The World and the Message

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 6, 1906

The World and the Message

I WOULD like to call your attention briefly to our present situation, and our work in view of that situation. My subject may be expressed thus: the world in the light of the third angel's message, and the third angel's message as the light of the world.

It certainly must be clear to us all that we are living in a remarkable time. There is certainly an intensity that seems to have taken hold upon everything,—an intensity that we can perhaps feel and sense better than we can really express. If we take a somewhat general view of the world at the present time, and compare it with the conditions that prevailed within our own memory, we can certainly see marked changes, and we can hardly avoid the feeling, even though we may not be able to interpret all these changes, that there is a greater significance in things now than appears upon the surface,—a significance that is not understood by many who are the actors in these movements. It shows itself in many ways in different fields.

Take China and Japan; as compared with their conditions a few years ago, such a change has come that the common phrase now is “the awakening of China,” and a similar change has come in Japan.

I might relate to you a conversation which I had last summer with a young Chinese student, with whom I rode on a train as I was going to a camp-meeting which I attended. I found that he was an intelligent young Chinese student, on his way to college, under the support of the Chinese government and the direction of the Chinese minister here at Washington, taking the same course, with the same purpose in view. Finding that he was in close touch with the Chinese minister here, and generally intelligent about Chinese affairs, I questioned him quite closely, and he said to me, “China will never be partitioned now. What Japan has done, China can do.” And by way of enforcing the change that would come, and the significance of it, he said, “By the beginning of 1910 China will have one million armed and trained men in the field, ready for service.”

Of course the results of the Japanese war were a surprise to many, and indicated that that nation, viewed from the general standpoint of civilization,—while civilization is measured by the ability to conduct warfare,—has made great advances. It is also true that educationally both those countries have awakened.

There is a certain sort of stimulus that seems to have taken hold of the human mind. Remarkable things are happening, unusual things are being talked and written about, unusual positions are being taken. Religious views have changed remarkably within the last five or ten years, and the last five years have perhaps brought a greater change than any like period within our recollection. There is a different alignment in almost every field, whether it be in the political field, or the religious field, or the social field; and even in business operations there seems to have come in a stimulus; and the results are seen in these remarkable combinations of capital, the remarkable achievements that are attempted now. Think of the remarkable inventions, the problems that are being attempted,—such problems as would have almost frightened men a quarter of a century ago. They are the common thing to be attempted now.

There is an unusual situation in the religious world. In its survey of the field, from a religious liberty standpoint, the present number of Liberty just issued, takes up the developments in that particular line, in Brazil; in China, where the order has been issued that no diplomatic business shall be transacted on Sunday, no visitors received at court on Sunday; in Cuba, where an attempt is being made to enforce Sunday observance; in Italy, where there is a drifting apart of church and state so closely related in the past; in Canada, where a stringent Sunday law has been passed; in Russia, which has been in the throes

of a political revolution for months, and where changes of such note have come; in France, where the whole nation is stirred over the question of the proper relation between the church and the state; in Spain, where the same thing is being agitated, and where a step toward separation has been taken; in Hungary, where, in spite of the law's being technically correct, it is possible to persecute those who teach any religion contrary to the established religion; and in England, where a notable controversy is now reaching a very critical stage. The question of the teaching of religion in the public schools was an issue in the last general election, and on that issue a very large majority was returned to the House of Commons, in favor of eliminating those requirements from the education bill; and the House of Commons passed almost unanimously a bill which threw out all provisions for teaching religion in the public schools. The House of Lords has amended the bill, in such a way as to make the religious education compulsory. That brings the matter to a very critical point.

What is the real point that is so stirring the minds of the people in all these countries?—One common thing, and that is the attitude that the state should assume toward religion. It may manifest itself in one way or another; but the real point is, What attitude should the state assume toward religion? While it may not always appear on the surface, yet we know, from the light of prophecy, that the objective point in all this question is the relation between the state and religion, and that question will simmer down to a question of the enforcement of the Sabbath. Many countries are dealing with the question directly. But the real issue back of every phase of this question is the question of the Sabbath. And the issue back of the Sabbath is really the issue of the true God, and the true worship of God.

When you survey the whole field, the only thing that can explain the situation, that can give us a point of view so that we can interpret what these things mean, is the light thrown upon it by the third angel's message; and it becomes more and more clear that this message is the one voice in the world that is to give a clear interpretation of these things. We ought to give serious thought to these things. We seem to be almost forced along without ourselves appreciating the meaning of the present situation in the world in the light of this message. What these things mean to us we are to tell others. They have a great meaning to us. There must be a proclamation of God's message in the world that shall be a light to the world concerning these things.

There is another thing that has attracted attention lately. A recent number of the New York Independent contained a discussion of the question of the family. One article was written by Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, advocating extremely loose views concerning the family. If carried out, they would mean the practical application of the principle of free-loveism. The same number contained an article written by Mrs. Harris, a Southern writer, who took strong exceptions to the liberal views advocated by Mrs. Gilman. In this she presented a very different view of the family, a more stable view. Harper's Weekly took up this matter, and a long editorial upon the subject appeared in that journal. There is one paragraph in this article which seems to me to be of such significance that I will read it, to show how some of the positions that have been set forth in the spirit of prophecy, and some of the truths there advocated, are coming out now in a light where we can understand more clearly their meaning. The extract is concerning the passing of the home:—

The passing of the home began when, from false economy, or necessity, or whatever cause, people ceased to have a little land around their houses, a little ground where they could have the ineffable joy of sticking something into the ground and seeing it grow. The passing of the home continued when married people began to live in second-rate hotels and boarding-houses, and to create a leisure class of the wives of poor men. The passing of the home went on as people built smaller and smaller and less solid houses, with fewer sitting-rooms, doing away with the day nursery, the library, the business man's den, the sewing-room, the big, roomy linen closets, where the housewife could sit down and count her embroidered napkins and shake out the lavender bags in her hemstitched linen sheets. The passing of the home was announced when people began to build in blocks, leaving half the rooms in the house damp and dark, and when apartment houses went up all over our cities and towns. It meant that people were going to have sleeping dormitories, and possibly a place to eat together, but it meant that the home, the old-fashioned family life, the privacy, the dignity, the close and sacred relations, were loosening, and that people were more and more living in the world and less in the family.

Now put that with the fact that just recently a book has been issued, entitled “The Family,” written by the wife of a Congressman, the daughter of a prominent New York banker. That book advocates what is called marriage on trial. That is, a couple will live together for a year or so, and if they do not like it, give it up, and try again. That is seriously advocated in this book. It is creating a public storm of protest in certain quarters, and you can judge something of the character from this protest made by the Right Rev. William Croswell Doane, Episcopal Bishop of Albany, who says:—

This is a most revolutionary and in- decent performance. I can not understand why a woman in her position expresses such ideas. It is too bad to be true. The only thing to be said of the book so far as I have read the excerpts proves to me that it is a fundamental denial of the religious, civil, and social position that marriage has always occupied.

There is coming in a perfect revolution over this question of the home, the family, and the marriage relation, that I think has a deeper significance than we may admit. The home, the family, dates back to Eden. There is something fundamental in the relation that exists in the home. It is fundamental in God's plan. An almost insane desire seems to be possessing people's minds to break away from everything that has been established in the divine plan, to break away from all revealed truth, from the gospel as given to us in the Bible, and to substitute new and different ideas. Who do you suppose inspires these new ideas and interpretations? God does not put those ideas into people's minds, and urge them to give expression to them. It is because we are so near the crisis, so near the finishing of the controversy, and there is a satanic inspiration seizing upon minds everywhere, arousing them to do unusual, strange things, defying God, and defying the principles of the divine government. The only explanation is found in the light of this message, and the fact that the controversy is nearly finished. Now the final outbreak, the final effort is to be made, concerning the fundamental principles of God's government, as expressed in the law of God, as sealed by the Sabbath of the Lord. All these efforts are only shaping toward that one thing. While they may not be directly and in terms dealing with it now, they are all aimed toward that one thing, to turn aside as many as possible from obedience to the divine law, and harmony with the divine plans.

I will read further from Bishop Doane's statement:—

The theory of what she calls trial marriage is to my mind an outrage. It attacks the most vital part, the home life, not so much the relation between husband and wife, but the home. It is opposed to, and in contradiction of, the entire religious, legal, and social views as to what marriage is. From a religious point of view it is blasphemous, from a legal standpoint it is a revolution, and from a human standpoint it implies disaster and disgrace.

There will be a great deal of discussion over that question one way or another. This is perhaps the most flagrant departure from the divine and human law of the family that has yet come to public attention; but every time something appears, it is a step further.

Now when you think that in this apostasy which broke out within our own denomination, that very element of

free-loveism was found, and is being revealed in it, you can see how much significance that has with reference to this message. That is, there is an element there that means a departure from God and his truth, and it needs this warning message from God to hold to right principles upon this question. And when we think that the effort was made to bring right into this message these very elements that are breaking out in the world now, we can understand who is back of all these movements, and why an effort was made to corrupt the very message that is to give light to the world concerning the meaning of these things. When I think of it from that standpoint, I am greatly disturbed over the need that there should be a clear and forcible proclamation of this message that would make itself felt in all the earth as a power for righteousness against all these tendencies,—such an interpretation of this message to the world as would have an influence to stay this tide, to make clear what these things mean; that every one of these movements is inspired of Satan, not for the uplifting of the family and of the people, but for their ruin, tending toward their destruction.

(To be concluded)

The World and the Message*

The World and the Message