Gospel Herald, 1860-09-15

              Devoted, to Ohristianity, Morality, th.e Interests of  Sa.l3>>a.th. Schools, Social Impvo-vemerLt, Teanpex-ance, Ed-cication, and Q-enerat Ne-wrs.
"BEHOLD,    I   BB.1N0   YOU   GOOD   TIDINGS   OF   GREAT   JOY
ON   EARTH   PEACE,   GOOD   -WILL   TOWARD   MEN.
VOL. 17.
DAYTON, 0., SATURDAY, SEPT. 15,1860.
K0J9.
ORIGINAL POETRY.
irri/toi/iirl/ie Gobjiel Hffrald
God is Lo-^e.
Br s. E. -w. w.
ritrike loud your harps ye saints below. Ye angels sound his praise above,
I.et o'er the earth an echo fio-w
Of street glad strains, for God is Love.
Come -weary souls by guilt oppressed. Who vainly after pleasure rove;
0, come to Christ, and seek that rest, God hath prepared lor you in Love,
Come cast your care upon the Lord,
His pitying heart for you doth move. Come  taste the sweetness of his word.
And tell to all that God is Love, Yes, sound Ilia praise from pole to pole,
Let all His wondrous mercy prove. Onward, still onward, letit roll.
The heavenly theme, our God is Love.
This life is fleeting lilie a dream.
And should wo all our time improve;
Too short, yes, far too .short twould seem To tell the hair that God is Love.
0, LordI thy holy influence send, Inspire my heart celestial dove.
That I may sing when time sh.all end Through ceaseless nges, God is Love.
ORIGINALITIES.
¦Wi-iffCTl for the (ioajfel Heretd.
SiJi,
Perhaps the most concise scripture doflnition of sin, is, thatit 'is the trans- gr.e^sioii of the la-w.' And we under¬ stand by .'law,'not the Jewish 'cere¬ monial law'—-Dor the 'law of nations;' but the la-w of cotiscienco—the law written upon the human constitution, and the law which declares that man shall love tho Jiord God supkbmely, and his neighbor as himself, insomuch that he can 'worship the .Father in spirit and in truth' and do unto others as he -would that they should do unto him -were their ciroumstancos revers¬ ed—this is the 'law' and the prophets.
Sin is anything, everything commit¬ ted by man, -which, evinces a want of reverence, gratitude and obedience to God, or which indicates an infraction or evasion ofthe principles of justice, disinterestedne-s and humanity,
'Sin is not mere imperfection: it is produced by no limitation of human faculties,' nor is it the natural and un¬ avoidable failure of a weak and igno¬ rant being; but willful moral disobe- uience.
It consists in doing s.0METHiNa, al¬ though this is not confined to outward acts. , The mind may plan, and the will may be gcod for the execution of some vicious deed, while'by the inter¬ position of some unexpected obstacle, the hands may be deterred from per forming it.
The will is active in the refusal to obey the voice of duty. 'To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.' The sin consists in the state of the will, 'it is the will setting itself against the divine law, when it ought to put itself in harmony with this law.'
It implies a knowledge ov tue law, 'If.ye were blind, ye should have no sin; butnow ye;Say 'we see,'therefore your   sin remaineth,'    'If I   had   not
come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin, but now they have no cloak for tlieir sin,' Thus we perceive how some may perform certain acts without blame, whilo tho same actions committed by us would be sinful. This shonld bo borne in mind, for we arc all prone to chide and condemn others for every departure from what we con¬ ceive to be right. We may htive false conceptions, or thoy may not possess the light that we do, 'M.an looketh oil tho outward appearance; but the Lord looketh on tho heart.' The in¬ sane and idiotic have no knowledge of tho 'law,' and are. therefore, incapable of sin. The brutes act, but never sin. All men have notthesarae knowledge, all will bojudged accordingly; though it will not avail anything formen to plead ignorance, if thoy havo constant¬ ly refused light, when proffered them.
From the nature of sin we see where the guilt rests—we know nothing of original sin, or of a sinfulnaturo. Bach individual is responsible for his own sin—'to his own master he standetli or falletb,' 0. T. w.
Oregon, N. Y.
salvation.
There are two palpable, and we intiy say, fatal errors connected with tho question of salvation—errors into which multitudes have unconsciously fallen.
-1st. That of passively trusting in the "merits of Christ," as though Christ had wrought out man's salva- tioi's, and left him nothing to do but to get happy in the contemplation.
This doctrine is refuted on every page of Scripture, and its absurditj^ may be seen by sober rofioctioii. \¥o may confide implicitly in tbe dogma— we may shout "Glory to God in tho highest," and sing liailelnjahs till per¬ fectly hoarse, it all ttvailetli us nothing; NOTHING, unless wo show by our daily walk, oha.ste conversation and devout life, that wc are children of tho King¬ dom.
"Why," said tho master apostle, "though I havo the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all kno-wledge, and though I have all faith 80 that I could remove moun¬ tains, awii have not charity, I am noth¬ ing I"
Far be it from us to undervalue the work of the Eedeemer, His labors are everything to this sinful world. But what advantageth it a man who grinds the poor, cheats his fellow man, and deceives and misrepresents, though he talks much of "redeonaing grace," and on his dying bed mutters something about tho Atoneraont. Is he any surer of gaining heaven tbtin the Catholic who expects in a dying hour to have the sins of an ttngodly life charmed away by the cross which the Priest holds beforo his eyes?
2d, Another equally pernicious er¬ ror is that of trusting in the goodness of God for salvation. Truly, He is good. Tho heavens declare it; the' earth proclaims it; man and every living creature are evidences of it; tho seasons, the sunshine, th'e rain- all bear witness to it! ISTo; wo would not deny nor underrate his goodness, but rather extol it. But, oh man, think not to hide behind it, and thus escape the reward of your doings!
According to their deeds shall men be condemned or justified, and not ac¬ cording to their faith, in the merits of Christ or goodness of the Creator. "Not every oue that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the King¬ dom of Heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven."
True, much stress is laid upon faith in the New Testament, and the an¬ swer to tho question, "What nrust I do to be saved?" is "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ."
But do you not know tbat the faith of the E". T. is an active living faith? It always implies action. Faith in Christ implies a willing reception of him and his teachings.
From the language of Jesus and his apostles, we infer that it requires much moral courage and powerful exertions for any one to wash their robes from pollution, and keep unspotted from the world. The gate to heavon is straight, the road narrow, and tho path rugged. 0. t. w.
Oregon, N. Y., Aug., 1800.
Written for the liotgel  Herald.
Christian J)uty.
BY N. W, EISENBISE,
Christians aro not only called, to endure afflictions, but there are other duties more binding on them, such as taking up their cross, fbr the Saviour hath said, "if any man will bo my disciple, let bim deny himself and take up his cross daily, and follow me." We seo by this that we have a great duty to perform in bearing the cross, and how are we to take up our cross daily? I:^irst of all is to dcnj'- ourselves, and walk in the way the Saviour trod, and do as He did, walk through persecutions, suffer shame, aud preach the gospel to the poor.— Thus, if we do this and live' up, to all the commandments; then, we have a promise left us. There are other re- sponsihilities resting upon tis, concern¬ ing our soul's Avelfare, such as living in peace with all men, and showing our respect to the church, in working and contributing for her prosperity and welfare. Then, as a duty we owe to ber we must support her ministers, so that they can devote all their time and talents to tho ministry : that tbey will not have to indulge in hard labor, so as to unfit them for service. Breth¬ ren, thore are a great many people, nowadays, that are called to preach the gospel who are destitute of earthr ly blessings, such as lands and riches, and even destitute of homes. Then I ask, how will they fill their calling? Itis out of the question for th§m to do so, unless they have tho aid of the Church, And it is this that keeps so many out of the field of labor, be¬ cause the Churoh does not do her du¬ ty, Q^he question may heasked me: Why is it, Brother, that you, being so much for paying preachers, don't pay them more than you do? Well, I can soon answer this. You will please bear in mind, that 1 am now only a little past nineteen years of age, and my parents are jioor, and I have to work by tlie month, and give them tbe greater portion of my ^ wages; so that when 1 clothe myself I have not much loft, I say that the members of the church, should give according to their ability; and I say that the Christian
Church could support all her minis¬ ters, if she had only the will to do so. Then brethren, as one that loves you and loves the Christian cause, let me exhort you to do your duty in this re¬ spect.
It may be said hy some, that we have preachers, and they preach to us for what we have been giving them, bitt lot me say (in a Christian spirit) that there are some, who say that some of their preachers do not preach interesting sermons, I verily believe that these ministers are those who are confined to bard labor a good part of^ tho time. Brethren, how is it with ua that are not in the ministry, when we have been laboring hard all the week in the harvest field, tired and worried down, and go to meeting, on vSunday, and hear a sermon that is not very in¬ teresting, we wish we had not went. So it is with the minister who has been laboring through the week, and goes to jireaoh on Sunday,' be feels tired and not stble to proach, and con- : sequontly wishes he had uot been, there. Then let us, one and all, be up : anddoiug our duty in thisresptct, and : if -wo do so we may expect good preach¬ ing, and in doing this wo should not forget all duty that is required at our hands.
Lost Creek, July 1, I860,
¦Written for the Oospel Herald.
At aptatlon and   Cultivation,  cf Adhe¬ siveness.
Without this, or a kindred faculty to bring mankind together into villages, companies aud fiunilies, every human being would have wandered up and down in the earth alone, a ienated from all others, his Hand, Ishmael- like, "against every man, and every man's hand against his;" without so¬ ciety, without any community of feel¬ ing or concert of action, and even without written or verbal language, and consequently destitute of ail the ¦pleasures and advantages now derived .frotn conversation, newspapers, ser^ mons, lectures, schools, and the insti¬ tutions to whicii they have given rise; and also-without one friendly, feeling to soften down his austerity aud wrath, or draw him towards his fellow man. Consequently, nothing could have been done moro'than one could do alone— no companies formed for trade,, me¬ chanical, public, or other works—iio religious, political, scientific or,other societies would have been formed, and no conimunity of interest or feeling, and concert of action, as well as direct pletisure in friendship, could have been experienced.' Arid Since each faculty iu one constitutionality ex¬ cites the same faculty in others, and thereby all tho other faculties, without friendship to bring mankind together, so that their fitculties may naturally excite each other, half his faculties having littlo or notbin .^ to stimulate them, would have lain dormant, and tho balance have been but feebly ex¬ ercised', '
Without fViendship to bring man to¬ gether, ambition, imitation, mirth, kindness, justice, and many of his other faculties would have had only an exceedingly limited arena for their exercise; concert of action coulcl not have boon secured, and green-eyed jealousy, burning animosity, and dire