SABBATH, April 3, is the time for our regular annual offering in behalf of the orphans and needy poor among us as a people. For many years the first Sabbath in April has been set apart as the time when an offering is taken for this great and needy work. There is much scripture in evidence urging the church to carefully help the poor in their midst. It was the Master who said, “Ye have the poor always with you.” To ancient Israel were promised rich blessings in return for their kindness to the poor and needy. Again and again Israel was charged to be kind to the poor. The prophet Isaiah, who so forcibly set forth the mission of Christ to the earth, wrote:—
“Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy reward. Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; and if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: and the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.”
From the world’s standpoint, organized charity is more helpful to the receiver than indiscriminate giving. Many reasons contribute to this result. Among Christian people, all of whom are serving the same God and trying to attain to eternal life, these conditions may not always hold. Seldom are Seventh-day Adventists imposed upon by those appealing for charity when the person is in good and regular standing in some Seventh-day Adventist church. There are many cases in conferences and union conferences requiring financial help to tide the poor over a crisis, or to assist the needy in their declining years. This charity should not be doled out with a stingy hand, as a charity begrudged, but should be given heartily, as unto the Lord. Our orphans and aged people must be cared for. Every union and local conference is under obligations to see that the needy ones among us are supplied with the necessities of life. Some of the most needy cases are those for whom it is difficult to find a private home. For this reason, oftentimes, ready money must be available to provide accommodations for those who otherwise would be thrown upon public charity.
An additional incentive to a liberal donation this year has been suggested in the plan for each union and local conference to appropriate twenty-five per cent of the total receipts from this donation for use in the erection of an orphanage for colored children at Huntsville. The desire is that our offering shall be so increased that the giving of twenty-five per cent will not lessen the amount that our conferences will have for their local use. That there are many orphans and aged people among the colored population in the South is a self-evident fact. The conditions of life imposed upon these needy people, the poverty which surrounds them from early childhood to the grave, the lack of opportunities for the acquirement of property, and the prejudice existing against them, as a people, should stir our hearts to liberality in their behalf. Having this great privilege of doing a double good, we should rise to the opportunity, and make a liberal offering. It would be most encouraging could a sufficiently large donation be made so that twenty-five per cent of it would complete the orphanage already started, and thus care for at least a few of the many colored children who would otherwise have to be supplied with charity from the world. If each member of every church will plan to make a donation to this fund on Sabbath, April 3, our brethren will experience no lack in completing their7orphanage at Huntsville, Ala., while the treasuries of our union and local conferences will not be empty. Surely we are all grateful for the opportunity of having a part in this noble, Christlike work.
I. H. EVANS.
The Worst Year in History
THE Chicago Tribune at the beginning of the new year gave a comprehensive summary of the disasters of the year 1908, from the opening paragraph of which we take the following:—
Nineteen hundred eight—the most terrible year of disaster in the history of the modern world. That is the black record which Time has entered in his books for the year which has just closed. A quarter of a million people destroyed in awful cataclysms, billions of dollars' worth of property wiped out of existence, a sum of pain and human anguish which can never be expressed in words or figures,—such is the balance which must be carried to the debit side of the world's account-books.
The mention of the word catastrophe will, of course, bring the thoughts of every one back to the great Italian earthquake, the greatest single disaster in the world's history, a tragedy which cost one hundred twenty-five thousand lives, and wiped out of existence great and historic cities. In the shadow of that terrible holocaust the world has failed to realize that it was merely the climax of a long series of horrors which followed one on the heels of the other from the first day of January, 1908, to the first day of January, 1909.
The disasters which the journal chronicles were responsible for nearly three hundred thousand deaths. The fearfulness for the future and the almost hopelessness of better conditions are expressed in the following, the closing paragraph of that editorial summary:—
The principal question which arises in connection with this awful list is whether or not human foresight and science can obviate such a series of calamities in the future, or at least ameliorate the effects of the disaster.
Are not these conditions, and the dread of the future that is filling men's hearts, indications that the time of earth's great crisis is approaching?
A Dark Picture
ONE of those horrible occurrences which demonstrate the utter inability even of a so-called Christian civilization to control human passion, has recently put another blot on the page of history in the State of Texas. A Southern paper, the Columbia State, of South Carolina, handles the matter in a vigorous and forcible way:—
And so in Texas they have burned another negro. The press despatches tell us that one thousand savages stood by and watched while the flames swept over the hopeless, depraved, but brave wretch who gave up his life to make a Texan holiday. It is wonderful to think of, strange, almost impossible to believe. This is Texas, this the twentieth century, and this was an assemblage of persons immensely flattered by being described as “civilized.” And they burned at the stake a human being. One thousand persons, presumably with an admixture of women and children, stood by, watched the horror, gorged their savage instincts, sated their barbarous hates, fatted and regaled upon the sort of spectacle that pleased and edified the wild and untamed Indian.
How discouraging it is! How hopeless it is—to think that we live in the same country with such people, to think—God forbid—that we may even have such people about us. And yet we—we poor hypocrites—are so good as to look with horror upon such foreign “scum” as the Russians, the Turks, and to deplore the pillage and disorder that sometimes mark the affairs of their countries. We should hang our heads in shame. We have heard of no Russians burning a man to death at the stake. We have heard of no turbulent Turks straying so far from the dictates of mercy and humanity as to do such a deed.
Only that gospel which really renews the mind and transforms the nature can eradicate from the human heart those brutal instincts which under any ordinary conditions reveal themselves in less shocking forms, but which under any extraordinary stimulus will sweep their possessor into diabolical deeds of supreme devilishness. The influence of race, or country, or public opinion is not sufficient to overcome sin or to prevent the revelation of its extreme meaning when the subduing influences of the Spirit of God are cast aside.
Note and Comment
One of the Straws
At the recent semiannual meeting of the executive board of the American Federation of Catholic Societies at Chicago, Ill., the first matter to receive attention was the accusation against Governor Post, of Porto Rico, charging him with having made blasphemous statements concerning the Christian religion. According to the report in the Catholic Standard and Times, no action was taken for the following reason:—
After careful investigation on the part of the federation, it was decided to take no action, as the letters received from authentic and reliable sources disclosed that the governor did assail the Protestant ministers and teachers, but said nothing about Catholics or Catholic belief.
This is equivalent to the admission that the activities of the federation are directed toward the advancement of Catholicism rather than to the advancement of religion.
To Mothers
MR. EDWIN W. SIMS, United States District Attorney, has for several years been studying the “white slave traffic” in America. He declares that traffic to be an organized system, with branches and distributing centers in nearly all the large cities, and this is what he has to say to the mothers of girls:—
There are, to put it mildly, hundreds, yes, thousands, of trusting mothers in the smaller cities, the towns, the villages, and the farming communities of the United States, who believe that their daughters are “getting on fine” in the city, and too busy to come home on a visit or “to write much,” while the fact is that these daughters have been swept into the gulf of white slavery—the worst doom that can befall a woman. The mother who has allowed her girl to go to the city to work should find out what kind of life that girl is living,—and find out from some other source than the girl herself, no matter how good and fine a girl she has been at home, and how complete the confidence she has always inspired,—find out how she is living, what kind of association she is keeping. Mothers, take nothing for granted. You owe it to yourself and to your daughter, and it is not disloyalty to go beyond her own words for evidence that the wolves of the city have not dragged her from safe paths. It is, instead, the highest form of loyalty to her.
Such a warning from one who knows should not pass unheeded by any mother. Mr. Sims substantiates his declarations with details that are unprintable here.
A Significant Demand
By Editor
It has been broadly intimated that the election of Mr. Taft to the presidency was due to the solid Roman Catholic vote in the large cities of the North, but we hardly expected that this would be pleaded by Roman Catholics themselves as a just ground for asking President Taft to appoint a member of that church to an important position in the diplomatic service. A paragraph, however, in the Western Watchman (Roman Catholic) of March 18, presents this claim with commendable frankness:—
We are informed that Mr. Taft fully recognizes the debt he is under to the Catholics of the United States. This being so, we can assure him that he could do nothing that would better please that great body of loyal citizens than appointing their honored fellow Catholic to a distinguished foreign post. There is not a Catholic in the land, from Cardinal Gibbons down to the altar boy in his parish church, who would not feel personally complimented in any honor bestowed on Mr. Kerens. For this reason we repeat the suggestion made in these columns at the close of the late presidential election; and ask President Taft to send our noble-souled townsman to represent the country at a foreign court. And in urging the appointment we are candid enough to admit that a refusal to do so on the part of Mr. Taft will be regarded by us all as a rebuff, which even in politics leaves unpleasant memories in its wake.
When the communicants of any church vote as a body and as church-members rather than as citizens, such a church becomes a menace to the country.
The Need of the Holy Spirit in Our Lives
By Ellen G. White
MRS. E. G. WHITE
My mind has been much exercised of late in regard to our need of the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The promise is given us, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you;” and the assurance is repeated, “For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” The thought is enforced upon us that our dependence must be more fully upon God. He is ready and willing to do for us the very things that we need. Let us trust him as his children.
Christ instructed his disciples that they should not leave Jerusalem until the power of God should come upon them. The disciples obeyed the command, continuing “in prayer and supplication.” “And when the day of pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
How desirable it is that we be of one accord, of one mind, established in the word of the living God, and having our feet planted on the platform of eternal truth! Let us take the Bible as our guide and director, and seek to fulfil the word of the Lord. The grace of God will be upon all who will stand upon the platform of the sacred truths of his Word.
“And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed, and marveled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? . . . And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.
“But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: for these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel: And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: and on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: And I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke: the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: and it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
We are living in the last days, in a time when we may expect much from the Lord. These words should bring us to the throne of grace to claim great things of him. Here the promise is given that on the men and women and on our sons and daughters the Holy Spirit is to come; and “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” This brings to view a wonderful work to be done, for which we need the converting power of God in our hearts every day. It is our privilege to experience this. Heaven is full of blessings, and it is our privilege to claim the rich promises of God for our individual selves. We need to seek the Lord day and night that we may know just what steps to take, and just what we ought to do.
The Lord has a special work to do for us individually. As we see the wickedness of the world brought to light in the courts of justice and published in the daily papers, let us draw near to God, and by living faith lay hold of his promises, that the grace of Christ may be manifest in us. We may have an influence, a powerful influence, in the world. If the convicting power of God is with us, we shall be enabled to lead souls that are in sin to conversion.
Our simplicity will accomplish much in this work. We are not to try to climb up to high positions or to gain the praise of men. Our aim should not be to be the greatest. We are to have an eye single to the glory of God. We are to work with all the intelligence that God has given us, placing ourselves in the channel of light, that the grace of God can come upon us to mold and fashion us to the divine similitude. Heaven is waiting to bestow its richest blessings upon those who will consecrate themselves to do the work of God in these last days of the world's history. We shall be tested and tried; we may be called to spend wakeful nights; but let such times be spent in earnest prayer to God, that he may give understanding, and quicken the mind to discern the privileges that are ours.
Let us not reveal an untoward religion. Let there be no strife as to who shall be greatest, but let each seek for greatness in humility, for an understanding of the will of the Lord. God wants us to stand as free men and women in these last days of earth's history. While wickedness of every kind is being practised by those who do not take God into their counsel, we are to stand as a people who are endued with the Spirit of God, because we seek him with all the heart.
The early disciples prayed for the Holy Spirit, and they received it; and then what did they do? They preached the word. “Ye men of Israel, hear these words,” Peter declared, “Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved by God among you with miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.
“Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; he seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.”
My brethren and sisters, this is our work. We are to be his witnesses, not merely by word of mouth, not simply by preaching Christ, but by living the truth, by having the living Witness in our hearts. When the great day of God comes, and those who have followed Christ stand clearly revealed with the9light of God shining upon them, those who have at that time proved unfaithful will ask themselves the questions, Why did I not tell the truth as I knew it? Why did I not live it? Why did I not proclaim the truth with sanctified heart and soul and voice? These will be the thoughts that will come as they consider what they might have done, but did not do. My brethren and sisters, I beseech of you in the name of Jesus of Nazareth that you spend much time in prayer, and in searching the Word, that you may understand the promises that have been held out before you.
Promise after promise is given, assuring us of the fulness of power that God has, and yet we are so weak in faith that we do not grasp the power. O how much we need a living, earnest faith in the truths of God's Word! This great need of God's people is constantly before me. What shall we do, I ask, to impress them with their need? What can we do to arouse them to see that we are living in the very evening of this earth's history? Heaven is full of the blessings that we need, and yet but a small portion of the Spirit's power is manifest among us. O, we need to awake! We need to be converted anew each day. We need to seek for a faith that will lay hold of the arm of Jehovah.
When I heard last year that certain of our brethren were moved upon by the Holy Spirit at Fresno, I felt as if I could not close my eyes in sleep. I wanted to praise God from the time I lay down until I should arise again. In the night season I would awaken to find myself exhorting our people with all the powers of my being, telling them of the riches of the grace of God, and appealing to them not to close their senses to the blessings which they might have. Night after night there were presented to me precious victories that the people of God were gaining, and I would awaken, and kneeling up in bed would glorify God for these manifestations of his Spirit. My brethren and sisters, it is the Spirit of God that can arouse men and women from their sleepy spirituality to be a living, working power in the world, revealing wherever they go that they are followers of Jesus Christ. Shall we not arouse, and come into right relation to God? Shall we not seek for that faith that works by love and purifies the life from every stain of sin?
“Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly,” Peter continued, “that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.” “Whom ye have crucified.” I hope none here are crucifying Christ by a wrong course of action, but I pray that we may have a clear sense of what God is to us, and of what we may be to him as his messengers to a people that are ignorant of his will. The message is not only unto “you, and to your children,” but “to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” When the people heard these words, they were pricked in their hearts, and said to Peter and the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.”
In the experience that followed, we may learn what a right testimony will accomplish when it is borne under the influence of the Holy Spirit. “Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all that believed were together, and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.”
(To be concluded)
S. O. JAMES
By S. O. JAMES
Crucifixion
S. O. JAMES
BETTER to die than yield to sin;
O mortal, keep thy conscience pure;
Heed well that voice which speaks
within,
And make thy last election sure.
“The heart’s deceitful,” saith my God,
Who knows like him its secret springs?
Who oft applies the chastening rod,
That he may give us better things?
God’s saving truth presents a cross
The thoughtless rabble will not bear.
They can not bear to suffer loss;
The greater loss they do not fear.
O wisdom, may we heed thy voice!
Anoint our eyes, that we may see.
So shall we in the truth rejoice,
And know the One who makes us free.
Terril, Iowa.
Interesting Facts Concerning Babylon’s Fall
By George I. Butler
GEORGE I. BUTLER
(Concluded)
BUT worse things than even these have occurred. The very foundations of Christianity and Bible religion are being undermined, even in the supposed houses of their friends. The Bible itself, the great bulwark and fountain of all true religious knowledge and instruction, is being set aside as a book of authority by so-called Protestants, even in their great schools of instruction.
In the past, Protestants have believed that Catholics were in great error in holding tradition as equal with the Scriptures in authority, if not superior.
But where do Protestants now find themselves in reference to Biblical authority? Since 1844, when the fall of Babylon was proclaimed, many views utterly contrary to Bible doctrine are being received by leading Protestants. The geological and Darwinian doctrines of evolution set aside the Mosaic account of creation, and consider it a fable utterly unworthy of belief. Few realize the effect of such teachings upon religious belief and character. The account of creation as given in Genesis, is upheld as a fact all through the Bible, Christ and his apostles often referring to the Mosaic record as an accepted truth. That account is interwoven into the very warp and woof of Bible doctrine and history. To disown that, as many intelligent Protestants now do, is to undermine, the whole Bible structure of doctrine and authority.
The fall of man because of disobedience is the very foundation of Christian theology. It is quite popular nowadays to claim that man’s fall was upward, and not downward. Years ago, when first preached, that doctrine was called blank infidelity. Now it has become quite common and popular. We think it was rightly named back there; but suppose, for a moment, that it is true. What becomes of the doctrine of a Saviour dying to rescue man from sin because of disobedience? What becomes of the grand Bible doctrine of Christ’s coming to this world to suffer and die for the fallen race because of the effects of the fall of our first parents in the garden of Eden? Man’s supposed fall upward, and his supposed constant advancement through the evolutionary processes from the ape, and animal creations, to his present eminence, is utterly subversive of the whole Biblical doctrine of the atonement, and what Christ declared he came to this world to accomplish; and it virtually destroys the credibility of the Bible revelation. Multitudes of great and scientific men are seeking to cover up this issue, but it is too apparent to be denied. Hence the conclusion is reached in our highest schools of learning, that the Bible is not a book of authority.
The foundations of our holy Christian religion, laid in the Word of God, are rapidly being relegated to the domains of fable and superstition by these evolutionary schools. And the worst of it is, through the spiritual blindness and darkness of modern Babylon, the professed people of God seem entirely ignorant of the progress being made in that direction. A large portion of the modern ministry is involved in this transition. The masses of the laity do not comprehend the dangers. They are looking to their leaders and great divines, who, as the Scriptures declare, are “blind leaders of the blind,” and are rapidly progressing toward the great and awful doom awaiting those in moral darkness. In the language of the revelator, Babylon the great becomes “the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit.” Every discerning mind can perceive that the process which finally results in this condition is even now making rapid progress.
Hosts of church-members are already indorsing the doctrines of Spiritualism. This great and terrible modern delusion began near Rochester, N. Y., in 1848, this side of the great advent message of 1836-44, just after the first announcement of the fall of Babylon. With its “rappings,” “table tippings,” speaking and writing mediums, clairvoyants, etc., it made for a time very rapid progress, and attracted the attention of multitudes. Hundreds of ministers and church-members embraced it, but its diatribes against the Bible, its free-love doctrines, etc., disgusted the sober, better class of church-members, and covered it with infamy. Its true nature became apparent, and its true character was demonstrated.10In that form Satan could not use it with the greatest effect. Then it became very quiet, and but little public attention was drawn to it for a number of years. A change of methods became apparent, but not a change of character. It has now assumed a more respectable appearance. It has religious congregations. Its leading men put Rev. before their names. Here and there its famous mediums have been investigated by professors high in scientific attainment. For a number of years psychical societies for the study of spiritualistic phenomena have been giving much attention to this subject, and in many cases the result has been the acceptance of the belief of spiritualistic communication between the living and the dead.
The belief in the reality of these communications is rapidly increasing, and is becoming quite popular. This is not surprising when we realize that the popular churches believe in the immortality of the soul. That doctrine is the foundation of Spiritualism. Granted that those we call dead, live right on, thinking, knowing, loving their friends as much as ever, or perhaps more, why is it strange that they should wish to communicate with their friends living on this mundane sphere? Multitudes who mourn the death of friends have become Spiritualists, and really think they are communicating with their friends.
The only safety is in knowing and believing the Bible, which plainly declares: “The dead know not anything” (Eccl. 9:5, 6), and that at the very last moment of death all their thoughts perish, or cease. Ps. 146:4. The first great lie of Satan, when he deceived Eve with the declaration, “Ye shall not surely die” (Gen. 3:4), has been the foundation of multitudes of immortality-of-the-soul sermons. There was the true beginning of the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. The idolatrous Egyptians, Grecians, and Romans got their notions of man’s immortality from that same source. The great apostasy from the teachings of Christ and his apostles which culminated in the establishment of Catholicism, imbibed the doctrine from the heathen philosophies of that age, and bequeathed it to Protestantism; and Satan is still working along the same lines, and hopes to deceive the whole world to its ruin through that same doctrine. His last great deception is rapidly permeating the popular churches, and it will continue to do so until they become “the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit,” and so are fitted for destruction.
Another wonderful sign of Babylon’s fall is the later departure into the realm of politics. We expect to discuss this point later in this series of articles; but it is well to mention it here. The union of church and state in the last days is a matter plainly revealed in several prophecies which will be noticed later. Suffice it to say here that the trend of the current in the popular churches toward political methods is a wonderful sign of the times. The modern churches are looking more toward the government than toward the Almighty for the favors they desire. In this they are exactly imitating the Roman Catholic Church, which never fails to get the assistance of the government to carry its loads if possible. Great efforts to pass Sunday laws are constantly being made. Behold the federation of churches seeking to unite every denomination, unifying all to carry into effect certain things which are desired. Congress and State legislatures are constantly besieged to accomplish their ends.
The gulf between the Catholic mother church and her Protestant daughters is rapidly narrowing. The Protestant churches generally acknowledge the Roman Church as a church of the Lord Jesus Christ, notwithstanding the millions of Protestant martyrs slain by that church in days past. The Bible terms used to designate that church are rarely, if ever, used by modern Protestants. They openly declare their desire for the help of the mother church to assist them in strengthening their Sunday laws and forcing their observance upon people who have no reverence for that papal institution. Catholics everywhere claim to have exalted Sunday, to have placed it in that position of sanctity once held by the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. Not a passage of Scripture can be found claiming any sacredness for the first day of the week.
We see every reason to suppose that Catholics and Protestants will unite hereafter in forcing the claims of Sunday upon multitudes of unwilling people. These combined forces will undoubtedly unite to effect this object. This trend of the current is unmistakable. They believe they can bring the government to their terms. These conditions assuredly indicate a fallen church. We shall next consider the third angel’s message.
Bowling Green, Fla.
The Sabbath-School Lessons
By G. B. Thompson
G. B. THOMPSON
As an educational factor to mold and instruct in the truth of the Bible, the Sabbath-school lessons occupy a very important place. By means of these lessons prepared for the five divisions,—senior, junior, intermediate, primary, and kindergarten,—a systematic line of Bible study is provided for the denomination throughout the world, to be studied by all, from the gray-haired pioneers of the message down to the children of tender years. Their influence, therefore, is truly wide-spread and lasting; it can be correctly estimated only in eternity.
The field of study afforded us by means of these lessons is really almost without limit. An ocean of light and knowledge from the Word is set before us, and, if fully explored, week by week, and year by year, we should become ripe students of the Scriptures. I was really surprised recently in looking over the list of subjects studied since 1886 to find that in the senior and junior divisions alone we have given a careful study to at least twenty-two books of the Bible, some of them several times, besides having had lessons on the life of Christ, and on all the various truths of the third angel’s message again and again.
Besides, in the intermediate, primary, and kindergarten divisions, where there is a regular course of study for four years, or four years and a half, lessons on Old Testament history, the life of Christ, The Acts of the Apostles, and topical studies, have been carefully prepared and studied. The kindergarten children are taken through these lessons in their simplest form; then they pass into the primary division, where they go through the same course, but more advanced; and then into the intermediate division, to go over the same line of study again; then comes the drill in the senior lessons. All can see at once that, if these lessons are carefully studied, by the time the children reach a mature age, they will indeed be well versed in the truths of this message.
Beginning with the second quarter of 1909, a special series of lessons will begin on the life of Christ. These lessons will be uniform in all divisions, and will cover a period of seven quarters. Surely no more interesting or helpful subject could be studied than that of the life of the Master. It is by beholding that we are changed into the same image, and it is our most earnest prayer that the members of our Sabbath-schools will begin a thorough study of the life of Jesus.
These lessons are being written by competent and consecrated workers. During this series of lessons, we should live, so to speak, amid the scenes of the Saviour’s life and work when on earth. We should trace on a map his journeyings. In every way possible we should familiarize ourselves with the events concerning his life, from the manger to Calvary. But more important than all else is to behold the divine life which he lived as a man, and to have impressed upon our hearts by his Holy Spirit the beautiful truths of the gospel which he taught.
“It would be well for us to spend a thoughtful hour each day in contemplation of the life of Christ. We should take it point by point, and let the imagination grasp each scene, especially the closing ones. As we thus dwell upon this great sacrifice for us, our confidence in him will be more constant, our love will be quickened, and we shall be more deeply imbued with his Spirit.”—“Desire of Ages,” page 82.
As a help to the thorough study of the lesson, we urge all to secure a copy of “Desire of Ages.” No book, aside from the Bible, throws such light on the Saviour’s teaching as does this splendid book. “Christ’s Object Lessons” should also be used. There are many other excellent reference books which should be consulted in our study of the lessons.
Now what we wish to emphasize in a very marked manner is that during this year we study the lessons. Let Bible study on the life of Jesus be the watchword in every home. Some of us study, but, taken as a whole, we do not study11as we ought.
Some scarcely study at all. The Sabbath-school lesson is even neglected. To learn to think is a great work. To superficially and hurriedly look over the lessons is not studying them. Study means to dig, to dig as men do in the mines when searching for diamonds. Parents not only should search for the word as for hidden treasure, but they should assist their children in exploring the field of God’s truth spread before them week by week in these lessons. The Sabbath-school will be a soul-saving agency, and we shall grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth just in proportion as we are students of the Word. Nothing will so revive our schools, and make this branch of the work strong, as for every pupil in our schools, old and young, to thoroughly master the lesson each week,—not simply the answers to the questions asked, but to master the subject as a whole.