THE THIRD ANGEL'S MESSAGE.
By Albert Stone
Those who accept the third angel's message of Rev. 14, according to the Scriptures, regard it as the most welcome light that has ever shone on their pathway. It is to them the occasion of joy and thankfulness. They marvel that so bright a light should have escaped their notice so long. Language seems too feeble to express its excellences. It was held, by the Spirit of God, as a reserve force to come in opportunely to cheer disappointed hearts, and turn the tide of battle. It justified the past experience of the Adventists that seemed anomalous, while it lighted the future by explaining the mysteries of the gospel, as connected with the closing scenes of probation. It throws its arms of light and love around an entire generation of men, and points them to a place of shelter from the rising storm that will desolate the earth. It lights up a prepared, but hitherto untrodden, path of Christian experience. It has respect to a class who are to be redeemed from the earth, not out of it. It will be the key-note of a song before the throne which no man can learn but those thus redeemed from the earth. Rev. 14:3. It is based on the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. It brings to view the closing acts of redemption in the most holy place of the sanctuary above. Our High Priest has entered there, for a little time, to finish his work and cut it short in righteousness. All have important business to transact with him in that particular locality, which it is unsafe to delay for a single day. The office is open to-day, and all may come, if they will, and obtain the true riches. The sinner, the backslider, the nominal professor, the weeping saint,—all who have not sinned away their day of grace are pointed by the message of the third angel to the second apartment of the heavenly sanctuary as the only place where Jesus can now be found and pardon be obtained. This change in our Lord's ministration, so clearly set forth in the Scriptures, and which is virtually the burden of the third angel's message, is the point where both the sanctuary and He who ministers in it become a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. Here unbelief is stubborn, even to blindness, and many will fall, be broken, snared and taken. Isa. 8:14, 15. The third angel's message, like the infant Jesus, is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign that shall be spoken against. It is to be regretted that the message in question shares, in so small a degree, the respect of mankind. It is a truth that will not be disputed that the mass of those that profess to love and fear God regard it with entire distrust, and many, with opposition. The pulpit and the religious press are, to a great extent, closed against its discussion. Preachers are not few who sedulously guard against its introduction among their people, as they would against gross immoralities; and those who embrace it they exclude from their communion. To this there are some noble exceptions; but as a rule this way is everywhere spoken against by clergy and laity. But this message was revealed to John on the Isle of Patmos. It is recorded in the Bible for the especial benefit of those that should live and remain to the close of probation. It is based on the law of God, the ten commandments, and the faith, or teachings, of Jesus, as contained in the New Testament. We ask, How much of the Bible is left to him who rejects all these? Take these from the Bible, and it makes it a blank of no value. Yet this is virtually done by those who choose a position of hostility to the work of the third angel. If the foundation be destroyed, what can the righteous do? The message in question is predicated on those very principles that sustain the moral government of the Creator. The one is as easily interrupted as the other. The message is given in furtherance of the plans of the divine government. It is a spoke in the revolving wheel of God's providence, to accomplish his appointed ends. It is simply a question of loyalty or disloyalty to the divine government. It is above everything else a criterion of character. It is the application of the eternal principles of righteousness to the circumstances of a particular case. In this view it is a conspicuous mark of God's love and favor. It develops no new principle, but it applies the old principle to new circumstances. The circumstances of the people of God have always been changing, and he has adapted his instructions to their peculiar conditions, always holding the law before them as a rule of action, because it is to be the rule of judgment. ALBERT STONE.