CHRIST is coming again. The manifestation of God in humiliation in the incarnation is not the final and consummate manifestation. The disclosure of God to his children by his spiritual communion with them is not the consummate and final disclosure. Paul looked and waited for the coming of his Lord. Peter warned his readers not to be deceived by scoffers asking, Where is the promise of his coming? John bade the children of God purify themselves by the hope that when he shall appear his children shall be like him. James exhorted the disheartened and the discouraged to be patient unto this coming of the Lord. As they understood him we may safely understand him. The first coming of Christ was the spring-time in the divine seasons; the dispensation of the Spirit is the rich and fruitful summer; there awaits our hope the ripened and mellow autumn.
When he comes it will be in such guise that no one can question or can doubt. It will be visibly and palpably. He will come as the flood came; he will come as the lightning comes. As the king comes with the trumpeters that precede him, so will he come, and his advent will be proclaimed and emblazoned far and wide. Now he is incognito. Only the spiritual sense, only love and faith, peer beneath his peasant garb and behold a king. Only now and then in his earthly life does his divinity flash forth so that the temple traders flee from the fire of his eyes, and the soldiers fall to the ground when he comes out from the garden to surrender himself to them. Then Caiaphas, and Pilate, and the centurion, and the guard, and the soldiers, shall recognize him, as well as Peter, and James, and John. All the tribes of the earth shall mourn, seeing him, and the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every freeman, shall hide themselves, and call on the mountains and the rocks to hide them from the face of him that sitteth on the throne.
His coming will be unexpected. Men will be buying and selling, marrying and giving in marriage; all the industrial and social life of the world will be going on, and into the midst of it he will break in the suddenness of his glory upon the astonished world.
And if we are humble we shall not pass by, as though it concerned us not, Christ's solemn instruction, Watch; "and what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch." I chiefly object to the common interpretations of the New Testament prophecy as fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem and the dispensation of the Holy Spirit, because they rob the New Testament of this solemn warning, and this eloquent incentive to holy, earnest, Christian living. If we believe that to-morrow the trumpets may sound in the horizon announcing the coming of our King, and our buying and selling, and marrying and giving in marriage, may be broken in upon by his second advent, and by the consummation of all things before his judgment throne, we should better understand Paul's mystical exhortation: "It remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none, and they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and they that use this world, as not abusing it." So may each one of us be moved to live, henceforth, from the devout and careful study of this hope and warning of Christ; ever looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour, with this prayer ever in our hearts, Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly.—Lymon Abbott, D. D.
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By Editor
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"WHAT IS THE CHAFF TO THE WHEAT?"
By M. C. W.
How much less evidence satisfies people when it is in harmony with their desires. The little becomes in their eyes great; the far-fetched inference becomes positively and absolutely conclusive. In fact, they want it so, and are bound to have it so, whether it is truth or not. With no subject is this better illustrated than that of the Sabbath. We have been requested to answer a number of objections against the seventh-day Sabbath, some of which are as follows:—
It is affirmed with great boldness (or bravado), that "the Sabbath was as exclusively for the Jews as circumcision was, and for the Jews alone;" that "the Sabbath was to Israel a memorial that they were once slaves in Egypt; that the first day assures us that the release has come; that the Sabbath looked back from an evil incident to the old creation; that the Lord's day [first day] looks forward with an eye beaming with hope; that the Sabbath was a shadow of good things to come." Ex. 20:2; Deut. 5:15; Eze. 20:12; Ex. 31:16, 17; Col. 2:16, 17.
Let us examine these positive statements:—
1. Not once in all the Bible is the Sabbath called Jewish; nor is it once said to belong to the Jews. It is, however, called "the Sabbath of the Lord thy God," and this Sabbath is the seventh day of the week. Ex. 20:8-11. Circumcision was not exclusively for the Jews. Ishmael was circumcised as well as Isaac; and Esau, doubtless, as well as Jacob. Some Eastern nations still practice it. As a religious rite it was held by the Jews. But when Christ came, circumcision became nothing, as is expressed by Paul: "Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God" is something (1 Cor. 7:19), is the ellipsis necessary to supply the text. But where is it once said that the Sabbath of the Lord is nothing?—Not in the Bible.
2. The Sabbath is not a memorial of Israel's deliverance from Egypt. Deut. 5:15 presents an additional reason, an appeal to Israel's gratitude, as to why Israel ought to keep the Sabbath. They must remember that while slaves in Egypt they had not the privilege of keeping God's rest-day. Now the privilege was granted, they ought to be doubly grateful and careful to obey. The "therefore" used in Deut. 5:15 does not imply that the seventh day was given to commemorate deliverance from Egypt any more than the "therefore" of Deut. 24:19-22 means that the only obligation resting upon Israel to be kind to the stranger and widow was the fact that God delivered them from Egypt; or any more than the "therefore" of Lev. 19:35-37 means that the obligation to do justice was given to Israel alone, as a memorial of the release from Egypt. But it is the duty of everyone—Jew and Gentile—to be kind to the poor and stranger, and to "do no unrighteousness in judgment, in mete-yard, in weight, or in measure," whether delivered from Egypt or not. It is just as true as regards the Sabbath. Deut. 5:15 is an additional appeal on the basis of gratitude for Israel to always observe the Sabbath, even as Lev. 19:35-37 and Deut. 24:19-22 are appeals on the same basis for justice and mercy. If, for the reason set forth in Deut. 5:15, it is not the Gentiles' duty to keep the Lord's Sabbath, then, for the reasons set forth in these other texts, Gentiles ought never to pity the widow and stranger, or to do justice in weight and measure. The objection shows how little evidence will satisfy when men desire it so. But the evidence in this case is perverted truth, and perverted truth is error. "What is the chaff to the wheat?"
The Sabbath is a memorial of creation. "Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day, and hallowed it." Ex. 20:8-11.
The Sabbath is that which points out the true God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth. God has made his wonderful works to be remembered (Ps. 111:4), and the memorial of these works is his holy Sabbath, so plainly stated in the commandment above. This memorial was not temporary, but for all time. "Thy name, O Lord, endureth forever; and thy memorial, O Lord, throughout all generations." Ps. 135:13.
Again: The Sabbath is based on facts much broader than any temporal deliverance. It is a memorial of creation, that which concerns all men in all parts of the earth. Just so long as men will exist, just so long God's memorial will be obligatory upon them. And this extent of the obligation is shown in the words of our Saviour: "The Sabbath was made for man" (Mark 2:27), that is, for the race.
4. "The first day assures us that release has come." Release from what? It is just stated that the Sabbath is a release from bondage; what more is necessary? But the facts are that the Paschal feast was the great memorial of release from Egypt, and it was also typical of the greater deliverance from sin through the sacrifice of "Christ our Passover." 1 Cor. 5:7. The first day assures us of nothing any more than any other of the "six working days," only as it is read into it through a perverted theology and an uninstructed mind. How confidently men assume to teach what God has never revealed.
All these beautiful things about the first day would be of such worth if they did not lack the one thing needful,—truth. They are wholly assumed. Men talk as though the all-wise God ought to have said certain things about that first day, and they will say it for him. God knew best what to say. Was the seventh day holy?—God has revealed it in a marked manner by a foundation and precept as broad as creation. Is the first day holy?—God could have revealed that, but he did not. Shall we, therefore, assume that he ought to have revealed what he has not? "Who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him?" It is bad enough to corrupt the word of God, but it is worse to speak in his name, where he has not spoken, and to speak contrary to what he has spoken.
5. Eze. 20:12, 20, and Ex. 31:16, 17 declares that the Sabbath is a sign between God and the children of Israel forever, and that they should keep it throughout their generations. Upon this we remark: (1) Because God gave Israel the Sabbath, and commanded them to keep it, is no evidence that it is not obligatory upon others. God gave them (the Jews) the other nine commandments. Were and are these precepts less obligatory upon us who are Gentiles by birth? He gave them the knowledge of his will, his goodness, his mercy. Is not this knowledge for us? He calls himself the God of Israel. "Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also." Rom. 3:29. Of the Israelites, Paul says (Rom. 9:4, 5):—
"To whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants [new as well as old], and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises: whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen."
And, Amen, so let it be, say we; can our objectors say, Amen? The Sabbath was given to the Jews with the other nine moral precepts, in order that they might be indeed a "kingdom of priests," teachers of the world. See Isaiah 56, where such precious promises are given to Gentiles who will accept of these truths, which so many delight to tell us were exclusively Jewish. "The Sabbath was made for man," and "salvation is of the Jews," are the words of Christ.
(2) The true Israel of God are those who lay hold upon God by prevailing faith. (See the true origin of the name in Gen. 32:24-30.) So the Sabbath will ever be a true sign between God and his people—the true children of Israel. Eze. 20:12, 20.
6. Col. 2:16, 17 refers to the annual ceremonial sabbaths peculiar to the Levitical dispensation, of which there were seven (some say ten), all being a part of the "shadow of things to come," of which Christ was the body. For instance, the Passover (Lev. 23:5) referred to the crucifixion of Christ (1 Cor. 5:7); the offering of the wave sheaf (Lev. 23:10) typified the resurrection of Christ (Matt. 28:1; 1 Cor. 15:20); and the offering of first-fruits, fifty days later (Lev. 23:17), typified the Pentecost, when the first-fruits of the new dispensation were gathered. Acts 2:1. And so with all of these annual sabbaths. They were all connected with the shadow. But not so with the seventh-day weekly Sabbath. In it was nothing typical. It was instituted before types were necessary, before man had sinned. It ever points backward to the creation. It is a memorial, not a type. Where the annual sabbaths are referred to in Leviticus 23, especial pains is taken to distinguish between these and the weekly Sabbath. "These are the feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations; . . . besides the Sabbaths of the Lord." Verses 37, 38. So when these were abolished, Inspiration was careful to distinguish lest man should misunderstand. The sabbaths and feast days, concerning which no man is to judge us, "are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ." Nothing could make it clearer to a candid, honest, unprejudiced investigator after truth.
The reception of truth depends on the condition of the heart. If men love God, they will love his truth. If they are of God, they will heed the words of God. John 8:47. If the heart loves sin and transgression, it will be satisfied with unlawful inference as evidence, in order that it may disregard a plain, "Thus saith the Lord." When God spoke his law with his own voice, wrote it with his own finger on tables of stone, "added no more," indicating its completeness, declared it "perfect;" when Jesus says that it is easier for heaven and earth to pass than one little even of the law to fail, we do not see how man's duty with reference to every precept could be made clearer.
In a letter before us is stated: "No two days are more unlike than the Sabbath and first day. One is the end of the old creation, the other the beginning of the new." The latter sentence is pure assumption. God has revealed nothing concerning it. It is only a little human opinion arrogantly set up against the great, clear facts of Divine Revelation. The first sentence is literally true. Upon no day, upon no institution, has God placed such honor as on the seventh-day Sabbath. From the primal rest, blessing and setting apart of the day (Gen. 2:2, 3), from the threefold weekly miracle663for forty years (Exodus 16), from its proclamation from heaven by the voice of Deity (Ex. 20:8-11), from the many utterances of inspired writers concerning its holiness, from the claim of the Son of God that he was its Lord (Mark 2:28), from the death of the Prince of Life in honor of the law of God, to that prophetic age which knows no end, when and where the redeemed will worship God from week to week, upon his holy day (Isa. 66:22, 23), the voice of Inspiration is the same, that the seventh-day Sabbath is holy unto the Lord. But of the first day there is not a single utterance that it is exalted above its fellows of "the six working days." What are its claims compared with those of the Sabbath? "What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord." M. C. W.
THE SPIRIT OF GOD.
By C. P. B.
WE are asked by a correspondent for an expression of opinion relative to the theory held by some that the Spirit of God is the angels. The subject of the being and nature of the divine Spirit is a most solemn one, therefore we approach it with diffidence. Nevertheless, believing all revealed truth to be important, and feeling assured that the view referred to is contrary to the Scriptures of truth, we will attempt to give briefly what we believe to be the teaching of the inspired word upon this important subject.
It seems clear to us that the Scriptures fully warrant the belief that the Spirit of God is essentially divine, that it was the efficient actor in the work of creation, that by that power, directed by the Son of God, all things, including the angels, were created, and that consequently the Spirit of God existed prior to, and is superior to, those holy beings.
That the Spirit of God is an essential part of God, and therefore necessarily divine, is clearly shown by 1 Cor. 2:11, which certainly teaches that the divine Spirit is just as much a part of God as is the human spirit a part of man. The apostle says: "What man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." This text shows an intimate connection between God and the Spirit that cannot be understood of the angels, for of them we read (1 Peter 1:12) that there are certain things which they desired to look into, showing plainly that they are finite beings, dependent for knowledge upon revelation and research, just as man is. This alone precludes the idea that they constitute the Spirit of God, that knows the things of God.
That the Spirit of God existed before the creation and was the efficient actor in creation, appears from Gen. 1:2 and also from Ps. 104:30. These texts certainly teach that the Spirit of God is the subtle force by which all things were created; it must, therefore, have been before the angels, and by this power they, in common with all other creatures, must have been created. Of course we understand from Job 38:4-7 that the angels existed prior to the creation of this earth, but that does not weaken in the least degree the force of what has been said, for, as will presently appear, the Scriptures plainly teach that the angels are themselves created beings. They were created by the Son of God through the power of the divine Spirit; this we know from Col. 1:16 and 17, and from Eze. 28:15, the latter scripture expressly stating that Satan was created.
It may be objected, however, that in thus ascribing creation to the Spirit we contradict those scriptures which ascribe creation to the Son. But we do nothing of the kind. It is true that the Bible does ascribe creation to the Son, but, as we have shown, it also ascribes it to the Spirit; we are therefore shut up to one conclusion, namely, to use the words of a former editor of this paper, that "the Spirit of God is that awful and mysterious power which proceeds from the throne of the universe, and which is the efficient actor in the work of creation and redemption," and that that power was directed by the Son of God, by whom, the apostle declares, "all things were created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by him, and for him; and he is before all things, and by him all things consist." Col. 1:16, 17.
The "all things" of this text must certainly include the angels, and forbids the idea that they are the Spirit of God, unless we are prepared to admit the conclusion that God was without a Spirit until the creation of the angels! God is without beginning, and no matter how long before the creation of the world the angels had their being, there was still back of that an eternity during which God must, if the theory we are examining be true, have existed without a Spirit!
Another insuperable objection to the theory that the angels constitute the Spirit of God, is found in the fact that some of the angels "kept not their first estate," but fell and were cast out of heaven.
Again, the same arguments which are supposed to prove that the angels are the Spirit of God, have even more force to show that one angel, namely, Gabriel, is that Spirit. But the Scriptures teach that the Spirit is omnipresent, while Gabriel is not. Says the psalmist: "Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me." Ps. 139:7-10. But that this is not true of Gabriel appears from Dan. 9:21-23; 10:12, 13. It appears from these texts that Gabriel was "sent," and that he went from place to place, and that while with the prince of Persia he was not with the prophet. Certainly these and other considerations which will occur to the careful student of the word, ought to convince anyone that while the angels are only a little higher than man (Heb. 2:7), the Spirit of God is infinitely higher, and a very essential part of God himself. C. P. B.
THE POWER OF CHRIST.
By M. C. W.
INSPIRATION, in speaking of that number who shall be translated, or redeemed from among men, at the second coming of Christ, says that "they are without fault before the throne of God." Rev. 14:5. Their virtue is not relative virtue, they are not compared with worldly standards of righteousness, but, standing before that throne founded in righteousness and judgment, before that Judge who can read all hearts and motives, they are "without fault." Wondrous and blessed condition! What brought them there? their own obedience to the law by their own efforts? No; by no power of man are they thus perfected so that God's law finds no fault in them. They sought unto the law for righteousness, but it condemned them. In their pride they strove to obey it, but could not. They found the law good, but their own hearts carnal. Rom. 7:14, 15, 19. Despairing of conquering by human power, by failing in every attempt to do God's will, they are driven by condemnation to the only remedy, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Rom. 7:25. In him they find pardon and peace. Rom. 8:1.
But God's grace does not leave them here. "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God [did by] sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin [overthrew sin] in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Rom. 8:3, 4. "Condemned sin in the flesh" does not mean, as some suppose, condemned sinful flesh, or mankind. Mankind is condemned by God's law, before Christ came as much as after he came. Rom. 3:19. As the law condemned, it could not save. Salvation comes through Christ. He came not to condemn the world (John 3:17), but to condemn sin in the flesh, in order "that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin" (Rom. 6:6); or, as expressed in Rom. 8:4, "that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us." That professed Christians do sin, is no evidence that they need to sin. God's grace is as powerful to keep from sin as to cleanse from sin.
Temptations will come just as long as probation lasts. But the Spirit which has changed man's heart will give him power to meet temptation that sin may no longer reign. In fact, the real temptations begin after Christ is accepted. The Christian is then an enlisted soldier; the warfare lies before him. God has given him a new heart; his change comes from within,—by the renewing of the mind. Rom. 12:2. But though his weapons of warfare are not sword and spear and gun, they are nevertheless "mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds." 2 Cor. 10:4.
It is a mistake to suppose that there will be no temptations, no lustings and clamorings of the flesh, after God has accepted the individual; for there will be. Here is the battle-ground, here the power of Christ in the heart is to be manifested against the power of sin, inherent and cultivated, in the flesh. Before conversion sin reigned. That reigning power of sin is called "the body of sin," "the old man," "the first husband." Rom. 6:6; 7:1-6. This controlling power of sin is destroyed, and is buried by baptism; but lusts remain in the mortal body. Hence the injunction, "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof." Rom. 6:12. The lusts are there still. If the soul cherishes them, yields to them, lust conceives and brings forth sin. James 1:14, 15. Continuing in this way, a body of sin is soon built up, and the individual turns from Christ, the lawful husband, and chooses a worldly paramour.
The members of the body which once acted in harmony with its lusts, for the heart was then agreed, formed strong and natural habits of sin. After conversion the tendency of the flesh and its members is to act in the same way. The sinful tendencies of the mortal body clamor for the old mastery; but the renewed mind and the Spirit of God are sufficient to put them down, to crucify the deed in its inception. Here are strongholds of sin; here the weapons not carnal through the power of Christ are sufficient to pull down these habits of the past.
The nerves of thought will also tend in the old way, in the sinful imaginations, but grace is sufficient to cast down all imaginations, and every high thing which exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. 2 Cor. 10:5. The members which were once yielded to sin are by the power of Christ yielded as instruments of righteousness to God. Rom. 6:13. The law of life in Christ Jesus has made the individual free from the law of sin and death. Where sin then reigned, grace now reigns. The flesh suffers in the conflict, but in suffering gains the victory and ceases from sin. And every victory over tendencies and lust, makes that tendency and lust so much weaker, while it confirms the forming habits of righteousness.
Thus the conflict goes on. Trials manifest the tendencies of the flesh and reveal wrong habits which are unconsciously held by the child of God, till all tendencies are overcome, a righteous character664is formed by right habits, the babe has become a full-grown man in Christ Jesus, and through the latter rain of God's grace and power, the individual is fitted to stand without fault before the throne of God. The conflict of Christian life means agony, strong pleading, strong faith, consecration, and love of God; but he who exercises these beats not the air in his efforts, fights not uncertainly the battles. Victory is sure through Christ Jesus our Lord. Then "be of good courage, . . . all ye that hope in the Lord."
M. C. W.
SOUTH AFRICA AS A MISSION FIELD. NO. 1.
By Stephen Nelson Haskell
IN speaking of South Africa as a mission field it may be proper to say a word respecting the closing work of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In many ways it is the same as the opening work, the task that was allotted to the apostles and their co-laborers. They came in contact with every phase of life and creeds, ranging from the bigotry of the Jews to the idolatrous practices of the Greeks and Romans. As great differences as these have to be encountered to-day, and, added to these difficulties, the facts that the world is more extensively populated, and that population more settled in their ways and hardened by the rejection of the light which God in his mercy has sent them from time to time. But if the closing work is to be attended with more trial and persecution than was the opening work, so God in his love and kindness to his servants now upon the earth will clothe them with greater power, and the grace of Christ will be more manifest.
Wonderful works were wrought by those who received the early rain when the Spirit of God rested on the believers on the day of Pentecost, and yet these works are not to be compared to those which will be performed by the children of God in the last days, when the showers of the latter rain shall have been poured upon them. The work accomplished at that time prefigured the closing work. It brought to maturity the seed that had been sown during the three and a half years of our Lord's ministry by Christ and his disciples in the conversion of thousands of souls. We have been laboring many years, and just as soon as the latter rain is poured forth and the loud cry of the Third Angel's Message goes with power, many will take their stand for the truth that have been convinced of it for a long time.
As a people we will have to guard against the idea that we are the only ones to whom God has intrusted the closing work. As there were many other agencies besides the disciples heralding the glad tidings of the first advent of the Redeemer, so there will be many in the last days. Looking back to Bible times it can be seen that the apostles themselves did not at the time appreciate these agents that God was using. Mark 9:38-42. Then there was the work of John the Baptist even after the Saviour and his disciples had commenced to teach. These were still engaged in fulfilling the prophecy, "Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me." "The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." Nor was the work confined to those who had a full knowledge of the prophecy; the wise men from the East, as well as the disciples, came to worship him. Matt. 2:1, 2.
God weighs moral worth more than intellect, learning, or even a theoretical knowledge of the truth. God works in a wonderful and a marvelous way, which many of his professed people will not believe, though it be declared unto them. Isa. 29:13, 14. At the present time the Lord is sending missionaries of every denomination to the heathen nations of the world, to prepare the way for this message to follow. These are all agents in the hands of God to bring about the closing work, and should be regarded as such. The eighteen different nationalities who shared in the outpouring of the Spirit of God on the day of Pentecost, prefigure the time when the message will go to every kindred, nation, tongue, and people, and the earth be lighted with the glory of the Lord.
In less than forty years after the Saviour had called the twelve disciples, the apostle Paul writes, making the statement that the gospel was preached to every creature under Heaven. Col. 1:23. Africa during this period must have heard the gospel; some of the earliest Christians must have been natives of this continent. However, in Rom. 1:21-32, we have the sad picture of how the Lord cast off the heathen because they obeyed not his voice. But are they any more hopelessly cast off than the Jews who crucified their divine Lord? Will there not be a remnant of the 200,000,000 natives of this land saved in the kingdom of God? Will there not be a few of these teeming millions inhabiting African soil who will help to swell the number of the redeemed? Yes, indeed, there are as precious souls in Africa as there are in all other places on the earth.
Let us consider a few events which have been taking place in this dark continent for more than a century in time past, and see if in them we cannot discern the providence of God preparing the way for the Third Angel's Message. It was in the year of our Lord 1737 that George Schmidt, who, "for conscience' sake," had suffered six years in prison, and who bore, till the day of his death, the marks of the cruel treatment he had undergone whilst there, began to tell the story of the cross to a company of dark-minded Hottentots, in a little nook 130 miles north of the spot where Cape Town now stands, and which afterwards took the beautiful and appropriate name of the "Vale of Grace."
For six long and weary years this lone Moravian missionary strove to enlighten the inhabitants of benighted Africa, and it was not until the seventh year that he began to see fruit of his labor. However, after the first encouraging sign, converts multiplied rapidly. But the whites disapproved of his work, and he was forbidden to baptize, and finally was compelled to leave the country. Nevertheless, the good seed he sowed was far too precious for the Lord of the harvest to permit it to wither and die; it has borne good fruit, and by its influence tens of thousands have been enlightened in South Africa by the story of Calvary's cross. Even when obliged to leave his field he did not relinquish his burden for it, but, like Livingstone, his follower, died on his knees, pleading with God that "Ethiopia might soon stretch out her hands to him."
The seed which the Lord used his servant to plant, although it lay dormant for half a century, has taken deep root and sent up a vigorous stem, from which many of the natives have been enabled to draw of the sap of the love of God. At the present day there is scarcely a Christian nation on the face of the earth which has not missionaries on this continent. Shall we ignore all the work that these men are doing, and say that the hand of the Lord is not in it? No; the Lord has indeed a providence in it.
Fifty years after Schmidt had been driven away, the providence of God opened up the way for others to take up the neglected work. The same spot was visited, and here they found, to their great joy, a few remains of the walls of the mission that he had built, a few fruit-trees bearing fruit, but what was still more precious, some fruit of the spiritual seeds that had been sown so many years before. Among others was an aged Hottentot woman whom Schmidt had taught to read her Bible; she was still preserving the precious treasure which he had given her, and welcomed the missionaries as the brethren of her former instructor. For a time the mission was greatly opposed by the Dutch, but the hand of the Lord has prospered it, and, at the present time, the "Vale of Grace" is able to show a goodly settlement, with a congregation of 3,000 souls. From this center the Moravian mission work has extended, till they are now established in two provinces, with sixteen stations, sixty missionaries, and more that 12,000 converts to the Christian faith.
About the same time that these successors of Schmidt commenced their work, Theodosius Vanderkemp, of Holland, established a mission in665one of the darkest places on all the continent. For thirteen years he labored untiringly, till he fell asleep in Jesus. But the good work has gone forward until the mission has sent out more than 100 native preachers, and brought 6,000 souls into the church.
Soon after, the London Missionary Society and the Wesleyan Society commenced their work. The latter at first located in the southern portion of the continent, and by degrees has extended its operations from Cape Colony to Kaffraria, Natal, and Bechuana. At present they have in their employ sixty missionaries, and these and their predecessors have led to the light of the gospel 6,000 souls. The American Board took the field in 1834, and has now three missions, the Zulu, the West African, and the East African. It has thirty stations, and forty-eight laborers from America, besides forty native assistants. Its church members number 2,000, and there are also, as a result of its labors, 7,000 adherents to the Christian faith. Many other societies might be mentioned, such as the French, the Berlin, the Rhenish, and others, but space will not permit to tell of the faithful work which they are doing. Suffice to say that it is estimated that in South Africa there are more than a dozen societies, occupying two hundred stations, and employing over five hundred laborers, besides a much larger force of native laborers. It is further stated that there are in all 40,000 converts to Christianity, and 50,000 children gathered into the Christian schools.
Nothing has been said of Central Africa and the Congo, where the truth of God is also being promulgated, as it is in many other far-off districts from which we hear but little. An interesting description of this work is given by Mr. Arnot in his work entitled "Gareenganze." From this we can also obtain some idea of the privations and hardships which others are undergoing in order that souls may be saved from African soil to wield the palm branch of victory, and sing redemption's song around the great white throne.
It is a limited idea of the magnitude of the closing work for any one people to think that they, and they alone, are the only instruments in the hands of God to prepare people for the kingdom. Such an idea would not coincide with the plans of the God of the Bible. If God has intrusted to us as a people a special work, it becomes us to carry it forward with all the powers of mind and body that he has bestowed upon us, that at his coming the talents lent may be returned with usury. Ever must we remember that the Lord of the harvest is using other agents in the closing work, that the way may be prepared for the special message. We who are so unworthy in the sight of God should consider that it is the greatest honor that could be conferred upon us to have any part in a work so great and important. When we try to contemplate the infinity of "our Father's" plans we are overcome with their greatness, and our finite understanding sinks powerless, unable to perform such a task. Only with the apostle can we say: "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out? For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counselor? or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things; to whom be glory forever. Amen."
S. N. H.
God’s Care for the Afflicted
"The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind; the Lord raiseth them that are bowed down; the Lord loveth the righteous." Ps. 146:8.