Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1858-08-12

upon it. Would the church approve of slavery
and war, and all sorts of crimes, il if en;ovod
the clear light of the sun of righteousness /?
But the light begins to shine again, the dark
ness recedes, and the sanctuary >, which
means the same as church, is BEING cIeonsad
There are some in the church that becin To 500
that war, slavery, drunkenness, Righteousness
and many other crimes but poorly adorn tho
christian, and cry aloud against them. But a
few years ago, when the sun was darkeped and
gave no light to the church, no one discovered
these spots and blemishes; but now. as the l;gbt
shines, those blemishes appear, and will not
long be suffered to remain. There NAV be a
mighty struggle, but God rules the destnies of
men, and will prevail.
In the days Of the apostles, Christians were
read and known of all men as having been
taught by Christ, but for long time since the
sun has been turned into darkness, and the
moon turned into blood, church members have
been known by their abusive treatment and
abusive words to those who honestly happened
to differ from them in opinion. They would
soon abuse each other, and am sorry to say
that there are some such yet. They seem to
put light for darkness, and darkness for light.
There are also some spiritualists whose gar
ments are yet tinged with blood, and will i'm
prove when they have more light. We say not
these things by way of blame, for God knew
that the sun would be darkanea, and the moon
would DO turned into BLOOD. long before they
were. For some reason it is all right, perhaps
to show man his facility, and his dependence on
his invisible Father
Christ also seems to know that darkness and
blood would prevail before his second coming,
and said, -" Nevertheless when the Son of man
cometh shall he find faith on the earth"
Thus intimating that there would be so little
faith on earth that it was almost doubtful
whether there would be any But now refDrma-
tons are breaking out all over the land, and in
every department of society. There is evident
ly some invisible power operating upon. the
minds of the people, and the general inquiry
is, what shall we do as individuals and nations,
to be saved from the evils that surround us.
Thisshow that light is shining, for evils and
difficulties cannot be seen when total darkness
prevails. 1t appears as though God is in reali-
ty pouring out his spirit upon all flesh, the
young men see visions, and the sons and
daughters are prophesying. No such time has
been known before on earth. The fulfllment
of Gods prophesy seems to be complete.
In the excitement of the occasion Peter quo
ted this prophesy, because they were all filled
with the Holy Ghost, and spake in other
tongues. But time has proved that those were
not the last days as Peter supposed, neither had
the moon, that is, the church, been turned into
blood, or the son of righteousness been darkened.
The literal sun was darkened otherwise than
by an eclipse when Christ was crucifed, for he
was cruciGed at the time Of the passover, and
that was always at the full moon, but the lit
eral moon had not, nor never has been turned
into blood, therefore the day Of Pentecost was
not the great and terrible day of the Lord spo-
ken of by Joel.
A little more than twenty years ago there
was an appearance of blood in the heavens,
which many will remember. For along time
almost the entire political world has been on
fire, and the smoke of their torment environs
the earth. Pillars of it (news Of their difficult
ties) comes from nearly all nations. Besides
there are those who mock and scott at Gods
dealings, with the children of men, =" having not
thespirit," but repel it. being sensual, such as
the apostle said would be in the last days,
The fact that the church lost the power to do
what were considered " Miracles such as
healing the sick &c, which WAS given to it, is
proof that the sun of righteousness has been
darkened, and the church has been deprived of
that light. True, there was much said about
the christian religion even when the greatest
darkness prevailed. There were those who
could kill heretcs, and thought they could
pardon sins, and could speak great swell
ling words of vanity, and had name to
live, but were de,d. Meeting houses have
been multiplied, and learned preachers have
been employed to preach in them. Many have
been added to the church, but what evidence
have they given that they believe on Christ.
Christ gave one test point, and believe only
one, whereby it might be known who loved him,
saying, " He that hath my commandments, ana
keepeth them, he it is that loveth me-" Christ
gave ono test point, and only one, whereby BE-
Ierers might be known. John IA, II. 60 Yer
lily, verify, SAY unto you, He that believeth
on me, the works that do shall he do also
and greater works than these shall he do; be-
cause go unto my Father.
Now when the church do as Christ taught,
we shall know that Christ is loved by the
church, and when the church do the works that
he did, that we shall know the church, or those
that do them, believe on Christ. We don't
care anything about their ceremonies, and forms
of godliness, as long as they derys-sfo power,
for the apostles would have us turn away from
such. ID Timothy, 8, 5, having form Of
godlness but denying the power thereof, fro m
such turn away
Strange as it may seem, large majority o.
the church brethren are even now so much ii
: darkness they deny that this power comes from
God, but ascrbe itall to Satan. Do they moi
put light for darkness, and darkness for light
If Christ was right, and we think he was, thi:
power belongs to those who believe on him
but he said nothing about Satan OR his follow
ers ever having it, His disciples told him tina
they saw one casting out devils in his name wh(
did not follow them, and they forbid him, bu