THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE

T. FANNING AND W. LIPSCOMB, Editors.
VOL. VII.
NASHVILLE, JUNE 1861.
NO. 6.

FIRST AND SACRED PRINCIPLES AND TWO ORDERS OF PREACHERS.

Amongst teachers of religion, we are persuaded we have two dangerous extremes. In the first place, we have long been troubled with an inferior class of preachers—men of bad temper, self-willed, puffed up with the smallest amount of knowledge, and clothed with a large share of what they call official authority—whose highest ambition is to abuse the “sects;” but who never advance beyond a very imperfect acquaintance with at least a part of the alphabet of Christianity.

Another class, equally objectionable in our view, may be found whose preachers affect to have risen above first principles, profess very great regard for what they call “other denominations,” endeavor to live on good and fraternal terms with all “orthodox Christians”—men they are who adopt the clerical style of the times, seek an early charge as pastors with such salaries as are offered, and they talk in a melancholic mood about the heart and higher attainments in devotion, without laying the proper foundation for genuine godliness.

These are always sickly, sentimental, ease-loving, and frequently money-loving preachers, who are never satisfied with getting, and never satisfy such as hope to govern by the pure milk of the word. Their portrait is more accurately drawn by Paul, 2d Tim. 3 chap.

These are extremes, always to be…

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found, and yet there is a semblance of truth in both. No minister of the word can find an assemblage of worldlings, not starving for first principles; for lesson first, second, third, etc. in religion, and no one should think of addressing the world without teaching his hearers how to trust in God and submit to his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, but this is only the beginning of the minister’s labor. The converted should have first principles, and go on to perfection.

In order to contribute as much as possible to the correction of the evils to which we refer, we beg leave to point out very briefly, the scriptural qualifications and labor of the minister of the Gospel, as the Scriptures represent to us. He is raised up—tempered and fully educated in the house of the Lord, and the churches should never think of sending one abroad to teach others till they are fully satisfied he knows the truth, can govern himself and has the work fully at heart. There is indeed, no apology for a preacher being ignorant of the Scriptures.

He should know especially the elements of the Gospel, be well acquainted with the organization, and history of the church, so far at least, as given in the New Testament; be able to discriminate between true and spurious Gospels and churches. In addition to this, he ought to be acquainted with the struggles of the church in the ages since the Apostles, so far as he can learn them from the Bible and ecclesiastical history.

We also consider it important that he should understand the origin and history of the denominations, particularly Rome and her prolific daughters as shadowed forth by Paul and John and delineated in Eusebius, Mosheim, Neander, etc. Thus qualified, the servant of God is to go forth into the field by the commendation of his church, and like Paul and Barnabas, he is to return as often as practicable to report, take advice, and receive the encouragement of the brethren.

With such qualifications his work is very simple. Knowing the truth as it is written and being acquainted with society—he is equipped, in the words of the Saviour, with the wisdom of the Serpent and the harmlessness of the dove, and his first work is to convince the people that Jesus is the Christ and worthy of all confidence, respect and veneration.

In convincing the world the preacher is to be humble, solemn and affectionate, and thus winning the hearts of the people, it is easy to direct their attention to the submission of the Gospel. When sinners heartily believe, it is not a difficult matter to induce them to renounce their evil ways, reverently confess the name of Christ before men and angels and very humbly bow to his authority.

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by immersion, into the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. With these items are included the honor of adoption, the blessings of the Good Spirit, the hope of eternal life and the judgment to come.

The preacher, however, who finds his stores of knowledge exhausted in giving instruction thus far, is by no means competent to evangelize. He should be called home to take other lessons in the science of religion.

Yet we are to be satisfied that any one understands clearly the beginning of the Gospel, translated erroneously, “first principles” will not be able to look through the whole plan of salvation. Every science in fact is learned as a whole at once—it shines upon the mind through its alphabet. Hence the pupil, who first learns the value of the 26 letters, can in an hour, learn how to put them together with proper effect; he who comprehends first in a proper manner, the parts of speech is born a grammarian, almost in the twinkling of an eye; he who knows the meaning of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, is a mathematician, and so soon as one learns the meaning of the 65 elements in nature, and grasps the idea of affinity, looks quite through the science of chemistry. Yet men and women may post their heads all their days in memorizing something about sciences and die profoundly ignorant of all that is valuable in them.

He also that would know the power of godliness must begin at the right lesson. Should he be directed wrong at first, he never can learn the truth unless all that he seems to know is effaced from the mind. We repeat then, that the whole glory and excellency of the kingdom are seen through the simplest lessons of the Divine value, and the preacher who understands well, faith, repentance, confession, baptism, the spirit of adoption and the honor of heirship in the kingdom, is fully competent to do the work of an evangelist.

Hence no such one thinks of leaving the new converts to starve, like tender lambs on the barren waste. He, in the first place, sees that all assemble, and continue steadfast in the apostles’ teaching, in the fellowship, in breaking of bread and prayers, and secondly, he desists not from his labor, till the members become able to admonish one another, in Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, in exhortations, teaching and all the work of the church and of the family to perfect themselves in every good work.

Should this require the labor of the evangelist a week, a month, a year, or as with Paul at Rome, two years; the lambs must be fed, and this is God’s plan for saving souls. When the Evangelist finds that the body is fitly and compactly jointed together, all the members performing their respective offices correctly, he can in confidence go to another.

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He may, in this manner, build up any number of churches which his ability and circumstances will allow, and their care be should never neglect. It must not be forgotten that the evangelist is to see that the over-lookers—pastors, deacons, deaconesses, etc., is all in their proper place before leaving a congregation for new fields and conquests.

While examining this subject, we consider it our duty to refer briefly to the idea of transforming our Evangelists into pastors of the churches. Perhaps it would be well to notice the arguments usually employed in favor of the system.

We deny—not that the examples of the denominations around us have very considerable influence. Our young preachers, particularly, are forcibly impressed with the apparent independence, dignity, ease, and influence of clergymen generally, and they doubtless ask themselves, why may not the churches of Christ adopt the same policy with good effect?

We ought to observe that these clergymen teach nothing like the practical Christianity set forth in the New Testament. The members of the denominations consider it their lay privilege to attend to the ordinances, and keep house for the Lord. Their view is that everything in religion is officially performed, that it is next to blasphemy for the people—mere mechanics, farmers, traders, lawyers, physicians, etc.—to read, exhort, sing, pray, break the bread, and direct in the assemblies of the saints. Their notion is that none but men instilled into office—authoritative preachers—men upon whom the robes of office have descended from some quarter, they know not what, are the only persons competent to perform the service. They have no conception that the Church of Christ is a kingdom of priests, and that the members, by their relation to God, are alone authorized to sacrifice to Heaven, and rule in the household of the faithful. Hence, their willingness to hire someone to do the work for them, and their deep felt satisfaction in the thought that when they attend preaching, hear the organ or choir, and pay their preacher, there is no other obligation resting upon them.

Upon this system, the spiritual pulse of the church ceases to beat upon the departure of the pastor; the members cannot worship, their heart, beat, and every vital power have departed. We gravely ask, if this is not a fair picture of the pastoral churches amongst the disciples? We have heard again and again of the lifeless condition of churches without these preaching pastors. We admit it all, but there is a sufficient reason for it. The preachers fail to teach the members their high relations to the Lord, the obligations that rest upon them, and to impress them with the inspiring thought that the church…

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is the pillar and support of the truth, a city placed upon a hill to give light to all around. These preachers know neither first nor second principles, and hence their converts are a sickly, feeble race, scarcely fit to live, and not at all prepared to die. We conscientiously believe the main fault is in us who preach.

We have been told that the plan of “the members meeting to break bread, etc., has been fully tried and failed.” We plead non est factum to the charge. It is true, when members are not properly instructed, and begin the work mincingly, fearfully, and doubtfully as to their right or ability, it is very easy for any clergyman to turn them aside, and having no heart in what they attempt, the exercises soon become irksome, the members attend reluctantly and the whole matter is soon abandoned. We wish to suggest to the brethren that the whole life and power of religion are exerted and enjoyed by the united efforts of the members of the church to do good. Our own observation has led us to conclude that the greatest barrier to the success of the churches in attempting to keep the Lord’s ordinances consists in the mistaken idea that some of the older members, perhaps just from the thickest smoke of Babylon, must do all the work. Such men are always easily flattered, though ignorant, cold-hearted, and vain; they imagine themselves official pastors, and when they find a few members together they will harangue them for hours in the most bombastic style. The result is, the brothers and sisters are thoroughly disgusted, and so mortified that they want not the repetition of the dish. We wonder not at the result. But the reader will see that this same official pastoral idea has inflicted the evil. The churches that prosper are those in which all the members sing, pray, converse, exhort, admonish, entreat, and labor together according to the ability of each; and their services never become wearisome.

We are sometimes told that preachers must have time to study, and if they travel all the time they cannot improve. It occurs to us, when men get under a wrong system, they do not wish to learn the truth. Who ever thought of a teacher traveling all the time? As already intimated, when he visits a place let him remain till he has finished what he can accomplish, let it require a week, month, year, or ten years. He is not an hour or day laborer, neither does he work by the mouth or year, but he has enlisted for the war, and works by the job. We earnestly request the brethren to re-examine the labor of Paul and Barnabas in Asia Minor, after having been sent from the church of Antioch in greater Asia. The “circuit riding” system of trotting round the country, giving an

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hour here, another there, and effectual work no where, may possibly bring persons together in the style of our Methodist brethren, but it is not the Apostolic plan. The minister of the word may preach once, twice or thrice per day, and still give as much time as may be requisite to books.

Reading is not study. It may afford material, but thought-reflection on the high way, and upon our pillow at night can alone furnish us with what we can use to advantage. We are persuaded we have done some of our best studying, and performed some of our deepest thinking while preaching, and in the worship of the congregation, and it is something singular that the man who works most, generally thinks and acquires most. Martin Luther, John Wesley, and Paul the aged, were successful students, and yet they never had time to spend months and years pouring over musty volumes in search of light. Let preachers read the Bible, and think upon what they have read and light will blaze up around them wherever they go.

We were reminded not long since by one we regard as an excellent young brother, that Peter was told to “feed the sheep,” and this was quoted to prove the Apostle’s pastoral relation. The preachers are to feed all the sheep and lambs they can find, but how the feeder can leave the field, and feed the sheep successfully, we cannot imagine. Peter did not so. He did the work of an Evangelist. Modern pastoral labor, it has seemed to us, is designed to feed the poor, hungry begging shepherd. He seeks the fold to secure milk, flesh, wool, and whatever a popular style can win for him. Hence he is not only a beggar, but a slave, and the sheep frequently drive such from the fold. He is always at the mercy of the sheep expecting to be driven from his position.

But the delicate and great matter we have not touched. Ministers of the word, ask themselves the question, how they can supply themselves and families, without settled and fixed arrangements with congregations? There are two reasons for making this enquiry. First, the influence of the denominations cannot be ignored; and, secondly, while so many of our preachers literally complain of no adequate support; inexperienced ministers draw back, and ask for stipulations. They say they are not willing to give the certainty of a support in the professions of the world, for the uncertainties of the church.

How shall the question be settled? To the law and to the testimony. If there is no authority in the Scriptures, we will promise perpetual silence. The Apostles were directed to go without coats, shoes or money in…

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Their purses, but to labor in the confidence that He who clothed the field with grass would not neglect them. The churches sent their servants without pledges, notes, or bargains, simply in the confidence that the people of the Lord would do their duty. In forming matrimonial alliances, it is scarcely considered reputable for either party to ask a property consideration. Husbands and wives united in circumstances regarded fair and equal, and they should be joined in no other, never think of bonds and security from each other to fulfill obligations arising from the very nature of their union.

When a servant is sent from a congregation, all the wealth of that congregation and of every member in it is pledged to support that brother and his family. If the preachers will but teach the brethren fully that not only is the earth the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, but that all we have should be held a ready sacrifice to his cause, there would be no trouble touching the living of preachers and their families.

But we have occupied quite sufficient space in reference to details of this character. We cannot now, however, and we never have been able, to employ the style, “first” and “second principles” in the sense generally intended. This would imply that there are two departments of Christian teaching independent of each other. One part, possibly, for the less advanced class of teachers, and the other for the better informed. In the Scriptures we have “the beginning” and “the perfection” of Christianity; and our observation leads us to the conclusion that any one who is capable of teaching the first lessons successfully, is quite competent also to lead the saints into the knowledge of a perfect man in Christ Jesus.

Hence we conclude by stating that the doctrine of Christ is one, and all teachers are one. We preach the one faith, one Lord, one immersion, one God, one body, one spirit and one hope for all; and that no one should be an acknowledged preacher amongst us, who cannot see and delineate the Gospel from the beginning to the end without error or mistake.

The call is loud and long for more faithful teachers of the Gospel of the Son of God. The harvest is ripe—the full heads are falling in the fields—and the reapers are few. Should we not pray the Lord to send forth more truth-loving, self-sacrificing preachers into the field?

T. F.

PROFITNESS in action never fails to secure success.

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A PROPOSITION IN REFERENCE TO CHURCH ORGANIZATION

Why is it that Christian men—able and sincere preachers and writers—differ so widely in regard to church organization? Is it a subject of revelation, and yet so difficult to be understood that nothing can be spoken in confidence?

Every writer seems to set out in his investigations in the hope that all will be made clear, and still few agree in any view of the matter. We have, in our humble way, ventured to pen what seems to us very plain indeed, and yet a friend wrote to us the other day that many of the intelligent brethren disagree with us.

Whilst we admit that we may be in error, we are quite sure we have neither adopted nor invented a theory, are wedded to nothing of our own, and will not, if we can avoid it, be wedded to the systems of men; We know that our highest ambition is to learn the whole truth as it has been communicated by the Spirit, and if we are in error in the smallest matter, we flatter ourselves we would receive correction with a thankful heart.

With these reflections we propose to our editorial brethren a full and free discussion of the whole matter in our respective papers. Such a discussion might be satisfactorily conducted, and we doubt not to the greatest improvement of many good brethren.

The following might be proper questions:

1. The meaning of church organization? If not a Scriptural style, what is?
2. The meaning of office in the New Testament? How constituted or inducted?
3. The Evangelist—his education, “installation,” work and support?
4. Bishops. Who are they? How made, their work and reward?
5. Elders. Who are they? How made? Their work and reward?
6. Deacons. How made; work and reward?
7. Deaconesses. Work and reward?
8. How far are Christians required to take responsibility in the churches—merely as Christians—without special and official appointment?
9. The whole doctrine in relation to the communion of the saints, particularly on the Lord’s day, might be examined.
10. The weekly fellowship, and all questions connected therewith.

We wish to tell the brethren of the Harbinger, American Christian.

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Review

Christian Union, Record, Bible Advocate, and British Millennial Harbinger, in much brotherly affection, that we have noticed editorials or editorial sanctions in correspondents in their papers which we consider not only incorrect but calculated to produce much confusion amongst us. We respectfully suggest that we would be pleased to publish one or two pages of our own in each number of the Advocate and an equal amount from each of the papers by our brethren. This we respectively propose with the view of eliciting the whole truth on the subject, and of encouraging greater harmony amongst the saints.

Will this course answer any valuable purpose, brethren? If not, let any one propose a better plan by which to arrive at truth and unity, and we will gladly adopt it.

Will not an interchange of views be of incalculable service? If so, brethren, propose the plan, if you are satisfied with our proposition.
T. F.

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WHO IS THE MAN OF SIN, THE SON OF PERDITION?

WHEN WILL HE BE DESTROYED? AND BY WHAT MEANS?

We consider it the duty of Christians to know all that the Scriptures teach, and with the view, in part, of eliciting information, we have propounded the questions above. Another object we have in mind is to press upon the brethren the importance of their investigating subjects which have hitherto claimed but a small share of our attention.

For more than a quarter of a century, the battle has been with reference to the authority of the Bible, and the opening lessons regarding the Christian institution; but the period has arrived in our judgment for suggesting to our readers the propriety of looking at the signs of the times and reading the word of God with reference to the closing of this earthly drama. True, the thousands of books on the prophecies that have been written to no purpose, and the tendency of such studies to unbalance speculative minds, may be offered as arguments against such investigations, but when we see many scriptures pointing directly to the revolutions of the ages and the end of the world, we should feel encouraged to examine them.

Therefore, we respectfully ask our readers to aid us in examining to profit, such passages as that penned by Paul in the second chapter of the second…

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Tpesilonian Letter

The excitable and over credulous have from the beginning been urging that the end was at hand. It was for the purpose of silencing this class of teachers that the Apostle said:

“Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letters as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means; for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming; even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”

We repeat our enquiries, Who is the man of sin? Is it a political or religious power? Is it a politico-religious power? Or is it the Roman Catholic power? Is it the Pope? What is it; and who is it? When shall we look for the destruction of the man of sin? Is the time of his downfall shadowed forth in any of the passing events of the times? But in our view, the most important question for Christians to determine is the part they are to perform in the destruction of so great an enemy to our race.

Will he be destroyed by the sword of wickedness, or the sword of the Spirit? Or will it require the co-operative energies of both?

We cannot say that we are destitute of conclusions on these matters which are at least satisfactory to our own mind, but our ambition prompts us not to put forth any new or startling theory. In fact, we profess to entertain no theory. We are satisfied of the truth of the Bible, and our ardent desire is to learn its teaching, and to impart whatever we may know of truth to such as are pressing in the narrow…

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The destruction of false religions is plainly set forth in the scriptures to forewarn us of the deceitfulness and danger of sin, and we doubt not that God intends to enlighten all who look to him for aid through the proper channel.

Who will undertake an application of the prophecy to which we have called attention?
T. F.

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CHRISTIAN REPORT

No one can calculate the amount of good which may be accomplished by a single congregation when all the members exert themselves to the utmost of their ability. To co-operate effectively, however, each member must be considered an essential part of the living, active, moving, working body.

All cannot be eyes, ears, mouth, feet, or hands, but all have their proper place, and the secret of success is for each to know his or her place, and be satisfied to work in it. All can meet together, pretty nearly, all can praise the Lord in Psalms, Hymns, and spiritual songs; all can pray, if they will, fervently to God; all can break the bread, and drink the wine in memory of the Savior, nor should refuse to entreat, exhort, and teach to the utmost of their ability, and every disciple should consider it not only a solemn duty but a high privilege, to lay by in the Lord’s treasury on the first day of the week as he has been prospered.

A single word uttered in the proper spirit, from even the humble, may have the very best effect. Solomon said, “Words fitly spoken are like apples of gold in pictures of silver.”

If Christians would study from day to day as to their opportunities to do good, not a single day would pass without an effort; and it must be remembered that the bare effort to profit others is not without its reward. We are strengthened and invigorated physically and mentally by labor, and equally so in our moral powers by a continual struggle to profit others. In this way we never fail to improve ourselves.

A lone sister or brother settling amongst strangers has been known to rear up a large congregation. Let the heart be in the work, and the hands, the feet, and the mouth all readily engage.

We need no improved gun or new fashioned machinery for battering down the walls of the enemy. The simple Gospel, as delivered by the Savior, will answer for all the artillery service, and the sword of the Spirit, wielded by a knight of the cross, will pierce more hearts.

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to the destruction of sin than all the implements constructed by men.
But nothing can be done without effort. Let not the uneducated say,
we are ignorant; cannot instruct the mighty and great of earth, and
therefore we will do nothing. The earnest unlettered man is often the
best preacher.

There is room for all to labor profitably, and, as we
before intimated, let each study carefully his proper place, and let him
occupy it faithfully, and the Lord will give the increase. Women as
well as men, are to be constant preachers; not that the Lord requires
them to expose themselves to the rougher and harder work of public
preaching, but they too have tongues to be used in private and
amongst the brethren, and their words may become swift messengers
to the heart. A truly pious woman has it in her power to do great
good, by her modest instruction, her faithful warnings, her fervent
prayers and her entire devotion to God.
But all can labor to advantage
if they will properly equip themselves and then labor as instructed by
the King, whose eyes are always open to the wants of his subjects.
T. F.

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DID THE PROPHETS OF OLD FORETELL EVENTS AS

THEY ARE OCCURRING IN OUR AMERICAN HISTORY?

Within a few of the past months we have heard more from preach-
ers, professors of religion, and even wicked men, in regard to the ful-
fillment of prophecies than in all our previous life.
We have been
pointed to Daniel’s vision and the Revelations of Jesus Christ to John
while on the island of Patmos, again and again, as affording abundant
evidence that inspired men had the clearest
views of Abraham Lincoln
and Jefferson Davis’ administrations, and we have been asked very
often indeed to give our views on passing events. We must say to
our readers, in the first place, that judging from the failures of the
wisest men from the days of Noah to those of the beloved John, to
correctly interpret the prophecies, we feel doubt as to our ability to
speak with very much confidence.
We have, to be sure, read many
elaborate works on the prophecies but all, to us, seem to darken counsel,
and we have lived through the “second advent” excitement of
Miller, Himes & Co., without becoming much wiser touching the future.
Yet Dr. Cumming will have the end in ’66 or not far away.
Many
of the brethren think the time is short, and some even imagine the

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The American revolution of 1861 is to be the closing scene in earth’s grand drama. It may be, and God knows, we have no objection, but we are not yet satisfied as to the truth of any of the theories. We frankly admit our ignorance of what will come next, and from the rapid and most unanticipated revolutions of society, we begin to think that “coming events” have ceased to “cast their shadows before” as has been fondly supposed.

We feel not unwilling, however, to make a suggestion or two. We have not the most distant idea it ever entered into the heart of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, or the beloved John, that there existed such a country as America; although our friend Baldwin has demonstrably proved to his admiring friends in his famous Armagedon that the “American democracy” is the veritable “spiritual Israel.” We have not found anything in the prophecies of the Old Testament reaching beyond Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome, except the Messiah and a kingdom to be established by him, which neither scholars, wise men, or even the prophets who made the predictions could comprehend.

In the New Testament, we have at least two remarkable prophecies. The first was with reference to the “end of the world,” which took place in the year of grace 31, but the precise time, neither could the angels of heaven nor the Son of man tell. The end was to come as a thief in the night, and whilst forty thousand Christians rejoiced in it, the rebellious Jews would not see it, and from that day to this, they have been in a furnace of fire, wailing and gnashing their teeth, still looking for a Deliverer who will never come.

The other prophecy to which we allude has reference to the origin and history of a spiritual kingdom in deadly conflict with Rome, her lewd daughters, and human institutions in general. From the epistles and the revelations by John, it occurs to us that Christ’s kingdom will triumph without the “shaking of a bruised reed or quenching the smoking flax; but that the prophecies point to the operations of Russian, English, French, or American governments, we are by no means satisfied.

The conflict of the New Testament is between the church of God and religious sects constructed in the wisdom of men. The Romish hierarchy will fall, Protestantism, the legitimate offspring of the mother of abominations, must fall, and we are strongly inclined to the conclusion that human governments must fail, but we have an abiding faith that Christ’s kingdom will finally triumph. Our present revolution may be designed in the good providence of God to demonstrate the fallacy of man and his utter incompetency to govern himself. Should the American

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Outward Pressure

Life is but a warfare—a continual conflict at least; and the things that we would, we cannot do. “Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth to life, and few there be that find it,” but “wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be who go in thereat.” Whoever thinks that he will find peace—perfect quietude on earth—will be greatly mistaken. True, the Lord has promised full remission on entering His kingdom, but to hold our position, we must buckle on the whole armour of God, forget the things which are behind, and “press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

In the first place, the world with its cares and daily anxieties, taking advantage of the weaker side of our poor frail human nature, presses heavily against our spiritual being, and unless we are watchful and guard every weak point ere we are aware, passion and a love of the things around us quite overcome us, and we are led captives to the lusts of the flesh.

Secondly, in popular governments, such as we have enjoyed, in what our people for eighty years have rejoiced to call the “United States,” where Christians considered it a high privilege to take a part in making and executing the laws, the outward pressure upon the body of Christ is often exceedingly great, and even overwhelming in its influences. It seems next to an impossibility to satisfy the subjects of Christ’s kingdom that theirs is the only permanent government on earth—that it will live and triumph gloriously when all the institutions of men crumble and fall to decay. We do not object to Christians knowing everything that can be learned to give proper advice on all exciting questions, or to the right of suffrage, but there is danger all along the road of public strife, and especially political strife. Our readers will please bear with us while we call their special attention to a few universally…

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Admitted facts. Who has ever seen a member of the church that suffered himself to become more excited in reference to elections and the promotion of political parties, that was able, a very considerable length of time, to maintain his integrity as a member of the family of God? Those most anxious in the public contests of the world, are seldom found in the assemblies of the saints, and when found in the house of worship, either a consciousness of unworthiness robs them of all spiritual life, or the things of God possess so little interest to them, that they sleep soundly under the best preaching and most improving exhortations, and they are always more happy under the benediction than any other part of the service.

Who, we ask in all charity, ever knew a brother that aspired to political preferment—to become even a member of the legislature; that was not either greatly crippled in his usefulness, or completely killed to all that is ennobling in the church? We have had many excellent brethren who could not withstand the temptation to serve the world, but few if any of them have been able to serve their brethren efficiently afterwards.

We cannot deny that it seems patriotic for Christians to take up arms in defense of their real or imaginary rights, but few indeed, who embark in war are ever after able to fight valiantly with the sword of the spirit under the banner of the Prince of Peace. Most of our great military leaders are but wrecks of dissipation, and few, since the days of Washington, have fought in the love and fear of the Father. Our brethren will also pardon us for suggesting that the sword is only the test of physical strength, but not of right, and hence all questions of a civil or moral character, must be settled by peace measures.

These things being admitted, we ask Christians and those who would respect our Commander, if our safety is not in resisting the influences without, cleaving alone to God and the word of his grace? The flesh we must crucify, the things of the world we must count as dross, and the governments of men as unsteady, changeable, frail and unsatisfactory, at least. This outward pressure of the times—the world, the flesh and the devil—must be manfully resisted if we would run in the narrow and highway to immortality.

“No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other.” The Savior adds, “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” If we would gain eternal life, we must “lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and run with patience the race.”

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“that is set before.” We must rise above the whirl pool of strife, touch not the unclean thing, make religion supreme in our feelings, in our conversation in our public and private life, and remember that our cause is above the governments of the world—can live under any form of legislation, in slavery or anti-slavery territory—and yet it requires all our time and energies; if we would receive the rest which remains for the people of God.
T. F.

THE SLANDERER

Human beings are frequently wont to designate the worst sin, and the vilest character of earth; and in looking over the long and dark catalogue of crimes, we are deeply impressed that slander has not a parallel, and that the slanderer is the most dangerous man of the world. Conscious, at least, of the damnable nature of slander, we think it may not be out of place to attempt to define the sin.

Any word, spoken or written, to place a fellow creature in an unfair light before others, is slander. Hence, an impression made calculated to render the innocent odious, is slander. To speak the whole truth of a person, giving all the circumstances may not be slander, and yet it is often imprudent and dangerous to mention the errors and follies of our frail fellow beings. Where we can neither profit the unsuspecting, who are liable to be imposed upon, restrain or in any way benefit the offender, it is bad taste, if not downright wickedness to even speak of the sins of others.

The drunkard can be seen in his shame and be exposed, the robber may be confronted and placed beyond the practice of his trade, the gambler may be foiled, and the assassin may be detected, but slander assumes so questionable a face, that the perpetrator is seldom reached. All other vile passions seem more easily subdued than the love of falsehood; and every beast, bird and even serpent may be tamed, says the Apostle James, but “the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.”

It is a fire, a world of iniquity and defileth the whole body, it setteth on fire the course of nature and is set on fire of hell.” Falsifying is a habit frequently acquired at a very early age, and it gains such control of the life, that it cannot always be put away. Hence the necessity of parents always speaking the truth to their children, of never deceiving them in the least, and fulfilling every promise.

The influence of vicious nurses for evil, over the innocent, no one can estimate. Teachers of schools should be men and women who are in…

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capable of equivocation, duplicity, exaggeration or falsehood in any of its varied forms. To intimate that preachers should speak the truth might be considered an acknowledgment that they too are frail, erring and mortal like their fellows of earth, but it is nevertheless a truthful admission. The temptation to them to color, hesitate, and misrepresent is very strong, and any one who will notice the extremes in which preachers indulge must become satisfied they should be sanctified soul, body and spirit, to speak the word of life successfully.

Whoever notices the sweeping and unqualified denunciations of preachers and religious editors must be satisfied of the imminent danger to which public religious functionaries are exposed. A whole neighborhood, county, or large section of country may be deceived and seriously injured by the poisonous tongue of a single agent. When once the agents of Satan whisper evil into the ear, they never can remove the injury; and most fortunate is he who can resist the poisonous arrows of the wicked. If Ananias and Saphira lost their lives merely for the sin of speaking falsely in reference to that which injured no one but themselves, what must be the end of him who lives to injure others? The slanderer is much more an object of dread than the highwayman or the midnight assassin. Against these there may be a remedy, but there is none against the defamer of the innocent.

T. F.

THE PEACE MAKER

The Savior on the Mount said, “Blessed are the peace makers, for they shall be called the children of God,” and we gravely ask the saints if “the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit,” why we may not contribute to quieting the waters of strife in these once happy but now scattered and torn States? The denominations generally are in arms against each other, also some disciples, and from them we have nothing to hope, if we are really representatives of the government of the Prince of Peace, may we not attempt to convince the rulers of this nation that right cannot be settled by the abritrement of the sword. War merely about all idea, indicates not even a high degree of civilization, and we ask is there no hope of satisfying the movers of the waters, that they are wrong and their conduct will certainly call down the just retribution of God; Let the whole church call upon the Father of mercies, to pity the follies of his creatures, and let every Christian

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exert his influence to convince others that it is the duty of all to beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. If Christ’s government were understood, nation would not lift up the sword against nation, neither would they study war any more.

Brethren, let us attempt by some united effort to convince our countrymen that the influence of Messiah’s government will put an end to all their strife.
T. F.

DERANGEMENT IN SENDING THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE

Much to our regret the confused state of the country seriously embarrasses the transmission of our paper to our readers, yet our friends must submit as cheerfully as possible, and we trust they will all labor for a restoration of peace and order in the affairs of the country. We will mail the work as heretofore, and we hope each subscriber will aid in all practical ways in its dissemination and transmission. Very slight efforts often remove large obstructions, and in this our day of trials, a small amount of labor in securing subscribers may accomplish much for the cause we are pleading.

OUR SCHOOLS

All who feel at heart for the welfare of the rising generation should exert their powers in behalf of the schools and colleges of the country upon which our character for intelligence, independence, and prosperity at home, and our respectability abroad, so much depend. “Necessity” is still “the mother of invention,” and we see no reason why the perilous times may not excite energies which may essentially change the whole educational condition of the country for the better.

Let Christians, north and south, east and west, labor together for the cause of intellectual and moral improvement. There is no reason why we should rest on our oars, while there is so much to be done; God’s people should double their energies for the relief of the distressed and for the amelioration of all.
T. F.

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“THE WELFARE OF THE WORLD BOUND UP IN THE DESTINY OF ISRAEL.”

BY JOHN T. BARCLAY, OF JERUSALEM.

We have long been deeply impressed with the conviction that God intended still another work for the family of Abraham, and as we find much of the word of truth collected by Bro. Barclay in the Harbinger on the subject of the restoration of Israel, we have concluded to lay the matter before our readers.

As we are persuaded our beloved brother in his zeal for Missionary Societies, may detract from the labor and honor of the church, by expecting too much from human organizations, we have taken the liberty of omitting a few sentences and clauses of sentences, which seem to us not to comport with the style of the Bible. We hope our readers will study carefully the Scriptures quoted by our Brother.

T. F.

Bro. B. says: “The moral effect produced upon the heathen by the Restoration of the Jew, is a matter which, though it seems heretofore to have escaped observation, is worthy of the most profound considerations, for it is perfectly demonstrable from the Scriptures that the grand result will soon issue in the conversion of the whole world. In proof of which I need only refer to the following Scriptures. Nor are the social and physical changes consequent on the occupancy of the Holy Land by its rightful owners, less worthy the attention of the philanthropist and Christian.

“Thus saith the Lord of Hosts,” (Zech. 8: 8, 13, 15, 22, 28)
“Behold I will save my people from the east country and from the west country; and I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness.
And it shall come to pass that as ye were a curse amongst the heathen, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you, and ye shall be a blessing; fear not, but let your hands be strong; for thus saith the Lord of Hosts, as I thought to punish you when your fathers provoked me to wrath, saith the Lord of Hosts, and I repented not, so again have I thought in these days to do well unto Jerusalem and to the house of Judah: fear ye not…
Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of Hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, in those days, it shall come to pass that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that…

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As a Jew, saying, “We will go with you; for we have heard that God is with you.”

Jeremiah 33:7-9

“I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them as at the first; and I will cleanse them from all their iniquity wherein they have sinned against me, and I will pardon all their iniquities whereby they have sinned and whereby they have transgressed against me, and it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and a honor before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto them; and they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and all the prosperity that I shall procure unto it.”

Ezekiel 39:21-23

“And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them. So the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day and forward; and the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity. * * * * * When I have brought them again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies’ land, if * * then shall they know that I am the Lord their God; * * * neither will I hide my face any more from them, for I have poured out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God.”

Ezekiel 37:25-28

“And they shall dwell in the land which I have given unto Jacob; * * if they shall dwell therein, even they and their children’s children, forever; * * * and I will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore; * * yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people, * * and the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them forevermore.”

Jeremiah 16:15-21

“And I will bring them again into their land, that I gave unto their fathers; * * the gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein is no profit. Shall a man make gods unto himself which are no gods? Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know: I will cause them to know mine hand and my might, and they shall know that my name is the Lord.”

Micah 7:16, 17, 19

“According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt, will I show unto thee marvelous things. The nations shall see and be confounded at their might; they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf. They shall lick the dust like a serpent, and they shall move out of their holes like worms.”

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of the earth; they shall be afraid of the Lord their God, and shall fear because of these.

• “He will turn again; he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depth of the sea.”
  Ezek. 36: 23, 24

And the heathen shall know that I am the Lord; saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes; for I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land.
Is. 51: 3 – “For the Lord shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.”
(52: 9, 10) – “Break forth into joy; sing together ye waste places of Jerusalem; for the Lord hath comforted his people; he hath redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord hath made bare his arm in the sight of the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.”
Is. 66: 18-20 – “It shall come to pass that I will gather all nations and tongues, and they shall come and see my glory. And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them [after the battle of Armageddon] unto the nations—to Tarshish, Pul and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the isles afar off that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the gentiles; and they shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the Lord out of all nations to my holy mountain in Jerusalem, saith the Lord.”

To this explicit testimony of the prophets of Old Testament times, may well be added that of the great apostle of the Gentiles (Ro. 11: 12, 15) – “Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the gentiles, how much more their fullness; for if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead?”

• [To perceive the full force of this passage, we must remember how indissolubly the conversion of the Jewish nation is connected with their restoration.]

And the same effect testifies also the Apostle James. (Acts 15: 14-17) in commenting on the prophecy of Amos (9: 11, 12), averring that after the Lord has visited the gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name, he will return and build again the Tabernacle of David, [re-establish the Jewish polity] “that the residue of men may seek after the Lord, and all the gentiles upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord who doeth all these things.”

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The testimony of the Apostle Peter, in his temple sermon, (Acts 3: 17-21,) may also be very appropriately cited in this connection:

“Repent ye therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, that the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.”

We are thus taught most clearly, not only that the heathen will be brought to the knowledge and obedience of the Truth, on the Restoration and Resumption of the Jews; but that such of the confederated anti-Christian army as are made the monuments of mercy and grace at the “great battle of Almighty God,” will themselves be sent out as heralds and missionaries extraordinary, not only to the distant idolatrous heathen, who have never heard of the Lord, but also to the Ten Tribes of Israel who are still in captivity, and the Jews still remaining dispersed among the nations.

Such will be the gracious consequences resulting from the restoration of the Jews, in a moral point of view, “to the Jew first and also Greek;” and scarcely less interesting—though of course far less important—will be the social and physical changes that sooner or later ensue on the resettlement of Israel in the land of promise—interesting as well to the Christian and philanthropist as to the political economist and philosopher; affecting, as they do, not only the climate of Palestine and its inhabitants, both as well as human—but extending gradually over all the earth.

The Lord solemnly covenanted, in settling the children of Israel in the Holy Land, to give them rain in due season, guaranteeing that the land should “yield her increase, and the trees of the field their fruit, that the threshing should reach unto the vintage, and the vintage unto the sowing time,” that they should “eat bread to the full, and dwell in the land safely”—provided only that they should keep his commandments (Lev. 26: 42); and threatening at the same time their expulsion from that goodly land, and the withdrawal of all these blessings, upon disobedience.

Hence the present curse of desolation and sterility under which the land groans, is everywhere ascribed to the defection and iniquity of the people:

“Therefore,” says Hosea, (4: 3) “shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein languish, with the beasts of the field and with the fowls of heaven.”

…

“Therefore,” says Jeremiah, (3: 3) “the showers have been withheld, and the latter rain.”

…

(12: 4) “How long shall the land mourn and the herbs of every field wither for the wickedness of them that dwell therein? The beasts are consumed, and the birds.”

To the same effect also is a declaration of Micah, (7: 13) “the land shall be desolate…”

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Cause of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings.
And, says the Lord through Ezekiel, (34: 15-27) “I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land; and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods; and I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the showers to come down in their season: there shall be showers of blessing, and the tree of the field shall yield net fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase; and they shall be safe in their land; and they shall know that I am the Lord when I have broken the bands of their yoke, and delivered them out of the hands of them that served themselves of them.”

But for the sake of their ancestors, the Lord graciously promises to remember the land when he remembers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and restore its long lost fertility when he shall raise up the Tabernacle of David.
(Amos 9: 13-15) “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth; and the mountain shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt; and I will bring again the captivity of my people, and they shall build the waste places.”

And again says the word of the Lord, by the Prophet Ezekiel, (36: 8, 14, 30, 31) “But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches and yield your fruit to my people of Israel, for they are at hand to come; for behold I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be filled and sown; and I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it; and the cities shall be inhabited, and the waste places be builded.”

“Fear not, O land,” says Joel, (2: 21), speaking of the last days, “for the Lord will be jealous for his land and for his people—be glad and rejoice, for the Lord will be jealous for his land and for his people—be glad and rejoice, for the Lord will do great things; be not afraid, ye beasts of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness do spring, the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength.”

Not only shall the former fertility and prosperity be restored, but far exceeded. In speaking of these matters, the Lord further declares through Isaiah, (43: 19-21) “Behold, I do a new thing: now shall it spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. The beasts of the field shall honor me, the dragons and the owls, because I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen—This people have I formed for myself: they shall show forth my praise!”

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And again, (Ezek. 36. 11, 30, 35,) “I will multiply upon you man and beast, and they shall increase and bring fruit; and I will settle you after your old estates, and will do better unto you than at your beginnings: and ye shall know that I am the Lord, and I will multiply the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field; and ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen; … and they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited.”

But the superabounding blessings of Him whose tender mercies are over all his works, by no means terminate on the land, but extend even to the brute creation. “And in that day, saith the Lord, [the day of Israel’s Restoration] (Joel 2. 22,) will I make a covenant with the beasts of the field and with the fowls of heaven and with the creeping things of the ground”—the nature of which Isaiah informs us in the 11th chapter of his prophecy:

• “The wolf shall also dwell with the Lamb,
• And the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
• And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
• And a little child shall lead them.
• And the cow and the bear shall feed;
• Their young ones shall lie down together;
• And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
• And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp.
• They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain:
  (the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.)

And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt and from Pathros, and from Cush and from Elam and from Shinar, and he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.

But they shall fly along the coasts of Philistia toward the west: they shall spoil them of the east together; they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall serve them.

And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river,

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And shall smite it into even streams, and make men go over dry shod.
And there shall be a highway for the remnant of his people that shall be left from Assyria,
Like it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.

NO RIGHT TO BE UGLY

Men or women, whatever their physical deformities may be, cannot be utterly ugly, except from moral and intellectual causes, and neither man nor woman has any right to be ugly, and that if either be so, it is his or her fault, misdemeanor, or crime; and that being ugly, they cannot expect the love of their fellow-creatures. No man can love an ugly woman; no woman can love an ugly man; and if fathers and mothers can love an ugly child, it is a very sore struggle, and may be duty after all, and not love.

To have lost one’s nose or eye, to squint or to have a hunch-back, are certainly misfortunes, deteriorations of the beauty of the human form and impairments of its high ideal; but if all these calamities were centered in one unhappy person, they would not make him positively ugly, if he were wise, witty, amiable, benevolent, just and generous, and passed his life in deeds of kindness and charity.

Milton has not endowed his sublime fiend with the horns, dragon’s tail, and other vulgar uglinesses of popular superstition. He was too great a poet and philosopher to fall into such an error. The physical beauty of his Satan was originally as great as that of the Angels who had not fallen, in all outward attributes; but the hideousness was in the mind, and the mind moulded the body to its own character; and Satan, though he was, as Sydney Smith said, “a fine fellow” in one sense, was terribly ugly in another; sublimely horrible, and infinitely more fearful to think of than the grotesque compound of Satyr and Dragon whom we owe to the exuberant fancy and bad taste of the monks of the middle ages.

A truly ugly person may have had a well-developed nose and regular features, he may be six feet high, and shapely as the Apollo Belvidere; but the evil spirit that is in him has set the indescribable but palpable seal of a bad mind upon all his lineaments. He bears the brand of criminality upon his forehead as Cain did, and carries a mark of the Divine displeasure stamped upon his face, shaded in his aspect, toned in his voice, telegraphed into his looks and gestures. By these means

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he is pointed out to his fellow creatures as one who has sinned against the moral government of the Universe, so that all who see him may know him and take warning by his punishment. All that is morally bad is physically ugly; ergo, every man and woman may be beautiful if they like, and no man or woman has a right to be ugly.
-Q.E.D.

Take the case of my excellent friend Mr. Towers. Look at his nose, and his nose only—at that nose, rubicund and Stalactitian, out of all proportion with my ordinary face; a nose pimpled and freckled, bearing blossoms like a tree, and of the color of the peony, and judge him by that only and you shall, at a casual glance, pronounce him ugly. But Mr. Towers is not ugly. The physical deformity is, no doubt, obvious enough, and suggests ugliness to the passer-by. But hear him talk. Listen to wit! Let him unlock in your presence the abundant stores of his learning. See him ransack all the brick kilns of the ancients and the moderns, and watch the house of Fancy or of Learning that he will build with them. Go with him into private life and see what a joyous companion he is, what a good friend he is, what a good husband he is, what a kind father he is, what a pure-minded citizen he is, and in the light of his moral and intellectual excellence, you will look at his ugly nose and admit that the face is beautiful, aye, that the nose itself is more beautiful than many a nose that Phidias and Praxiteles delighted to model, but which belonged to a countenance which was not permeated with and molded by these noble qualities.

Take Trimmles, another man I know, and look at him as he walks along the street—small, spare and with a hunch-back; and at the first glance you shall call him ugly. But you will be in error if you do. Physically he may seem to be ugly, but his mind is a melody and a harmony. He is a logician who could argue with Euclid. He sees daylight in the darkest corners of disputation with a mental eye, over which there is no film or darkness. He talks with eloquent tongue, and neither woman nor man can resist the fascination of his company. How can such a person be called ugly? In spite of his small stature and his hunch, Trimmles is handsomer than silly Captain Fitz-Mortimer of the Rifles, who has a straight back, a Roman nose, and a beard that Methusaleh might envy.

Then take the case of Theodosia Perkins—fresh, fair, twenty-three, and passably rich. She has a face and a form that a sculptor might love to imitate; but she is pert—she flirts—she has a bad opinion of…

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Her own sex and of the other—she has no education of the heart or of the mind—she has no taste for color, for tune, for propriety; she is “fast”—she is “loud”—she is eaten up with vanity and conceit, and thinks herself the very cream and quintessence of the world. In one word, she is ugly in spite of her face and form. To look at her is sufficient to know that she will find no one to marry her except for her money; and to prophesy that after she is married her husband will detest her.

Take also the case of young Master Wigram. He was born a pretty child, and might have grown up to be a beautiful boy; but he is intensely ugly. He has been humored and fondled with reason one day and punished without reason the next; he has been indulged in all his caprices in the morning, and denied his just and natural requirements in the evening. He has been coaxed and petted, coerced and punished, equally without justification; and the result is that he is the plague of every one who comes near him. He is built up of evil passion. There is not a good thing about him. He is a slave one minute, and a tyrant the next; niggardly and extravagant, clement and cruel. Though but fifteen years of age, he is ugly in the extreme, because he is not a single moral or intellectual quality to keep his physical qualities in good countenance.

It comes to this—that whatever physical nature done, or may have done, or may have neglected to do for us, the power of being beautiful remains with ourselves. There are moral appliances that are better than physical rouges and pomades to make man or woman lovely and lovable. It is mind that creates face; and that makes little David strong in the Lord’s grace, handsomer than great Goliath, who is only strong in the devil’s favor.

And the superiority of this kind of beauty over all others is this, that the older we grow the more beautiful we may become. “There is one beauty of the stars, another of the moon. There is one beauty of youth, another of maturity, and another of old age. Excellent are they all; but from its completeness, as well as from its rarity, the beauty of old age is the Divinest of the three—the crown and completion of all the rest. Youth is beautiful for its physical maturity, for its physical and moral, but old age is the happy union of the physical, the moral, and the intellectual qualities, that generally command love, respect, and homage.

I know an old woman of seventy-three years of age, of a beauty as much superior to that of seventeen as that of snowy Mont Blanc to verdant Primrose Hill. Lovely as the snow…

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white locks, neatly parted over her serene forehead; lovely are the accents of her sweet voice, that speaks loving kindness to all the world; lovely is the smile that starts from her eye, courses to her lips, and lights up all her countenance, when she fondles a child, or gives counsel of wisdom to young man or maid; lovely is she even in her mild reproof of a wrong doer; so mild and gentle, so more than half divine – that he or she who relapses afterwards into wickedness, is reckless and hardened indeed.

I dislike ugly people.
I said so at first.
I say so now.
No one has a right to be ugly; and if men and women choose to be ugly, it is their own fault, and they must pay the penalty.
—London Review.

SACRED MOUNTAINS

Every mountain in the Bible has some peculiar glory about it. But like the stars, one mountain differeth from another in glory.

Ararat is the father of mountains; it smoked with the incense of the first sacrifice in the new world.
Nebo was the majestic death bed from which the lawgiver caught his earliest glimpse of two Canaans – the one spread out in living green beneath him, the other unveiled above him in celestial glory.
Sinai had its peculiar glory; it terrible exceedingly; Horeb, too, with its ‘still small voice’ – Gilead, aromatic with odorous balms, and Lebanon crowned with its everlasting glaciers, the Alps of the Old Testament. Each sacred mountain has a history written on its tables of stone.
But no one is redolent with sweeter associations – no one utters a more impressive teaching – no one is more identified with our precious Saviour than the Mount called the Mount of Olives.

It was Christ’s favourite resort.
He oftentimes resorted thither with his disciples.
As John was his favorite follower – the family of Lazarus his favorite household – Galilee his favorite water – so Olivet was his favorite mountain.
When he grew weary of the heat and dust, the uproar and the turmoil of guilty Jerusalem, He bent his steps over the brook Kedron to the quiet sabbatic mount of Olivet.
It always spread its grateful shelters from noontide heats and evening dews.
Olivet cast no stones at him, never reviled him, never closed its doors in the face of the gentle Man of sorrows.
And if Jesus sought his Olivet for retirement from the world’s Babel of jarring sounds, for meditation and for prayer, shall not every…

THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE

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Christian have his Olivet too?
For the sequestered rural Christian we need not speak now, but with the dwellers in great cities, the painful lack in his life is the lack of quiet secluded thought and undisturbed meditation. The farmer can have it as he follows his plough on the hillside. If a devout man he is on a perpetual Olivet. The village mechanic has his long still hours, when the sunlight sleeps in the silent street or when the monotonous rain drops keep steady time with his thoughts, on the roof of his humble shop. The mariner can be alone with God on his night watches. But in the bustling, bewildering, time taxing, soul devouring metropolis, where, alas! can a man dwell apart? Where find his Horeb with its awful silence, or an Olivet for prayerful communings with his own spirit?

TRUE WORSHIP

The proper character of Christian Worship is a matter of deep importance to the servants of Christ. Upon it depends in a great degree the reverence which we have for our Father, the respect we pay to His institutions and commands, and the earnestness of our own devotion to the service in which we are engaged. An empty, lifeless, form of worship which calls into exercise no emotion of the heart, stirs to active energy, no dormant power of the soul and arouses not the whole man to noble aspirations for good, must tend to produce irreverence for all that is sacred and holy, and end in a total abandonment of the religion of Christ. No road to open and glaring Apostasy is surer than that which begins in carelessness in reference to the solemn worship of the Maker of the Heavens and Earth.

I cannot for a moment believe that it is possible for a professed servant of Christ to look with indifference upon the worship of the Saints, to be a mere idle spectator in the midst of the reading, the prayer, the Songs of Praise, and the thanksgiving of the people of God, and leave with a heart not rendered harder and more careless to the matter as to the matter of his own spiritual condition. Tell me not that any one alive to Christianity can hear the word of God read, without always feeling a deep interest in its pure and heavenly lessons. Tell me not that when glad and thankful hearts swell forth songs of praise and rejoicing, that there can be a Christian heart that does not (it may be silently) join the anthem of praise and fill with unuttered orisons the volumes of grateful homage. When fervent humble prayer bows the saints of the…

THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE

Most High in deep and thankful adoration before the throne of God, what heart fully imbued with the Spirit of Christ can sit in unmoved indifference? Yet what numbers are there of those who profess allegiance to Heaven’s King, who take no interest in these matters. What multitudes are there to whom the solemn and earnest worship is of the most shallow concern? How many are there who feel it to be a condescension to be engaged in singing the praises of Heaven or in humbly bowing in prayer at the throne of God?

How poorly do many regard the exalted privileges of holding communion with God in prayer, meditation, and thanksgiving? We doubt not that the whole system of religious worship which prevails in our age is sadly and deplorably wrong. It tends to produce this very state of indifference and brings in its influence evils most destructive of all life and vitality among the people of God.

Men and women who are taught to regard the worship of God as something to be “administered” only by “consecrated hands,” as a matter in which they dare not engage, cannot be otherwise than indifferent in regard to its most important concerns. So long as the worship of God is regarded as the peculiar work of a few individuals claiming some sort of superiority in the church, and not the work of the whole body, doing all things decently and in order, there must be carelessness and indifference upon the great mass of the professed followers of Christ.

The blundering awkwardness, which so frequently shocks the tender sensibilities of the exquisite, is but a legitimate fruit of the very system of things that regards no man fit to do service for the church unless specially consecrated. It is a system of things that is little indeed in advance of that which in times gone by imposed upon the simple-hearted people a class of stupid, brainless, lazy, ignorant pretenders, claiming to be the “called of God,” men often indeed, utterly destitute of morality or intelligence, yet under the cataplasmic name of “the clergy” regarded with almost reverential awe.

Properly considered, the worship of God is the specialty of no man—it is the glorious privilege of every child of God. Every member of the body is a priest to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to the Father, through Christ, our one High Priest and Mercy-seat. Christ is the Vine, we are the branches, and the life we have as Christians comes from this living vine. When we neglect to draw life therefrom by communion therewith in prayer, meditation, and praise, we become lifeless and are destined to be cut off as unfruitful. The worship is not given as a mere form of respect to God, but as a means of life, growth, and vigor to the members of the body.

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The more we engage in it the more life we have—the more vigor, energy and power for good we possess. The idea of having nothing to do in religion is a most baneful notion, corrupting and destructive of all that is good. Active employment only gives spiritual health and for God has appointed the service, public and private, which we owe Him, and without it decay, feebleness and final ruin are our certain and inevitable end.
W. L.

“ONE BREAD.”

It is said in the Scriptures that, “Jesus took the bread,” not two or three breads, and Paul says, “We are one bread and one body.” Yet it is strange that frequently, we find the brethren on the first day of the week, either from indolence, indifference or a worse cause, employing two, three or a half dozen little scraps of perhaps leavened bread, in the supper of the Lord. Jesus is one, and one unleavened bread must represent his body. Remember, the supper was instituted at the feast of unleavened bread (Mat. 26, 17), and we should determine to follow as literally, as possible, the example of the Savior. Unsuitable bread and unsuitable wine should if practicable, be avoided. It is a shame to be indifferent in such matters.
T. F.

A. Allison, of Cleveland, Tenn., has sent us a statement in reference to certain church difficulties, which we would be glad to publish, if it bore characteristic marks of full authority, or if its language were sufficiently respectful to us, to authorize such a proceeding. Our earnest desire is that truth may prevail, and we would rejoice if we knew how to place the controversies between our friends in their true light.
T. J.

ADVICE OF BRO. D. OLIPHANT OF CANADA IN REFERENCE TO THE WAR.

“War in its worst form, is now inaugurated in the American Union, or rather at present dis-union. War, at least, from seventy-five to ninety percent of it, is uncivilized if not positively savage. We trust in the High and Hallowed Prince, whose government is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit—a government established to save and not to destroy—will stand aloof from such a godless contest and destructive strife. Can peace makers, whose weapons are molded and sent from the armory of Heaven, can peace desiring and peace-making men deliberately put on Caesar’s armor and rush into carnal warfare?”

THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE

FRANKLIN COLLEGE COMMENCEMENT

The closing exercises of the 17th session of Franklin College took place on Wednesday, the 5th of June, in the College Chapel. Notwithstanding the all-pervading excitement of the country, a portion of the students remained faithful to their duties to the end, and the examination evinced much close and diligent application.

The exercises of the morning consisted in the addresses of members of the Senior Class interspersed with music by the young ladies. The following was the order of addresses with subjects:

1. TUR~EN GOODALL, of Illinois.
2. JOSEPH M. CARNES, of Tennessee.
3. W. B. WHITEFIELD, of Tennessee.
4. WATER H. LAVENDER.
5. C. C. BRADEN, of Louisiana – Valedictory.

After the addresses came the conferring of the degree of Bachelor of Arts upon the young men, and a few very impressive and appropriate remarks by President Carnes. The degree of Bachelor of Arts was also conferred, by order of the Trustees, upon Z. O. Wilson, of Tennessee, who was called home by the sickness of his mother a few weeks before the close of the session.

In the afternoon, essays were read by six young ladies, closing with that of Miss Susan E. Anthony – Subject: “For what do we Live?” The degree of “Maid of Liberal Arts” was then conferred upon her. The essay was worthy of the pure and cultivated heart from which it emanated.

The following gentlemen were elected members of the Board of Trustees:

• Jas. C. Owen
• E. G. Sewell
• Seth Sparkman
• O. T. Craig, of Williamson County
• David Hamilton
• J. K. Speer
• Henry Zillner, of Henry County
• J. A. Anthony, of Wilson
• Dr. D. W. Mentlo, of Sumner.

The same being members of the Board of Managers of the Educational Stock Company.

The day was most pleasant. The audience, though not so large as usual, was quite respectable, and the whole passed off most pleasantly. The School, all things concurring, will be opened again on the first Monday in September.

W. L.

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Perfect love casteth out all fear. If our calling and election have been made sure, come what may, we have nothing to fear. Beautiful is the life, as well as the death of the Christian.