Review and Herald, Vol. 84, No. 4. (1/24/1907)

Review and Herald

Jan 24, 1907

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 24, 1907

The Life Worth Living

By L. D. Santee

L. D. Santee

Not mine a life of cold and dull inaction, Not mine the joy the sluggard’s bosom feels; Be rather mine the joyous satisfaction Of teaching what the Word of God reveals.

Not mine a life that clings to earth contented, Not mine a folding of the idle hands, But love and joy and hope shall be augmented By faith’s glad view of heaven’s shining lands,

That summer land with lovely flowers undying, The palms of victory, and the white-robed band, And sees life’s sea in wondrous beauty lying, And hears the ripples lapping on its strand.

Be mine the active life of care and labor, The cheerful bearing of the heavy cross, The kindly greeting for the friend and neighbor, The love that counts all earthly gains but loss;

Be mine a life to cheer the mourner’s sorrow, To toil in hope, to watch, as well as pray, Nor tarry for some better time to-morrow To do the work I ought to do to-day.

Our Publishing Work

*The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it. Psalm 68:11.*

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Editorial Letter

Jottings from the Editor’s Note-Book on a Trip Around the World

THIS is our seventeenth day out from Vancouver, and we have just sighted the coast of Japan. It is a welcome view after a long voyage. As we expect to arrive at Yokohama to-morrow morning, I will make a few notes concerning our experiences on board this ship.

Taking it all in all, we have had a very favorable voyage. For about two thirds of the time the sea has been quiet—like a summer sea—and the remainder of the run has been the average winter experience. The “Tartar” is a sea-worthy ship, the officers are agreeable gentlemen, and we have been made as comfortable as possible.

An unusual, but very pleasant feature of this voyage is the number of missionaries on board. Our passenger list includes eight Christian workers besides myself. Of these, three are going out to China (two returning after a furlough), three are going out to Japan, one to Korea, and one to the Philippines. As there are only twenty-two passengers in all, we have been able to exert a controlling influence in the atmosphere of the ship, and the result has been a quiet and helpful experience. Besides the regular public services on Sundays, we have maintained a devotional service and Bible study each day, and have had many opportunities for personal talks upon missionary topics. I have conducted the Bible study three times, and spoken at the public service on the one Sunday.

Some of these missionaries had never met a Seventh-day Adventist before, and the others knew practically nothing about this advent movement, and it has been a privilege to talk with them about this message as opportunity has offered. Of course the Sabbath question has been discussed more than any other one topic in our private talks, and when we came to the day line, we had rather an interesting experience. As we approached the one hundred and eightieth degree of west longitude, it became evident that Sunday would be the day which ought to be dropped, but rather than to do this (on account of certain special privileges granted to the ship’s crew on that day) it was announced on Friday, December 14, that the next day would be Sunday, December 16, although, as the commander himself said, it was really Saturday. The next day was accordingly observed by all on the ship, and I took occasion to tell the missionaries that they were observing the true Sabbath with me. This circumstance served to emphasize the question of the Sabbath.

Two interesting addresses have been given by missionaries who have been home on furloughs, one on the Philippine Islands and the other on China. At the close of these addresses opportunity was given for asking questions, and much valuable information was thus gained. By this personal contact with those who have been working for years in these lands in the far East, I have already gained something of an introduction to the experiences of a missionary on the ground.

Among the missionaries is a Japanese Christian who has been to America for an education, and is now returning to his own people as a teacher of the gospel. I have had some interesting talks with him, and he has made special inquiry concerning our people and their work. He is very hopeful that Japan will be speedily evangelized, and is desirous of having a part in the work.

Since coming on board I have read with interest a missionary book entitled “Japan and Its Regeneration,” and have endeavored to get an intelligent idea of the general condition of the first country which I am to visit. In describing the present situation the writer says:—

As Japan has passed through great changes affecting all other departments of human life and thought, the religious beliefs and sentiments of the people could not remain unaffected. The old religions have been subjected to a great strain, and have failed to satisfy those who were receiving new ideas from the West. Young people taught the truths of science can not, as their parents did, bow their heads and worship the rising sun; they can not go into the Buddhist temples, kneel before the images made of wood or stone, and from their hearts repeat the Buddhist prayers. The forms may at times be preserved, but the reality has gone. Hence multitudes of the young men speak of themselves as having no religion. . . .

Japan might be described as a nation in search of a religion. Though young men may be satisfied for a while with agnosticism, the people as a whole can not be. Thoughtful men are recognizing that irreligion tends to moral degeneracy. . . . Hence many writers for the periodical press are declaring that the great need of the country is religion. . . .

Success or failure [in missionary operations] will not be confined to Japan. It is no longer a secluded nation. What is done there affects other countries, and especially those of Eastern Asia. . . . The influence of Japan upon the nations of the continent is becoming more marked. . . . If Japan should speedily become a Christian nation, Korea, Siam, and the vast empire of China would be profoundly influenced by the event itself, while the Japanese Christians, imbued with a missionary spirit, would join the churches of the West in hastening forward to bring about the redemption of Asia.

As I have pondered over these words, I have wondered if the situation thus described was not in itself a special call to us to carry this message quickly to Japan. I shall earnestly study this problem with our workers now in that field, and shall doubtless report some of our conclusions in my later letters.

Yokohama, Dec. 25, 1906.

S. D. A.

(Continued)

THE place of pre-eminence belongs to the Son of God, belongs to him not because of any arbitrary decree, not because he was simply put ahead of others, but because by his very nature and being he was there, being the eternal Son of the Father. He was of necessity above all created beings. Now all the trouble that has come upon us in this world grew out of rebellion against that divine arrangement, and the effort to

put down Christ from the place that belonged to him, and to substitute another in his place.

When the plan of redemption was announced, and the place was given to the eternal Son as the head of redemption, of necessity he was thus because only he who is head of creation could also be the head of redemption; only the Creator could create anew. From that time until the present, and especially in this last generation, the effort has been and is to obscure Christ, and to substitute some other way than the way of Christ, and to substitute some other means, some other name for salvation rather than the name of Christ, and thus to break down the whole gospel plan of salvation. That is manifested not only in the way to which I have referred among Protestants, but also by those who have openly substituted some one else in the place of Christ. I will read the prophecy which is set forth in these familiar words:—

Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. 2 Thess. 2: 3, 4.

He who sits in the temple and shows himself to be God, takes the name of the Vicegerent of the Son of God. We call that organization which has this man at its head the papacy. This is the chiefest plan, the best organized plan, that ever has been brought forth in the history of the world for degrading Christ from his true place, and substituting another, while professing loyalty to Christ, while professing faith in the salvation of Christ; yet using only terms and names and forms that belong to Christ, while substituting another in the place of Christ. This is the mystery of iniquity, which is Satan’s answer to the mystery of godliness.

This message for this generation therefore must stand for Christ first and last as against every substitute for Christ, and as against every so-called gospel that has some other way of salvation from sin than faith in the sacrifice, the atoning work of Christ. The words of this message (Revelation 14) contain certain terms and symbols. It speaks of the beast and his image; it speaks of the mark of the beast; it speaks of Babylon fallen; various terms used to give to this special message a setting fitting for this time.

Taking the interpretation of these scriptures, we find that this message announcing Christ as the divine Saviour is due in a generation when, above all generations in the past, substitutes will be presented for Christ. There will be not only a revival of the power of the papacy in this generation, but there will be the revealing of apostate Protestantism which works hand in hand with the papacy to the same end. Both of them really have this purpose in view,—not, I say, necessarily known to those who are the actors in the work, but known to the master mind who has been planning this apostasy all the time from the first, who has been the general in all these movements against God and his Son, and against the plan of salvation—all designed to bring upon this generation this delusion in the most masterful way, that will set aside the work of Christ, and that will make of none effect just as far as possible his sacrifice and his atoning work.

Now take this message in its relation to certain special features or doctrines. Just note the perversions of the gospel, every one of which aims at degrading Christ from his place. This message must stand for certain special, neglected, or set-aside doctrines. It must stand for the Sabbath of the Lord according to the commandment. It must stand for the nature of man as set forth in the Scriptures. It must stand for the atoning work according to the priesthood of Christ as set forth in the epistle to the Hebrews, which is an interpretation of the temple and its services. It must stand for the nearness of his coming.

Now these perversions of doctrine all take away from Christ the honor due unto him. The Sabbath is the sign of the divinity of Christ. It is the seal of the law, but it is notably the sign of the divinity of Christ. It sets forth Christ as the Creator, without whom not anything was made that was made. It is the evidence of his divinity, as manifested in the flesh, the sign that God has revealed himself in Christ for the salvation of man. To set aside the Sabbath, even though it be with such terms as “the Lord’s day” and “the Christian sabbath,” and even though the original Sabbath be stigmatized as “the Jewish sabbath,”—mark you, that behind this movement is just the one purpose, and that is to set aside Christ and his divine power.

The true teaching concerning the nature of man exalts Christ as our life; that we can not live in any way apart from him; that it is only through him that we have both the present and the future life; and then closely related with that is the further thought that belongs with it, that from our very nature we can not save ourselves. Salvation does not mean to develop the goodness within, the nature within; salvation means to receive the nature from without. From the very nature of man, he must be renewed; he must be created anew in Christ Jesus. To set forth natural immortality, life independent of Christ, is to degrade Christ from his position as the giver of life.

To refuse to believe in Christ as the high priest, the minister for us in the heavenly sanctuary, is to set him aside from his place in making effective his whole work in our behalf. Were it not for the ministry of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary, the ministry of himself in the person of the Holy Spirit, of none effect would be his sacrifice on the cross. It is not merely that he died for us; but it is also that he ever lives to intercede for us, and this is what makes the whole plan of salvation through faith in Christ effective.

To put off indefinitely, and to put off entirely, any idea of the return of Christ to this earth is to degrade Christ from his true position, when his victorious work will be made manifest. Then it will be seen that he is indeed Lord of lords, and Kings of kings. But this whole scheme of self-salvation, of salvation by education, of salvation by culture, of salvation through human philosophy, of salvation by the development of the good within, putting away the work of Christ, setting aside the doctrine of his coming to complete his work, is putting down Christ from the exalted place that belongs to him, and putting another in his place.

This message, therefore, in direct terms, is to stand for the true revealing of Christ and his exaltation to the place that belongs to him,—the eternal Son, the agent in creation, the agent in redemption. Any movement which degrades him from this place, dishonors God; for it is the purpose of God that we should honor the Son, even as we honor the Father.

(To be concluded)

Incentives to Earnest Prayer

By W. A. S.

ANOTHER good word comes to us from out of the troublous times in Russia. Our brethren report that the minister of the interior has recently informed our people and notified the governors of the provinces that Seventh-day Adventists are to have the same liberty to publish and preach in the empire that the Russian Baptists have been granted. Well may those who have worked and waited and prayed for this in Russia thank God and take courage.

Changes are rapidly taking place. There is a stirring of the depths in all the world. These things are a call to prayer that the word of the Lord by this advent message may have free course and be glorified in every unwarned field where the enemy has tried to shut out the light. As “prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God” for

Peter, the angel struck off his fetters and opened prison doors. As believers in Corinth prayed, Paul found deliverance in Asia Minor.

The situation in Turkey just now is a call to earnest prayer that the way may be more fully opened there for the preaching of the message of Christ’s soon coming. The Protestant religionists in that land have refused to acknowledge us as Protestants. On this account the Sabbatarians, as the government calls us, are without recognition, and hence our workers have often been hailed before magistrates, and sent here and there.

We surely ought to pray that all that our faithful workers have suffered because of this hostility of professed Protestants may soon be turned to the advantage of the truth.

Let us have it understood that wherever the reports show that special difficulties exist or barriers block the way, to that very point the earnest prayers of believers will be directed. The whole history of the work of God bears witness that effectual fervent prayer “availeth much.” Definite results follow.

Amid the waking up of the nations, and the turnings and overturnings that we are witnessing to-day, this message of the judgment hour is to sound louder and louder.

In France, the great upheaval that has come to the Catholic Church must work out somehow to the hastening forward of the message. In old Spain barriers that once would have shut our workers out are weakening. The door of access ought to swing wider open. The cable from Madrid brought this significant message last week:—

Against the opposition of the court, King Alfonso to-day authorized, the opening of a Protestant chapel in connection with the palace, for the benefit of Princess Henry of Battenburg, mother of Queen Victoria, of Spain, who is the King’s guest.

Our brethren in the East report that China is being “stirred to the very depths.” All about us multiply the evidences that intensity is taking hold of every element. Never had the church greater incentives to earnest, united, and definite prayer.

W. A. S.

The Spartanburg Trial

By C. M. S.

It was decided by those interested in the indictment of the three brethren at Spartanburg, S. C., for Sunday work, that the case of Elder R. T. Nash should be used as a test case, and that the others be disposed of in accordance therewith.

The trial has taken place, as will be seen by the extracts quoted in the Religious Liberty Reading on page 20.

There are some thoughts in connection with these matters that are worthy of more consideration than they generally receive. There is not an advocate of Sunday laws who will admit that their enforcement is an act of persecution against those who religiously observe another day as the Sabbath. The writer has heard prominent National Reformers scout the idea of Adventists' having suffered under the law because of having quietly gone about their own work at home. This conviction of Elder Nash, with the sentence of the court upon him and his two brethren, is an emphatic denial of all such assertions of Sunday-law advocates. The enumeration of the offenses by the prosecution is an enumeration of the most common home duties, whose performance could annoy none but those who wished to compel religious people to cease the outward expression of their belief, and act as if they believed in the sacredness of a Sunday-sabbath and the necessity of taking part in its religious observance.

That this is a fact recognized by more than Seventh-day Adventists is shown by an editorial utterance in the Spartanburg Journal. The editor of that journal admits that there are “many hundreds of people right here in Spartanburg” who “do more work every Sunday than Mr. Nash ever does, and do not defend it on religious grounds.” He says further: “They are not prosecuted, and nobody wants them prosecuted.” Then he asks: “Why then jump on Mr. Nash and his people for doing the same thing or less? The reason is,” he says, “that Mr. Nash and the Seventh-day Adventists defend their acts on religious grounds, and the others do not.” That he sees the injustice of it, as all fair-minded persons must, is shown by his remark: “It is a curious situation, one of the strange inconsistencies of life.”

That the editor does not favor Seventh-day Adventists or their belief, or believe in religious liberty for them, is shown by the following extract from this same editorial:—

Let Mr. Nash and his friends understand that they must obey the laws of the land, or at least those laws that their neighbors happen to be interested in. If they wish to refrain from worldly labors and perform religious devotions on Saturday, they enjoy the freedom of being able to do so unmolested. They are not required to hold or attend religious services on Sunday, but there is a statute in this State prohibiting work on Sunday, which is sometimes fished out and given a little use. Let these good people therefore refrain from hunting trouble, and avoid offending their neighbors when the latter have the law, and therefore the courts and the juries, on their side.

Now the real reason why “their neighbors happen to be interested in” that particular law is, according to the editor's own statement quoted above, because “Mr. Nash and the Seventh-day Adventists defend their acts on religious grounds, and the others do not.” They have a religious belief, but are not to be allowed to exercise it because they have Bible authority for holding it. If this is not a restriction of religious rights, then there never has been any in the history of this world.

Those who would restrict the religious liberties of the people have always stigmatized as “trouble-hunters” those who have sought to “worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences;” and this feature is not wanting in this case. Ahab made the same accusation against Elijah. The officials of the Inquisition held the same opinion of the millions whom they sent to their death; and we have it to-day from the lips of those who, failing to appreciate the blessings of religious liberty, are willing to sell their own heritage of religious liberty by compelling their neighbors to yield to them in religious practise. It is true that they do not always see the logic of their own demand; but it stands out as a fact, nevertheless, that when they secure laws abridging the rights of conscience, they are abridging their own rights of conscience, and admitting the right of majority rule in matters of faith.

The Journal's editorial closes with these words:—

The law having been declared and demonstrated to them in this kindly manner [he here alludes to the smallness of the fine imposed], the obligation rests upon them to carefully observe it in future. It is also a matter of gratification to the public that these defendants were treated in a kind and considerate manner by the court and its officials, and given no grounds to feel that they have been persecuted.

That the editor, after admitting all he does in regard to the injustice of the matter, could close his editorial as he does is to us “one of the strange inconsistencies of” human nature. We wonder if the fact of persecution depends upon the size of the penalty. We wonder if those convicted Seventh-day Adventists feel that they have equality in the sight of the law with their neighbors whose religious belief differs from theirs. While those who do not defend their Sunday work by Bible authority may work as much as they please on that day, and those who defend their Sunday work by Bible authority are indicted and fined because they work, and are threatened with further prosecution for its repetition, the statement that the latter are not suffering persecution, is a palpable misstatement of facts which deceives no one.

In this particular trial the judge several times reminded the defendant that he must not make a religious argument because the court had nothing to do with the religious belief of Seventh-day Adventists. But as a matter of fact the whole thing, the passage of the law, the complaint, the indictment, the trial, and the conviction has to do with religion, and is based upon religion. The law was passed to protect and perpetuate a religious institution. The complaint was made against the defendant because some one felt that the defendant had violated a religious institution. That the law of the land was broken never inspired that prosecution, for it is admitted that it is broken every Sunday in Spartanburg by hundreds of people who are never arrested for doing it, and what is true of Spartanburg is true of every city, village, and town in the United States. The indictment was drawn up because a religious man had complained of the “desecration” of a religious institution by those who did not believe in the sacredness of that institution. The trial was granted and the conviction secured, not because of a violation of the law of the land, but because the law as it stands gives men of a certain religious belief an opportunity to compel others to act as they do in a religious matter. As long as a civil law for the protection of a religious institution remains on the statute-books of any State, it can not be true that the court has nothing to do with the religious belief of those who are indicted for a violation of such law. The law itself takes cognizance of their belief by compelling them to sacrifice one sixth of their time for holding that belief; and the judge takes cognizance of that belief when he fines a man who does not choose to make that sacrifice.

The spirit that is urging on the whole Sunday-law crusade is plainly manifest wherever the enforcement of that law is attempted. It is those who seek to honor their Creator by resting upon the day set apart by him through his own act and his own command that first feel the strength of its persecuting power. That fact demonstrates as plainly as anything need to who is the real author, the inspiring spirit, of the Sunday-law crusade.

C. M. S.

An Important Meeting to Be Held in Europe

By A. G. Daniells

At the General Conference held at Washington, D. C., in the spring of 1905, it was decided to thereafter hold the sessions of the General Conference every four years, instead of every two, as had been our custom for some years. And it was further decided that there should be held a special meeting of the General Conference Committee midway between the sessions of the General Conference. According to this arrangement, the next session of the Conference should be held in 1909, and the special meeting of the full committee should be held in 1907.

At a meeting of a part of the General Conference Committee, held in Washington, D. C., April, 1906, it was voted:—

That it is the sense of this council that the biennial council be held in Europe at such time and place as may be agreed upon by the European brethren in counsel with the General Conference Committee.

When this decision was placed before the General Conference Committee in Europe, the chairman, Elder Conradi, pointed out the advantage to be gained by holding this council in Europe. He said:—

Not only are such interchanges of labor good for the brethren who will be present from other parts of the world; it will also do our union men in Europe good to get out of their fields for a time, and to visit about in Europe, that they, too, may keep in touch with the rapidly developing work that God is conducting in other unions. The suggestion to have such a gathering next year meets our hearty approval.

The brethren in Europe advised that short councils be held in Great Britain, Scandinavia, and Germany, during the month of April, and that at the close of these meetings the general council be held in Switzerland early in May. This would give the American brethren an opportunity to meet the most of the workers in those fields, and take careful observations, so that at the general council following they would be better prepared to discuss the affairs of the European field.

It has now been arranged that these European meetings be held as follows: London, April 18-22; Copenhagen, Denmark, April 26-30; Friedensau, Germany, May 3-7; and the general council at Gland, Switzerland, May 10-25.

The union and local conferences in Europe will arrange to have the leading ministers of all their conferences attend the general council in Switzerland. This will be the first full council of the General Conference ever held outside of the United States. It will be the first time that scores of ministers and general workers in Europe will have ever had the opportunity of meeting with the General Conference Committee in council. We believe this meeting will mark a new era in the development and expansion of our work in Europe and the more eastern mission fields. It should give a fresh impetus to our cause the world over.

During the last two years members of the General Conference Committee have visited every continent on the globe. They have joined the missionaries in every large mission field we are operating in all parts of the world in a careful study of the fields, and in planning their work for the future. They will come fresh from these fields to this council to report their observations, and to present the requests of the missions for the help required for a forward movement.

The council is appointed to continue fifteen days. It is intended that studies shall be given each day on important Bible themes; such as, Our Great Need of the Holy Spirit for Efficiency in the Work of the Gospel Ministry; The Place and Purpose of the Spirit of Prophecy in Our Message; The Importance of Organization in Our Work, etc.

From this brief statement, it will be seen that the proceedings of this council will be very important to our work and workers outside of the United States; and I believe they will be of very great interest to all our people in the States, where our general councils have been held from the beginning of our history up to this time. Our cause is now worldwide in its scope. We can not leave any continent out of our reckoning.

I hope all our people will see light in this move to hold the coming council in Europe, and that fervent prayer will be offered from now on that the Lord will signally bless this meeting.

It is interesting; if not significant, that the first general council held in foreign lands is to be held in the very country to which our first foreign missionary was sent. Our beloved brother, Elder J. N. Andrews, left the United States in 1874, thirty-three years ago, for Switzerland, where he established our first foreign missionary station. He laid down his life in that land, and now sleeps in the Basel cemetery, awaiting the call of the Life-giver. A. G. DANIELLS.

Will Methodists Grant Adventists Religious Liberty

Because a Roman Catholic priest attempted to disturb a mission service for Italians which was being conducted by Methodists, and a Catholic paper spoke disparagingly of this missionary effort, the Christian Advocate (Methodist) made this statement:—

In the United States the Methodist Episcopal Church has the same legal right to open services in the Italian language and advertise them as in any other language or as any other ecclesiastical organization, and it has the same moral impulse to propagate its own views. The Roman Catholic Church does not hesitate to teach all its members its doctrines, and also to teach that the doctrines taught by the Methodist Episcopal Church which do not agree with those taught by the Roman Catholic Church are untrue. We never object to their holding them up as misleading, for we claim for our own church the right to declare that its fundamental doctrines are true, and that any doctrines held by the Catholic Church which contravene our doctrines are misleading.

This is sound religious liberty doctrine. Now will the Methodists grant the same privilege to Seventh-day Adventists as they claim for themselves?

The Skodsborg Sanitarium

By Arthur Grosvenor Daniells

In making up the $150,000 fund, provision was made to help the Skodsborg Sanitarium to the amount of two thousand dollars. Our people should understand why this appropriation is allowed.

BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE SKODSBORG SANITARIUM

In 1902, by request of the General Conference Committee, a number of the union conferences in North America sent delegates to Europe, to attend a general meeting of the European workers, and to visit the various conferences that had been organized. While visiting the Skodsborg Sanitarium in Denmark, it was found that that institution needed assistance. The patronage was altogether too great for its capacity. The managers were paying heavy rents for unsuitable buildings, some located at a distance from the sanitarium. After careful counsel, it was agreed that a new building should be erected, and that the General Conference would be requested to raise two thousand dollars for this, provided the Danish brethren would raise four thousand. This was agreed to by all parties, and the Danish brethren have raised their share. The building is now being erected, and the two thousand dollars promised by the General Conference is needed.

The Skodsborg Sanitarium has for years been a great blessing to the people of Scandinavia. Hundreds have had their health restored there, and have received very favorable impressions regarding the message. How many have fully embraced the truth, we know not. The sanitarium is a union conference institution, and is receiving the careful attention and hearty co-operation of the leading brethren in that field. The new building and the important changes that are being made will greatly increase the efficiency of the institution, and will give it greater earning power, as well.

A. G. DANIELLS.

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