Review and Herald, Vol. 90, No. 24. (6/12/1913)

Review and Herald

Jun 12, 1913

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 12, 1913

The Great Threefold Message

And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.

And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them. And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. Rev. 14: 6-14.

Special “World's Christian Citizenship Conference” Number

By Editor

This subject is of such importance that we feel compelled to devote this second number to its consideration. Place a copy in the hands of every delegate planning to attend the “Christian Citizenship Conference,” Portland, Oregon, June 29 to July 5.

Partial Contents

Frontispiece — Christian Citizenship Convention Hall The “Second World's Christian Citizenship Conference” Program of the “Christian Citizenship Conference” Some “Christian Citizenship” Arguments Religious Intolerance in America Governor of Rhode Island and Sunday Law “The King's Orders” — An Old-Time Argument Madison's Prophecy Being Fulfilled A Two-Page Poster of 1913 Sunday Bills Is Sabbath Legislation Necessary? International Peace Movement and Religious Liberty Golden Rule Ignored by National Reformers Report of Sunday-Law Hearing Before District of Columbia Commissioners Strong Protest Against Sunday Closing of Post-Offices Mr. Bryan Says Sign the Temperance Pledge

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LIFE AND HEALTH

Washington　-　-　-　D. C.

God’s Great Purpose

It is interesting to stand by and watch the development of God’s great purpose in the affairs of men. We see the nations of earth fulfilling his decrees. Even the wrath of man is caused to praise him. This is expressed in the words of the apostle Peter as found in the fourth chapter of Acts, quoting the psalmist’s words: “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?” The apostle declares that in fulfilment of this prophecy:—

“The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.”

The great enemy of mankind determined through the enmity which he stirred up against Jesus Christ to bring about a failure of his mission, but by God’s great overruling providence and by the operation of his eternal purpose the nations of the earth worked out his design and brought about what he determined beforehand should be done. Of himself the Lord declares: “I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.” Isa. 46: 9, 10.

In recognition of this wonder-working power of Omnipotence, coupled with the infinite love which God has for all his children, why need we fear? “The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” To him we may securely commit the working out of every great question, and this is also true as applied to our personal experience. The great Architect has a purpose to work out in the life of every one of his children. He desires to shape and mold their experiences that they may fit into the great temple which he is erecting. The process of preparation may prove a trying one. We are taken as stones from a great quarry. As the sculptor by chiseling and grinding and hammering brings the rough, unhewn stone into the desired form, in the same way a similar process must be wrought in us. But if we will patiently submit ourselves into the hands of the great Master Workman, if we will yield ourselves as passive clay, he will fashion and mold us after the Perfect Pattern.

And we may make it an interesting study in our experience to see the manner in which this is accomplished. We shall be brought into straitened places. Instead of murmuring, let us watch to see how God will lead us out of the darkness. We shall be brought face to face with apparently insurmountable difficulties. In place of questioning God’s judgment in leading us by this path, let us watch to see his power break down the barriers and open the way before us. We lose so much by taking our cases into our own hands! Like Israel of old, our natural heart grows tired of the leading of the Lord, and we feel like choosing for ourselves a captain to lead us back into the land of bondage.

Let us by no selfish choosing of our own, by no stubborn rebellion on our part, mar the design which God has formed for us. If we are unable to recognize it now, the eternal ages will demonstrate the wisdom of his choosing and the justice of all his leadings.

Undoing the Work of Babel

By C. M. S.

ONE has said that the translation of the Bible into the many languages of earth is undoing the work of Babel. That is true in more than one sense. It is indeed teaching the nations to speak a common language, the language of Canaan, and to think the thoughts of our common Father after him. But the circulation of the Bible, filled as it is with the gospel of salvation from sin through Christ, is undoing the work of Babel in the sense of making the many nations one again in Christ.

The selfish ambition manifested in the Babel experience brought confusion into the family of mankind and scattered them to the ends of the earth, with hatred and suspicion in their hearts toward one another.

The gospel of Christ, built upon unselfishness and manifesting that unselfishness in the sacrifice on Calvary, dispels the confusion, brings in harmony and oneness, and draws men from the ends of the earth with love and trust in their hearts toward one another, in the place of hatred and suspicion.

Babel put a gulf between man and his Maker and drove a wedge of suspicion between man and man. But the Bible, bearing the gospel to the ends of the earth, bridges the gulf between man and his Maker, withdraws the wedge driven between man and man, and unites again the disrupted family. It does more than merely to undo the work of Babel. It puts something in its place,—the work of God,—and stretches out before the view of smitten humanity the long vistas of eternity in a kingdom where love rules, and where sin, suffering, and sorrow find no place.

The contagion of apostasy that ran out into all the earth as a result of the Babel experience culminates in the idolatrous exaltation of spiritual Babylon in the end of the age. Drunken with that exaltation, and with the blood of the saints that have perished at her hand, she sits on the throne of the world to receive the worship and adoration of all mankind. That object she will attain; but so certainly as she attains it, so certainly does she seal her doom. The same Bible which is undoing the work of Babel in teaching the people a common language, proclaims the overthrow of that power. “Fallen, fallen, is Babylon the great. . . . For by the wine of the wrath of her fornication all the nations are fallen. . . . Come forth, my people, out of her, that ye have no fellowship with her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues: for her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. . . . With a mighty fall shall Babylon, the great city, be cast down, and shall be found no more at all. . . . After these things I heard as it were a great voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, Halleluiah; Salvation, and glory, and power, belong to our God: for true and righteous are his judgments; for he hath judged the great harlot, her that corrupted the earth with her fornication, and he hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.” Rev. 18: 2 to 19: 2.

Is it not a wonderful coincidence that the last book of the Book of God should deal with the overthrow of Babylon? But it is more than a coincidence. Spiritual Babylon has been the personification of the dogmas and doctrines of a counterfeit Christianity which has usurped the place of the true gospel in the world and has exalted the creature in place of the Creator. Being in opposition to the true God, it has necessarily advanced the interests of the adversary of souls; and when all that has opposed God and aided the adversary is wiped out, Babylon must go. When Babylon goes out, the tragedy of sin will be finished, and the curtain will fall for her. But when that curtain falls, there is drawn aside the curtain that hides human eyes from eternal realities.

All this the blessed Book makes known. No wonder the leaders of spiritual Babylon oppose its circulation and burn it to ashes when they can; but there will come a time when they who burn it to ashes will, unless they repent, be themselves ashes under the feet of the redeemed. Seventh-day Adventists, knowing as they do the blessed promises of that Book, should do all in their power to scatter its pages and make known its promises to the ends of the earth.

C. M. S.

Note and Comment

Loss of Reverence

The editor of the Lutheran, in the issue of April 17, lays the blame for the loss of reverence upon the Protestant churches in general. Speaking of the popular acclaim with which some of the sensational revival efforts are met to-day by Protestant preachers, the editor says:—

Something has gone wrong with Protestantism. Romanism is at least reverent. Good Roman Catholics would be shocked at such a display of blasphemy in handling the holy truth of God. Protestant preachers can sit and listen to it—and even applaud. Verily, Protestantism is much out of repair. ’Tis pity ’tis true. But if saints and sinners alike want that sort of preaching, then that’s the sort of preaching they want. Poor, pitiable, playful Protestantism!

Some time ago Dr. Harper, president of the University of Chicago, truthfully remarked, “A man can not be a popular preacher and be honest.” We read in the history of the past of men of God who have moved multitudes. Peter did it on the day of Pentecost; Paul and Barnabas did it; multitudes flocked to hear Luther, John Knox, George Fox, the Wesleys, Charles G. Finney, and others. These all held a warm place in the affections of the believers, but they were not popular with the worldly wise. They were men who spoke the truth plainly and fearlessly. That truth made them enemies. There was nothing in their sermons or actions which appealed to popular applause, and their lives were endangered.

In this respect there is a very strong contrast between their work and that of some of the popular revivalists of the day. The efforts of these men are spectacular in the extreme. Their methods are theatrical in character, their language that of the hobo and of the man of the street, and their financial methods akin to those of modern high finance. Some feel that these modern revivalists have improved on the old-time methods of the past, but we question it. Some believe that the language in which they convey the gospel message and their sensational performances are more potent in reaching the hearts of sinners than the plain, simple, straightforward story of the cross as told by ministers of Christ in the past, but this we question. That there accompanies their work an inspiration and enthusiasm we must admit, but that the old-time conviction of sin is present in any marked measure and that there is produced in the lives of the converts fruit for repentance, there is wanting much in the way of evidence. Attempted improvements in the presentation of the old-time simple gospel story are bound to be marked with failure. Let us keep close to the simplicity that there is in the Lord Jesus.

To Check Naval Rivalry

In a recent speech before the House of Commons Mr. Winston Churchill proposes that the nations of the world suspend their naval construction program for the year 1914. The present competition among the nations is carried on at a tremendous cost to the people, who more and more are groaning under the burdens of taxation which such expenditure involves. “We address this proposal to all nations,” Mr. Churchill says, “and to no nation with more profound sincerity than to our great neighbor over the North Sea,” meaning Germany.

The acceptance of such a proposal would undoubtedly afford much in the way of temporary relief, but it is too much to expect that there will ever come, this side of the reign of Christ, a disarmament of the nations, or even a truce of one year in the fierce competition for the first place that is being carried forward. Peace proposals will be made; peace congresses will be held. These no doubt emanate from worthy purposes on the part of their advocates, but they will be of no avail. They fulfil the prophecy of Isaiah 2 and Micah 4, but the peace cry will be drowned at last in the din and preparation for war as outlined in the third chapter of Joel. The Scriptures declare that “the nations are angry.” They are preparing for the last great conflict, and when the cry of peace and safety reaches its height, the inspired penman declares, “sudden destruction cometh upon them, . . . and they shall not escape.” It is for us to find in these conditions an indication of the time and the season, and be so prepared that the day of the Lord shall not come upon us as a thief in the night.

Blood for Blood

EVERY industrial conflict indicates the growing intensity which is possessing the hearts of men and the bitter spirit of class hatred being engendered between the working men and the representatives of capital. This was illustrated at the funeral of a workman killed during a recent strike at Paterson, N. J. A representative of the Industrial Workers of the World made a speech at the final exercises held at the grave. Casting a red carnation on the pine box, he said: “Fellow workers, don’t forget the principle of the toilers who come from Italy. For blood you must take blood.” The Thrice-a-Week World of April 23, in reporting this incident, says:—

No finished actor could have spoken a line with greater intensity, nor sent the words home with greater force. Though the earth had not yet been cast upon the box, the listeners let out a volume of applause that was startlingly strange in the resting-place of the dead.

If such sentiments could be understood to express the sentiments of the speaker alone, it would not appear so ominous; but when it is understood that such sentiments as these are uttered by representatives of various orders, and are put forth more or less openly by those who stand as leaders, and are openly applauded by those who hear them, and that, too, at a funeral, we repeat it shows the intensity that is taking possession of the minds of men, and the bitter feelings that are being engendered between classes at the present time.

The prophecies of Scripture indicate that this will be so. The last chapter of the book of James shows that in the last day a bitter warfare will be waged between capital and labor. We are already in the midst of that conflict, and the end is not yet. As the end approaches, we shall see bitter strife and bloodshed and revolution. Arbitration for a time may put off the evil day, but it will be powerless at last to effect an adjustment of the difficulties.

This old earth will never know peace only as peace is ushered in by the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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