I PRESUME that when a new number of the REVIEW AND HERALD reaches its readers, the majority of them are anxious to see how much has been added to the $150,000 fund. Probably there is not anything that is going through the paper that is read with greater interest than the reports with reference to this fund. The interest seems to be increasing as the figures grow larger. Probably all the readers of our denominational paper are convinced by this time that this fund will be completed, and there is but little doubt but that there will be an overflow in the conclusion.
Since the organization for raising this money is now in operation, why not keep the machinery intact, and continue the work of raising funds for other departments of the cause? Our people would doubtless go right forward with the work, and in this way supply the Mission Board with necessary funds to rush the message forward in all parts of the great harvest-field. The vehicle for raising the $150,000 fund will render just as good service for other funds, when it has deposited the last dollar of the amount suggested with our treasury department at Washington. It would be beautiful indeed for heaven to behold, if all our people would add something to the freightage of this vehicle every week. Why not crowd this line of operation with our gifts and offerings until every nation, tongue, and people has been given the blessed news and truth of the second coming of our Lord and Saviour? WM. COVERT.
One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Dollar Fund
By I. H. Evans
For Special Work at Home and Abroad
Received on the $150,000 Fund
up to April 9, 1907
Atlantic Union Conference
Central New England .................... $1,244.41
Chesapeake ............................. 138.70
Eastern Pennsylvania ................... 542.09
Greater New York ....................... 415.75
Maine .................................. 245.18
New Jersey ............................. 303.42
New York ............................. 1,018.17
Southern New England ................... 631.61
Vermont ................................ 656.77
Virginia ............................... 213.12
Western Pennsylvania ................... 552.67
West Virginia .......................... 180.67
Western New York ....................... 479.56
Total ................................ $6,622.12
Canadian Union Conference
Not specified ........................ $130.41
Maritime ............................... 281.43
Quebec ................................... 6.00
Ontario .................................. 3.00
Total .................................. $420.84
East Michigan ........................ $671.05
Indiana .............................. 2,619.06
North Michigan ........................ 60.48
Northern Illinois ..................... 949.79
Ohio ................................ 2,408.61
Southern Illinois ..................... 526.67
West Michigan ........................ 2,150.37
Wisconsin ............................ 1,352.37
Total .............................. $10,738.40
North Pacific Union Conference
Conference not specified ............... $315.30
British Columbia ........................ 57.80
Montana ................................. 151.70
Upper Columbia ........................ 1,099.42
Western Washington ...................... 872.69
Idaho ................................... 245.90
Western Oregon .......................... 694.48
Total ................................ $3,437.29
Northern Union Conference
Alberta ................................ $75.80
Manitoba ............................... 238.70
Saskatchewan Mission Field .............. 24.85
Minnesota ............................. 2,700.30
South Dakota .......................... 2,010.60
North Dakota ............................ 776.63
Total ................................ $5,826.88
Pacific Union Conference
Arizona ............................... $156.87
California-Nevada .................... 2,743.26
Southern California .................... 291.94
Utah .................................... 96.01
Total ................................ $3,288.08
Southern Union Conference
South Carolina ........................ $58.99
Alabama ............................... 141.71
Tennessee River ........................ 367.03
Florida ................................ 177.69
North Carolina ........................ 133.97
Kentucky ............................... 30.36
Cumberland ............................ 190.93
Louisiana ............................. 288.51
Mississippi .......................... 118.65
Georgia ................................ 146.55
Total ................................ $1,654.39
Southwestern Union Conference
Arkansas Tract Society ................ $213.14
Oklahoma ............................... 896.17
Texas .................................. 761.13
Indian Territory ........................ 3.00
Total ................................ $1,873.44
Unknown
Unknown ............................... $146.20
Foreign
Australia ............................. $122.45
China .................................... 3.00
South Africa ........................... 128.16
Jamaica ................................... 3.17
Yukon Territory .......................... 10.00
England ................................. 256.32
Gold Coast, West Africa .................. 10.00
Mexico .................................... 1.50
Costa Rica ................................. 2.00
India ..................................... 12.48
South America ........................... 23.35
Switzerland ............................... 5.81
Panama .................................... 1.00
Nicaragua .................................. 2.00
Trinidad .................................... .34
British Honduras ........................ 17.00
Norway .................................... 25.00
Japan ..................................... 12.50
Total .................................. $636.58
Grand Total ........................... $41,331.38
I. H. EVANS, Treasurer.
“The Square System”
By I. H. Evans
IN the raising of the $150,000 fund, some of our churches have found that what is called “The Square System” has been very helpful. While there is no special merit in the thing itself, which is no better than any other plan that succeeds, yet it is one way which has been helpful in most places where used to encourage our people to clear up the whole amount of the donation to be raised by the church for this specific fund.
It not only has been helpful in raising the $150,000 fund, but numerous churches have tried it on various occasions where it was necessary to secure a considerable amount of money, and in nearly every instance they have written very encouragingly concerning the results.
The plan of operation is somewhat like this: Draw on a blackboard or large sheet of paper as many squares as there are individuals in your church. Then, let each square represent a specific amount of money. This may vary according to the option of those who are raising the fund. Each square can represent a pro rata share of the sum total to be raised, or it may represent a fractional part of the sum total.
Then persuade each individual in the church to take one or more of these squares, and continue the effort till all the squares are taken.
Sometimes it may occur that an individual is not able to take a square, while there may be others in the church who are both able and willing to take an ex-extra square, allowing the same to be credited to the individual.
This “square system” has been adopted in some of the conferences that are forging ahead on the $150,000 fund, and the results, as far as reports have been received, are most encouraging.
We shall be glad if our church elders and conference laborers who are endeavoring to secure donations on this fund are able to use to advantage any suggestions that have been made along this line. Oftentimes there is real enthusiasm in the raising of money by this little system, and not infrequently many people will double the number of squares they have taken several times before all the squares are taken.
I. H. EVANS.
The Peace of God
By Emily Huntington Miller
“He giveth quietness.” O Elder Brother,
Whose homeless feet have pressed our path of pain,
Whose hands have borne the burden of our sorrow,
That in our losses we might find our gain,
Of all thy gifts and infinite consolings
I ask but this: in every troubled hour
To hear thy voice through all the tumults stealing,
And rest serene beneath its tranquil power.
Cares can not fret me if my soul be dwelling
In the still air of faith’s untroubled day;
Grief can not shake me if I walk beside thee,
My hand in thine along the darkening way.
Content to know there comes a radiant morning
When from all shadows I shall find release;
Serene to wait the rapture of its dawning—
Who can make trouble when thou sendest peace?
— Emily Huntington Miller.
“Rejoice in the Lord”
By Ellen G. White
MRS. E. G. WHITE
CHRIST declares, “The bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. . . . I am the bread of life; he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not.”
Are not these words applicable to many to-day? We think that we believe in Christ; but have we his light and life? We do not believe as we should; therefore we do not receive the blessings that God has in store for us. We have seen God working on hearts. We have seen him strengthening men and women to come out from the world and receive Christ as their personal Saviour. Have we thanked God as we should for the wonderful work that he has wrought? Let us recount the blessings of God, and praise him for them. We grieve our Heavenly Father when we are unmindful of his mercies—like the heath in the desert “that knoweth not when good cometh.”
When trials come into our lives, when clouds darken the horizon, how ready we are to forget that Jesus is our Saviour, that behind the clouds the Sun of Righteousness is shining; that angels are close beside us, preserving us from harm. I would say to the despairing, Look and live. Hope thou in God; for on Calvary’s cross a complete sacrifice was offered for you. Jesus is the sinner’s Friend, the sinner’s Redeemer. Eternal joy—a life of undimmed happiness—awaits the one who surrenders all to Christ. Look away from yourself to Jesus, who is pleading before the throne of God in your behalf. Listen to his words, “Come unto me, . . . and I will give you rest.” “Him that cometh to me I will in nowise cast out.” With the hand of faith grasp the promises of God. Appropriate these blessings to yourself, not at some future time, but to-day.
The strongest temptation can not excuse sin. However, great the pressure brought to bear upon the soul, transgression is our own act. It is not in the power of earth or hell to compel any one to do evil. Satan attacks us at our weakest points, but we need not be overcome. However severe or unexpected the attack, God has provided help for us, and in his strength we may conquer. In the hour of greatest need when discouragement overwhelms the soul, then it is that Jesus comes very near. The hour of man’s necessity is God’s opportunity. He sees our danger and provides help for us. Unseen by us, he saves us from the foe. Let us praise him at all times. He is always near us, and he never fails to send us help in every time of need.
Your heart may be so oppressed that all seems dark and dreary, but look to Jesus constantly. Take all your troubles to him. He will never misunderstand you. He is the refuge of his people. Under the shadow of his protection they can pass unharmed. Believe in him and trust in him. He will not give you up to the spoiler. Flee to the stronghold, and learn that the power of Christ to strengthen and help passes all comprehension. Open the door of the heart and let Jesus enter to fill your life with his peace, his grace, his joy. Then you can say: “Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olives shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls; yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.”
Dear Christian friends, drop the burdens that God does not ask you to carry. The more you think and talk of these self-imposed burdens, the larger they grow, until at last they will utterly destroy your faith and courage. Do not think that when you walk with Jesus, you must walk in the shadow. The happiest people in the world are those who trust in Jesus and gladly do his bidding. He is the light of life. From the lives of those who follow him, unrest and discontent are banished. With a full heart they echo the words of the wise man, Wisdom’s “ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.” Though they meet with trials and difficulties, their lives are full of joy; for Christ walks beside them, and his presence makes the pathway bright.
Short Sermons on the Commandments
By W. A. McCutchen
The Second Commandment
W. A. MC CUTCHEN
“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.” Ex. 20: 4-6.
In this commandment we have a prohibition of that which is a culmination of the thing forbidden in the first commandment; and this culmination is reached by easy and natural steps if the first command is disregarded. In other words, when one has other gods than the true God, it is perfectly natural to begin to make images and likenesses to represent those gods. It represents that low order of worship which must see the object worshiped, and has no element of faith in it. Its devotees can not, as did Moses, see “Him who is invisible.” And these images, being the product of human hands, can not be endowed by the worshiper, in his own mind, with any greater attributes than his own. Hence it is not only an affront to God thus to worship another than he, but it has no uplifting power to the worshiper.
Some have thought that this command forbids the making of any kind of likeness or picture for any purpose, but this hardly seems tenable in the light of other facts and scriptures. If so, how are we to account for the pictures described in the Bible—the great image of Daniel 2, the beasts and images of Daniel, Ezekiel, and Revelation, used in the symbolic prophecies, the views and heavenly scenes presented, all of which were given by God himself as object-lessons? The Lord also gave specific instruction to “write the vision and make it plain upon tables” (Hab. 2:2), which, by our pictorial charts and illustrations we are enabled to do. Moreover the Lord caused figures of angels to be wrought in the hangings and coverings of the sanctuary, and golden statues of cherubim on the mercy-seat anciently. It is evident that the command is simply against the making of images and likenesses for the purpose of worshiping—“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image,” etc.—and not that thou mayest not make them for general purposes other than to worship.
No surer sign of rank idolatry of the lowest order could be offered than the worship of images; for “they be no gods, which are made with hands.” Acts 19: 26. The making and worshiping of graven images seems to be a further step in the downward road of idolatry, a worse offense in God’s sight than the having of other gods in the mind and affections; for in connection with his prohibition of it in this command the Lord points out9that he is “a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate” him. He seems to put the matter stronger in this commandment than in the first. The two offenses are of the same character, but the actual making and bowing down to images would carry with it the weight of example; while the other, though the idol be in the heart and allowed to usurp the place of God, and sinful in the extreme to the individual cherishing the idol, yet it might not influence or affect another. Thus the difference, if any, would be in degree, and not in kind.
Some in studying this command have questioned the justice of God in “visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children,” and it has appeared to them almost irreconcilable with the nature of God. It should not be overlooked that the visiting of the iniquities of the fathers upon the children is upon those who “hate” God—those children who continue idolatrous and disobedient. At the same time God is merciful “unto thousands of them”—even descendants of these haters of God—that “love” God and “keep” his commandments; thus showing that this visiting of the iniquities of the fathers upon the children is invited by the continued course of rebellion on their part, while at the same time this visitation may be averted by turning to God and loving him and keeping his commandments, making it an individual matter after all. “God is no respecter of persons,” he declares through the apostle (Acts 10: 34); but he is a respecter of character; so that “in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.” Acts 10: 35. Let us not invite a visitation of God’s wrath upon us by rebellion and disobedience, but let us love him and keep his commandments, and be “accepted with him” now and in the end.
Dallas, Tex.
The Most Excellent Way
By William Covert
WILLIAM COVERT
The apostle considers many phases of spiritual gifts in the twelfth chapter of First Corinthians, then advises the Christian to covet earnestly the best gift. The thought is that some persons will excel in one line of gospel work, while others are better adapted to the doing of something else. Since people differ in their gifts and callings, it is best for each one to work where he can accomplish the greatest amount of good.
The thought is advanced that with these various gifts wherein good people differ, there is one best gift which all should have for all time. This is the gift of love through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Ghost operating the faculty of love in the human heart, is that working which the apostle calls the more excellent, or most excellent way.
The life of Jesus while walking here in mortal, suffering flesh, was a demonstration of this most excellent way.
Though one should be gifted as an angel in oratory, and be as able as a prophet in revealing mysteries, such qualifications, without the sweetness of the Holy Spirit manifested in love, would not benefit God's cause. Faith that would remove mountains, and liberality that would give the last farthing to feed the poor, count for nothing only as associated with that love which is manifested in the most excellent way. In this we have the way, the truth, and the life.
The multitude shun this way because to them it seems a thorny path. But those who are traveling on this road find it the way of peace and joy. They stumble not as they journey, because they are led by a steady hand, and guided by a shining light. They say all its walks are bordered with pleasant stones, and beautiful with fragrant flowers. We are told that Jesus has never left this way, so that even now he walks side by side with each one who is following that path. Here the weary find rest, and the sorrowing learn notes of joy.
This is the perfect way in which all attributes mature for eternity. Here all hearts fully trust one another with no thought of deception. Here no make-believe can be practised, nor false hopes fostered.
There is no envying nor evil surmising in the fellowship of the band who belong in this way. Here Jesus has filled all hearts with sentiments brought from associations in the better land. This is the everlasting way, which will continue when every false way has gone forever.
Russia’s Part in the Closing Work
By F. I. Richardson
The Eastern Question—No. 2
Russia’s Part in the Closing Work
F. I. RICHARDSON
THE rise and growth of the Russian empire is a wonder of modern times. Like America, it has come up for the last days. In many respects its growth is more remarkable than that of the United States; for that country was made by civilized and enterprising men, with everything before them; but Russia was peopled by barbarians without education, laws, or resources, yet to-day Russia stands the largest empire of the world except that of Great Britain. A few generations ago it was nothing; now it reaches from the Atlantic (the Baltic) across to the Pacific, covering about eight and one-half million square miles.
To the student of prophecy the phenomenal growth of Russia has a deep significance. Many centuries before there was any Russia in existence, the Bible foretold that this colossal power would come up and play an important part in the closing work of this world’s history. It is revealed in the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth chapters of Ezekiel. “And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face toward Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him, and say, Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal.” Eze. 38: 1-3, R. V. Used in this connection, Gog is a word as meaning ruler or czar. So this prophecy refers to the ruler of the land of Magog, who is also the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal. Turning to the tenth chapter of Genesis, we notice that Magog, Tubal, and Meshech are sons of Japheth, grandsons of Noah. We learn from history that after the dispersion these settled in the territory that to-day is occupied by the Russians. From Magog descended the Scythians, Tartars, and Avars. (Josephus.) Thus the land of Magog is the land of these tribes, or Russia, Tartary, and Siberia. From Rosh came the Roshans, or Russians; from Meshech came the Moschi, or Muscovites, who founded Moscow; and the Russians are known as Muscovites to the present day; the descendants of Tubal built Tobolsk, east of the Ural Mountains. (Rawlinson.)
These developed into tribes, and for nearly if not quite three thousand five hundred years they occupied the territory of Russia as roving bands of barbarians, each having its own leader, with no settled form of government, making occasional raids upon their neighbors for the purpose of plunder, making no advancement in civilization or morals, and with apparently no desire to change their condition, until the fourteenth century, when Ivan I came upon the stage of action. He succeeded in uniting the several tribes, and was virtually the founder of modern Russia. He was the first who assumed the title of Grand Prince of all Russia. Here then is Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal; in other words, the czar of Russia.
Under the leadership of Ivan I and his successors some advancement was made, “but as a factor in civilization, Russia did not exist until the reign of Peter the Great. It was in 1689 that this man, her material Moses, became her ruler. With his accession to the throne began her real importance.
‘His character transcended his opportunities. His mind was universal, notwithstanding he was by birth, physique, and temperament a Russian. He was truly a child of nature, above his family, beyond his people, and ahead of his age.
‘He was without education as that term is popularly understood. Of schools, colleges, and universities he knew little; of the world about him he saw and knew much. Through childhood and youth neglected, and in early manhood ignored, his mates were the roistering officers of the imperial militia. His boon companions were a Scotchman and an Italian, characteristic soldiers of fortune and social adventures. Reading little, they had observed much. These adventurers were not only the companions of Peter in his coarse and dissolute sports, but unwittingly became his teachers.
‘From them he learned of the institutions, laws, customs, and manners of Western Europe. Judging his native land by the information thus obtained, this great man was made to realize her deficiencies. Then it was that he found her people were barbarians, her army a10mob, and her navy inconsequential. He began to think—this uncouth and intemperate youth. Thought ended in resolution. He determined that all this should be changed on his coming to the throne, if example and precept could work that change. On ascending the throne, without delay he set about his reforms. Departing his realm, he traveled extensively in Western Europe, studying her arts, sciences, and manufactures.
“In Holland and England he worked as a ship carpenter, and studied architecture, medicine, law, physiology and anatomy. Returning to Russia in 1699, he brought with him generals, military officers of all grades, engineers, shipwrights, architects, gunsmiths, cutlers, medical men, artificers and mechanics of all kinds, naval officers and experienced seamen. . . . Great Britain and Ireland, Holland and the Netherlands, furnished the greater part, but artists were allured from France and Italy, by the tempting offer of the czar, to undertake a residence in the cold climate of the north. The Western world has been wont to date the beginning of the material progress in Russia from the reign of Peter, and not incorrectly.”—“Panorama of the World.”
Is it not rather strange that a coarse, dissolute, uneducated youth of sixteen years should be suddenly transformed into a man with a mind grasping the possibilities of establishing a leading empire of the world? But just that was done by this man. After a prosperous reign of thirty-seven years, in which he succeeded in welding the empire together, and in making some additions to his territory, Peter left a last will and testament in which he enjoined the following policy: “Take every possible means of gaining Constantinople and the Indies, for he who rules there will be the sovereign of the world.”
The time had come for this north country to begin to get ready to act its part in the great drama of this world’s history, and the Lord raised up this man for that purpose. “He removeth kings, and setteth up kings.”
True to the instructions of Peter the Great, the Russians have succeeded in extending their territory nine hundred miles toward Constantinople and fifteen hundred miles toward India. In 1877, in a war with Turkey, Russia pushed her conquests to the very gates of Constantinople, and would certainly have accomplished Peter’s great scheme if other powers had not interfered and turned her back; and just there was fulfilled the prophecy of Eze. 38: 4 and 39: 2: “And I will draw thee back with an hook of six teeth” (margin). At the council that was called at Berlin to settle the difficulty, there were just six powers represented. The representatives of these six powers drew up the treaty whereby Russia was compelled to draw back for that time. The powers present were England, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, and Turkey.
But we see from the rest of those two verses and from the eighth verse of the thirty-eighth chapter, that Russia shall enter again, in the latter days, into this country from which she was drawn back, or the country “that is brought back from the sword.”
Of the settlement of that war of 1877, the Detroit Evening News of Feb. 20, 1878, said: “According to the latest version of the peace conditions, Turkey—besides her territorial losses, the surrender of a few ironclads, the repairs of the mouth of the Danube, the reimbursement of Russian capital invested in Turkish securities, the indemnity to Russian subjects in Constantinople for war losses, and the maintenance of about one hundred thousand prisoners of war—will have to pay Russia, in round figures, a sum equivalent to . . . six hundred million dollars. With her taxable territory reduced almost to poverty-stricken Asia Minor, and with her finances at present in a condition of absolute chaos, it is difficult to see where she is going to get the money, however ready her present rulers may be to sign the contract.
“The proposition amounts to giving the czar a permanent mortgage on the whole empire, and contains an implied threat that he may foreclose at any time by the seizure of the remainder of European Turkey.” The czar is now demanding payment.
Furthermore, Russia claims Constantinople and the territory of the sultan as hers by right, by virtue of the inheritance of the Princess Sophia. This princess fled from Constantinople before the invading Turks, and was the sole surviving heir to the Byzantine throne. In 1472 she married the Russian Prince Ivan. From the first czar born of this union, down to the present time, every ruler of Russia has looked upon the former possessions of the Princess Sophia as his own.
A correspondent of the Christian Union, writing from Constantinople under date of Oct. 8, 1878, said: “When we consider the difficulties which now beset this feeble, tottering government, the only wonder is that it can stand for a day.” It is only the attitude of other nations that prevents Russia from proceeding at once to recover her dominions. But the time has already come when England talks of withdrawing her support from Turkey; and when she does, the Turk must go. And then will that most solemn and momentous event of this world’s history take place—the standing up of Michael as recorded in Dan. 12: 1, which, as we have shown in a former article, means the closing of probation. The final decree, from which there is no reprieve, will have been passed. He that is wicked will remain so; there will be no more chance to repent and be saved. The door of mercy will have been closed forever, and the wicked will wait the execution of that terrible decree, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.”
On the other hand, those who are righteous will remain so. There will be no more backsliding. They have been faithful in overcoming; they are sealed to God, and await with listening ears and expectant hearts the first sound of that glorious invitation, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
Phoenix, Ariz.
The One Great Issue
_Temptations to Side Issues—An Appeal_
[The writer of this article is one who has been long connected with this cause, and writes from the view-point of personal experience concerning the matters under consideration. His temptations to do the very things which he herein counsels against should give the more weight to the admonition.—Eds.]
WILL not the editor of our good REVIEW suffer a word from one who has given at least a veteran’s time of service in this cause, though not an old-time pioneer?
There are many evils in this world, many snares and traps and pitfalls which the devil has set for the unwary and sin-loving. Intemperance in eating and drinking is a fearfully blighting cause. Alcohol, absinthe, opium, and tobacco are destroying their millions, old and young, the last named especially among the young. The papacy in its mighty progress looms a gigantic evil. Unhealthful dress is a curse to womanhood, to mothers and future children. The grinding power of wealth, the tyranny of labor unions, the constant incentive to world-wide war and militarism, and other things which will occur to the reader’s mind, are all fearful evils, and work great ills to various classes.
There are many noble souls who see these evils, sometimes in legion, sometimes in pairs, sometimes singly; and their whole being cries out against them. Some of the stronger ones organize political parties. Hence we have the Prohibition party, the Socialist party. Some organize societies; therefore the anti-tobacco league, the hygienic dress reform league, the peace societies, the anti-vice propagandas, etc. Others start journals, and wage war with more or less ability against some one or more of these evils. We will not deny—we gladly acknowledge—that many of these earnest reformers do some good in temporary ways. They help in warning some, in bringing to others a moral uplift, but they bring few if any staying qualities into the body, political or social. Some of them are efficient on an outwardly moral plane for a time, but they are not sufficient to save.
Yet the constant plea is made to believers in the great threefold message to give their strength and influence to these things. And the temptation is strong, if we focus our mind upon the one evil and our heart upon its victims, to join in some one of these reform movements. Hence we find earnest Seventh-day Adventists throwing their whole energy into political prohibition, publishing papers, making speeches, and lamenting that their brethren can not see “the issue”11as they do. Hence we have Seventh-day Adventist societies to whom the evil of the money power eclipses all other evils. Hence we have anti-papal, anti-tobacco journals, and anti-other things, to meet these living issues; and precious time, talent, energy, and means are used, divided, lost, swallowed up in insufficient remedies. In a little time either the enterprise fails, or the ardent soul draws away from his brethren.
God sees all the ills of the world. He sums them all up in the one word sin, so small, yet so comprehensive, because the transgression of his all-comprehending law. All the evils are but the outcropping, the various manifestations of the many-shaped, many-sided, all-devouring sin. God sees not one, but all, in their true relation, in their true bearing, in their proper setting, in their awful evil.
The Great Remedy
God, too, has given us the true, all-comprehending, all-sufficient remedy, the great threefold message of the everlasting gospel. In that blessed message is the balm for every bruise, the healing for every hurt, the panacea for every ill. And that message demands the whole-hearted consecration of all the ability, the talents, the devotion, the time, the means, the undivided loyalty of every believer.
Such servants of God will herald the divine remedy. They will advocate true temperance reform, but will not tear it from its place in the message. They will warn against Roman encroachments, but it will be in the love of God from the prophetic word. They will show the great evils and futilities of great combinations and confederations of wealth and men, but from the “more sure word of prophecy.” They will endeavor to help the youth, the needy, the drunkard, but they will not wrench from the crowning message of God the jewels by which they would seek to win home the wanderer. They will not separate from his structure of truth the pillars by which they hope to stay the steps of the unsteady, or establish the young in the paths of integrity and uprightness.
The half-secular way may promise better results; the slice from the message may seem better if detached from the loaf, the effort to pose as an advocate of the particular reform may seem wiser, but, brother, it is not God’s way. The jewels torn from their settings lose beauty. The pillars broken from their support become powerless. Man gets the glory, God’s cause is the loser, because the Lord’s whole message for this time is discounted. We become judges of his wisdom, and choose a divided Christ.
No, brethren, let us hold to the message. Do we preach religious liberty? let it be known that God’s great message teaches it. And so with every other reform. We ought to look upon them all as God sees them, in all their evil, the manifestations of sin, iniquity, unrighteousness; and the only thing which will meet sin is the great threefold message of God’s everlasting gospel with all it means. The problem of world-enflooding sin is the issue; God’s last all-comprehending message is the all-sufficient remedy in Christ Jesus.