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Review and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 12.

HELP FOR OUR SCANDINAVIAN INSTITUTIONS

Review and Herald

Mar 19, 1901

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 19, 1901

HELP FOR OUR SCANDINAVIAN INSTITUTIONS

By Ellen G. White

MRS. E. G. WHITE
In the name of the Lord I appeal again to our people in behalf of our institutions in Scandinavia. These institutions are in peril, and all who can should act their part without delay in delivering them. Let there be a consecrated, united effort to lift these institutions out of the difficulty into which they have fallen.
Those who love and serve God should feel the deepest interest in all that concerns the glory of His name. Who could see the institutions where the truth has been magnified, where the Lord has so often revealed His presence, where instruction has been given by the messengers of God, where the truth has been sent forth in publications that have accomplished great good,—who could bear to see these institutions passing into the hands of worldlings, to be used for common, worldly purposes? God would certainly be dishonored if His institutions were allowed to fall into decay for want of the money which He has intrusted to His stewards. Should this happen, men would say that it was because the Lord was not able to prevent it.
These things mean much to our brethren and sisters in Scandinavia. They will be sorely tried if their facilities are cut off. Let us make an effort to prevent them from falling into depression and discouragement.
Promptness of decision and action is necessary in this work. At the Week of Prayer there should have been a clear understanding of this matter in every church, and with the appeal before them, the people should have given their offerings to the place where holy interests are imperiled. Why is it that our ministers and church-members are not more prompt in their decisions in regard to the subject of the greatest need? When the Lord places before us an appeal to be responded to, just at the time when offerings are to be made by our people, let the ministers and church officers take up the matter earnestly and vigorously. Let them as stewards of God decide what is to be done, and then do it. This is absolutely necessary when our institutions are in so great peril.
The embarrassment of the Scandinavian institutions should have been thoroughly understood. Prompt measures should have been taken to relieve these institutions, which are just as sacred in the sight of the Lord as are our institutions in America. The hands of those connected with these institutions should not be weakened because of their embarrassment.
Let all who love the Lord now act their part for the relief of these institutions. Do not allow the name of Christ to be reproached. There are those who have little faith, who with some flimsy excuse will try to discourage others from doing anything. It only needs a discouraging word to rouse and strengthen selfishness in the soul. Do not listen to those who would tempt you. Do not begin to censure and condemn. Waive the questions that will arise as to how the difficulty has come about. It is sufficient for us to know that distress has come upon our brethren, in whom we have confidence as the Lord’s servants. Do what you can now to help those who need help. Those who do this work with faithfulness will be among the number to whom the Saviour’s words apply, “Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.”
One part of the ministry of heavenly angels is to visit our world and oversee the work of the Lord which is in the hands of His stewards. In every time of necessity they minister to those who, as co-workers with God, are striving to carry forward His work in the earth. These heavenly intelligences are represented as desiring to look into the plan of redemption, and the angelic hosts rejoice whenever any part of God’s work prospers.
Angels are interested in the spiritual welfare of all who are seeking to restore the moral image of God in man; and the human family are to connect with the heavenly family in binding up the wounds and bruises that sin has made. Angelic agencies, though invisible, are co-operating with visible human agencies, forming a relief-association with men. The very angels who, when Satan was seeking the supremacy, fought the battle in the heavenly courts, and triumphed on the side of God; the very angels who shouted for joy over the creation of our world, and over the creation of our first parents to inhabit the earth; the angels who witnessed the fall of man and his expulsion from his Eden home,—these very heavenly messengers are most intensely interested to work in union with the fallen, redeemed race for the salvation of human beings perishing in their sins.
Human agencies are the hands of heavenly instrumentalities; for heavenly angels employ human hands in practical ministry. Human agencies as hand-helpers are to work out the knowledge and use the facilities of heavenly beings. By uniting with these powers that are omnipotent, we are benefited by their higher education and experience. Thus, as we become partakers of the divine nature, and separate selfishness from our lives, special talents for helping one another are granted us. This is Heaven’s way of administering saving power.
Is there not something stimulating and inspiring in this thought, that the human agent stands as the visible instrument to confer the blessings of angelic agencies? As we are thus laborers together with God, the work bears the inscription of the divine. The knowledge and activity of the heavenly workers, united with the knowledge and power imparted to human agencies, bring relief to the oppressed and distressed. Our acts of unselfish ministry make us partakers in the success that results from the relief offered.
With what joy and delight heaven looks upon these blended influences! All heaven is watching those agencies that are as the hand to work out the purposes of God in the earth, thus doing the will and purpose of God in heaven. Such co-operation accomplishes a work that brings honor and glory and majesty to God.
Oh, if all would love as Christ has loved, that perishing men might be saved from ruin, what a change would come to our world! Christ’s life was a life of pure benevolence, of disinterested labor. He assumed human nature for no other purpose than to display the glory of God in the happiness of man. To accomplish this He gave His life. All that Christ is, He is to the true believers. All that Christ has, He has for us. We are heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. How then can we hesitate and draw back when Christ asks for our co-operation in His great work? The Lord is giving us opportunity to manifest our faith and our love for Him by making a sacrifice for the relief of His institutions.
My brethren, the Lord is soon to come, and every talent He has intrusted to us is to be returned to Him with usury. He calls upon His people to use for His glory the goods Hehas lent them. Let those who have means at once return to the Lord His own to help the institutions out of their embarrassment. Let those in responsible positions set a right example. Every noble, Christian instinct in the men in responsible positions should lead them to plan and work with greater earnestness for the relief of our institutions than they would for the saving of their own property. Let all try to do something. Delay not for a day or an hour. Look over your affairs, and see what you can do to co-operate with the Lord in helping His suffering institutions.
Let the people of God think of the eternal consequences of rightly employing their property. Let them bring their offerings to the Lord, saying, “Lord, we who have been intrusted with thy goods freely give thee of thine own.”
Large sums are needed; but if you can give only a small amount, remember that the Lord will accept your gift. Remember that you are placing this money in the hands of Christ in the person of His afflicted brethren. Thus God regards it.
Since God sees fit to delegate angels to minister unto all who are in need of help, we know that if we do our part, these heavenly representatives of omnipotent power will be commissioned to help in this time of special need. I hope and pray that everything which can be done may be done. If all will now do what they can, the difficulty will soon be in the past, no more to harass the cause of God.
There is a great work to be done in Europe. The cause of God there is not to become a stone of stumbling or a rock of offense to unbelievers. The institutions there are not to be closed, or given into the hands of those not of our faith. The Lord’s servants in Europe are to rally to recover what has been lost, and the Lord will work with them. And I call upon our people in America to co-operate with their brethren in Europe in this effort.
We often fail of doing that which the Lord has planned, because we insist on carrying out some whim of our own. I pray that the Lord will fill our hearts with an intense desire to know and to do His will. From unfeigned lips let the prayer go forth, “Let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel.” Let us work with heart and mind and soul. God’s purpose will be accomplished if men and women will act their part in His great plan. Let us now be God’s helping hand to relieve our institutions in Scandinavia.

“WHAT SHE COULD”

By S. C. Kirk

“She hath done what she could,” said the Master, “for me;”
“How tender and sweet was the word! And the deed she hath done her memorial shall be Wherever my gospel is heard.”
Ah, ’tis this that must try every deed that we do, Ere Jesus pronounces it good: Not the thing we have done, but the love it may show, And whether we’ve done what we could.
There are some that are struggling along on the way, And reaping, they think, only leaves; Whilst others return at the close of the day, And bring in a harvest of sheaves.
But the eye of the Master is on every one; Not a sigh nor a struggle is lost; And it is not the much nor the little we’ve done, But — what has the offering cost?
Not the poor widow’s mite, nor the gold of the king, Shall count of itself in the test; It will not be the stamp of the coin that we bring, But whether the gift is our best.
— S. C. Kirk.

HAVE YOU READ?

By D. A. Grant

D. A. GRANT (Patten, Me.)
HAVE you read that excellent book, “Power for Witnessing”? To those who know something of the workings of the Holy Spirit, it is very encouraging and helpful; and to those who have not received this gift in its fullness, and as it is their privilege to do, it is invaluable, if carefully and prayerfully studied, and not simply given a superficial reading.
The company that the great seer saw redeemed from among men, were “without fault before the throne of God.” Happy, blissful state! If we would attain it, we must be in earnest; for we are not living in a sunny period of the world’s history; and the foe is strong. But, “thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ,” “whosoever will” may come; and shall we not “seek the Lord, till He come and rain righteousness” upon us?
The General Conference is soon to convene; let us pray that God’s Spirit may rest abundantly upon it, and that those of us who can not be there may share the rich blessing of God, which He is ever ready to bestow upon His waiting people.
The following is said to have been Queen Victoria’s favorite hymn:—
“Lo! He comes, with clouds descending, Once for favored sinners slain; Thousand thousand saints attending, Swell the triumph of His train: Hallelujah! God appears on earth to reign.
“Every eye shall now behold Him Robed in dreadful majesty; Those who set at naught and sold Him, Pierced and nailed Him to the tree, Deeply wailing, Shall the true Messiah see.
“All the tokens of His passion Still His dazzling body bears, Cause of endless exultation To His ransomed worshipers; With what rapture Gaze we on those glorious scars!
“Yea, Amen! let all adore thee, High on thy eternal throne; Saviour, take the power and glory; Claim the kingdom for thine own: Jah! Jehovah! Everlasting God, come down!”

THE OLD COVENANT

By S. B. Whitney

S. B. WHITNEY
In considering the subject of the covenants as presented in the book of Galatians, it is necessary to keep in mind the fact that the apostle is dealing with personal experiences and not with theories, his object being to distinguish between a correct Christian experience and deceptive human inventions; and his illustrations are cited to serve this purpose. To illustrate the covenants, the two Jerusalems are used, thus representing the two classes of people who are denominated their children. This use of the word Jerusalem is of frequent occurrence in the Scripture.
It follows, therefore, that the condition of those cities, as regards bondage or freedom, is determined by the condition of the children. In this case, instead of the children following the condition of the mother, the mother, contrary to nature, partakes of the condition of the children. In other words, the bondage or freedom does not pertain to the cities as such, but to those whom they represent, so that “Jerusalem which now is” is said to be in bondage because that is the condition of those represented by it. This distinction, it would seem, should make plain the subject.
The conditions proposed by Jehovah were not impossible nor unreasonable; nor was the acceptance of them by the people wrong of itself; for the terms were only what are required under the new covenant, and were no more than what had been done and was then being done by some, at least, of that people. Of Abraham it was said, “He obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.” Gen. 26:5. And of Caleb it is written: “But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully,” etc. Num. 14:24. Again, chap. 32:12: “Save Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite, and Joshua the son of Nun; for they have wholly followed the Lord.” See also Heb. 11:4–10, 24–26.
Wherein, then, lies the trouble with the old covenant? Wherein was that covenant faulty? The bondage was not in the covenant, nor necessarily in the making of it, for that would involve God himself; but the bondage of the people and the faultiness of the covenant resulted from the spirit in which they entered into it; from their unbelief and carnality, which rendered them incapable of performing what they had solemnly promised. With this agrees the reason given for the discarding of that covenant: “For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, He saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: . . . because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not.” Heb. 8:7–9.
In this principle lies the object lesson. The danger still exists which confronted the Galatians. The tendency to substitute human ideas for gospel truth yet remains. In the new covenant the law of God is written in the hearts of those who accept it. The children of Israel were permitted to enter into the old covenant because they “had to a great extent lost the knowledge of God and of the principles of the Abrahamic covenant,” and “had no true conception of the holiness of God, of the exceeding sinfulness of their own hearts, their utter inability, in themselves, to render obedience to God’s law, and their need of a Saviour;” and “all this they must be taught.”
If we, like them, enter into covenant with God because we think we must, to be saved, or for the sake of reward, and are lacking in some respects, as they were, we are under the old covenant, and there is still occasion for the exhortation, “Cast out the bond woman and her son;” which is the “putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.” Gal. 4:30; Col. 2:11.

ORGANIZATION

By Earnest A. Raymond

The Remnant Church

EARNEST A. RAYMOND
How stands to-day the remnant Church? Is it ready for presentation to its Lord, “a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing”? Is it ready for the ripening of the harvest by the latter rain—that finishing sealing work of the Spirit, that “cuts short in righteousness”?
Life’s growing-time will soon be over; its changing-time will soon be past: sealed and fixed for all eternity, the harvest of character will be gathered in. It will then be too late to organize anew, to change our tares to wheat, if we idle away the hours of NOW, the day of salvation. “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved!”
Brethren, is there not danger of our delaying the working out of our own salvation while waiting for the Spirit to do some wonderful work for us? Already we have Him with and in each one of us. “Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.”
Have we willed to do His will? Desiring is not sufficient. “If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine.” He shall quickly learn the what and the how. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” Having willed to find and do the work of God, and found it, let us do it. “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”
How do it?—Even as the man whose withered arm and hand the Saviour healed. Precisely as the man whose feet and ankle bones received strength upon the exercise of faith. Neither was healed before he made the effort. At the very instant, in making the effort, they were healed. Such is the faith that works, and by working receives new power with which to work, increasing, growing, until it is ready for the last great trial and the fullness of the Spirit’s power.
At no time in the history of man has it been of more vital importance than now, that we walk in the light while we have the light, lest darkness come upon us. Do we strive to keep in line with every ray of light that falls? As a people have we not been looking for light, for divine direction,to come through certain channels and no other, and thus, having many a time heard and rejected, or hesitated and delayed, even when the message came that we had so long expected, found ourselves well-nigh powerless to act. Light is light, truth is truth, be it revealed through a Hottentot, a Grecian sage, a prophet appointed, or directly by an angel from heaven.
How is it, brethren, when the truth is made known without fear or favor; when the watchman on Zion’s walls cries aloud and spares not, showing God’s “people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins,” do we thank God, and feel renewed courage? or do we say, as did Ahab of old on meeting Elijah, “Art thou he that troubleth Israel?” God forbid. To such the prophet’s answer may well be given: “I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father’s house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord.”
The Spirit of God is the great agent of creation and reorganization. He hath tempered the body together, “that there should be no schism,” and “that the members should have the same care one for another.” What has been our work as the “repairer of the breach,” as the “restorer of paths to dwell in”? Have we obeyed the Spirit’s admonition to “lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but rather let it be healed”? Have we not rather “thrust with side and with shoulder, and pushed all the diseased” with our horns, till we have “scattered them abroad”?
Is such the reorganization of heaven? The divine plan of redemption takes man where it finds him, and infuses into his being new life from above. Has the divine or the human plan been demonstrated by our haste to herald far and wide our educational means as something reorganized after God’s own mind and plan, from the mere outward sign of the Spirit’s expression affixed? Could any bondage be more galling than the obligation we have thus brought upon ourselves? Having first assumed the sign, the seal, the “coat of arms,” as it were, we now must “keep up appearances.” Is it any wonder that bankruptcy of heart and hand continually confronts us? Nature’s growth is “first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.” “Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.”
True indeed it is that our foundation and building stones must be of eternal truth. The Word is the only true foundation and perfect guide, as the Spirit rears our life from earth to heaven. The Bible is the touchstone by which to test all that ever has been, is, or shall be thought, or said, or written, or done. But who of us have reached the depth and circumference of all God’s great “expressions,” that we can judge our fellow men by our own conceptions, a rule infallible? It were much better to study pagan philosophy in the light of the gospel, revealing something to be avoided, life’s record of humanity’s weakness by no means outgrown, than to fall into the essential errors of papal assumption.
Says the perfect Restorer, “If a man [or institution] 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.” The Spirit of God is the only perfect unifier. By His operation the various members and gifts and operations of the whole “body” are knit together. What have we done in seeking to repair the breach with untempered mortar? Though we build with stones of present truth, without love’s perfect joining—the spirit of co-operation—the rent only widens.
Brethren beloved, have we ceased forever to quench the Spirit? Have we given up the belittling, hindering, and preventing of His work, although He is pleased to operate through human agents whom we have decided are not in harmony with our régime? If we truly have, we shall no more publish it abroad by way of contrast, as an indication of our superior righteousness, when the Spirit deigns in mercy and love to work with us in spite of our errors.
The time has indeed come when “repentance and remission of sins should be preached,” beginning at Jerusalem. Brother, whoever, wherever, you are, whatever others may do, let you and me make thorough preparation for the kingdom. Can we ever enter in, can we drink of the wondrous blessing of the Spirit’s fullness, with “fruits meet for repentance” not brought forth?
“Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.”
My weary, way-worn brother, our Father loves us still. If our lives were not worth correcting; if our characters were not worth the polishing, He would not trouble to reprove us. That He calls attention to our faults while yet there is remedy, is the surest proof of enduring affection, and the strongest ground for hope. If there is anything for which we as Christians should never cease to pray in faith, it is breadth of mind. Note carefully this lesson from our Saviour’s life: “And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name; and we forbade him, because he followeth not with us. And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us.”
The same important truth is most forcibly brought out by Paul: “For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? . . . And the eye can not say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.” “But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased Him.”
My brother, whoever, wherever, you are, shall you and I ever again be found warring against the divine order of organization? “Having then gifts differing,” “who art thou that judgest another man’s servant?” Though by common consent his special gift and training is indicated by A. B., or some other letters, instead of M. D., “what is that to thee? follow thou me.”
“If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” Then never again let us present such a “spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men,” as the holding up to public disparagement, belittlement, and ridicule, those whose “proper gifts” differ from our own, but who are “following” as truly as we, though not, indeed, with us.
Brethren, what mean these burdened ones in almost every church and community, repressed, held down, consigned by us to eternal oblivion, though yearning from the depths of their souls for the co-operation of their brethren in laboring for the common Master? Are we guiltless? Are we really half as anxious that the mold of the divine mind and plan be received, as our own?
Brethren of the laity, let us not lay all the blame at the feet of our brethren in the ministry. Oftentimes it has been on account of our dereliction of duty that, seeing the ark of God tottering, they have unwisely put forth the hand. Or may it not be that, as with Moses of old, the Lord was wroth with them and dealt hardly for our sakes?
Fellow heirs of the kingdom, what we must have, what we shall have, is divine reorganization, creation anew, the being “born,” as was the world when brought forth to perfection, “of water and of the Spirit.” Every power, every faculty, the very elements of our being, surrendered to Him who recreates; comprehended, held in solution, as it were, of His wondrous power and grace,—it is thus and then His hovering, brooding Spirit does life’s rearranging work, and that holy thing brought forth shall, as then, when Adam was, and Christ the Lord, be called, and truly be, the son of God.

THE TWO ISRAELS

By L. D. Santee

L. D. SANTEE
“Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples [“types” margin]: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” 1 Cor. 10:11.
When God finished the creation, the Sabbath stood forth as a prominent factor. It crowned the week's labor with a diadem of thanksgiving and praise. It was to be a day of holy joy, a fitting tribute of a sinless race. But sin reversed all. The carnal mind, man's legacy from the devil, soon filled the earth with violence and crime. But even amid the darkness of a lost world, the Star of hope shone out. In the promise that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head were embodied all those events that are necessary for its fulfillment.
It embraced the second coming of the Lord, and the Judgment. I read in Jude 14: “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of His saints, to execute judgment upon all.” It embraced the sacrifice of Christ, and this hope found expression in the sacrificial system. It included the “restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.” Acts 3:21. Later, God gave to Israel the land of Canaan, a type of the redeemed inheriting the earth made new; and if the people had been obedient and loyal to God, the type would have continued until it reached the antitype.
No nation ever entered a land with more glorious prospects than did Israel when they entered Canaan under the leadership of Joshua. Moses asked, “For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon Him for? and what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?” Deut. 4:7, 8. Not great numerically, for other nations outnumbered them, but great in having the favor and nearness of God. When the land was divided among them, they had vineyards that they had not planted, and wells and cisterns that they had not digged, and Jerusalem was already built, ready for their use. Their hands did not need to fashion the architecture nor lay the foundations.
So in the antitype. The city above is not built with hands. The land that they possessed might have been theirs for all time; for the promise of God was not limited. But alas for evil associations! By affiliation with their heathen neighbors, they were led, first into idolatry, and then to forget God's Sabbath, and then to take the first day of the week as the seal of that idolatry. God plainly set before them the results of obedience and of disobedience. It was the Third Angel's Message for their day. “And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto me, saith the Lord, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work therein; then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, . . . and this city shall remain forever.” Verse 27 tells the consequences of Sabbath-breaking: “But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the Sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.”
Now by reading what God did to them afterward, it is easy to see what course they followed. Turn to 2 Chron. 36:19–22: “And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof: . . . to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfill three-score and ten years.” They were taken down to Babylon, there to begin the hopeless tasks of slavery, urged on by the lash, and dying in a strange land. Their wailing is pitifully voiced in the one hundred and thirty-seventh Psalm: “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.” And this nation, knowing that their captivity was the result of Sabbath-breaking, must have cried, times without number, “Oh, why did we not keep the Sabbath; and, instead of this punishment, have the safety and the joys of home?” Had the Jews kept the Sabbath, they would be, to-day, a self-governing people, with their kingdom firmly established.
Now let us remember that they are the type, and we the antitype. Before us is the heavenly Canaan, even as the earthly Canaan was before them. The heavenly Jerusalem is our home, even as the earthly was theirs. We are facing the same conditions that existed in their day. The battle is still on, the old strife still continues. God says to us, as He said to them: “Hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work therein.” Jer. 17:24. The Jewish nation, in their day, sowed to the wind and reaped the whirlwind. God's professed Israel is doing the same thing. They were tested on the Sabbath, failed, and were punished. The Third Angel's Message brings the same test to us. The large number will receive the mark of the Beast, and by and by, out of the “everlasting burnings,” will lift anguished eyes, and repeat the regret, forever unavailing, “Oh, why did I not keep God's Sabbath, and escape this punishment?”
Some will escape this destruction. “And I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion.” Jer. 3:14. Even so, in old Israel, some escaped the captivity. “The captain of the guard left of the poor of the land to be vinedressers and husbandmen.” 2 Kings 25:12. And in the antitype, some will be loyal. Read Isa. 4:3: “And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem.” Again, Rev. 15:2: “And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the Beast, and over his Image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.”
In the type, the condition of the Sabbath-breaker was sadder than death. “Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him, but weep sore for him that goeth away: for he shall return no more, nor see his native country.” Jer. 22:10. So, in the antitype, those who receive the mark of the Beast leave hope behind.
Of the heavenly Jerusalem, I read: “And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it.” Rev. 21:24. And their custom is told in Isa. 66:23: “From one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord.”
In conclusion, let us read again: “Now all these things happened to them for types: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” Even as Israel, down among the brick kilns of Babylon, sent up their unavailing regret for Sabbath-breaking, so, from the entanglements of modern Babylon, will the bitter cry go up from myriads that are lost. God grant us the love and life and joy of heaven, instead of the “outer darkness.”

“THESE SIGNS SHALL FOLLOW THEM THAT BELIEVE”

By David Paulson; W. S. Sadler

DAVID PAULSON AND W. S. SADLER

“IN MY NAME SHALL THEY CAST OUT DEVILS”

To just the extent that the character of Christ is formed within the individual, to that extent will he be able to resist and control the spirit of impurity, jealousy, faultfinding, drunkenness, or any other bondage the devil inflicts upon the human soul. The reason that more of these evil spirits are not cast out is that it can not be done by simply using the name of Christ as a charm. At one time certain misguided persons tried to do this, and the result has been left on record as a warning to all who may be tempted to repeat the same experience. Acts 19:13–16 tells about certain Jews who attempted to cast out evil spirits in the name of the Lord Jesus, and the result clearly showed that the mere name of Christ, apart from the character of Christ, had no potent power; for the man with the evil spirit leaped upon the exorcist Jews, overcame them, and they had to flee from the house naked and wounded. How many professed Christian workers have labored hard to cast out of human hearts some of the various forms of the enemy’s workings, and have come out of the conflict, not only conscious of their utter failure, but morally naked and wounded, and in a far worse condition than before they entered the struggle; while if they had possessed the character of Christ, the evil spirits would have fled before them.

“THEY SHALL SPEAK WITH NEW TONGUES”

There are many who are neglecting to use the gift of speech which they already have, in imparting to others some of the grand principles of truth that have been intrusted to them; yet they are looking forward to a time when they will be miraculously endowed with several additional languages. The tongue of him whose lips have been touched with a live coal from off the altar is already a tree of life. Prov. 15:4. He presents fresh truth in a new setting, like apples of gold in pictures of silver. Prov. 25:11. The professed Christian worker must have a new tongue in his own language, before he can expect God to give him the same in any other language.

“THEY SHALL TAKE UP SERPENTS”

Satan is the old serpent. Rev. 12:9. The snares and traps of the devil are spread about us on every hand, but one of the signs that are to follow those who believe is this: Instead of being taken up—ensnared—by the devices of the devil, they will have that spirit of discernment that not only enables them to recognize the deceptions of the enemy and put them out of the way, but also qualifies them to teach God’s principles to others so thoroughly that they likewise “will be able to discern the spirit of error.” 1 John 4:6. When a man has acquired an absolute immunity against the sting of the serpent of sin, he will have also experienced such a physical regeneration as will enable him to resist the effects of the serpent’s sting as readily as Paul could shake off the deadly viper. Acts 28:3–9.

“IF THEY DRINK ANY DEADLY THING, IT SHALL NOT HURT THEM”

There are those who desire to drink from the cup of salvation (Ps. 116:13); but at the same time they are fascinated with the golden cup of worldly pleasure. Day by day they persist in drinking tea and coffee, and other harmful fluids that contain poison; and their dingy eyes, and more or less benumbed brain, clearly reveal the harmfulness of these habits. And the time will never come when the drinking of such things, as well as the eating of improper and unnatural foods, will not be hurtful; for the use of these things is a violation of the physical laws which God himself has established. But if we will in faith acquire a relish for the pure water of life as well as for water free from all physical contamination, God will so increase our spiritual and physical vitality that if our enemies force us to drink “any deadly thing,” it will produce no harmful effects upon us.

“THEY SHALL LAY HANDS ON THE SICK, AND THEY SHALL RECOVER”

God is always the healer. And we may be sure that if we are to-day neglecting to train our hands to prepare healthful foods, or to use them in active service, or if we are unwilling to educate our hands intelligently to administer simple treatment to the sick and needy,—hands that are not utilizing such opportunities to-day, are not the hands that God will lay on the sick to-morrow for their recovery. The blessings that God will give us to-morrow are measured by the use we make of the opportunities He has given us to-day.

THE GREATEST OF ALL MIRACLES

The miracle God works in transforming the hearts of sinners, in enlightening and renewing their minds, in bringing them out of darkness into His marvelous light,—the setting at liberty of habit-bound captives of the arch-deceiver,—this great miracle of saving grace seems to be little recognized and appreciated; while all the world wonders at the deceptions and errors of the last-day miracle-working power. “They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.” 1 John 4:5, 6.
The confession of truth by its manifestation in the life is the great and supreme test. If the lives and teachings of the wonder-workers are not flavored with divine truth, or are not in harmony with divine law; if Jesus has not come into their flesh, be not deceived by the miracles they have power to perform. “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God.” 1 John 4:1, 2. Of all these deceivers the Lord says, “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
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