A Small sheet before me, which has been circulated extensively in this town (in California), professes to give the distinctive features of the system, and other points of supposed interest. I propose, with the Lord's help, to define more clearly what they really are.

Passing over some things which scarcely need comment, I learn that, whilst advocating the truth of the second coming of Christ, they excuse themselves from any share in the blame due to those who have repeatedly failed in their attempts to foretell the time of that great event. We are told that they "held to the position that their computation of the prophetic dates was correct, but they had been mistaken in the event."

They do not tell us in this of the unclean device the enemy furnishes to help them to escape conviction, so I invite the reader's attention to it. They tell us that then Christ went, for the first time, from the holy place into the most holy, to cleanse it from the defilements brought in there by His work about sin in the holy place, so carnal are their thoughts on this point. Inspired writers tell us that Christ, "after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God." (Heb. 10:12; see also Acts 2:33, 34, and 7:56.)

Thus is the truth perverted in their hands who come professedly to give us light. It will be seen that in reality they are seeking to overthrow the very foundations of faith.

Further on, they tell us that they keep the Sabbath, or seventh day, and that this and the Second Coming are the two important doctrines. For them, " all other doctrines are, in a sense, subsidiary to those; " and a little further on. in this noteworthy sheet, we are informed that, " whilst they do not underestimate the importance of obeying the whole moral law, they believe that the fourth commandment is especially neglected," so that we are to understand that to keep the Sabbath is more important than to abstain from idolatry, murder, lying, and covetousness; and all other doctrines are so subsidiary that even the Atonement – the central truth of Christianity-is, with them, completely in the shade, if, indeed, it be really held at all, save in name. Scripture makes the true confession of the person of the Son of God the foundation of every thing. With them, of course, it is only subsidiary to keeping Saturday as Sabbath, and a belief in the Lord's return. These and other equally important truths are of very small consequence with them, whilst the paper informs us that abstinence from tobacco and alcohol is necessary for their fellowship.

Fragments of neglected truth are mixed up with errors, and are the sugar-coating to the pill of heresy they wish to have taken without question by their deluded victims. Eternal life as the reward of the faithful is so put as to seem to savor their doctrine of annihilation. For they believe man does not possess an immaterial spirit and soul, capable of being unclothed and clothed upon (2 Cor. 5:8), but is simply a breathing mass of clay, existing only in the shape of senseless dust in the grave after death, and until the resurrection. In an eastern city I knew one who had been a firm believer in their doctrine as to this, but the Spirit of God exercised his conscience, and he could get no peace; for how can one have peace with God under law, and with these views, for they say the judgment is to determine who is to have eternal life, and therefore it cannot be known till that is passed. But to continue,-the one of whom I speak, sitting in their meeting, heard the preacher say that "nobody has eternal life until the resurrection; " a voice seemed to speak in his soul and say, "That's a lie, for the Lord Jesus says, 'He that believeth hath everlasting life, and shall not come into the judgment, but is passed from death to life.'" (Jno. 5:1, 8.) In deep anguish, as one who feared to be deceived in a matter of eternal moment, he lifted his heart to God, and prayed for deliverance from these errors; on returning home, he found a little volume, that taught the way according to the Word, lying on his table, and he sat down to read it, and, to use his own words, read himself "out of darkness into light."

Another interesting piece of information given us is to the effect that the " remnant of Israel" means the "Church." Most people who read this perhaps will not know what is meant by the term "remnant of Israel," but an attentive student of Scripture will soon find that the calling and hope of Israel, as given in the Old Testament, is an earthly one, and the calling and hope of the Church is a heavenly one. They will learn that Israel, given up to judicial blindness for their sins and rejection of Christ, will be taken up again by God in grace, and a remnant of the nation will be restored to divine favor and blessing, because " the gifts and calling of God are without repentance" on His part. That "He that scattered Israel will gather him." (Jer. 31:10, 11; 33:1, 8; 30:11.) The prophet Ezekiel giving even the detailed description of the millennial temple (Ezek. 11:, 17:), and the arrangement of the twelve tribes in the land. And the universal testimony of the prophets being to the fact of Israel dwelling once more in peace in Palestine,-the moral center then of the world-and the Gentile nations coming up to worship the Lord at Jerusalem.

But the Church of God has other hopes and destiny. Gathered out of Jews and Gentiles, quickened with the life of Christ risen from the dead, and by one Spirit brought already into oneness with Him, she waits to share His headship over the new creation, heaven and earth being then subject.

But these "say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie," and they are looking for Israel's blessing as their portion, and mix up things, Christian and Jewish, in a way that betrays them as untaught by the Spirit of God. Romans 11:should be enough to refute their errors on this point. In keeping Saturday as their Sabbath they are quite consistent with their position, for they openly proclaim that they are under the law,-the law of Sinai, and therefore under its curse, and without a Savior (Gal. 3:10; 5:5). In other words, they are open apostates from Christ, having carefully eliminated from their belief every vestige of what is proper to it, except the name.

They ask you to consider "what is truth," but they dare not face the truth with any one who knows and reverences, as the only light from God this poor world has, the precious Word of God, and we may leave them where the word of an inspired apostle puts them in that solemn sentence, "As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, 'Cursed is every one who continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them'" (Gal. 3:10), with the prayer that God may, in mercy, awaken their dead consciences, that they may learn what sin is before Him, and to value that blessed One whom now they put a slight upon, and to give up seeking to clothe themselves with the "filthy rags" of self-righteousness.

Reader, if you have a vestige or regard for divine things, will you listen to those who teach such things, and who, under the garb of lovers of truth, are substituting the most deadly infidel errors? What do you think of men who, to save their own reputation, could invent and propagate such wickedness as that the precious blood of Christ washed the defilement of sin in the inner sanctuary, so that he had to go there in 1844 to cleanse that away, as if one should, in cleansing a floor, wash some of the dirt into another chamber, and need to go in there to finish His work? What ideas can they have of Atonement? You may believe this at their lips; you may give up Christ and redemption for works of law; you may deny man's having a soul and spirit distinct from his body; in fact, it is hard to say what truth you may not deny, and as long as you keep Saturday for Sabbath, and believe in the Lord's coming, you can have fellowship with them. The denial of precious truth is nothing with them, but to touch tobacco or alcohol is to incur excommunication. Truly, they " strain at a gnat and swallow a camel." R.T.G.