Reform Measures by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 15, 1906

Reform Measures

By Editor

Editorial

THAT there is an intensity from beneath which is taking fast hold upon Satan’s agencies is becoming more and more apparent. Human passions are wrought up to a terrible pitch. Human ambition vaunts itself to the very skies. The lust for riches and power consumes the nobler desires of the soul. A merely human philosophy has in it no power to hold men against this dreadful pressure, and they are going down into the pit, many taking their own lives, and many others being the victims of those whose deadly passions they have aroused. Revolutions in political life, in industrial life, and in religious life are breaking out on every hand. So great is the strain of the strenuous pace which is being followed, and so weakened are many by the degeneracy of the age, that reason is dethroned, and many and populous are the insane asylums which dot the country. Who can anticipate the end of these things except those who read them in the light of revelation?

Reform Measures

THE attempt to stay the rising tide of evil and to bring in the kingdom of God by reform measures of human devising is utterly hopeless. Men can not be made better by law, not even the divine law. Measures for social and political reform do not change the heart. Satan is not cast out by the votes of legislative bodies. “The government under which Jesus lived was corrupt and oppressive; on every hand were crying abuses,— extortion, intolerance, and grinding cruelty. Yet the Saviour attempted no civil reforms. He attacked no national abuses, nor condemned the national enemies. He did not interfere with the authority or administration of those in power. He who was our example kept aloof from earthly governments, not because he was indifferent to the woes of men, but because the remedy did not lie in merely human and external measures. To be efficient the cure must reach men individually, and must regenerate the heart. Not by the decisions of courts or councils or legislative assemblies, not by the patronage of worldly great men, is the kingdom of Christ established, but by the implanting of Christ’s nature in humanity through the work of the Holy Spirit. ‘As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.’ Here is the only power that can work the uplifting of mankind.” The church is the only reform association which has a divine commission, and the Word of God is the agency which should be used in accomplishing genuine reforms. “Preach the Word.”

Translations and Paraphrases

A TRANSLATION of the Scriptures is the expression of the thought of the original language of each writer with as much exactness as possible. A paraphrase is the setting forth in other and more ample terms the general meaning of the original as interpreted by another. A translation permits the author to express his own thoughts. A paraphrase allows some latitude of interpretation, and may involve the possibility of perverting the meaning of the author. As Christians we ought to be living epistles read and known of all men; but are we translations or paraphrases? Do we express with exactness in our lives the thought of the divine Author of the Holy Scriptures? or have we given our own interpretation of his thought, and have we thus perverted his meaning? A professed translation which is, after all, a mere paraphrase, is an imposition. It is apt to mislead honest readers. Will those who know Christianity by our translation of the Bible, have right conceptions of the love of God and the transforming power of his grace? Are we translating the Scriptures, or are we paraphrasing them? “Ye are my witnesses.”