 87.8
JWe
THAT the apostle Paul possessed a kind heart in an eminent Christian sense, none who are familiar with his history will deny. And that he faithfully and affectionately enjoined this heaven-born principle on the churches he planted, is equally true. Hear him to the church at Ephesus: “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice, and be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted,“etc. The saints and faithful brethren at Collosse he exhorts to put on bowels of mercies, kindness, etc.; and to his brethren at Corinth he writes, Charity, or love, suffereth long, and is kind. One round, as the Christian ascends Peter’s ladder of holiness, is brotherly kindness, and next to the last, or crowning grace, love. This binds all together, and without this all is but sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 87.9
The truly kind man is a blessing to all around him. Like begets like; and he that would be beloved must show himself lovely. Kindness has a power that cruelty and tyranny never has possessed, and never can. The cruel man is despised. The tyrant may be feared, but never loved. How often has my heart been pained at scenes of cruelty to animals, especially to that noble and faithful animal, the horse. Often have I seen them neglected, and allowed to suffer for want of food, cruelly beaten, and taxed beyond their strength; and this, too, by some professing to be Christians. O shame, where is thy blush! ARSH August 12, 1862, page 87.10
Isaiah, in visions of future glory in the new earth, saw there many of the animals with which we are surrounded, whether by a resurrection or new creation, we will not now stop to consider, though it would seem from Psalm 104:29, 30, that it is by the latter. I believe that every creature that God pronounced good when he finished creation’s work, will be represented there. Such was the faith of John Wesley, and a host of others, and such the Bible clearly teaches; and think you God will approbate us, or permit us to enjoy the glories of his holy mountain where they shall not hurt nor destroy, if we are cruel or unkind to the creatures he has placed in our care here? Never. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 87.11
The Bible recognizes but two classes. This is clearly set forth in the following: “A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast, but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.” Proverbs 12:10. The line is drawn strait here, reader, and which side are you on? “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” Here again the path of duty is made plain. If we would obtain mercy in the great day just before us, we must apply these tests of holy writ to our lives now. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 87.12
Many exhibit great kindness of heart, and are ready to relieve suffering, and exercise a forgiving spirit to those they love and respect. This is comparatively easy. Thousands who know nothing of experimental religion will do this; but the humble child of God who is striving to walk in obedience to the faith of Jesus, will love his enemies, pray for them that despitefully use him, and be kind to the unthankful and the evil. This the carnal heart revolts at. Here is where the true Christian is distinguished from the worldling, among the thousands that are crying, Lord, Lord. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 87.13
There is a remnant who are striving to walk with God, both in and out of Babylon. The voice of God will be heeded as proclaimed by his faithful servants, “Come out from among them and be ye separate.” Such are despised by the world, and the proud, arrogant professor, and are counted as the filth and offscouring of the earth, but they are really the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty. To them the sweet promise is given, “He shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed.” ARSH August 12, 1862, page 87.14
Lord, help me to prove worthy of the fellowship of this dear people, be counted worthy to suffer with them for thy name, and to share in their work and labor of love. Let such smite me, it shall be a kindness, and reprove me when I am wrong. Let me but share in the blessing attending their noble work in time and eternity, ARSH August 12, 1862, page 87.15
“And I ask, O, I ask for no more.” ARSH August 12, 1862, page 87.16
GEO. WRIGHT.
Lapeer, Mich.
JWe
EVERYWHERE do we find error softly creeping along like the serpent among the flowers of Eden, and nowhere more dangerous than when reposing in the lines of the poet. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 87.17
In the following extract we find the modern delusion of the millennium (the conversion of the world) alluded to in the third stanza; and what renders it more dangerous is, that the first two verses are beautiful and appropriate, and according to the truth; which is well calculated to give currency to error in the last verse. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 87.18
Thus it is, error is so mixed up with the truth that unless one is alive and awake to the delusions of the age, he may be imposed upon at every turn in life, by the sugar-coated, gilded poisons of the times, which lurk in most of the popular worship, and teachings of this age. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 87.19
Parents talk to the unsuspecting child, of a future, golden age of man; of an immortal soul independent of the resurrection; of an immaterial heaven, etc. The preacher preaches it, the church talks and prays it, the poet clothes it with beauty and wordy power, the vocalist sings it, the child breathes it from the moral atmosphere around; and, arriving at maturity, he finds that “endless torments,“” deathless spirits,“a “shadowy, immaterial future,“and the future “conversion of the world,“are, with the “first-day Sabbath,“constituent parts of his belief; and unless there is honesty of heart beneath all this rubbish, when you take from him these long-cherished errors, you have demolished his fortress in which his soul trusted. But here are the verses: ARSH August 12, 1862, page 87.20
“Hark! the cry of death is ringing,
Wildly from the reeking plain;
Guilty glory, too, is flinging,
Proudly forth her vaunting strain.
Thousands on the field are lying,
Slaughtered in the useless strife;
Wildly mingled, dead and dying,
Show the waste of human life. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 87.21
“Listen to the supplications
Of the widowed ones of earth;
Listen to the cry of nations,
Ringing loudly, wildly forth;
Nations bruised and crushed forever,
By the iron heel of war.
God of mercy wilt thou never
Send deliverance from afar? ARSH August 12, 1862, page 87.22
“Yes! a light is faintly beaming
Through the cloud that hovers o’er;
Soon the radiance of its beaming,
Full upon our land will pour.
’Tis the light that tells the dawning
Of the bright millennial day,
Heralding its blessed morning,
With its peace-bestowing ray.” ARSH August 12, 1862, page 87.23
The lulling peace-and-safety song is here surely.
J. CLARKE. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 87.24
JWe
Bro. J. Heath writes from South Hardwick, Vt.: “I still feel interested in reading the Review and Instructor. I have an interest in the cause they advocate, and am trying to live out the great truths they hold up before the world. The third angel’s message, for a little more than two years, has been a sweet and heavenly message to me. Although I had been a professor of religion for more than forty years, and a Methodist class-leader for a number of years, and besides had been in the first and second messages, when this truth found a place in my heart, O, what a change! It lifted me up and showed me that there was yet a work to be done for me. Every belief not according to the word of God must be given up. O, how strait the way! how narrow! Every idol must be cast away. The testimony to the church must be fully received. I hope that I shall come up fully to the work, and be ready for the coming of Christ.” ARSH August 12, 1862, page 87.25
Bro. O. Davis writes from North Berwick, Me.: “I am glad to see the subject of State Conferences being agitated. It appears to me that a judicious arrangement in Conferences of the Lord’s people so that a general meeting in a State as often as once a year, at least, would result in a great blessing to the cause. As things are this way now, nothing definite is looked forward to, and if I am rightly informed, in many places meetings are dropped almost entirely. Troubles are likely to soon press upon us in respect to military matters, and we shall all need the strengthening influence of meeting together and building up one another’s faith. I have often felt the need of opportunities of consulting with brethren of experience in my trials and difficulties.” ARSH August 12, 1862, page 87.26
Sister J. Stacy writes from Cass, Ohio: “I hope we shall all awake to our eternal interest. I feel more than ever determined to live out the present truth. When I look forward to the glorious inheritance that lies at the end of the race, it inspires me with new courage to move onward. Think, brethren, what Jesus said when he left his disciples. ‘I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am there ye may be also.’ Blessed thought! that while the wicked are calling for rocks to fall on them, we have a place prepared for us.” ARSH August 12, 1862, page 87.27
JWe
BATTLE CREEK, MICH., THIRD-DAY, AUGUST 12, 1862
THE S. D. A. Publishing Association is considered by its friends the safest place of deposit in these perilous times. Applications to deposit without interest increase, hence it is the pleasure of the Association to pay those who would like to receive their deposits. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 88.1
JWe
WE often hear the remark, “Spiritualism is dying out.” Whenever we hear one make such a statement, we are led to think at once, Did you know what it is doing, you would take back that saying, and stand aghast at its gigantic strides. He might as well have said, Popery was dying out in the thirteenth century, because very little noise was made about it. The reason was, there were scarcely any left to oppose, hence all was comparatively quiet. Spiritualism has already planted its sentiments so firmly, and generally, in church and state, that the victory is nearly complete. The opposition is now very feeble, like that of a dying man in his last moments. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 88.2
We do not say that the great body of church and state are yet avowed Spiritualists; but that the sentiments of Spiritualists, more or less, are being adopted by the masses. As poison, from the bite of the rattlesnake, taken into the smallest vein soon affects the whole system, causing subsequent death; so is Spiritualism poisoning the whole world. Like drugged liquors, the doctrines may exhilarate at first, but delirium and death are sure to follow. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 88.3
But we are to speak of its future. Its past and present are partially known to the world, while its future history is yet unwritten, except on the prophetic page of inspiration. It is a well-known fact that false systems of religion, existing in the past, have sought political power. The Pagan, Mahommedan, Catholic, and some others, have succeeded more or less. We have now arrived at a period in the world’s history when we may expect the last development of Satanic power, for the purpose of overthrowing the doctrine of Christ and the apostles, and establishing the great lie to man in Eden, that he is now immortal, and hence cannot die. In order to make this fable triumphant, it needs to be woven into politics among Protestants, as it has been by Pagans and Catholics. In the new system of government about to arise, the doctrine of the immortality of the soul is denominated the first of the eternal principles - the foundation-stone. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 88.4
The Spiritualists, by the advice of the spirits of demons, now begin to talk freely about organization. The following extract from an article in the Banner of Light, July 19, 1862, headed, “Principles of Organization,“will give a glimpse of coming events. Referring to a previous article, the writer says: ARSH August 12, 1862, page 88.5
“I have heretofore shown, at considerable length, the method by which the two essential, yet opposite, principles of the sovereignty of the individual on the one hand, and of implicit obedience to the commands of a chief on the other, can be harmoniously balanced and adjusted in practical organization or government.” ARSH August 12, 1862, page 88.6
The government proposed is called, “new system,“composed of two elements combined - Monarchy and Republicanism. This explains the sentence just quoted. - World’s Crisis. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 88.7
JWe
THE next quarterly meeting of the Seventh-day Adventist church at Princeville, Ills., will be the first Sabbath and first-day in September, at my house, three and a half miles south-west of Princeville. We cordially invite the brethren and sisters from abroad, especially those from Elmwood. Come up to the meeting, brethren, and may the Lord meet with us and bless us, and we be furthered on toward heaven and immortal glory. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 88.8
Our monthly meetings will be the first Sabbath and first-day in each month. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 88.9
The brethren send a cordial invitation to Bro. and Sr. White to visit Princeville, and will aid them with their prayers and means in furthering on the last message of mercy. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 88.10
By order of the church.
H. C. BLANCHARD.
Princeville, Aug. 3, 1862.
JWe
E. Sanford: We have been sending the Review to your friend in California from No. 1, of Vol. xix, to the present time. Shall we continue to send it to him? We have credited you on Review and Instructor for the $3 in our hands belonging to the Minn. Tent Fund as per order of Eld. Morse. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 88.11
J. N. Loughborough: Manuscript, etc., received. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 88.12
S. Crandall: The amount of your indebtedness for Review up to xx,10, is $1,40. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 88.13
J. W. Raymond: Yes. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 88.14
JWe
Annexed to each receipt in the following list, is the Volume and Number of the REVIEW AND HERALD to which the money receipted pays. If money for the paper is not in due time acknowledged, immediate notice of the omission should then be given. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 88.15
Mrs. C. Manly for M. Rathbun 0,50,xxi,1. Mrs. N. Bowers 1,00,xxi,4. A. Hough 1,00,xxii,10. Jacob Berry 2,00,xxii,1. W. S. Urquhart 2,00,xxii,13. H. Sage 1,00,xx,14. B. Toal 2,00,xxii,13. J. Richards 1,00,xix,18. M. A. Ashley 1,00,xvi,1. P. E. Ferrin 1,50,xxii,1. Alice Ferrin 0,50,xx,14. Alonzo Ferrin 0,50,xxii,12. S. Golden 1,00,xxi,1. Josiah Wilbur 2,00,xxi,18. W. McPheter 2,00,xxii,1. J. L. Pauley 3,00,xx,15. Mrs. M. P. West 1,00,xx,20. T. Hare 1,00,xx,1. R. P. Stewart 2,00,xxi,1. R. Rundall 0,50,xx,14. H. J. Bonifield 0,25,xviii,21. W. J. Wilson 2,00,xviii,17. S. H. Marshall 0,50,xxi,10. L. L. Dunn 2,00,xxiv,1. I. Colcord sen. 2,00,xxi,1. J. Hart 2,00,xx,1. J. Rousha 1,00,xx,14. M. V. Plank 0,25,xx,24. S. M. Holly 2,00,xxii,11. Mattie Wells 2,00,xxii,7. L. Russell 1,00,xxii,1. E. D. Belden 1,00,xxi,9. S. Howland 1,00,xxii,1. R. G. Curtis 1,00,xix,1. N. Ward 1,10,xx,11. D. J. Burroughs for N. Woodard 0,50,xxi,10. O. P. Bovee 2,00,xxiii,1. W. K. Loughborough for E. Rice 0,50,xxi,10. Jane Stacy for E. Fitzpatrick 1,00,xxii,10. Mrs. M. Gould 1,00,xxii,11. Thomas Hamilton 1,50,xxii,14. M. West 2,00,xxiii,1. A. P. Lawton for A. T. Mattison 1,00,xxii,1. W. Farrar 2,00,xxii,11. A. Half 0,50,xxi,13. L. D. Newton 0,26,xx,18. P. Gay 1,00,xvii,1. J. Benest 3,00,xx,18. M. A. Stoel for R. Tagert 0,25,xx,24. Geo. Wright 0,75,xxi,13. A friend for A. Hewett 0,50,xxi,11. D. Dephew 2,00,xviii,17. Esther Trumbull 0,50,xx,1. Edward Burlingame 5,00,xx,11. D. J. Burroughs 1,00,xxi,1. D. J. Burroughs for David Burroughs 0,75,xxi,1. John L. Palfrey 2,00,xxi,14. Mrs. J. Heligass 3,50,xx,14. Mrs. E. Hall 2,00,xxii,1. H. F. Baker 1,00,xx,14. G. Grettenberg 2,00,xxi,6. A. H. Adams 1,10,xix,24. John Sisley for Mrs. S. Sisley 1,00,xxi,1. Stephen D. Hall 1,00,xxi,1. A. A. Marks for L. Marks 0,50,xx,1. C. Z. June 5,00,xxii,1. C. C. Bodley for Jane More 1,00,xxii,1. J. Edgerton 1,00,xxi,1. J. Edgerton for L. B. Edgerton 1,00,xxii,11. John K. Bowlsby 0,40,xx,11. L. M. Devaul 1,00,xxi,13. F. Ramsey 1,00,xxii,19. J. H. Sparks $2,50,xx,14. E. B. Gaskell for K. Eddy $0,50,xxi,11. H. Miller $1,00,xxi,11. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 88.16
JWe
H. W. Brown $1,60. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 88.17
JWe
David F. Moore $5,00. A friend $10,00. A. A. Marks $1,25. Polly Bates $10,00. Elias Styles $5,00. Edward Lobdell $20. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 88.18
JWe
E. Royce $3. Church at Fairview, Iowa, S. B., $4,91. Benn Auten $10. Mattie Wells 43c. Mrs. J. Martin $4. Mary Mills $1. John K Bowlsby $1,34. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 88.19
JWe
M. Mead 23c. A. Rathbun $2. W. E. Cheesbro 25c. Henry Decker 25c. A. Freeman, jr. 75c. A. Newton 13c. S. Newton 13c. D. Hildreth 36c. M. H. Collins 50c. Delia A. Smith 12c. Mrs. M. A. Grimly 12c. R. J. Lawrence 15c. M. A. Nichols 23c. S. N. Haskell 12c. W. Lawton $1,13. H. D. Corey 40c. J. Newton 25c. I. B. Hicks 38c. R. M. Rogers 12c. L. D. Newton 12c. H. Bingham 25c. J. H. Burlingame 12c. S. Butler 50c. Mrs. J. Heligass 43c. S. L. Hyde 80c. A. A. Marks 10c. S. W. Smith 57c. S. Ramsey 50c. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 88.20
JWe
I. Sanborn, by A. Hough, 65c. W. H. Brinkerhoof $2. J. H. Waggoner $6,50. O. Hoffer $1,50. A. H. Adams 90c. J. Sisley $1. J. K. Bowlsby 26c. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 88.21
JWe
The law requires the pre-payment of postage on all transient publications, at the rates of one cent an ounce for Books and Pamphlets, and one-half cent an ounce for Tracts, in packages of eight ounces or more. Those who order Pamphlets and Tracts to be sent by mail, will please send enough to pre-pay postage. Orders, to secure attention, must be accompanied with the cash. Address ELDER JAMES WHITE, Battle Creek, Michigan. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 88.22
| Price. | Postage. | |||
| cts. | cts. | |||
| History of the Sabbath, (in paper covers), | 30 | 10 | ||
| The Three Angels of Revelation 14:6-12, particularly | ||||
| the Third Angel’s Message, and the Two-horned | ||||
| Beast, | 15 | 4 | ||
| Sabbath Tracts, numbers one, two, three, and | ||||
| four, | 15 | 4 | ||
| Hope of the Gospel, or Immortality the gift | ||||
| of God, | 15 | 4 | ||
| Which? Mortal or Immortal? or an inquiry | ||||
| into the present constitution and future | ||||
| condition of man, | 15 | 4 | ||
| Modern Spiritualism; its Nature and Tendency, | 15 | 4 | ||
| The Kingdom of God; a Refutation of the | ||||
| doctrine called, Age to Come, | 15 | 4 | ||
| Miraculous Powers, | 15 | 4 | ||
| Pauline Theology, or the Christian Doctrine | ||||
| of Future Punishment, as taught in the | ||||
| epistles of Paul, | 15 | 4 | ||
| Review of Seymour. His Fifty Questions | ||||
| Answered, | 10 | 3 | ||
| Prophecy of Daniel: The Four Universal | ||||
| Kingdoms, the Sanctuary and Twenty-three | ||||
| Hundred Days, | 10 | 3 | ||
| The Saints’ Inheritance. The Immortal | ||||
| Kingdom located on the New Earth, | 10 | 3 | ||
| Signs of the Times, showing that the Second | ||||
| Coming of Christ is at the door, | 10 | 3 | ||
| Law of God. The testimony of both Testaments, | ||||
| showing its origin and perpetuity, | 10 | 3 | ||
| Vindication of the true Sabbath, by J. W. | ||||
| Morton, late Missionary to Hayti, | 10 | 3 | ||
| Review of Springer on the Sabbath, Law of | ||||
| God, and first day of the week, | 10 | 3 | ||
| Facts for the Times. Extracts from the | ||||
| writings of eminent authors, Ancient and | ||||
| Modern, | 10 | 3 | ||
| Miscellany. Seven Tracts in one book on the | ||||
| Second Advent and the Sabbath, | 10 | 3 | ||
| Christian Baptism. Its Nature, Subjects and | ||||
| Design, | 10 | 3 | ||
| The Seven Trumpets. The Sounding of the | ||||
| Seven Trumpets of Revelation 8 and 9, | 10 | 2 | ||
| The Fate of the Transgressor, or a short | ||||
| argument on the First and Second Deaths, | 5 | 2 | ||
| Matthew 24. A Brief Exposition of the | ||||
| Chapter, | 5 | 2 | ||
| Assistant. The Bible Student’s Assistant, | ||||
| or a Compend of Scripture references, | 5 | 1 | ||
| Truth Found. A short argument for the | ||||
| Sabbath, with an Appendix,“ The Sabbath not | ||||
| a Type,“ | 5 | 1 | ||
| The Two Laws and Two Covenants, | 5 | 1 | ||
| An Appeal for the restoration of the Bible | ||||
| Sabbath in an address to the Baptists, | 5 | 1 | ||
| Review of Crozier on the Institution, Design, | ||||
| and Abolition of the Seventh-day Sabbath, | 5 | 1 | ||
| Review of Fillio. A reply to a series of | ||||
| discourses delivered by him in Battle Creek | ||||
| on the Sabbath question, | 5 | 1 | ||
| Brown’s Experience in relation to entire | ||||
| consecration and the Second Advent, | 5 | 1 | ||
| Report of General Conference held in Battle | ||||
| Creek, June 1859, Address on Systematic | ||||
| Benevolence, etc., | 5 | 1 | ||
| Sabbath Poem. A Word for the Sabbath, or | ||||
| False Theories Exposed, | 5 | 1 | ||
| Illustrated Review. A Double Number of the | ||||
| REVIEW AND HERALD Illustrated, | 5 | 1 | ||
| Nature and Obligation of the Sabbath of the | ||||
| Fourth Commandment - Apostasy and perils of | ||||
| the last days, | 5 | 1 | ||
| The same in German, | 5 | 1 | ||
| ” ” ” Holland, | 5 | 1 | ||
| French. A Pamphlet on the Sabbath, | 5 | 1 | ||
| ” ” ” Daniel 2 and 7, | 5 | 1 |
ONE CENT TRACTS. Who Changed the Sabbath? - Unity of the Church - Spiritual Gifts - Law of God, by Wesley - Appeal to men of reason on Immortality - Much in Little - Truth - Death and Burial - Preach the Word - Personality of God. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 88.23
TWO CENT TRACTS. Dobney on the Law - Infidelity and Spiritualism. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 88.24
JWe
WE have on hand a good assortment of English Bibles, which we sell at the prices given below. The size is indicated by the amount of postage. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 88.25
| Diamond, Marg. Ref. | Calf binding. | $0,90, | Post | 12 cts. |
| Pearl, Ref. after verse, | ” ” | $1,50, | “ | 15 ” |
| ” ” ” ” | Morocco ” | $1,75, | “ | 15 ” |
| ” Marg. Ref. | ” ” | $1,75, | “ | 15 ” |
| Nonpareil,“ ” | Calf binding, | $1,75, | “ | 21 “ |
| ” Ref. after verse | ” ” | $1,75, | “ | 21 ” |
| ” ” ” ” | Morocco ” | $2,00, | “ | 21 ” |
| Minion,“ ” ” | ” ” | $2,25, | “ | 26 ” |
JWe
The figures set to the following Bound Books include both the price of the Book and the postage, ARSH August 12, 1862, page 88.26
| The Hymn Book, containing 464 pages and 122 | |
| pieces of music, | 80 cts. |
| History of the Sabbath, in one volume, bound - | |
| Part I, Bible History - Part II, Secular | |
| History, | 60 ” |
| Spiritual Gifts Vol. I, or the Great | |
| Controversy between Christ and his angels, | |
| and Satan and his angels, | 50 ” |
| Spiritual Gifts Vol. II. Experience, Views | |
| and Incidents in connection with the Third | |
| Message, | 50 ” |
| Scripture Doctrine of Future Punishment. | |
| By H. H. Dobney, Baptist Minister of England, | 75 ” |
Home Here and Home in Heaven, with other poems. This work embraces all those sweet and Scriptural poems written by Annie R. Smith, from the time she embraced the third message till she fell asleep in Jesus. Price 25 cents. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 88.27
The Chart. A Pictorial Illustration of the Visions of Daniel and John 20 by 25 inches. Price 15 cents. On rollers, post-paid, 75 cts. ARSH August 12, 1862, page 88.28