OUR PRESENT POSITION, In the Waiting, Tarrying Time.
By A. C. Bourdeau
TEXT. “For yet a little while, and he that shall come, will come, and will not tarry.” Heb. x, 37. While the Lord Jesus is engaged in the closing up work of probation, he is brought near before the Ancient of days, and is represented as being wedded to the New Jerusalem, the city of God in Heaven, which is to be the metropolis of the kingdom under the whole heaven; and thus the Son of man is entitled to reign over all people, nations, and languages, and to have a kingdom which shall not be destroyed. Dan. vii, 13, 14; Rev. xxi, 2, 9. We look back to 1844 for the time when those that were ready went in by faith with Christ to the marriage, and thus we go in by faith with them. And since then, even those that are setting new times, and are thus saying, “Lord, open unto us,” are exhorted to watch. The coming of Christ is not brought to view as taking place when he goes in to the marriage; but when he will return from the wedding. Till he comes we are exhorted to be ready, and to be in a waiting position. Luke xii, 36-40. “And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord, when he shall return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching. Verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. . . . Be ye therefore ready also; for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.” This scripture shows that, when he comes, those who are found ready and watching, are accounted blessed. They shall be made to sit down to meat, and the Lord will come forth and serve them. Doubtless this has reference to the marriage-supper of the Lamb, as brought to view in Rev. xix, 9. “And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage-supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.” We understand that the call in this text is made before the Lord comes, and that in heeding this call God’s people will be found ready and watching, and be fully prepared to meet the Lord with joy at his appearing. It implies, 1. That God’s professed people will be called to examine the word of prophecy, which presents to our view fulfilling prophecies and fulfilling signs which denote that the end is near, and that Jesus will soon appear. 2. That the honest ones will be led to see the corrupting influences which exist among professors of Christianity generally, and be called to separate or disconnect themselves from the associations with which they are connected, and place themselves where they will not be bound, or be hindered from walking in the light that shines on their path, or from availing themselves of those means that are afforded them, to fit and prepare them for the glorious appearing of the Redeemer. 3. That truths will be developed that will have a bearing upon our thoughts, words, and actions; by which we will be called upon to reform, and to lay aside our errors, and overcome our wrongs. And in practicing the truth faithfully, God’s children will be found putting on the wedding garments, and developing characters which will make them proper subjects to attend the marriage-supper, and to find a home in the kingdom of God. Now it is evident that the three great proclamations of the fourteenth chapter of Revelation are just calculated to accomplish this great work; and that some of this work has been fulfilled already. The first angel’s message, which gives warning of coming judgment, and sets God’s people upon their watch tower, commenced to be proclaimed by William Miller and others in about A. D. 1837. The second message, which gathers into one body the scattered saints, commenced to be proclaimed soon after the close of the year 1843, as the Jews reckoned time. And the third message, which restores the ten commandments to God’s people, and prepares them for the time of trouble, and for translation, commenced to be proclaimed soon after the time when the great prophetic period expired in 1844. Since then these three messages have been proclaimed together, and will continue thus to be till mercy closes, and the mystery of God shall be finished. The work accomplished by them cannot be separated, or disconnected. To illustrate this work I will suppose a case: A man has been called to absent himself from his family for quite a long time. The time comes for him to think of returning home, and he writes to his family about it. As they read the letter and ascertain that he is returning, they are overwhelmed with joy. The wife says, “Husband is coming!” The children cry out, “Father is coming!” And several voices are heard saying, “I am glad! I am glad! I am glad!” They are not satisfied to tell it to each other; but as they go out after those members of the family who are scattered in the different parts of the country, they noise it all around, and say to their friends, “Rejoice with us, husband—father is coming home. Hurry and come with us, for he will certainly come, and may get there before we are gathered together. But while the good man of the house is tarrying and their professed friends are reviling and beating them because they have been disappointed, they exercise patience, and have no disposition to cast away their confidence in his testimony relative to his coming. As they look around they perceive that much needs to be done before they can be prepared for his return. They need better clothing, and must have new suits throughout. The mother tells her daughters, “We must set the house in order.” The sons say, “We must repair the buildings, fences, carriages, and harnesses; feed more grain to the horses and cattle; and have every thing in its place.” They go to work with all their energies, and manifest a great deal of earnestness and sobriety in getting ready. Yet they have joy and gladness expressed in their countenances. This may well represent the position that we, as a people, occupy in the waiting, or tarrying time, which can truly be called the time of preparation. It is with us in many respects as it was with the children of Israel while they were in the wilderness. “Now all those things happened unto them for ensamples; and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” 1 Cor. x, 11. We read in Eze. xx, 33-38, “As I live, saith the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you: and I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out. And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face. Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord God. And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant: and I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter278into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the Lord.” This prophecy was given several centuries subsequent to the time that the Hebrews were brought out of Egypt, and, therefore, cannot apply to them; but it evidently applies to those whom they represent; viz., to us, “upon whom the ends of the world are come.” Let us here notice a few points in their experience which are in some degree similar to, and may be said to represent, our experience under the proclamation of the three angels’ messages: 1. There they could not get a preparation to enter the promised land while they were in bondage among an idolatrous nation; and hence the Lord brought them out of Egypt, with a mighty hand, etc. Here God’s honest people cannot get a preparation to enter the antitypical land of Canaan while they are bound by popular orthodoxy, or connected with fallen professors of Christianity; and hence in portraying before us the dreadful judgments that await the ungodly, the awful scenes that are impending, and the perils with which we are surrounded, the Lord brings us out from the people, and gathers us out of the countries wherein we are scattered or he calls upon us to disconnect ourselves from those associations where erroneous doctrines and human traditions are taught, and to gather together on the truth. “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof; from such turn away.” 2 Tim. iii, 1-5. “Come out of her my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” Rev. xviii, 4. “Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired; before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you. . . . Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness; it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger.” Zeph. ii, 1-3. 2. There when they started to go out of Egypt had they known what was before them, that they would be proved and tried for forty years, and that a large number of them would fall in the wilderness, they doubtless would not have moved out with a mighty rush as they did. God hid the future from them, and they thought that in a few weeks, at the longest, they would reach the land flowing with milk and honey. But they were disappointed. Here when God’s people embraced the first and second angel’s messages, had they known what was before them, that they would be proved for several years, “be purified, and made white, and tried” (Dan. xii, 10), and that several of them would fall by the way in the wilderness of the people, we have reason to believe that they would not have proclaimed the doctrines of the second advent with the spirit and power that they did. God did not then permit them to see the work which had to be accomplished under the proclamation of the third angel’s message, relative to keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus (Rev. xiv, 8-12), and to the coming storm; and they believed that the Lord would come in 1843-1844. But they were disappointed. 3. There when the Hebrews crossed the Red Sea on dry ground, Pharaoh and his army attempted to do the same, and perished in the sea. But they were not the only ones that fell; for hundreds and thousands of those that sang the song of Moses fell in the wilderness on account of their murmurings and unbelief. Here after the Adventists had been disappointed at the close of the year 1843 (and yet could account for their mistake concerning the time when the twenty-three hundred days commenced), the first message became unpopular, and was, as we might say, crucified in the estimation of the people generally, and the mass of professors of Christianity rejected the truth relative to Christ’s coming and fell spiritually. But they were not the only ones that fell; for hundreds and thousands of those that were in the great Advent movement in 1844, have since then rejected the truth and sinned against light through unbelief, and thus they, and others who draw back in like manner, are falling by the way. 4. There the Lord led his people in the day time with a cloud, and in the night with a pillar of fire. Ex. xiii, 21; Ps. lxxviii, 14; cv, 39. And they moved only as the cloud and pillar moved. Here the Lord leads his people by his Spirit; and causes light to shine on their path just as they can bear it, and leads them in the truth, step by step, as fast as they are prepared to practice it. In the fourth chapter of Isaiah we have a scripture which is to the point. We read that in the day of the Lord of hosts (please read chapters ii and iii), “the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence.” Verse 5. 5. There after God had delivered the Hebrews from the abject bondage of Egypt, where they were a nation of slaves, he first proved them respecting his law by calling their attention to the Sabbath as an existing institution, and imposing the strongest obligations upon them to keep it. Ex. xvi. In doing this he designed to have them recognize him as being the only living and true God. “Wherefore I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness. And I gave them my statutes, and shewed them my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them. Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them.” Ezek. xx, 10-12; Ex. xxxi, 13-18. Here after the first and second messages were proclaimed with a loud voice from the spring to the fall of 1844, and thousands had left the different denominations and come out upon the truths which pertain to the soon appearing of Christ, God, by the proclamation of the third angel’s message, which is based upon the closing sanctuary work upon which our High Priest entered at the close of the twenty-three hundred days in 1844, called the attention of his people to the ark of the testament, which contains the law of God in Heaven, and first proved them by the Sabbath commandment, whether they would walk in his law or no. We see that while the last warning message brings to view the fact that “If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation,” etc., it also brings to view a people of whom it is said, “Here is the patience of the saints, here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” In this text a reference is made to God’s moral law of ten commandments, and to every thing contained in the New Testament. This is the great sanctifying truth by which the remnant church will be prepared for translation at Christ’s appearing. Now the Sabbath of the fourth commandment designates the Author of the moral law as being the Creator of the heavens, the earth, and the sea, and all the things that are in them; and thus distinguishes him from all false gods that are worshiped, and even from the beast and his image. It is the opposite of the mark of the beast, and is the sign or seal of the living God, or “the Father’s name,” which the one hundred and forty-four thousand, who, in Rev. vii, are represented as being sealed “in their foreheads,” and who shall be redeemed alive from the earth at the second advent, will have “written in their foreheads.” Rev. xiv, 1-5. It is a golden link uniting God and his worshipers, or the “bond of the covenant,” which unites the duties that we owe to God, as designated in the first four commandments, with the duties that we owe to our fellow-men, as pointed out in the last six commandments. For many generations a warfare has been going on between God and the beast, and soon the wrath of the dragon, or of the beast and his worshipers, will be kindled against the remnant church, and they will go to make war with God’s people, “which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ (Rev. xii, 17.); but God and his people will come off conquerors in the end. The beast and those who worship him will be cast into the “lake of fire burning with brimstone;” while the overcomers will enter the New Jerusalem, and follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth on Mount Zion. 6. There God required the children of Israel to lay aside their idols, that they might thus be distinguished from the idolatrous nations around them, as being God’s holy and peculiar people. Ezek. xx, 18, 19; Deut. xiv, 1, 2. Furthermore God promised that if they would keep his commandments he would heal them of their diseases, which clearly shows that the laws of health are based upon the observance of the law of God. “If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee.” Ex. xv, 26. Diseases had been brought upon the Egyptians in consequence of their having violated the fixed laws of health; but this scripture shows that the Lord was going to heal the Hebrews in teaching them how to live out the laws of health, and in leading them in the ways of his commandments. In Ex. xxiii, 24, 25 we read as follows: Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works. . . . And ye shall serve the Lord your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.” This text clearly proves that in order for them to be healthy much consisted in what they ate and in what they drank. Hence we see that when they were brought into the wilderness, God did not, at first, give them flesh meats for food. Neither did he give them a large variety of food. But God rained down manna upon them to eat, and gave them of the corn of heaven, “He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.” And thus even in the wilderness he “gave them drink as out of the great depths.” It is very evident that God did not purpose to give them flesh meats for food, at least while they were being tried and proved in the wilderness, as may be seen from the fact that when they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust, he was wroth; and when he had in wrath given them flesh to eat, while the meat was in their mouth he slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel. Here while God is purifying unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works, the great work of reform which has been going on among those who are trying to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus Christ, did not close with their turning away their feet from the Sabbath, from calling it a delight, etc.; but since the Sabbath question commenced to be agitated, other points of importance have come up, one by one, for our consideration. The next question was concerning our idols. As light shone upon this subject, we were led to entirely lay aside the habitual use of tobacco, tea and coffee, and all superfluities in dress and other extravagances which would have the tendency of undermining our spirituality, and using up our vitality, both of body and mind. And of late the question of health has been agitated to a great extent; and truly we feel that the light which shines upon Health Reform cannot be too highly estimated by the lovers of right principles, and by those who are seeking to purify themselves by obeying the truth, through the Spirit; that they may be wholly sanctified, spirit, soul and body, and be preserved blameless through the time of trouble that is just before us, unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Health Reform covers a great deal of ground, and in fully living it out, God’s people will be prepared for the latter rain,—the refreshing which will come from the presence of the Lord; at which time all the gifts will be in exercise in the church, and the finishing touch will be given toward freeing them from all diseases. And thus the saints will be fully prepared to escape the seven last plagues, and for translation. As God’s remnant people are advancing, step by step, in the way of holiness, some think that the sacrifices which we have to make are too great; that it279is hard for us to overcome our habits, to lay aside flesh meats, peppers, spices, etc., and to be strictly temperate in all things. But such should realize the great sacrifice that our Saviour made for us; and that Inspiration informs us that we should present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service. That we should not be conformed to this world; but be transformed by the renewing of our mind, that we may prove what is that good and acceptable will of God. Thus in adhering to these principles, our minds are benefited as well as our bodies. If we fail in living them out on any point, just so far as we do this we draw back, and lose confidence in the cause of present truth. “But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.”