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The Need of a Standard

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Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Sep 5, 1911

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 38, No. 35.

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The Need of a Standard

By Editor

The publishing house which sends forth this paper to the world, shipped during the first six months of this year, to home and foreign fields, ten tons a month of books, and during the month of July twenty-four tons. Besides this there was a ton of periodicals mailed each month. This, praise God, was all religious, missionary, moral, uplifting, soul-saving literature.
It has been the privilege of the editor to attend four camp-meetings in California, in different conferences, this season: one at Tulare, one at Stockton, one at Oakland, and one at Long Beach. These were all excellent meetings. All of them spoke of progress. Each one was a little larger than the preceding; and the one at Long Beach, the last one attended, was an immense meeting—in fact so large as to be cumbersome, and yet one which, in the very nature of the case, it was impossible to have smaller. The cause in Southern California is rapidly growing, and the territory in which the churches are is not large; the people can easily come together in an inexpensive way. Consequently the large meeting. But, like the other meetings, it was an excellent spiritual meeting, and a good interest was manifested throughout. The preaching was intensely practical, and took hold upon the hearts of the hearers. There was a large outside attendance. Apart from the tithe, which was $55,000 for the year for the conference, $20,000 was raised for mission purposes. There is a large army of young people which appealed to the writer as a mighty potency in the carrying forward of God's work, if that force were but consecrated to His service. May this be the case, and may God place His Spirit upon this noble army of young men and women.
When this issue reaches our readers, the great Missions Number will have been completed, and will soon be going out to thousands who will be using it for the ingathering of funds to spread the great work of God in the earth. We wish to say this now: that it is a beautiful number, filled with striking messages from all over the great mission fields of the world. It has upwards of 125 illustrations woven together in a striking way. And these also tell their stories of the mission fields.

The Need of a Standard

NEVER did the world need a recognized moral standard as now. Schools of philosophy and ethical teachings of all sorts are legion, but they often serve to confuse more than help. Yet God has the very standard which the world needs, His holy law of Ten Commandments. Eccl. 12:13, 14; James 2:8-12. The church needs that standard. The standard can not save; but it declares, denominates, points out, discovers, the things which destroy. Rom. 3:20; 7:7; 1 John 3:4. It condemns the sinner, and points to Christ, the Saviour. It approves, bears witness to, the righteousness by faith with which our Lord invests us. Rom. 3:21, 22. And then faith in Christ our Lord establishes in the heart of the believer the law of God. Rom. 3:31.
"Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law," declares the erstwhile Pharisee Saul. He thought himself righteous; but when the Spirit of God flashed upon his heart the great X-ray search-light of God's law, Saul saw sin "exceedingly sinful," and himself doomed to death. The world needs the clear, powerful shining of the light of that law in sinful hearts to-day. It needs the thunders of Sinai to awaken those who are sleeping in sin and carnal security. It needs God's voice to reveal to man a high and holy standard to which conscience ought to be conformed. It needs this sword of the Spirit to pierce the sin-incased heart, and reveal to the sinner the thoughts and intents, the purposes and motives, of his life. Heb. 4:12.
We would see deeper and more satisfactory conversions to God if the law had the place in the minister's work which God gives it. There would be deeper repentance and deeper healing. Adam Clarke truly said that he who preached the Gospel without the law, but slightly healed the hurt of "the daughter of My people." There would be less civil and criminal law needed if God's church came back to the great standard. That would put the fear of God within the hearts of men; and the Christian would find, by faith in Him who is the living law personified, that each commandment is an enabling act in eternal character building.

The Home-Coming

O, IF there is anything which ought to stir the hearts of God's children and arouse all the latent energies of His ministers, it is the glad message which He has given in His Word, which is set for this time, and buttressed by numerous lines of prophecy, that Christ our Lord is soon coming. For a long time has He been personally absent from His household, from His kingdom, purchased with His own life. The enemy has usurped it, and his slimy trail has poisoned and blasted and wrecked and ruined the fairest spots of God's own creation. Over plain and mountain where should have swelled pæans of praise to the Creator, have echoed and re-echoed the revels of sin, cries of rage, wails of despair, lamentations over death.
The Master is coming to change it all, to speak life to death, cosmos to chaos, beauty to ashes, hope to despair, to call to immortality the long roll of the faithful dead, to fill His earth house with glory as the waves cover the sea.
He tells that He is coming, and asks us to prepare to meet Him, to get our hearts ready for Him. How the church by His grace should clean and sweep and garnish her house for His complete occupancy by His Spirit now! How her own life should show that she believed His message, that she trusted His promise; and her expectancy should be as fully revealed as that of a faithful, fond wife looking and eagerly longing for the home-coming of a loved and loving husband! O, get ready for the coming of the Master. Tell to all the nations that the loving Christ of Judea is coming again.
A clipping has been sent us by one of our subscribers, containing the words of a minister in the University of Chicago, lauding Ex-President Roosevelt, and demanding that he be made king. This minister tells us, "It would be only a short time before there would be no such thing as war, and all countries would have reached a state of peace;" all of which sounds very good, but there will be war and preparation for war just as long as men have carnal hearts. Neither Mr. Roosevelt nor any combination of strong men can change the human heart. Christ can do this; and not until Christ gathers into one nation all those whose hearts His power has changed, will the world be without war. When that time comes, the men who love war will have perished in the great strife of Armageddon, and only those who love peace will remain. Then shall the inhabitants of earth "delight themselves in the abundance of peace."
We feel like apologizing to our readers for the horrible illustration on page 10 of this paper. Of course it illustrates a horrible subject, so the illustration is probably worthy of the subject. It is not a beautiful picture; there is nothing about it to commend it to us, and that is true of the awful subject which it illustrates. War is a horrible thing, but the horrible monstrosity is bound to stay with us till that time shall come when the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ shall rule in the hearts of men. The peace that Christ gives is the peace which comes by full and complete surrender to God. The peace which the world patches up will last only until the carnal heart is again stirred by self-interest. We sympathize with those who are working for peace, but we can not hide from us the awful facts of war and the preparation for war which the great nations of the world are making.
There seems to be a growing popular demand for legislation providing for the recall of judges and other officers of the law. But some of the best judicial and statesmanlike minds of the nation, such as President Taft and Woodrow Wilson, are pointing out the dangers that lurk in such a scheme. It would be well to weigh properly the reasoning they produce against the recall system. The country must not be left to the frenzy of the fevered enthusiast that will excite the populace into doing to-day what every one will be sorry for to-morrow. The judiciary of the nation should be kept as free as possible from the tricks and selfish, unprincipled plottings of the politicians who are not worthy of the title of statesmen.
Mr. Rockefeller tells us that his millions upon millions are a great burden to him, and this burden increases at the rate of about ten million dollars a year. It is too bad that he can not find many ways of relieving himself of the burden. Surely in the needy condition of many in this world a few score millions could be expended, it seems to us, quite readily.
The new city hall that is being erected by the city of New York is to be the largest in the world. The estimated cost is $10,000,000. It is to be forty stories high, and is to house the whole municipal family of that great city.
Governor Dix, of New York, has signed 868 new laws for New York; and the total for the year, we are told, will reach 900. The country is law-burdened; and what better is it?
An anti-militarist was proclaiming against militarism in Germany a few days since, and the police ordered him to leave the country.