ONE of the great challenging questions the Almighty put to Job was: “Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?”
The “time of trouble” and “the day of battle and war” are forms of expression used in the Bible to denominate the period of violence, rioting, and war preparations that will immediately precede the end of this present world, and culminate in the second coming of Christ. The foregoing scripture announces that the almighty Father has reserved “treasures of the hail” against that time of trouble and war.
We are in a time when the preparations for war are more terrible than ever before; and never did statesmen have to struggle harder than now to keep the nations from rushing to the battle-field. We are also in a time when intense violence and revolution is threatening all parts of the world. This violence and revolution is with difficulty suppressed, as is witnessed by the recent labor wars so general over England, and that prevailed in sections of Spain, France, Austria, and elsewhere in the Old World, as well as in many parts of the New. This strife that has been so general is not a transitory spasm in society, but it is a chronic condition of the time. It presents one of the mightiest and also one of the most generally recognized and dangerous problems of the age.
In view of these conditions, and many of a like character that, without mention, the reader will call to mind, it should be readily recognized that we have reached the time of trouble and of war. The many prophecies that point it out, and the conditions that confirm the predictions, are clear and unmistakable.
In view of the fact that we are facing this time of world-wide trouble and war, it is not surprising to find such articles as have recently appeared in the Country Gentleman and a number of the French journals in regard to the “gigantic hail problem.” These articles discuss methods of “fighting the hail-storms,” and “hail-storm insurance.” The fact that calls out this discussion, to use the words of one of the writers, is that “the total damage done to rural industries the world over by hail-storms averages not less than two hundred million dollars a year.”
We see some of the beginnings of the bringing out of these “treasures of the hail” that Jehovah has “reserved” for the years that will immediately precede the end of time. What will it be when this “treasure” is opened up more fully and the height of it is reached? Intense and violent wickedness has always been visited with divine judgments. And phenomenal storms of hail are among the things reserved for the culminating sins that mark the end of this world.
T.
Whom Are We Serving?
By Mrs. E. G. White
By Mrs. E. G. White
"HEREWITH shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" Professed Christians would do well to inquire what God they are serving. Are they serving the God that made heaven and earth, who gave the human race His law, in the bosom of which He placed the fourth commandment, requiring men to "remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy"? The seventh-day Sabbath is a memorial of the creative power of God, and is to be sacredly observed throughout all generations.
After Israel had been in bondage in Egypt, and through witnessing idolatry had almost forgotten God and the precepts which He had given, the Lord led them forth into the wilderness. He had them assemble about Mount Sinai, and there, amid awful grandeur, Jesus Christ, who was the founder of the whole Jewish economy, spoke the ten precepts of God to the people. Christ united in Himself both the law and the gospel; they are not divided. Those who are offering prayers to the God of heaven and earth, will not refuse to be obedient to the plainest precept of the law. They will listen to the voice of Christ, and will "remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy," as the day on which the Creator of the heavens and the earth rested from all the work which He had done. They will not turn away from the holy commandment, and accept a spurious sabbath instead of the holy, sanctified day that God instituted in Eden as a memorial of His creative power. The Sabbath was given to man as a sign that was to show to whom the allegiance of the people was given.
In the counsels of the synagog of Satan, it was determined to obliterate the sign of allegiance to God in the world. Antichrist, the man of sin, exalted himself as supreme in the earth, and through him Satan has worked in a masterly way to create rebellion against the law of God, and against the memorial of His created works. Is this not sin and iniquity? What greater contempt could be cast upon the Lord God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, than is cast upon Him by ignoring the Sabbath, which He instituted, sanctified, and blessed, that it might ever be a memorial of His power as Creator? How dare men change and profane the day which God has sanctified? How dare the Christian world accept the spurious sabbath, the child of apostasy?
Under the influence of America, to some extent Europe has been casting off its medieval intolerance, loosening the bonds and bands of church and state, while America is listening to the voices of those who would lure to the Dark Ages. Our cartoonist has given us a striking sermon.
The Prince of Light and the prince of darkness are contending for the victory. When Jesus, the Prince of Life, came forth from Joseph's sepulcher, His triumph was assured. As He came forth from the grave, and proclaimed Himself the resurrection and the life, the end of Satan's reign on the earth was made certain; but well may the hosts of heaven be astonished to see men exalting him who is the leader of the great rebellion against God. Those who are choosing to honor Satan by exalting the spurious sabbath, are making a choice similar to that which the people made when they rejected Christ, that Barabbas, a robber and a murderer, should be given unto them.
Numbers Not Evidence
But because the great majority of the world have accepted the spurious sabbath, it does not give it importance and sanctity in the eyes of Heaven. The dishonor to God is none the less because great numbers accept the false sabbath, and ignore the Sabbath of the Lord their God. The confederacy of evil in the earth has always been, to outward appearance, the largest confederacy. But large numbers on the side of error do not strengthen the cause of iniquity. "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish."
The Lord has a controversy with His people, and, altho in His great mercy He bears long with them, yet if they persist in living in transgression of His law, they will not stand in the day of His rebuke. He has seen the backsliding and iniquity of His professed people. He has noted the unbelief, the hypocrisy, the pride, the selfishness, the disobedience to His law, and He will punish for these things. God can not be in harmony with the people who will not obey His commandments, who are wickedly departing from His precepts, and by their example of disobedience are leading their children and their neighbors in the way of transgression. The professed church of Christ is strengthening the hands of sinners in their evil work, by making void, through their traditions, the commandments of Jehovah.
If parents had educated their children to reverence the law of God, as Christ enjoined that they should educate them, we should not see wickedness reaching so great proportions. Through disobedience the world is fast becoming as it was in the days before the Flood, and as it was in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah. The church has taken the world into her fellowship, and has given her affections to the enemies of holiness. The church and the world are standing on the same ground in transgression of the law of God. The church prefers to assimilate to the world, rather than separate from its customs and vanities.
But God will bless all those who do His commandments. He will give grace upon grace to all them that fear Him, and walk in the light of truth, as they find it by diligently and prayerfully searching the Scriptures. There will be a remnant who will do the will of God. "And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places; thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. If thou turn7away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it."
The Coming of Our Lord
By George W. Rine
The Promise and Assurance
No fact is better authenticated than that Jesus the Christ once came into our world and for a time lived among men. That He once came is a divine pledge that He will come again. During His earthly ministry Christ repeatedly and explicitly taught His followers to expect His return. During His last journey to Jerusalem, He foreshadowed His own history in the parable of the nobleman going into a far country to receive a kingdom and return, who left his servants behind with the command, "Occupy till I come." Luke 19:12, 13.
One evening, during the week immediately preceding His crucifixion, He sat on the Mount of Olives, doubtless looking down upon the massive buildings of the temple, the utter destruction of which He had just foretold. The disciples came to Him with the request: "Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?" Matt. 24:3. It is certain from the nature of this question that His second coming was to them no new thought, and that it was occupying their minds. Knowing that He would come again, they wished to know how to recognize the approach of that momentous event. In answering the question, the Lord projected a panorama of intervening history, and dwelt upon the need of watchfulness on the part of His church, because the precise time of His coming no man could know. By two graphic illustrations, the parable of the ten virgins and that of the ten talents, He set forth the twofold kind of preparation needed on the part of believers; namely, the inward preparation of the spiritual life and the outward preparation of diligent service. He closed the discourse with the unqualified declaration that when He came the second time He would come as the Son of Man sitting upon the throne of His glory, and surrounded by all the holy angels.
The Promise
Through the dark, sorrowful hours of the very last night, when the little band of disciples were grouped about Him in that upper room, His thoughts were occupied with His return. The disciples were in deep sorrow because of the parting which all vaguely felt was near. In His love and pity, the Master began His farewell words to them with the consoling assurance: "Let not your heart be troubled. . . . I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again." John 14:1-3. A few hours later He was in the midst of the shameful scenes of His trial.
Mark His answer to the demand of the high priest, that He state plainly whether He held Himself to be the Christ, the Son of God: "Nevertheless I say unto you, Henceforth ye shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven." Matt. 26:64. As He stood there with fettered hands before His accusers, His appearance no doubt seemed to belie His words. Yet He did not shrink from declaring that the time would come when the conditions would be reversed, and when they would see that His claim was true. Through all the ignominy of these terrible hours, the vision of His return in glory sustained and inspired His tortured soul; and "for the joy that was set before Him," He "endured the cross, despising the shame."
At His ascension, the same truth was again burned into the minds of the disciples, by the two angels who stood by them as they gazed in wistful wonder toward the point in the heavens where their Lord had disappeared from view. "This same Jesus," declare those shining messengers, "which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven." It was this Heaven-sent assurance that sent the disciples back to Jerusalem "with great joy," as Luke tells us in the closing words of his Gospel. We see, then, that when Jesus returned to His Father, after completing the mission of His first coming, He left His followers radiant with the joyful certainty that He would come again.
Insistently Declared to Be the Hope of the Church
The conversion of the Thessalonians to the Christian faith is described as turning "to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for His Son from heaven." 1 Thess. 1:9, 10. Of the Corinthian believers it is declared that they "come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Cor. 1:7. To the Philippian church Paul writes: "Our citizenship is in heaven; whence also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ." Phil. 3:20. In the Epistle to the Hebrews the same thought is enforced. There we read, "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation." Chapter 9:28. Nothing can be more certain than that the primitive Christians not only looked back to a Saviour who had come, and who had died and risen, but forward to a Saviour who would come again. "There were two poles in their conversion. Their faith was enclosed in the past in the facts of the death and resurrection of the Lord,
and also in the future in the assured hope of His return." Is it not evident, therefore, that the second coming of Christ occupied a vital and central place in the gospel, as preached by the apostles, and as believed and received by the primitive churches?
Let us remind ourselves that the one all-embracing hope of the New Testament church rests upon the coming of our Saviour. That hope was to the early Christians the one beacon light that cast its sacred glow over all their lives. Paul depicts the true Christian attitude as one of eager expectancy in respect to the second advent, in these words: "The grace of God . . . hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." Titus 2:11-13. Again and again the word "hope" is upon the lips of the apostles; and in the epistles they use it more than a score of times in direct connection with "that blessed hope," the glorious appearing of the Lord.
In the words of a distinguished student and teacher of the Bible, "The whole life and work of the New Testament church has the coming of the Lord in view." Paul teaches unmistakably that the sanctification of believers is a preparation for the coming of the Master. To the Thessalonians he writes: "The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Mark the grace and tenderness with which John expresses the same thought: "And now, little children, abide in Him; that, when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming." 1 John 2:28. It is by an appeal to the same glorious event that Paul exhorts Timothy to fidelity, charging him to "keep the commandment, without spot, without reproach, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Tim. 6:14. In precisely the same spirit Peter exhorts his fellow elders: "Feed the flock of God which is among you. . . . And when the Chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away." 1 Peter 5:2-4. To the remnant or last-day church the divine Spirit addresses the following admonition to patience and stability, basing His appeal upon the imminence of the Lord's return: "Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." James 5:7, 8. Our acts of worship, as for example, the observance of the Lord's Supper, must have the same blessed end in view. For says the apostle, "As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till He come." 1 Cor. 11:26.
Thus, we find that all the holy apostles held forth the hope of the glorious appearing of our Lord as the most potent and inspiring motive for Christian life and service. It was this hope that filled the whole horizon of the early church. In the following inimitably graceful passage, John points out the supremely practical value of the Christian grace of hope in its essential relation to8the coming of Jesus: "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure." 1 John 3:2, 3.
Mark the verve with which Peter protests: "We have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." As certainly as the words of Jesus are true, as surely as the oracles of the everlasting God are steadfast, Jesus Himself, in glorified humanity, will return again to this very world that once rejected and crucified Him. All the prophets, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, have predicted it. All devout believers, from the beginning of the world, have prayed and yearned for it. Both before His death and after His resurrection, Jesus repeatedly promised to return. Again, the very last words in the blood-sealed Testament which He sent us from heaven are, "He which testifieth these things saith, SURELY I COME QUICKLY. AMEN."
After visions of supernal glory had passed before the "beloved disciple;" after he had seen the new heaven and the new earth clothed in the beauty of peace and holiness; after his soul had dwelt with rapture upon the New Jerusalem, the holy city, whose light was like a stone most precious, his supreme passion is not centered in these glories, but in Jesus, the fountain of all beauty and glory. Just as we should expect, therefore, the prayer which rises instinctively from his heart, as he is about to lay down his pen, is simply, "Come, Lord Jesus." Assuredly, then, we are driven by the whole trend and tenor of the Holy Scriptures to expect our Lord's return to receive His blood-bought church to Himself, that where He is, there they may be also.
A Time for Decision
By James Russell Lowell
(From "The Present Crisis," by James Russell Lowell)
ONCE to every man and nation comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side;
Some great cause, God's new Messiah, offering each the bloom or blight,
Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the right,
And the choice goes by forever 'twixt that darkness and that light.
Hast thou chosen, O my people, on whose party thou shalt stand,
Ere the Doom from its worn sandals shakes the dust against our land?
Tho the cause of Evil prosper, yet 'tis Truth alone is strong,
And, albeit she wander outcast now, I see around her throng;
Troops of beautiful, tall angels, to enshield her from all wrong.
Backward look across the ages, and the beacon moments see,
That, like peaks of some sunk continent, jut through oblivion's sea;
Not an ear in court or market for the low foreboding cry
Of those crises, God's stern winnowers, from whose feet earth's chaff must fly;
Never shows the choice momentous till the judgment hath passed by.
Careless seems the great Avenger; history's pages but record
One death-grapple in the darkness 'twixt old systems and the Word;
Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne,—
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own.
We see dimly in the present what is small and what is great,
Slow of faith how weak an arm may turn the iron helm of fate,
But the soul is still oracular; amid the market's din,
List the ominous stern whisper from the Delphic cave within,—
"They enslave their children's children who make compromise with sin."
Then to side with Truth is noble when we share her wretched crust,
Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and 'tis prosperous to be just;
Then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands aside,
Doubting in his abject spirit, till his Lord is crucified,
And the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied.
Count me o'er earth's chosen heroes,—they were souls that stood alone,
While the men they agonized for hurled the contumelious stone,
Stood serene, and down the future saw the golden beam incline
To the side of perfect justice, mastered by their faith divine,
By one man's plain truth to manhood and to God's supreme design.
By the light of burning heretics Christ's bleeding feet I track,
Toiling up new Calvaries ever with the cross that turns not back,
And these mounts of anguish number how each generation learned
One new word of that grand credo which in prophet hearts hath burned
Since the first man stood God-conquered with his face to heaven upturned.
For humanity sweeps onward; where to-day the martyr stands,
On the morrow crouches Judas with the silver in his hands;
Far in front the cross stands ready and the crackling fagots burn,
While the hooting mob of yesterday in silent awe return
To glean up the scattered ashes into History's golden urn.
'Tis as easy to be heroes as to sit the idle slaves
Of a legendary virtue carved upon our fathers' graves,
Worshipers of light ancestral make the present light a crime;—
Was the Mayflower launched by cowards, steered by men behind their time?
Turn those tracks toward past or future, that make Plymouth Rock sublime?
They were men of present valor, stalwart old iconoclasts,
Unconvinced by ax or gibbet that all virtue was the past's;
But we make their truth our falsehood, thinking that hath made us free,
Hoarding it in moldy parchments, while our tender spirits flee
The rude grasp of that great impulse which drove them across the sea.
They have rights who dare maintain them; we are traitors to our sires,
Smothering in their holy ashes Freedom's new-lit altar fires.
Shall we make their creed our jailer? Shall we, in our haste to slay,
From the tombs of the old prophets steal the funeral lamps away
To light up the martyr fagots round the prophets of to-day?
New occasions teach new duties; Time makes ancient good uncouth;
They must upward still, and onward, who would keep abreast of Truth;
Lo, before us gleam her camp-fires! we ourselves must Pilgrims be,
Launch our Mayflower, and steer boldly through the desperate winter sea,
Nor attempt the future's portal with the past's blood-rusted key.
Law and Rights
By Eugene Leland
By Eugene Leland
It seems to be a settled principle with some, that when somebody happens to say something that is catchy in form, the saying must be true because of its catchy form.
That is a very dangerous principle to be governed by in one's actions. It is just as easy to state a flagrant falsehood in flowing phrase of catchy alliteration, as it is to state the most sacred truth in that way. And when the falsehood is thus stated, there is the more danger that the wicked principle will be taken up and enacted into law, because its evil character is covered up and hidden by the beautiful language in which it is expressed.
There is a saying of this character used by the advocates of Sunday legislation, which falls from the tongue as glibly as if the saying were absolute gospel truth, when in fact it is a glaring falsehood. The saying is this: "The right of one to rest, demands a law of rest for all."
Now that saying is put in a very catchy way, and it has caught a great many. It is liable to catch a great many more, unless the bait is taken off and the barbed hook exposed.
The fallacy of the saying lies in the fact that a right (used in this sense) can never be enacted into law without destroying the right altogether. A right is the freedom of choice between doing and not doing. One can not be said to have the right to do a thing without having at the same time the right not to do it. That is, he has perfect freedom of choice in the matter. His own will is the only restraint that is put upon his action.
But a law is designed for the express purpose of taking away the freedom of choice from the individual. A law says to the individual that he must do, or that he must not do, as the case may be, according to the will of another besides himself. He has no choice in the matter.
To illustrate: A man exercises a right when he contributes to a public subscription of some kind. He is perfectly free to pay as much or as little as he likes, or nothing at all. He exercises a right when he9makes a purchase of some article for his own benefit, or for some other purpose. He is perfectly free to choose the kind of article that he will purchase, and the price that he will pay for it.
On the other hand, a man does not exercise a right when he pays his taxes. He must pay them. There is no choice in the matter. Similarly, a man exercises a right when he enlists in the army for the defense of his country, or for any other purpose, because he has the freedom of choice between going and staying at home. But when he is drafted into military or naval service against his will, he does not exercise a right in going. He has no choice in the matter. He must go. Such illustrations might be multiplied indefinitely, but enough has been said to show the difference between a right and a law, and that when a right is enacted into law, the right is thereby destroyed.
Take the case of the saying referred to above, "The right of one to rest, demands a law of rest for all." If "one" has the "right" to "rest," "all" have the same right. But it is strongly implied, if not directly stated, in this saying, that in order that "one" may enjoy his right to rest, "all" must be deprived of their right not to rest.
Now that is asking too much. It savors too much of tyranny. A law that deprives "all" of their right not to rest, including the "one" for whom the law is enacted, is a very bad law. After it is enacted, the "one" for whom it is enacted, rests, not because he has his right to rest secured to him, but because he dare not do otherwise. His right to rest has been destroyed. Laws are not enacted for the purpose of creating rights, nor should they be enacted so as to destroy human rights. Just laws are those which protect men in the enjoyment of the rights which they already possess by nature.
Every man has the right to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience; but when another man steps in and requires him to worship according to the dictates of another's conscience, that other man thereby deprives the first man of his rights. So far as the exercise of those rights is concerned, he has destroyed them altogether, not only for the other man, but for all men, including himself.
The Perfect Standard of Right
By Adam Clarke
It is not likely that a dark, corrupt, human heart can discern the will of God. His law is His will. It recommends what is just, and right, and good, and forbids what is improper, unjust, and injurious. If God had not revealed Himself by this law, we should have done precisely what many nations of the earth have done, who have not had this revelation,—put darkness for light, and sin for acts of holiness. While the human heart is its own measure, it will rate its workings according to its own propensities; for itself is its highest rule. But when God gives a true insight of His own perfections, to be applied as a rule, both of passion and practise, then sin is discovered; and discovered, too, to be exceeding sinful. So, strong propensities, because they appear to be inherent in our nature, would have passed for natural and necessary operations; and their sinfulness would not have been discovered if the law had not said, "Thou shalt not covet," and thus determined that the propensity itself, as well as its outward operations, is sinful. The law is the straight edge which determines the quantum of obliquity in the crooked line to which it is applied.—Adam Clarke, on Rom. 7:7.
Prejudging God’s Will
GOD can not show us His will when we have decided beforehand what it ought to be. If a man says, “I am willing to do whatever God wants me to do, but it can’t be that,” he is in rebellion against God, and he blocks the way even to knowing what God would have him do. When he says, “I am willing to do whatever God wants me to do, and it may be that,” everything clears.
A man who was restlessly chafing because of having decided God’s will in advance, finally yielded, and frankly faced the fact that God’s will might include the very things he was assuming it could not include. With this yielding of his own prejudgment, there came an ocean of peace into his life, and a burst of joy, before which the restlessness was dispelled like mist before sunshine. Any duty that God’s will lays upon us becomes literally easy and a delight when His whole will is accepted in Christ. When we leave all the deciding to God, He will give us in Christ all the power to enable us to do what He has decided.—Sunday School Times.
Our Bible Reading
Man’s Duty to His Creator
1. How came the heaven and earth to be?
“Thus saith God Jehovah, He that created the heavens, and stretched them forth; He that spread abroad the earth and that which cometh out of it; He that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein.” Isa. 42: 5.
2. Who made man?
“Know ye that Jehovah, He is God: it is He that hath made us, and we are His.” Ps. 100: 3.
3. For what purpose did God create man?
“I have created him for My glory.” Isa. 43: 7.
4. What is God also to us besides Creator?
“Thus saith Jehovah, your Redeemer.” Isa. 43:14.
5. What is God’s glory?
“Show me, I pray Thee, Thy GLORY. And He said, I will make all My GOODNESS pass before thee.” Ex. 33: 18, 19.
“Heaven and earth are witnesses
That Thy glory goodness is.”
6. What is man’s privilege toward His Creator and Redeemer?
“O come, let us worship and bow down;
Let us kneel before Jehovah our Maker;
For He is our God,
And we are the people of His pasture.”
Ps. 95: 6, 7.
7. How is man’s duty toward his Creator and Redeemer expressed?
“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” Eccl. 12: 13.
England’s Assurance of Religious Liberty
Proclamation by Queen Victoria, 1858
PROCLAMATION: Firmly relying ourselves on the truth of Christianity, and acknowledging with gratitude the solace of religion, we disclaim alike the right and the desire to impose our convictions on any of our subjects. We declare it to be our royal will and pleasure that none be in any wise favored, none molested or disquieted, by reason of their religious faith or observance, but that all shall alike enjoy the equal and impartial protection of the law; and we do strictly charge and enjoin all those who may be in authority under us that they abstain from all interference with the religious belief or worship of any of our subjects, on pain of our highest displeasure.—“Cassell’s History of England,” volume 8, chapter 52, page 513.
Leverage
By T. R. Williamson
By T. R. Williamson
(Republished)
Archimedes the sage found, long ago,
That all things earthly yield to upward pressure.
He poised a bar upon a fulcrum so
That power applied gave power in tenfold measure.
"Ah," said the old philosopher, "could I
A planet find on which to rest my lever,
Then swing some beam of strength into the sky,
Its length extending out almost forever,
"Under this world I'd place its shortest end,
And fearless seat myself upon the other;
My puny weight should through its fibers send
A force that giant nature could not smother."
Since the great thinker hailed the newfound law,
That men plus handspikes can upset creation,
O'er all the earth by dint of tooth and claw
Each pries and turns as suits his inclination.
For every man may lift his share of weight,
And force the big world nearer to the heavens.
Life is the fulcrum, mind the power great,
Love, hate, ambition, greed, the levers given.
Painted with lies, ambition lifts in vain;
Greed's lever short can only curses raise;
Hate of its bar a bludgeon makes, to rain
Black, murderous blows on all who merit praise.
Love, lightning-winged, with helmet of the sun,
With face that like the dawn bids shadows flee,
With mightful, piteous hands, pries down upon
A shaft plucked up from holy Calvary.
Forever out its glorious length extends,
And error's drag-chains snap beneath its power,
Back to its home with God the world ascends,
Linked to His throne with stars forevermore.
Temptation and Sin
By Ellen G. White
THERE is no sin in having temptation; but sin comes in when temptation is yielded to.—Mrs. E. G. White.
Trusting God Through Obedience
By Maltbie D. Babcock
THERE is no better way to show our trust in God than to busy ourselves with the things He asks us to do.—Maltbie D. Babcock.
The Eyes of the Lord
By Solomon
The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.—Solomon.
True Wisdom
By H. A. St. John
THERE is a wisdom, so called, that is earthly, sensual, devilish. It may be acquired to any degree, but will all be lost in a few short years. It pertains wholly to this world, and will not carry its possessor any beyond the present state of existence. It is a strange infatuation that leads mankind in such great numbers to spend their energies in getting this transient, earthly wisdom.
True wisdom is to give the greatest attention to that which is of the greatest importance. It is of the greatest importance so to order the present life that we may obtain eternal life in the world to come. The person who does not give his future eternal interests his chief attention and concern, is foolish in the extreme, however he may be otherwise occupied. The day of God will reveal the sad truth that many who were accounted wise by their fellow men, were thus foolish. They will miserably perish in that day, together with all the wisdom they have acquired.—H. A. St. John.
