named upon them, and these nations will be subject to, and serve the nation of Israel, when David's throne is built up for evermore; and it is said by Isaiah (60: 12), "The nation and kingdom that will not serve thee, shall perish; yea those nations shall be utterly wasted."

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This Scripture shows how subservient the nations of the earth will be in the day that the tabernacle of David is built up, when many people shall go and say, Come ye and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." And Paul also in his letter to the Romans (1512) quotes from the same prophet, Isaiah, saying, "There shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles trust." These Scriptures, like that quoted by James, show that God intended to call the Gentiles, that his name might be named upon them also, and that they might be joint heirs with his people Israel.

THE SENTENCE OF JAMES

Wherefore," said James, my sentence is, that we trouble not them which from among the Gentiles are turned to God; but that we write unto them that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood. For Moses in old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogue every Sabbath day."

These things that James spake, together with what had gone before, pleased the elders and the whole church. And as Moses of old time was read in the synagogues every Sabbath day, so it was necessary that the churches of the Gentiles should have something from the holy apostles of Christ to read in their religious gatherings, that they might know and understand the will of God concerning them, and therefore it is added, "Then pleased it the apostles and elders, with the whole church, to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch, with Paul and Barnabas, namely Judas, surnamed Barsabas, and Silas, chief men among the brethren; and they wrote letters by them after this manner."

THE LETTERS OF THE APOSTLES AND BRETHREN

"The apostles and elders and brethren send greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles, in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia: forasmuch as we have heard that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment; it seemed good unto us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you, with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men that have hazarded their lives for the name of Jesus Christ. We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth. For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: that ye abstain first, from meats offered to idols; second, and from blood; third, and from things strangled; fourth, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare you well." These four commandments are all contained in the law, and occupy a very important place there, and are

enforced by very stringent laws, and the violation of them was punishable with severe penalties. Nevertheless these laws appear to have had a universal application to all men.

Touching the first, God has declared, saying, "My glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images." And Jesus said, "The greatest of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel, The Lord our God is one Lord: and, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength." Again it is written, "Thou shalt have no other Gods before me." It is said that God's name is jealous, for he is jealous of the homage of his worshippers, lest they should honor other gods than himself, and consequently the Gentile converts to Christianity were forbidden to eat meats offered in sacrifice to idols, lest they provoke the Lord to jealousy.

Second, that ye abstain from eating blood: this command is not peculiar to the law of Moses. When God after the flood enlarged the things that might be used for food, he gave permission to Noah and his posterity saying, “ Every moving thing that liveth, shall be meat for you, even as the green herb, have I given you all things." But he made one exception saying, “But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat." This has been God's law for all the families of the earth; the life or spirit of all flesh dwells in the blood, and as the blood is the life, the Creator has plainly and positively forbidden the children of men in all ages since the days of Noah to eat blood. When the law of Moses was given to the children of Israel, so strict was this law that it is said in the seventeenth chapter of Leviticus, "And whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers which sojourn among you, that eateth any manner of blood, I will even set my face against that soul that eateth blood and will cut him off from among his people; for the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar, to make an atonement for your souls. Therefore I said unto the children of Israel, No soul of you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger that sojourneth among you eat blood; and whatsoever man there be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, which hunteth or catcheth any beast or fowl that may be eaten, he shall even pour out the blood thereof, and cover it with dust, for it is the life of all flesh. The blood of it is the life thereof, therefore I said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh; whosoever eateth it shall be cut off."

This statute is frequently repeated in the law, and death is the penalty for its violation; and when the gospel was sent to the Gentiles, and when churches were established and built up in Gentile countries, then this command was laid upon them again by the Holy Spirit and the apostles of Christ in conference assembled at Jerusalem, and is therefore of full binding force to this day. But some say in self-defence, who transgress this righteous and good law of God, misapplying the words of Christ, "Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man." Then pray how come Adam and Eve to be defiled by eating that which God had forbidden, and so as God has forbidden his creatures to eat blood, those who transgress that law and eat blood, are defiled, and the wrath of God abideth on them.

Third, things strangled to death are also forbidden to be eaten, as such still

contain the blood in the flesh, and flesh with the blood is forbidden to be eaten by the law of God.

Fourth, fornication is forbidden. 'Marriage," it is written, "is honorable and the bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers, God will judge." Again, Paul says, "Every sin that a man doeth, is without the body, but he that committeth fornication, sinneth against his own body. What! know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price? Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's."

THE CONFERENCE DISMISSED

So when they were dismissed, they came to Antioch; and when they had gathered the multitude together, they delivered the epistle; which when they had read, they rejoiced for the consolation. And Judas and Silas, being prophets also themselves, exhorted the brethren with many words, and confirmed them. And after they had tarried there a space, they were let go in peace from the brethren unto the apostles." Then Paul chose Silas, and went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches. "Then came he to Derby and Lystra, and, behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess, and believed; but his father was a Greek: which was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium. Him would Paul have to go forth with him; and took and circumcised him because of the Jews which were in those quarters: for they knew all that his father was a Greek." Observe here that Paul did not have Timothy circumcised that he might be saved, but, as Paul desired him as a fellow worker unto the kingdom of God, and that he might have access to the Jews as well as the Gentiles, in order therefore to remove Jewish prejudice, as his mother was a Jewess, Paul had him circumcised; so that was not a violation of the decision arrived at in the conference.

And as they went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees for to keep that were ordained of the apostles and elders that were of Jerusalem. And so were the churches established in the faith, and increased in numbers daily."

THE APOSTLES' DECREES

Although the apostles' decrees form one of the most important documents to the churches of Christ for their special observance that were ever issued, and although they are of divine authority and binding upon every Gentile convert to Christianity (for they were not only the product of the labors of the inspired apostles, Paul among the number; in solemn conference assembled in the holy city, but the decrees were endorsed by the Holy Spirit, for say they in their letters to the churches, "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things "), I say, notwithstanding all these important considerations, these decrees are almost forgotten and lost sight of, and their binding character discarded by the religious teachers in the sects of our times who flounder around and grope at noon-day as in the night, under the veil that covers all nations, understand

ing neither what they say nor whereof they affirm, for many of these teachers and their followers (for like priest, like people), have virtually extinguished two of the four decrees and trampled them under their feet, and violate them with impunity, and there is none of them found to lift up their voice like a trumpet, to cry aloud and spare not, and show the people their wickedness, and the transgressors their sins in these matters.

One of the decrees says, Thou shalt not eat blood; another says, Thou shalt not eat things strangled; whereas blood and things strangled, game and fowl, whose blood should have been poured out upon the ground, are freely eaten without fear, and that by people who profess to be very jealous. for their religion, and circumspect. Therefore if one take a journey through the markets of our cities and towns, he may at any time witness the disgusting and revolting spectacle of blood sausages and blood puddings, as they are called, piled up in the public places and in shop windows where meats are sold, and they are greedily bought up and devoured by the inhabitants, and this abomination abounds in pious Scotland, England, Germany, Canada, and somewhat in the United States and elsewhere; and the people which do these things seem not to realize that they are an abomination in the eyes of their Creator who gave command to his people Israel that every soul that eateth blood in the land, whether Jew or stranger, should be put to death.

And not only have they virtually extinguished two of the decrees by their deeds and practices, but they have presumptuously foisted another decree of their own into the list, and although Peter said in the conference to these troublers of the churches of the Gentiles, "Now why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?" And although again in their letters to the churches of the Gentiles, they say, "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things," yet the popes, bishops, cardinals, priests, doctors of divinity, and clergymen of the sects and denominations of this enlightened nineteenth century cry, "Stop, stop! There is one more article which it is absolutely necessary to insert in these decrees; you are letting the Gentile converts off altogether too easy! There is one more yoke that you must put on their necks whether you or your fathers were able to bear it or not. Some of our friends and co-laborers in the opposition in the conference and elsewhere demand that they shall be circumcised and keep the law, or they cannot be saved, but we are not so sticking as all that! We of this enlightened nineteenth century are willing to excuse them from being circumcised and from keeping the ceremonial parts of the law, but there is one thing more contained in the law of Moses, from which we cannot excuse them. Insert in the decrees as the fifth article, the fourth commandment, namely, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, or ye cannot be saved; and if this command is omitted from the decrees, either from oversight or design, we shall nevertheless enforce it upon the Gentiles under our supervision. They may eat blood, and things strangled as much as they choose, but the sabbath yoke they must bear! It is another necessary thing, and we shall trouble them to that extent,- Peter, Paul, James, and the rest of them to the contrary notwithstanding."

So say these wise clerical functionaries of modern times who are under the

veil, by their acts, whether they say so in plain language or not. For who can be so blind as not to see that the very object for which this conference was convened was to determine under the guidance of the Holy Spirit whether any, or how much, of the law of Moses, Gentiles who had turned to God should be required to keep and observe; and after full and free discussion by such men as Peter, Paul, and the rest of the apostles, James said, "My sentence is, that we trouble not them which from among the Gentiles are turned to God, but that we write unto them that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood "; and he says nothing whatsoever about requiring them to keep the sabbath day.

But some might say that the sabbath question was not involved in the discussion in the conference, but that it was undoubtedly understood by all present that it was to be observed, as well as the other four commands contained in the decrees. Now Paul was one of the chief men of that conference and thoroughly conversant with all matters in dispute and knew just what was embodied in those decrees, for he not only endorsed them, but he distributed them among the churches in Gentile countries; and as Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles, he had more to do in combating the progress of these nefarious errors that these Pharisees who believed had circulated among the Gentile churches, than any of the other apostles; and if it can be shown from Paul's letters to the Gentile churches, or otherwise, that he exempted thẻ Gentiles, not only from being circumcised, but also from keeping the sabbath day, then that settles the question once for all, that the decrees not only cover the sabbath question, but that they exempt Gentiles from keeping it, and from all the penalties imposed in the law for its non-observance.

Now there were churches established in the country of Galatia by the labors of Paul, and as he had been the means of turning them from idols to worship the one true God, he calls them his little children; but they had been bewitched by these false apostles who had come among them and taught them that they must be circumcised and keep the law, or they could not be saved; and many had been beguiled by them and brought under bondage again to the law, and so Paul says (Gal. 5:2), "Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing"; and again (4:10-11), "Ye observe days and months and times and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain."

Now what days had the Galatians been bewitched into keeping, insomuch that Paul was afraid that he had bestowed upon them labor in vain? Who can fail to see that chief among those days would be the sabbath day? But if any one is in doubt about it, we will call attention to another letter of Paul's that cannot be gainsayed, and in which he speaks right to the point. In his letter to the Colossians he combats the same error that had been so industriously circulated among the churches of Galatia, and says to them (Col. 2:8), "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy, and vain deceit, after the traditions of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ; for in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in him which is the head of all principality and power."

Now as these Gentile converts to the faith of Christ had been baptized into