p. 1 | Notes and Comments

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Michigan · Mar 15, 1887

Notes and Comments.

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If all men took the liberty of setting their clocks and watches at whatever hour best pleased them, the affairs of life would go strangely wrong. What incalculable perplexity and misery may result from individual meddling with the moral machinery which points out the minutes and hours of duty, no one can say.

The moral and physical natures of man are so intimately related that it is impossible to live in violation of either of these laws without doing violence to the other. Physical law, therefore, in its sphere, is as sacred and binding upon man as moral law.

Repentance is said to be either legal or evangelical. The former is simply sorrow for sin, or trouble for the past, without a change of life. Thus Judas repented. Matt. 27:1–5. The latter, from another Greek word, is a change of action, an amendment of life. It is a conviction of sin, a deep and genuine contrition for it, as an offense and dishonor to God and a violation of his holy law. It is a hatred of sin and a renunciation of it. Says John, “Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance;” or, margin, “answerable to amendment of life.” Matt. 3:8. “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.” 2 Cor. 7:10.

The law of ten commandments, called in Scripture the “lively oracles,” “royal law,” etc., seems to have been exalted purposely above those laws which were merely ritual and ceremonial. That the moral law should have been spoken by God, and then written by his own finger in stone, is significant of its superiority over all other laws. And the fact that when the first tables were broken other tables like the first were prepared, and then God himself wrote the same identical ten commandments, no more, no less, on the second tables, shows the design of the Law-giver to impress the mind of man with the fact that this law was above all,—the supreme and immutable constitution of the Creator of all things.

A recent reviewer of a work on unconditional immortality, utters the following severe though truthful sentence: “The doctrine of the natural immortality of the soul, is the foundation on which the harlot mother sits; and, as she is the mother of harlots, all her daughters have drunk deeply of her spiritual fornication. The whole Protestant world is tinctured with this subtle heresy; and in vain do they oppose the mass, purgatory, and invocation of saints, whose very existence depends upon the popular dogma of immortality, while they maintain, uphold, and defend this foundation.”—Anthropos, p. 69.

Spiritualism might also have been added to this list. For all that sublime jerking, howling, barking, reeling, staggering, rapping, and twitching of half-crazy mediums, the rattling, clattering, thumping, knocking, and tipping of household furniture, the peeping and muttering of officious spirits, is founded on this mighty corner-stone of Protestant belief and religious education.

The following remarks on the Sabbath are taken from the Union Bible Dictionary, by the American Sunday School Union:— “The only weekly feast among the Jews was the Sabbath. Gen. 2:3; Ex. 16:23; Lev. 23. This feast, or festival, did not come into existence, however, with the Jewish worship, but was appointed before the apostasy, as a special memorial of the goodness and power of God displayed in the finished work of creation. It is the opinion of many very learned men, formed after the most laborious and unprejudiced investigation, that it is in some form or other recognized throughout the world as a sacred day. Christians generally admit that the knowledge and observance of the Sabbath were preserved in some form and degree through Noah and his family; nor is it surprising that it is not particularly mentioned in the concise history of the intervening period, which the Bible contains. In the law of the ten commandments, the Sabbath not only is recognized, but its inviolable sanctity and perpetual obligation are both taught us, not only in the language and spirit of the commandment itself, but by its incorporation with that original and fundamental law of God’s government, which was promulgated amidst the thunders and lightnings of Mount Sinai, and engraved on tables of stone.”

A great error is prevalent with those entering upon the Christian life. It is this: the young convert is too apt to imagine that the work is finished when the Spirit of God renews the heart and fills it with joy unspeakable. But it is a very great mistake. Strong faith and trust in God are the results of long experience and labor in the Christian life and warfare.

Many Protestant authors give the Bible to the common people, and put out their eyes by their mystical rule of interpretation. But the papal power has denounced the most commonly received version, and has forbidden the translation of the Scriptures into the vulgar tongue, for the common people. The first Canon of the “Council of Toulouse” in 1229, reads as follows:— “We forbid the laity to possess any of the books of the Old or New Testaments, except, perhaps, the Psalter or Breviary for the divine offices, or the Hours of the Blessed Virgin, which some, out of devotion, wish to have; but having any of these books translated into the vulgar tongue we strictly forbid.”—Anderson’s Annals, p. 17.

Eld. J. Blain, a Baptist minister, makes use of the following sarcastic words: “It is a notorious fact that in our theological works a nondescript dictionary is made, with definitions as follows: ‘to be dead’ means to be more conscious; ‘to die’ is to live on in woe; ‘to lose life’ is to preserve a miserable existence; ‘life’ means happiness; ‘to burn up’ means to make a living salamander; ‘to destroy’ is to preserve whole; ‘to devour,’ ‘perish,’ ‘consume,’ etc., mean to make indestructible and immortal; ‘not to be,’ is to be without end!”

The doctrine of the advent of Christ at hand is unpopular; but signs and prophecies fulfilled attest its truth. And when the prophecies of Daniel and John are set before the people, and the fulfillment traced to the present time, the papacy is seen to be the great anti-Christ, and the change of the law of God is clearly seen to be the work of anti-Christ. Then, when this is clearly seen, the warning message of Rev. 14:9–12, has a force in it to bring honest souls who desire to have the truth, to the keeping of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. And thus is the light on the Sabbath question brought out with force and clearness.

As man cannot have eternal life without strict obedience to moral law, so he cannot have deliverance from the terrible bondage of sickness and premature death in this world, without strict observance to physical law.

Conversion to God, and faith requisite to salvation, are, and must be, preceded by heart-felt repentance; otherwise, we could be saved without repentance—saved in disobedience and transgression—which is contrary to the teachings of the whole volume of inspiration.

The world’s history from specified dates in the past, the rise and fall of empires, and chronological succession of events down to the setting up of God’s everlasting kingdom, are outlined in numerous great chains of prophecy; and these prophecies are now all fulfilled except the closing scenes.

The following is old, but it will bear reading often: A wealthy man was one day so much amused by the wit of his foolish attendant, that he gave him his cane, but told him that whenever he should find a greater fool than himself he must return the cane. In process of time the rich man neared his death. Sending for this fool, he bade him farewell. “Where are you going?” asked the fool.—“To another world.” “When will you return?”—“Oh, never!” “Have you made preparation for the journey?”—“Alas! I have not.” “Then, master, take back your cane; never could there be a folly so great as that.”