1991.—Observance of the Sabbath Day.
By Editor
Is it right to play instrumental music on the piano or graphophone on the Sabbath, such as opera music, anvil chorus, etc.? The divine commentary of the Sabbath commandment is found in Isa. 58:13: "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing THY PLEASURE on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor HIM, not doing THINE OWN ways, nor finding THINE OWN pleasure, nor speaking THINE OWN words; then shalt thou DELIGHT THYSELF IN THE LORD." We think that it is invariably true that conscientious Christians feel themselves condemned when they use the Sabbath for such things as above. To us these things have no place on the Sabbath day. The very associations with such music leads the mind away from God, and when there is so much music that is soul-inspiring, spiritually elevating, which will tend to lift the heart and the meditations into higher, holier atmosphere, we do not see how one can use the time for music or reading which will tend to degrade, debase, or at the very least be utterly unprofitable. We fully grant that some of these practises may be pleasing to the natural heart, but Christianity is a life of discipline. It means not simply the receiving of the wonderfully good things which God gives, but it means the denying ourselves of those things which do not profit, and so the passage which we have quoted above includes the denying, the not-doing; and if that lies at the base of Sabbath-keeping, there will grow in the heart and life a true delight in the Lord and in His institutions. Does not science and also tradition of ancient people seem to indicate that the earth was created in six periods rather than six days of twenty-four hours each? Science generally, so far as we know, does not divide it up into any kind of definite periods. There have been those who have tried to reconcile the Bible and science, who have attempted to interpret the record of Genesis as six long periods of time, and have claimed that science taught this. How long God was in CREATING the earth we do not know. If our querist will note the different terms which the Bible uses it may help in the matter. The first verse of the Bible declares, "In the beginning God CREATED the heaven and the earth." How long a period is covered by the expression "in the beginning," we do not know, nor shall we in any wise attempt to answer. We believe in a personal God; that He has His throne in the heavens; that He has angels which excel in strength, messengers of His to all parts of His universe. Some of these, at least, were in existence when the Lord laid the foundations of the earth, when the "morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." Job 38:4-7. But the bringing of the earth from the state of chaos, indicated in Gen. 1:2, to that of cosmos, or arrangement, in verse 31, which God pronounced very good, took place in six days according to the express statement of the word made over and over. Of that we have no question, nor does it seem to us that a believer in the word can have question, if language means anything and is designed to express the thought of God's transformation of the earth from darkness and wasteness to glory and beauty. "In six days the Lord MADE heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is." That is one of the grand assurances to the poor sinner who is in the confusion of chaos and darkness, that just as God spoke light into darkness and changed the earth, so the light of God can shine into his heart and place there the beauty of the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Cor. 4:6. 1993.—How Was Man Created?
In an article in your issue of December 26, on "The Abundant Life," it is said: "Man is not mortal or he would have died, even if he did partake of the tree of life. He is not immortal or he never would have died. He is simply a perfect physical being, possessing eternal life." Will you please make that plain? How can a man be mortal and immortal? Our querist has not quoted correctly from the article. The article reads: "He WAS not mortal, for in that case he was subject to death, whether he partook of the tree of life or not. He was not immortal, or he never would have died. He was simply a perfect physical being, possessing eternal life, which connected him with the Source of all life. He, too, possessed this life by faith. Had he believed God he would have continued to live eternally, and when his character had become fixed, his whole being would have been made immortal, not subject to death. Man sinned, and cut himself off from eternal life, and became a dying creature. Man was a candidate either for mortality or immortality." It does not seem to us that this is hard to understand; it would not be were it not for the theological fog which has hung around the question of man's existence for centuries. He was a perfect physical being. The choice of mortality or immortality lay with him, in his choice of sin or righteousness. It was God's design that he should live forever. Consequently he possessed the eternal life of God, but when man sinned, he interposed his carnal heart between himself and God and cut himself off from eternal life. Man must have eternal life; it takes the "power of the endless life," in order to form a righteous character. That comes by faith in Jesus Christ. John 3:16; 1 John 5:11. When the righteous character is formed, then will be placed upon the physical man at Christ's coming the eternal stamp of a righteous character, physical immortality, absolute deathlessness. Eternal life man holds by faith in Jesus Christ; that is the power which enables him to live for God. Read the Gospel by John in the light of these thoughts and we are sure that it will help you to see the life question more fully and beautifully than before. 1994.—Names of the Revisers.
For the benefit of your subscribers, would you be pleased to give in the Signs the names and positions or qualifications of those responsible for the American Standard Revision of the Bible? By this means we can better judge as to the merits of the revision. We have not the names at present. Our history and statistics of the great work were burned in our recent fire, and we can not try to recall all the names. The secretary of the committee, and also member of the Old Testament company, was Dr. George E. Day; secretary of the New Testament company, Dr. J. Henry Thayer. If either of these gentlemen should be written to, care Thomas Nelson & Sons, New York City, with return stamped envelope enclosed, correct information would doubtless be obtained. We can assure our correspondent that these Revisers were competent scholars. But does our correspondent know the "qualifications," etc., of the translators of the King James Version? Can he give us the name of one of them?