Earlier text: “Vaticanism Vs. America” and “Free Speech” NumberWrong Standards
By F. M. W.
Christian Recreation—No. 4
The need of recreation on the part of Christians, in common with the world around them, all will admit. That it is entirely consistent with their high and holy calling for the followers of the Master to take time for rest and recreation as the necessities of their work may permit and their physical condition demand, and to arrange innocent amusements for the youth and children, there can be no question. As far as we know, Christian believers in every church admit the consistency and propriety of these procedures, but the question as to how the Christian shall relate himself to the great sports and pleasures of the world is one upon which there is not altogether, concurrent agreement. Many members of the various churches throughout the world attend theaters, the circus, dances, etc. Though we may differ from them as to the propriety of their course, it is not for us to judge or condemn them for so doing. Their standard of Christian living may vary from ours; their education in Christian duty may have been given from a different viewpoint. The attention of many has never been called to the evil growing out of these popular gatherings, nor do they recognize the influence which their course of conduct may have upon the young and inexperienced. The standard of the world has come to be taken as their standard. God calls upon Seventh-day Adventists to elevate the Christian standard, to call their fellows to a higher plane of thought and Christian living. Hence the question with which we are concerned in this article is, How should the members of this church, professing the sacred, solemn truth for this generation,—a people looking for the speedy return of the Lord to this earth, and preparing themselves for that blessed event,—relate themselves to the pleasures of the world? Some of these pleasures are so gross in their nature and pernicious in their influence that little time need be given to their consideration. Perhaps none who read this article would be tempted to frequent the race-track or the gambling parlor; to engage in card-playing, or take part in less harmful sports for a wager. The dissipation and excess connected with these sports are discouraged even by the average standard of nominal Christianity. What relation should Seventh-day Adventists sustain to those worldly sports which occupy a respectable standard in the estimation of the world around them, and which are liberally patronized by the members of the popular churches? This is the question before us. We refer to such amusements as the theater, billiards, the moving-picture show, the circus, the great public games of cricket, baseball, and golf. For convenience rather than by arbitrary classification we have listed these together. We are willing to admit, as many claim, a difference in the degree of evil exerted by the influence of these sports. Some whose conscientious convictions would forbid their attendance at the theater would go to the popular moving-picture show. Others who would be held back from attending these indoor amusements would frequent the golf, cricket, or baseball grounds. And yet, while we are willing to admit this difference in degree, we recognize that in a large measure the same baneful influence to spiritual life is connected with all these great sports. This is made true by the environment, and by the spirit which accompanies them. It is well for this fact to be kept in mind: that in morals the lesser evil, however small, always opens the way for and encourages the entrance of the greater evils. “We should never give sanction to sin by our words or our deeds, our silence or our presence.” Common Features of the World's Sports
These great games are exploited equally by their promoters for commercial purposes. The promoters and regular attendants of these leading sports are the same class of people—the world-loving, the pleasure-seeking. Connected with many of these games, the same as with the race-track, there is found the practise of gambling. Men, instead of horses, are the objects upon which money is staked. At all these great worldly sports the same spirit of excitement and infatuation takes possession of those falling under their influence. The tragedies and comedies of the theatrical stage appeal strongly to the emotions of the auditors. Men and women sit entranced as these scenes are enacted before them. This same appeal to passion, only perhaps in a different way and in a different degree, is made to those who witness the great outdoor sports. A spirit of wild enthusiasm possesses the excited multitude, and this extends even outside of the immediate range of the playground. One has only to see with what avidity old and young scan the sporting page of the daily newspapers, the eagerness with which the surging multitudes in the street watch for the latest returns of the contest as marked on the tally-board, to recognize how widely this hypnotic influence extends. And every taste of this unnatural excitement creates a thirst for more, and thus, little by little and step by step, those who enter upon this path are led down into the final vortex of dissipation, where God is forgotten, and the things of time and sense become the ruling passion in the life experience. All these great sports are occasions for the display of rivalry, vainglory, and purely human achievement. All have connected with them, more or less directly and in greater or less degree, allied scenes of revelry, feasting, and drunkenness. It is clearly evident that one and the same spirit for the most part actuates and controls these great sports and amusements. In the days of Christ men were engaged in pleasure and dissipation the same as at the present time. Plays, exhibitions, and races in which the people of those times excelled, were of common and frequent occurrence. We have no record that Christ or his disciples attended doings of this character. Is it possible to think that if Christ were on earth today he would be found a spectator at the race-tracks? that he would occupy a box at the theater? that he would form one of the wildly cheering throng attending the games of golf and cricket and baseball? Can we conceive of his spending time in moving-picture shows? Such a course on the part of the Master is indeed unbelievable. He came to lift men up from the sordid plane of worldliness, time-serving, and selfish gratification to higher ideals of thought and purpose. Surely Seventh-day Adventists, with the work and position to which God has called them, cannot place before themselves any less an ideal in Christian living than the life of the Master. It would be well for those who are in the habit of attending these great public plays and sports to inquire if they can do so with the same spirit that possessed the Master in his work. He is the one true example. Can they go to represent the Lord Jesus Christ to those gathered on these occasions? Can they1072preach to them the everlasting gospel, and admonish them, as Paul admonished Felix, of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come? Can they go to demonstrate to their fellows that higher motives are actuating their lives than move the hearts of the multitude? Or by mingling as interested and enthusiastic spectators with the pleasure-seeking multitude, do they not show that in a measure at least they have fallen under the same hypnotic influence? By this course do they not obliterate to a certain extent that line of demarcation which should exist between the children of God and the people of the world? In the estimation of their fellows do they not lower the plane of Christian living to the cheap, common level of the worldling? Will others with less power of discrimination, and with less self-control, not take advantage of the example they see before them to plunge still deeper into the depths of worldly pleasure and dissipation? These surely are considerations which it would be well for every reader of this paper to consider, as related to his own conduct. Heaven will hold us responsible for our own conduct, and for the influence our course exerts on our fellows. In placing before our fellows our own consistent example, we can do more to bring them to what we believe to be the standard of right than by any spirit of criticism or judgment in which we may indulge. The most evil of influences under which we may fall is the spirit of censure and unkind criticism of others. We cannot drive men to Christ by argument or faultfinding. They must be won by love and through loving, considerate service. This power, filling the heart and expressed in the life, will prove a drawing rather than a repellent force in kindly ministry. Hence while we may seek to save our fellows from what we believe to be the influence of one evil, let us be sure that by God's grace we are kept from falling under the influence of another equally as pernicious. “If a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.” Gal. 6:1. “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Phil. 4:8. These are the eternal principles which should govern our own course of conduct and our relation to our fellow men. F. M. W. The Apostolic Delegate on Sunday
By C. M. S.
AFTER declaring that the apostle changed the day for rest and worship from the seventh to the first day, for which he submitted no jot nor tittle of proof; after declaring that the Scripture called the first day of the week the Lord’s day, and submitting for proof a text which says nothing in reference thereto; after declaring that the day was changed because the apostles received their commission and the authority to forgive sins on that day, and submitting no proof at all; after giving, as another reason for the change, the statement that the Holy Ghost came down upon the apostles on Sunday, a statement which is impossible of proof,—the papal delegate declares:— Since the law of God in this matter is, therefore, so clear, and since the determination of the time for the fulfilment of this duty has been reasonably changed from the day of Saturday to that of Sunday, it is very much to be desired that all who claim to be Christians should faithfully discharge their duty in this regard. So much, at least, is their duty of conscience. How such “proof” as the papal delegate has presented can be regarded as making clear the abrogation of the seventh-day Sabbath and the establishment of the Sunday in its place, is beyond our comprehension. Not a statement which he has made is backed by proof or susceptible of proof except the statement that God himself appointed the seventh day of the week as a Sabbath to commemorate the work of creation. That is proved by the words of the Almighty himself. That fact is engraved in the law of God itself. “Since the law of God in this matter is, therefore, so clear,” says the delegate. It is clear. God himself has never altered it. But it says nothing about Sunday. It is another day entirely which this law that “is so clear” declares is the Sabbath. “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” What does that make “clear”? It makes clear, according to the delegate, that Sunday is now the day for rest and worship, and that the keeping of that day in preference to the day Jehovah appointed, is our “duty of conscience.” We are not able to see the point. The command from the Almighty to do one thing does not make clear to us that we shall refrain from doing the thing commanded and do something else in its place. “Since the determination of the time for the fulfilment of this duty [Sabbath-keeping] has been reasonably changed from the day of Saturday to that of Sunday,” says the apostolic delegate, “it is very much to be desired that all who claim to be Christians [an invitation to all Protestants to join with Catholics in Sunday observance] should faithfully discharge their duty in this regard.” But who gave the reason? and who authorized the change? Clearly such reasons were not given by any of the apostles; for in none of their writings can anything of the kind be found; and the substitution of Sunday for the seventh-day Sabbath was not made until long after they were all in their graves. It was one of the fruits of the working of that “mystery of iniquity” which the apostle Paul says was beginning to operate in his day. The emperor Constantine—professed Christian, but proved pagan by his unchristian acts—gave concrete direction to that working of the “mystery of iniquity” in this particular when in 321 A. D. he enacted a law compelling the observance of Sunday by certain specified classes of the people; and that “mystery of iniquity” itself capped the climax in that direction when, in 464 A. D., it made obligatory upon all the substitution of the first day for the seventh as a sabbath. But the apex of its high-handed work was reached when it laid violent hands upon the law of God itself, remodeling the entire law so that no condemnation might rest upon that church because of its worship of saints and images and pictures. By that alteration the second command was dropped out, the fourth became the third; and the tenth was divided to keep the number whole. Teaching that remodeled decalogue, that church in its catechism commands: “Say the third commandment.” Then follows this: “Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day.” She asks again: “What is commanded by the third commandment?” Answer: “To sanctify the Sunday.” The above is from Butler’s Catechism, page 34. From the “Convert’s Catechism of Catholic Doctrine,” page 50, we glean the following:— Question.— Which is the Sabbath day?
Answer.— Saturday is the Sabbath day. Ques.— Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?
Ans.— We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church, in the Council of Laodicea (A. D. 336), transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday. Ques.— Why did the Catholic Church substitute Sunday for Saturday?
Ans.— The church substituted Sunday for Saturday, because Christ rose from the dead on a Sunday, and the Holy Ghost descended upon the apostles on a Sunday. Ques.— By what authority did the church substitute Sunday for Saturday?
Ans.— The church substituted Sunday for Saturday by the plenitude of that divine power which Jesus Christ bestowed upon her.9 Ques.— What does the third commandment command?
Ans.— The third commandment commands us to sanctify Sunday as the Lord’s day. The Council of Laodicea was held in the year 464 instead of 336; but the incorrectness of the date given is not so important as the church’s admission of the fact that she changed the day “from Saturday to Sunday,” and not in the days of the apostles, but at the Council of Laodicea, which was held more than four and a half centuries after Christ. This catechism does not agree very well with the apostolic delegate’s declaration that “the apostles” changed the day. The “apostles” who thus changed the reading of the law of God and are teaching that perversion of his law will have much to answer for at the bar of God. A church sinking into apostasy under the mighty workings of the mystery of iniquity is alone responsible for that perversion of Jehovah’s “ten words.” But every Christian to whom the knowledge of that fact becomes known will be held personally responsible by the Almighty himself if he chooses to follow Rome’s leadership in doing despite to the eternal law of God. The Creator himself established the Sabbatic institution, established it as he wanted it to be, commanded it to be observed, and gave his reason for the requirement in the law itself. God’s reason can never be changed; it is based on the fact of creation. When we consider this fact, what a tissue of cobwebs are the reasons assigned by the apostolic delegate for the change from the seventh to the first day! It is naught but a fabric of myth which the breath of an infant may blow into shreds. Such reasons as he gives cannot bind the conscience of any true Christian. Nevertheless, he holds that— society should be greatly concerned in enacting laws for the observance of Sunday, and most careful in seeing that they are put into practise. Must the law of God, which is “so clear” in this matter, depend upon human laws to make it of binding force upon the consciences of men? Is man stronger than God? Has God become discouraged and put man in his place to require obedience to divine mandates? The law of God stands today as he wrote it. He has never altered it. It is as binding today upon Christians as it was upon Moses and his followers when it was given on Sinai by the voice of God and written on stone by the finger of God. He who attempts to alter it jeopardizes his own eternal interests, and he who keeps man’s perversion of it in preference to the law itself will have no reason to give which God will accept when he stands before his Maker at the bar of eternity. Says Jehovah: “I will not . . . alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.” Ps. 89:34. Says Jesus: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Matt. 5:17, 18. Let it not be overlooked that the apostolic delegate, who is the mouthpiece of the Pope, is calling all Christendom to the making and enforcing of Sunday laws. It was only to be expected that the power which is responsible for the establishment of the substitute sabbath should consider it a matter of great moment that the institution be perpetuated. In that pronunciamento Rome is calling America to do the work which the prophet saw her doing (Rev. 13:11-18), enforcing an oppressive law to bind and force the consciences of men. Through utterances like this the National Reformers and the Federal Council of the Churches and the Lord’s Day Alliance may know that Rome is coming to their help with the power of her mighty organizations for the enactment and enforcement of oppressive Sunday laws; and they who have been looking for something of this kind as a fulfilment of the prophecy of God’s Word in the closing of the great controversy may know they have not been looking in vain. We are entering upon the closing days of the great struggle, and these happenings are to us assurances that the culmination of the Christian’s hope is drawing nigh. C. M. S. General Conference Committee Council
By William Ambrose Spicer
One of the most encouraging sessions of the council was that devoted to the home missionary work. Miss E. M. Graham, secretary of the Home Missionary Department of work, presented to the council a report of work done from the General Conference Office to get in touch with tract and missionary secretaries and other workers for the organizing of this home tract and missionary work, to which members of all the churches are called. The manuscript of a series of “Lessons for Home Missionary Institutes” was submitted, and counsel asked as to how best to bring out these lessons. The council reviewed the first lessons in the series, and asked Miss Graham to give a summary of the topics studied. All were pleased with the studies, and felt that the plans being laid would bring great blessings to us. The chairman stated his belief that if the whole denomination is to be guided into this personal ministry, it can be done only by training leaders in the local churches; and only by institutes can this training be done. F. M. Wilcox referred to the instruction that has often come to us that what is needed is not so much more preaching to the churches as the training of the churches in service. W. J. Stone told of efforts made in this work in Virginia. He longed to see the fulfilment of the description—“thousands of our people going everywhere with the message.” C. W. Flaiz suggested that an army must be trained in detail practise. Just so it must be in the church missionary work. He believed these institute lessons would be a great help. N. Z. Town believed that with the organization of this work and instruction of members, the same results would be seen in this that have been brought about in the book work. E. R. Palmer said that every advance step in work has been by organization, consecration, and detailed instruction and training. R. D. Quinn felt that the greatest proposition before us was to launch this campaign for organizing all the churches for active work. Chas. Thompson felt that the provision of work for young people was an important feature—to keep new converts and others busy in the work as a means of keeping up spiritual life. F. T. Russell said that all recognized that the churches were languishing from inactivity. While we are circulating more literature than ever before, this is mainly done by a few. He believed the outline presented the instruction needed to call into action latent forces everywhere. L. H. Christian said that four years ago the Danish department organized a Danish Tract and Missionary Society, and it has stimulated new activity among the Danish believers. Dr. D. H. Kress expressed appreciation of the outline, and said he believed it a most important enterprise. W. W. Eastman said it encouraged the publishing men to see such a movement inaugurated. He felt the loud cry of the message was in the united activity of all in taking the message to the people. Voted, That these outlines be adopted as the basis for an instruction booklet, subject to such revision as may be made by a committee to be appointed by the General Conference Committee. Plans for the training of conference tract and missionary society secretaries were discussed and adopted, the working out of the plans being left with the various union conferences.1074 The work of the Young People’s Missionary Volunteer Department was considered, and the following actions were taken:— Whereas, The work for our young people is of the utmost importance to their salvation, and to the development of workers for the cause, and,— Whereas, The success of this work depends very largely on the strength of our Missionary Volunteer leadership,— 1. Resolved, (a) That all our conferences put forth special efforts to secure persons of high qualifications to act as Missionary Volunteer secretaries,—persons who are strong spiritual leaders, and who have a special adaptability for dealing with the youth; (b) that such secretaries who have reasonable success in their work be retained in office long enough to put the missionary work on a solid footing; (c) that Missionary Volunteer secretaries and those who contemplate entering this work be encouraged to take the course of study to be given for them through the Fireside Correspondence School. 2. We recommend, (a) That in the union conference, one person act as educational and Missionary Volunteer secretary, and that the work be so arranged that half-time will be given to each department; (b) that conferences with a membership of 1,500 or more endeavor to provide a Missionary Volunteer secretary who shall give his entire time to the work; (c) that conferences with a membership of less than 1,500 elect one person who shall divide his time equally between the educational and the Missionary Volunteer work. 3. Resolved, That special attention be given to our young people’s work at our union conference sessions this season, (a) by the presence of a representative from the General or the North American Division Conference Missionary Volunteer Department; (b) by encouraging the local conferences to send their Missionary Volunteer secretaries as delegates to the union conferences, and that they spend an hour each day with the General or the North American Division Missionary Volunteer secretary in institute work. 4. Resolved, That we encourage the holding of Missionary Volunteer institutes this winter at such times and places as can be suitably arranged, and that as far as possible, the conference presidents and near-by workers attend these meetings. Whereas, The plan of publishing lessons for our Missionary Volunteer and Junior Society meetings in the Youth’s Instructor and Our Little Friend has proved unsatisfactory, inasmuch as all members have the same matter in hand a week before the meeting,— 5. Resolved, That the General and North American Division Conference Committees provide some means of getting these lessons into the hands of Missionary Volunteer leaders and Missionary Volunteer secretaries. 6. We recommend, That our union and local conferences send their Missionary Volunteer secretaries to the educational and Missionary Volunteer convention to be held in the summer of 1914. The matter of the Sustentation Fund was reviewed, and the following report was adopted:— 1. That we maintain a permanent fund to be known as the Sustentation Fund, for the support of sick and aged laborers, and the widows and children of deceased laborers, who have been employed upon a missionary basis in our conferences, mission fields, and institutions. 2. That the resources of this fund be as follows:— a. Six per cent of the tithe of all local, union, and division conferences and mission fields and the General Conference. b. Two per cent of all foreign mission funds. c. Two and one-half per cent based on the payrolls of our publishing houses and sanitariums. d. One-half per cent of the volume of business done by our tract societies. e. Although teachers in our schools are to receive benefits from this fund, the schools are exempted from payment because of the heavy burdens carried by them in proportion to their income. f. It is understood and agreed by all the organizations and institutions entering into this plan that at any time when the percentages of funds set apart for the maintenance of this fund are insufficient to meet the needs of the several classes of workers, the percentage will be increased. 3. That these funds be remitted monthly through the regular channels to the respective treasurers. 4. That this fund for the General Conference and its mission fields and for the North American Division Conference be kept by the treasurer of the General Conference; for other division conferences by the treasurers of the respective divisions, and for union conferences and union mission fields not included in any division conference, by their several treasurers. 5. That allowances from this fund be made by vote of the following committees:— a. For the General Conference and its mission fields and for the North American Division Conference, a subcommittee of five persons, selected from the General Conference Committee and the North American Division Committee, who shall make all necessary investigation of each case and make recommendations for final action to a joint meeting of the General Conference and North American Division Conference Committees. b. For other division conferences, a subcommittee of three members who shall make recommendation for final action to their respective division conference committees. c. For union conferences which are not included in any division conference, a subcommittee of three persons who shall make recommendations for final action to their respective union conference committees. 6. That the benefits of this fund shall be extended to the disabled laborers of our cause or to their bereaved families, whose remuneration has been on a missionary basis and who may legitimately be included among the following classes of workers:— a. All laborers under the direction of conferences and mission fields, including colporteurs, nurses, and church-school teachers, who have devoted their lives to continuous service in the work. b. Employees in our institutions. c. The principal considerations which will determine whether laborers shall receive benefits from this fund will be length of service, financial condition, and present standing and attitude in relation to this movement. 7. That the resources of this fund shall not be drawn upon for temporary sickness or disability, it being understood that all conferences and institutions shall care for their workers when disabled for a period of at least six months, before making application for assistance from this fund. 8. That all applicants for assistance from this fund shall furnish the disbursing committees satisfactory evidence that they are entitled to support, and also as to the amount which will be required. 9. That in order to secure uniformity, accuracy, and justice in making allowances, blanks be sent to each applicant which when filled will give the committees the information they need for making a proper and equitable distribution of the fund. This blank should be signed by the applicant and should be approved and indorsed as follows:— a. In the case of laborers in local conferences, including colporteurs, nurses employed in the field, church-school teachers, and employees in local conference institutions, recommendation should be made by the local conference committee, and the application signed by the president. The application should then be sent to the union conference, and should be passed upon by the union conference committee, and be indorsed by the union conference president. It should then be passed on to the general Sustentation Fund committee for final consideration. b. In the case of laborers in union conferences, including laborers in union conference institutions, the application blank should be sent to the union conference, and should be passed upon by the union conference committee and indorsed by the president. It should then be passed on to the general Sustentation Fund committee for final action. c. In the case of laborers in the employ of the North American Division Conference and workers in division institutions, applications should be made through the North American Division to the central Sustentation Fund committee for the usual consideration and action. d. In the case of laborers in the employ of the General Conference and workers in general institutions, application should be made through the General Conference to the central committee on Sustentation Fund, for examination and final action in the usual manner. e. All applications for assistance from employees in institutions, whether local, union, divisional, or general, should be made through the managing boards of these institutions to the conference in which the institution operates. 10. That conference officers and committees and the managing boards of institutions guard with the utmost care the use of this fund by refusing to recommend to the central committee the cases of any persons who do not properly come under the spirit of this provision. 11. That this fund be used only for the support of laborers who are disabled by age or sickness, and for the11support of the widows and orphans of deceased laborers; that it be not used for the support of laborers who for other reasons than those stated above have become a burden upon the conference, nor for those who are still able to engage in conference work; and that when a laborer is, or becomes, of sufficient value to a conference to justify his allowance being supplemented by the conference, he be transferred to the conference for full support, except as special arrangement may be made with the committee on Sustentation Fund. 12. That once a year (most conveniently, perhaps, at the time of the autumn council) each union conference president submit to a joint meeting of the committees of the General Conference and the North American Division Conference a report on each case being supported from this fund within his territory; and that further support from this fund be decided by action of this joint meeting. 13. That when an allowance is determined by vote of the proper authority, the treasurer of the Sustentation Fund is thereby authorized to make monthly remittances of said allowance to the party named, until such allowance is changed or discontinued. 14. That the disbursing committees be charged with the duty of aiding the beneficiaries of this fund in locating where conditions will be most favorable for their restoration to health, where living will be most economical, where they can do the most to help maintain themselves, and where they can render the best possible service to the cause. 15. That it be made clear to the beneficiaries under this arrangement that all allowances from this fund are cheerfully made, that in no sense is the person receiving such allowance a subject of charity, but that this arrangement has been made for the definite purpose of providing a just and necessary support for those laborers who have given their lives and means for the building up of this cause but have made no provision for sickness or age, and to supplement such private incomes of our laborers as prove insufficient for their needs. 16. That this arrangement go into effect Jan. 1, 1914. Further report will be deferred to a later issue.