Tamar Davis

“ Did God appoint one mediator between himself and man,—behold the saints they canonized; did he bestow the Scriptures as his revealed will upon the world,—behold the canons of the church in which their authority is superseded; and did he institute and command the observation of the seventh day as a day of rest,—they substitute an other in its place. The Sabbath is reprobated as a Jewish institution: it is a wonder that we hear nothing of a Jewish religion, as Christianity certainly originated with that people; of a Jewish Saviour, since the Redeemer was of the offspring of David ”

“ What they require are facilities for printing. A mission, with printers and printing-presses, established in the heart of that country, would prove of incalculable advantage;—not to teach them Christianity: they are acquainted with its doctrines already;—but to print their Bible, and other religious books, for distribution; to enrich their travelling merchants, who are in continual motion from Canton to Constantinople, with the precious wares of truth and wisdom; to inspire their zeal, awaken their energies, and secure their engagement in the glorious enterprise. ”

“ It is not surprising that a pampered priesthood and lordly prelates, whose honours and preferments were based upon a system of ecclesiastical tyranny, should oppose, by every possible means, the establishment of unlimited toleration; although we may well wonder that those who had felt themselves the heavy weight of religious persecution, should commit so great an error, so palpable an inconsistency, as to attempt to deprive others of the inestimable blessing of worshipping God according to the dictates of their own consciences. ”

“ Ignorance, in a writer, is nearly or quite as culpable as misrepresentation; for no one has any right to assume the responsibilities of the historian, without first making himself the master of his subject. By a contrary course, he may inadvertently expose the most innocent and virtuous community to the reprobation and ridicule of contemporaries, and the abhorrence of posterity. Few societies have suffered more in their reputation from ignorant and unprincipled authors, than the society of Ephrata; others, however, have borne honourable testimony to its merits. ”

“ From the earliest ages they have devoutly hated the error and idolatry of the Greeks. Like the primitive Christians, they have ever exhibited an unconquerable repugnance to the use or abuse of images, which, in the eighth and ninth centuries, spread like a leprosy through nearly all Christendom, and supplanted all traces of genuine piety in the visible church by the grossest superstition. ”

“ We have all heard of a very expressive proverb, importing that the world will think of us just as we think ourselves. Perhaps the seventh-day people have not made sufficient exhibitions of self-gratulation. Perhaps they have walked too contentedly down the valley of humiliation, involved in the shadows of obscurity. Certain it is, that they have striven to make themselves acceptable to God rather than to men; that they have been distinguished more for morality, good sense, and quiet, unobtrusive manners, than for brilliant, but superficial, attainments ”

“ John Burdick, his successor, was equally distinguished for eminent piety and natural ability. His discourses were marked by a fervid, yet gracefully simple eloquence. He was also eminent for faithfulness in discipline. No member under his auspices was retained in the church whose conduct or reputation could be a blot upon her bright escutcheon; yet no one could accuse him of injustice or partiality. His ministry was signally blessed by a powerful revival, in which more than two hundred persons were added to the church in one year. As a citizen, he was liberal, public-spirited, and benevolent. ”

“ Few religious sects have been extirpated by persecution. Religion shines brightest in the night of adversity; it is quenched and extinguished in the sunshine of courts. Zeal and intrepidity are always stimulated by the presence of an enemy. The Christians of Armenia received the crown of martyrdom, rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to suffer for their attachment to the cross. At last, however, the eloquence of a priest, named Gregory, succeeded in converting the monarch and his principal nobility, who received the rite of baptism, and entered into the communion of the church. ”

“ From the time of Constantine to the Reformation, Sunday was never regarded as the Sabbath, nor called by that sacred name. During all this time, in England, here and there, were found individuals who observed the Sabbath—the seventh day of the week—strictly, though exposed to many privations and frequent persecutions. Of their numbers or their locations we have at present but very imperfect accounts. The mass of men regarded the Sabbath as abolished;—Sunday as no Sabbath, but merely a church-holiday, to which they paid no conscientious regard. ”

“ It is no wonder, therefore, that this venerated man is, with few exceptions, so universally beloved and respected, for multitudes look up to, and regard him as their spiritual father. It is no wonder that the aspersions of malice, and the machinations of envy have been unable to destroy his credit or his influence with the denomination at large. Yet this man, who has received so many seals to his ministry, and whose presence to the churches is so auspicious, is a plain old-fashioned man, neither skilled in logic nor taught in the schools. ”

“ To these churches, famous throughout the East no less for the purity of their worship than their exemption from ecclesiastical tyranny, myriads of fugitives resorted from all the provinces of the Eastern empire, and the narrow bigotry of the emperors was punished by the emigration of their most useful subjects, who transported into a foreign realm the arts of both peace and war. Among the mountains of Armenia, and beyond the precincts of the Roman power, they seemed to have found a new world, where they might breathe the air of religious freedom. ”

“ That the religion of Ethiopia should have become corrupt is not in the least surprising, although we can only refer it to the superintending providence of God that, amid {56} the wreck of ages and the changes and revolutions of time, it has survived at all. The wonder is, that, surrounded as they are by Pagan and Moslem, together with the corrupt propensities of the human heart, the very name and profession of Christianity has not been long since obliterated from their minds, the Sabbath forgotten, and the name of the Great Mediator supplanted by that of the false prophet. ”

“ It is said that, at present, many of the most luxurious seats in Persia are occupied by opulent Armenians. In Bagdad and Damascus they vend the magnificent silks of Oriental manufacture, and preside over the creation of those exquisite fabrics that are the admiration of the world. In all these cities they have meeting-houses, with burial-grounds attached, in which flowers of rare beauty and exquisite odours are cultivated. In these burial-gardens, were it not for the presence of monumental marble, one would forget the contiguity of death and decay. ”

“ The number of churches has proportionately increased, but it must be confessed that many of them are infant bodies, utterly unable to support the pastor whose services they require, and without whose presence they can never rise to any degree of strength and usefulness. They want such pastors as the Hopkinton, the Berlin, the Piscataway, and the Shiloh Churches possessed during the first century of their existence. Men who could preach the truth for its own sake, who could share with and for their brethren—live as they did—dress as they did—and even work as they did. ”

“ According to his accounts, "in the summer, when these pastoral people are tending their cattle at a distance from the valleys, and occupying their chalets, or temporary cabins, upon the summits of the mountains, the clearness of the atmosphere allows the sound of the Sabbath bells to reach them, calling them to the worship of the Creator, beneath the canopy of heaven. They assemble in a convenient place on the green turf, to listen to the exhortations of their minister, who follows them on every seventh day to their remotest pasturings." ”

“ A hundred snowy clouds appear here and there on the blue heaven above, and it requires no great stretch of the imagination to fancy that behind or upon them the waving wings of seraphs have been furled, and that forms of ineffable beauty are bending there, and watching with interest the dedication of souls to God. ”

“ I must confess that it gives me inexpressible pleasure to think that we have conclusive testimony, that, for so many centuries, in the midst, too, of Catholic countries, God had reserved to himself such a goodly number who had not bowed the knee to Baal, and whose mouths had not kissed him; for certainly next to idolatry is that sin which would substitute for doctrines the commandments of men, and neglect the Sabbath of God's appointment, giving preference to a man-made institution. ”

“ The Seventh-day Baptist churches have been blessed and honoured by the labours and example of a succession of worthy ministers. Men, pre-eminently qualified to break the bread of life, and administer the milk of the word;—men truly apostolic in simplicity and purity of doctrine, in fervour of piety and zeal. True, they have not been distinguished for the wisdom of this world. ”

“ We must go to the Jews for the Bible, in which is contained the knowledge of God, and the hope of the world; we must go to the Jews for examples of godliness in the long, dark ages before the Christian era; why not go to them for a sabbath likewise? The spiritual pride that opposes such a measure will not stand in the great and burning day. ”

“ In tracing the history of our denomination, there occur many reflections of a pleasant and interesting character, particularly in connexion with our missionary efforts. The review of the fields of labour thus occupied would prefigure in a remarkable degree our gradual expansion and increase. First we see those good old fathers, over whose graves the flowers of centennial summers have bloomed and withered, making short journeys from Rhode Island to New Jersey, and perhaps to some parts of Pennsylvania. ”

“ It does not appear that this bold reformer ever separated wholly from the Church of Rome, but he denounced many of her corruptions and abominations in no measured terms, and had many followers. From the death of this eminent man until the time of Peter Waldo, of Lyons, the history of this people is involved in much obscurity. If they possessed any writers among themselves capable of giving their transactions to posterity, or if any records of their ecclesiastical affairs were committed to writing, the barbarous zeal of their opponents has prevented their transmission to our times. ”

“ The utility of this arrangement is unquestionable, and, so far as it has been tested, has been found to answer all the purposes of an Annual Conference without its disadvantages. But it must not be supposed that during all this time, the sun of prosperity to this people has been unclouded; that no difficulties have arisen in their straight and narrow path. On the contrary, they have been subjected to many and peculiar trials. They have been despised by the worldly and the great, have been oppressed by law, and persecuted in more ways than one by those professing the Christian name. ”

“ Nothing but the blindness of bigotry can induce any man, or class of men, who have paid the smallest attention to the accounts of all the Catholic authors concerning them, to deny that complaints against them for disregarding the festivals of the church, in which they included the Dominical day, were widespread and long-continued; and that almost equally with the former were the accusations of their paying an undue regard to Saturday, or the Jewish Sabbath. ”

“ The Portuguese were no less surprised at their profession than offended by their simplicity; but, what appeared most unaccountable, they were unacquainted with the spiritual and temporal majesty of Rome, and were ignorant that, to St. Peter's successor, all the kings and prelates of the earth owed subjection and allegiance. They adhered, like their ancestors, to the communion of the Nestorian Patriarch; their bishops had for ages been ordained by him at Mosul, and thence had traversed the dangers of sea and land to their dioceses on the coast of Malabar. ”

“ Would it not be delightful to hold intercourse with that venerable patriarch,—the successor of a line of prelates extending back to the Apostle, that Israelite indeed, in whom was found no guile? Surely that place is hallowed. Within sight of Ekmiasin is Mount Ararat, where the world's gray fathers came forth to witness the bow of the covenant, and whence the Sun of Righteousness shall yet arise to the benighted nations with healing in his wings.
The Armenians, though ignorant of the art of printing, have an abundant store of literature. ”

“ Zeal, however, when it is according to knowledge, is commendable; under any circumstances it is preferable to indifference. Christianity without zeal is like the body without life, and it is an honour to any denomination to receive, even in ridicule, a title designative of faithfulness and activity. Ephrata would be a paradise now as it was in former days, did its inhabitants possess, in the same degree, that desirable quality which those of old possessed, and for which they were stigmatized. ”

“ Persecution agitates the public mind, excites the sympathy of some, the curiosity of all, and promulgates the very sentiments it is endeavouring to restrain. Besides, persecutors are not omniscient, conventicles will be held, and to their other charms that of secrecy is then added. In the year 1708, Alexander Mack, of Schriesheim, and seven others in Schwartzenen, Germany, met together, regularly to examine, in a careful and impartial manner, the doctrines of the New Testament, in order to ascertain what obligations it imposes upon professing Christians. ”