OUR PURPOSE by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 7, 1892

OUR PURPOSE.

By Editor

THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES begins a new volume with this number. What it has been the last year, our readers all know. We are glad of the many commendations we have received. We are glad that it has brought light and joy and blessing to many hearts, as letters which we have received show. For all the good it has accomplished, for the light it has disseminated, for the hope and cheer it has carried to weary hearts, and mourning homes, and sin-sick souls, for the courage which it has given to the soldier in the field,—for all this, and more, the glory belongs to God. He it is who has helped all who have contributed to its pages and its success. It is his word which has formed the basis of its many articles, both doctrinal and practical. It has endeavored to point men to the center and circumference of all truth, Christ Jesus our Lord, and at the same time to point out the soul-destroying errors which abound in these days.

While the SIGNS OF THE TIMES is published and controlled by a denomination, its object is not to build up a denomination. It works in and through an organization only as it can do more effectual work for Christ. The SIGNS and the denomination which publishes it believe they have a mission to the world. They do not differ with others in religious matters because they wish to differ. They do not agree with many in the various churches simply because they wish to agree. Their standard and their motive are higher than mere human opinion or expediency. They differ with others because, according to their understanding of God's word, they must differ. They agree with others when that word leads, and only when it leads. Glad, yes, longing to agree ever, if God's word brings the agreement; but if that word leads in other paths than those in which the multitude walk, better to walk alone with Christ than to be one of the great multitude.

In the first centuries of this era, God was manifest among men in all his beauty of character. The Son of the living God "emptied himself" that God might be manifest in him to the world for which he came to die. He spake not his own words, but the Father's. In fact, he was the Word of God. Through him and the Holy Paraclete which he sent after his departure, the glad tidings of salvation shone out as never before. The gospel was preached without mixture of error. That gospel declared that Christ had redeemed the world by the price of his life, that in him was all fullness, that from him came all blessings, all power, all life; and that all that man could do was to deny self, choose Christ, and by faith in him lay hold of all the blessings waiting in Christ for him.

This was the gospel which Christ commissioned his servants to proclaim to all the world. The power to propagate it lay in him alone, and was to be imparted to them by the channel of faith. His promise was, "And lo, I am with you alway, even unto the consummation of the age." In answer to prayer, and according to his promise, the power came by the Spirit of God, which was poured out upon the little band of disciples on the day of Pentecost. And what a mighty work followed! Souls were converted everywhere. As the children of God went forward, burdened in soul for the lost ones, God prepared the way, God went with them, God was their rearward. They had chosen God, they had yielded to him, and God worked in them to will and to do of his own good pleasure. In a little while the then known world had heard the gospel, and idol temples and heathen shrines had given place to the humble assemblies and the family altars of Christians. This power was the power of the word of God, of the gospel of God, of the mystery of God, which is Christ in the regenerate heart, the hope of glory.

But in a little while from this how was the fine gold changed! Even in the days of the apostles "the mystery of iniquity" began to work. Men came into the church who had not wholly chosen Christ, who were not emptied of self, who were connected with the world, and who drew others away after them. See Acts 20:29-31; 2 Thess. 2:7. Losing connection with God by turning from him, they grieved his Spirit, and lost his power. Losing God's power, departing from the simplicity of faith, corrupting his word by pagan sophistries and fables, they also lost power to win souls to Christ, to submission to the Christian religion.

From Christ the church turned to the world. She cast off the one to whom she had plighted her vows, and committed fornication with the kings of the earth. She did this in order to gain power to compel men to do by human means what the gospel of Christ and the Spirit of God had once done through her. But how deplorably she failed! As men sought in themselves, and to establish by their own effort, that righteousness which is acceptable to God, so they sought to spread abroad the gospel (which was not the gospel) by means which were so largely human that Christ and his power were eliminated more and more, till the mystery of iniquity had wholly usurped the place of the mystery of God.

The mystery of God is Christ in the regenerated man, Christ in the flesh to the overcoming of all sin by faith. The mystery of iniquity is self and self-righteousness in the place of Christ. From the first came the work of Christianity in the first century; from the second came the Papacy and all the crimes in the name of Christianity in the Dark Ages. The former has ever exalted God and his word, and the Lord Jesus Christ as the only Saviour of men; the latter has, while nominally professing faith and foundation in the word of God, exalted tradition, perverted and mutilated the Scriptures of truth, given glory to man, and rejected Christ by substituting for his power the weakness of man.

The Reformation came part way out of the wilderness of error, and then paused, endeavored to confine the free gospel of Christ within the bounds of human creed, and laid hold on civil power to compel its acceptance by men. Other men have seen more of the gospel of Christ, and have broken through these law-bound creeds.

Now again the church has come to a great crisis. For years the discordant sects of Christendom, with their constant disagreements within and without, have been a mighty host of witnesses that the church is not occupying that position of unity designed of God. See 1 Cor. 1:10; John 17:15-24. To bring his people to this unity in Christ, God has given a threefold message of gracious invitation, solemn warning, faithful injunction, and glorious promise to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. Rev. 14:6-14.

Then comes the end, the great Reaper, the harvest, the final reward at the coming of the King. That message warns against fornication with the world, or, in other words, against a union of religion with the State, tells of the present low, sad condition of the church, and invites all to come to God, give glory to him, and worship the Creator of the heavens and the earth. That message is to go to the world. It is to present once again the mystery of God and the power of his Christ.

The SIGNS OF THE TIMES has this great message to the world. This is its mission. Not that God has intrusted all this work to this journal alone. God forbid. But the duty of the SIGNS and its publishers is as obligatory as though they stood alone. But God has room for all. He invites all to hear, to accept, to have a part in its publication to all the world. Would to God there were thousands more heralding the gospel of the Christ.

This will be the work of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES the year to come. It hopes to be a better preacher of the Lord Jesus Christ, a better medium for the revelation of God's love, a better herald of the coming King, and to this end it asks the support, the coöperation, and the prayers of all its readers.