Ten by John Norton Loughborough

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Aug 8, 1878

Ten.

By John Norton Loughborough

How much is associated with the number ten. Among the first thoughts that come to mind as we repeat the number, is early school-day times, when we were repeating the lesson, "Ten mills make one cent; ten cents make one dime; ten dimes make one dollar; ten dollars make one eagle." And still further on in the decimal system, when we learned the fact, curious to a child, that a cipher when standing alone, has no value at all, but when placed at the right hand of any other figure increased the value of that figure ten times. In other words, every cipher so attached multiplied the figure by ten, so the childish mind was both astonished and delighted to see so suddenly tens of dollars converted into hundreds, thousands, and even millions.

But I did not take these writing utensils to give a dissertation on decimals, but to speak of facts connected with the number ten. These, as we open the Bible, are very numerous, and a bare hint of some of them is suggestive of thoughts of the deepest interest. First, God's holy law, which is the foundation of all moral and all just civil governments, is comprised in just ten precepts. Then, as we run through the Bible record, here in Gen. 16 : 3, is an account of Abraham's introduction of polygamy into his family, after he had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan. In the eighteenth chapter he is pleading with the Lord to save Sodom if but ten righteous persons could be found in it; but alas! they could not be found. In chapter 31 : 7, we read the record, brief, of Jacob's sojourn with Laban twenty years, during which time he changed his wages ten times.

Then again, in chapter 42 : 3, is the record of Jacob's ten sons coming to Joseph, humbly, to buy corn, thus fulfilling his wonderfully accurate dreams which he had when but a mere lad. As we open the books of Exodus and Numbers and read of the Lord's dealings with the Israelites in Egypt and in the wilderness, we see he smote the Egyptians with ten plagues, and miraculously fed his people with manna, "angel's food," of which "he that gathered least had ten homers." Yet after all these benefits and mighty deliverances these same Israelites rebelled against the Lord "ten times."

When the Lord would construct, by the hand of Moses, a tabernacle, in which his solemn worship was to be kept up, he gave instructions to construct it with ten curtains, with their ten pillars set in sockets of silver. For the sustaining of the priests and Levites in the service connected with the sanctuary and tabernacle, the Lord required the Israelites to consecrate one-tenth of all their increase, and he said "all the tithe (tenth) is the Lord's." Lev. 27 : 30.

In later times in Israel's history, after Solomon's death, we see Jeroboam and Rehoboam dividing Israel, one taking ten tribes and the other two, giving rise to the two divisions and two classes of rulers over Judah and Israel, which continued for centuries.

During all these meanderings and changes among God's chosen people they were chanting his praise and showing forth his wondrous works on the harp, "an instrument of ten strings."

When Daniel and his three associates were placed among the wise men of Babylon, they requested the privilege for ten days to eat their own wholesome plain food instead of the king's luxuries, and at the close of these ten days they were found fairer than the rest of the wise men. As the result of this experiment they were allowed to continue their own plain diet, and as they came to the time when clearness of mind was to be tested they were found ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers in the king's realm.

Leaving the Old Testament and opening the New, we read of the ten lepers, cleansed by Christ, of whom only one returned to give God the glory. We read the interesting parables of the ten virgins, the ten talents and the ten pieces of silver.

In the book of Revelation, chapter 13, we read of the ten horns upon the beast, corresponding to the ten toes of the image of Dan. 2, and the ten horns of the fourth beast, Dan. 7, and all representing the ten divisions of the Roman empire.

In chapter 2, we read the address made to one of the seven churches, "Thou shalt have tribulation ten days." A prediction fulfilled in the ten persecutions of Paganism upon the Christian church, from the reign of Nero to the reign of Diocletian. The ten days probably having special reference to the bloodiest of all these persecutions under Diocletian in the ten years from 303 A. D. to 313.

But I am talking away from the point. I begun this article to speak of ten years. Ten years of my own experience. Those ten years which close this 18th day of July, 1878, I look back upon as the most interesting of any of the two score and seven years of my life. Ten years ago to-day, accompanied by Elder Bourdeau, I landed in San Francisco with our 60-ft. tent, to commence the work upon this coast. We were strangers. Our doctrines were new to the people, and our people unknown here on the Pacific slope. With God's blessing the work is fairly under way. We have a strong Conference in California with near 30 churches, and the North Pacific Conference, which is gaining strength and is destined to be a power in all that northern region.

To-day, the 10th anniversary of my arrival on the Pacific slope, we are erecting our new Nevada tent in Reno city, a railroad center in the very heart of the real financial strength of the State of Nevada. The people treat us most cordially, and express the deepest anxiety to hear. Our prayer is, God bless the Nevada mission.

What we see on this coast is only a sample of what I behold in this cause all over the world. Here ten years ago we had no facilities for printing the truth; now we have a well equipped and thoroughly established publishing house, as large as was demanded for the whole Seventh-day Adventist cause in the world ten years ago.

And of our central publishing house in Battle Creek, Michigan, I think I do not over-estimate when I state that the work there has increased ten fold in ten years, and besides these, a publishing house is in full operation in central Europe.

I look at the rank and file of our ministry; ten years ago probably there was not one-tenth as many in the ministry as there are to-day. Of course there has been a corresponding increase of our membership during that same time. But with all this increase in points mentioned, it is truly cheering to look at that feature of our work, the missionary society, which has had its rise among us during the last part of the last ten years, and to see the lay members of our people actively engaging in spreading the truth through the world.

The spirit of consecration to the work must increase, it is none too much to hope and believe that it will increase as our people arouse to the demands of the times.

Like men in war times, when it was apparent that the nation's cause demanded men, a call was made for 300,000 more, they did not sit down dejected and sad, and say let some one else do the work, but with cheerful action and with zest, they responded in songs that fairly rent the air, they sang, "We're coming father Abraham, three hundred thousand more."

As we pause a moment on this our individual anniversary day, looking at the past and scanning the future, we feel as though the God of heaven had made a call to each of us to take hold as never before in this work. Shall we sing and act "We're coming," or shall we bury the Lord's talents intrusted to us, and be classed among the slothful servants?

If there is that consecration to the work that the truth, the times, and the call of God demands, I do not see why we may not expect to see more done in extending the truth, and in bringing souls to the truth, for the next two years than we have seen accomplished during the whole of the last ten years. The Lord grant it.

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.

Reno, Nevada, July 18, 1878.