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Review and Herald, Vol. 79, No. 48.

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Review and Herald

Dec 2, 1902

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 2, 1902

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Sound an Alarm

By Editor

Editorial

Sound an Alarm

THROUGH the prophet Joel the Lord sends the instruction, “Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain.” This is not a message of warning to the world in wickedness. It is “in Zion” that the trumpet is to be blown. It is “in my holy mountain” that the alarm is to be sounded. It is a call to the people of God themselves. The meaning of the form of expression used is made clear by considering what it meant in the camp of Israel to blow an alarm. Here is the instruction which the Lord gave to Moses: “When ye blow an alarm, then the camps that lie on the east parts shall go forward. When ye blow an alarm the second time, then the camps that lie on the south side shall take their journey: they shall blow an alarm for their journeys. But when the congregation is to be gathered together, ye shall blow, but ye shall not sound an alarm.” The sounding of the alarm call on the trumpet was a summons to the people for a movement forward. It meant to break camp and to advance. And the Lord himself gave the signal for every advance through the pillar of cloud. “Whether it were two days, or a month, or a year, that the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle, remaining thereon, the children of Israel abode in their tents, and journeyed not: but when it was taken up, they journeyed.” Thus the Captain of the Lord’s host clearly indicated the time for the advance, and the blowing of the alarm was the means of announcing the call to go forward. And every advance was made in this way. These things are recorded for our instruction. The Lord has clearly indicated to us his desire for an advance move. “Our General, who never makes a mistake, says to us, ‘Advance. Enter new territory. Lift up the standard in every land.’ . . . Our watchword is to be, Onward, ever onward. The angels of God will go before us to prepare the way. Our burden for the ‘regions beyond’ can never be laid down until the whole earth shall be lightened with the glory of the Lord.” These are the marching orders, and the servants of the Lord should now “blow an alarm,” that the people may move forward as a solid body in orderly array. Let every one heed the summons to break camp and move on.

Sufficient Grace

THERE is neither exception nor limitation to the promise, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” Both the fullness of the supply and the greatness of the power of God’s grace constitute the guarantee of this promise. It may be fully depended upon without any fear of failure. It may help us to appreciate this if we call to mind some of the expressions used in the Scripture in speaking of the grace of God. Here are three or four: “the abundant grace;” “the exceeding grace of God;” “the exceeding riches of his grace;” “the manifold grace of God;” “the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant.” And not only are we thus assured of the abundance of the supply, but we also have the blessed assurance, “The Lord will give grace.” Those who have passed through severe trials and have proved these promises have gained a vantage ground upon which they can stand in further conflicts. When every earthly dependence has failed, and a distressed servant of the Lord has sought for needed grace “with strong crying and tears,” and has found that “he giveth more grace,” what confidence in God it begets in his soul! He finds that his strength comes from a sense of his own utter weakness and helplessness as he listens to the comforting declaration of the Lord, “My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Through what seems to be a bitter experience he learns to distrust self more completely and to trust in God more fully. He puts into his character building material which has been tried in the fire. He learns more of “the power of his resurrection” by partaking to a larger degree in “the fellowship of his sufferings.” This is a time when we all need to learn these very lessons. We are certainly in the shaking time, and the experience of each one will be tested as a preparation for the closing scenes before the coming of the Lord. Only “the exceeding grace of God” can sustain us and give us the victory in this hour. Without this we shall fall by the way. “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” Our God “is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.”
“In want my plentiful supply, In weakness my almighty power, In bonds my perfect liberty, My light in Satan’s darkest hour; No trouble can my soul appall: Thou art my life, my heaven, my all.”

The Promised Return

THERE is nothing more certain than that the Saviour will come again for his people whom he has redeemed. In his last prayer just previous to his passion, he said: “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me.” There is now “a great multitude, which no man could number,” who are quietly sleeping. They fought the good fight, they finished the course, they died in hope. He who was their hope in life has not forgotten them. They will come again from the land of the enemy. “Thy dead shall live; my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust: for thy dew is as the dew of light [the dawn], and the earth shall cast forth the dead.” The return of Christ marks the time of the resurrection of the righteous. “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.” This was his promise to the disciples: “I will come again, and receive you unto myself.” And so at the second coming of our Lord both those who have fallen asleep in Jesus and those who are translated will together enter upon the enjoyment of the answer to that last prayer of the Saviour that his own might be with him. “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, withthe voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” Is it any wonder that the promise of the return of the Saviour brings joy to the heart of the true believer? Ah, then we shall be with him.
“And I shall see him face to face, And tell the story, saved by grace.”
We are now in the time of the promise. The “signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars,” which have been fulfilled, show that “he is near, even at the doors.” We may now apply the words of the Saviour, “When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” What a blessed hope! Let the good news of the speedy return of our Lord be sounded out among the nations. Let all that we have and all that we are be consecrated to the one work of hastening the coming of the blessed Master. So shall all our hopes be consummated.

Studies in the Gospel Message

The Real Presence

The subject of the Sabbath-school lesson for December 13 is, Taking Away the Real Presence.
Christianity is Christ. It is not simply true that Christ is the central figure in Christianity, but he is the sum of Christianity. The gospel is “the gospel of God . . . concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.” And the Christ of the gospel is the divine Son of God, who veiled his divinity with humanity, and “set up his tabernacle in the midst of our human encampment.” He was conceived of the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary, and in him divinity and humanity met. The purpose in this is thus stated: “All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.” The Christ of the gospel is also “the Lamb of God, which beareth the sin of the world.” “He became the living sacrifice for a fallen world.” He was crucified, he was raisedfrom the dead, he ascended into heaven, and is now “a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.” “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.” “Him did God exalt at his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins.” And to-day “we have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.” This is the Christ of the gospel, “the Lord’s Christ.” Any so-called gospel which does not set forth the divinity of Christ and his divine work in all these particulars with clearness and a power unto salvation from sin is simply a perversion of the gospel of Christ. Beware of such a false gospel. It is not “the everlasting gospel” which is to be preached “to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.”
We cannot be sure that people believe in the Christ of the gospel simply because they profess to believe the Bible, and express themselves in the language of the Bible. It makes a vast difference whether one comes to the Bible with his ideas of the gospel already formed from the writings of men or from his own reasonings, and uses the language of the Bible simply as a means of conveying to others his previously formed ideas, or whether he comes to the Bible with a mind free from human conceptions of God and Christ and the way of salvation, and permits the language of the Bible both to give him his ideas and also to provide the forms of expression through which these divinely revealed truths shall be imparted to others. In the former case we have man-made conceptions of the truth hiding themselves under God-given forms of the truth. This is the wolf in sheep’s clothing, and it is the most dangerous way in which error can be taught. By a confusion of terms, by an interpretation of Scripture which is mere sophistry, and by such an application of Bible texts as utterly disregards the context and the general tenor of the Scripture as a whole, the entire gospel is perverted, and the thoughts of men are put in the place of the thoughts of God. It is in this very way that “the Lord’s Christ” is shut out of the gospel, the church is deprived of her divine head, and Christianity becomes a mere system of human speculation; for Christ is “the Word of God,—God’s thought made audible,” and when the thoughts of men are substituted for the thoughts of God, then we have simply a human Christ, “a good man” in the place of the God-man.
These are the methods which the papacy has employed through which to subvert the gospel, and to put man in the place of God. By this deceptive way of working it has taken away from the church the real presence of Christ, the continual One; and therefore, although it claims to be the only true church, “the mother and mistress of all churches,” the fountain and preserver of Christianity, it is in reality no church at all, but a mere human organization, the corrupter of pure Christianity. The Roman Catholic Church has not openly discarded the Bible, but it has put tradition above the Bible. “Tradition is to us more clear and safe.” In this way the word of God becomes subject to the mind of man, and thus ceases to be any longer the word of God. “The great error of the Romish church is found in the fact that the Bible is interpreted in the light of the opinions of the ‘fathers.’ . . . But the word of God is not thus to be interpreted. . . . The will and voice of finite man are not to be interpreted as the voice of God.” Having thus throttled the word of God so that it is no longer “quick and powerful,” the way was open for any kind of error which the human heart, inspired by Satan himself, could invent.
The Roman Catholic Church does not professedly set aside Christ and his gospel, but it puts forward the pope as “Christ’s vicar and God’s vicegerent.” It teaches that “the pope is as God on earth.” The next and natural step after this blasphemous assumption is that the pope is given a place above God, and “the people think of the pope as the one God that has power over all things in earth and in heaven.” Thus God’s word no longer has authority in the church, and God in Christ is no longer the head of the church. All that is divine is taken away, and the gospel is no longer “the power of God unto salvation.”
The Reformation of the sixteenth century was an effort to restore to the church that which had been taken away. The Bible was given to the people in their own language, and they were taught to read it as the voice of God to them. They were encouraged to fasten their faith directly upon Jesus Christ as the one only Mediator and Saviour, and by coming to God through him to “receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith” in Christ. As long as the Reformers held to the principles which they themselves laid down, there was a great power in their movement, and through their message souls were delivered from the bondage of sin. But when they or their successors began to depart from their own principles, then divisions sprang up, and different sects began to appear. All the great religious movements since the Reformation have been a more or less direct effort to return to the simple truths which were the power of that struggle for the restoration of the primitive gospel of salvation from sin through individual faith in Christ as a personal Saviour. Each one of these great movements has progressed with much promise of success up to a certain point, and then its purpose has been largely thwarted and its power sacrificed by harboring within itself, under one form or another, the very false principles which it started out to reform.
A glance at the situation as it is in the religious world to-day will furnish satisfactory proof for these statements. Almost every one of the great Protestant denominations has largely ceased to be a powerful factor in reforming the evils which have threatened the life of Christianity because it has itself become so thoroughly permeated with the same evils. The so-called “higher criticism” has destroyed the faith of many in the word of God as a divine authority in the church, the merely human conception of Christ as a good man has taken away from many the real presence of God in Christ as a divine Saviour, and the different shades and phases of the doctrine of natural immortality have led many others into the mazes of Spiritualism, theosophy, and speculative philosophy (either openly or almost unconsciously), until the Protestantism of to-day has degenerated in many places into an image of the papacy,—a form of a genuine Christianity without its power.
About half a century ago a people arose, who afterward took the name of Seventh-day Adventists, called out in the providence of God to do the final work of reform. They have been the messengers of light and truth to the world. They have held up the Bible, and the Bible alone, as a sufficient rule of faith and practice, and have taught a faith in Jesus Christ which would reveal itself in salvation from sin and in obedience to all the commandments of God. It has been a distinct call to a return to primitive Christianity as a preparation for the soon-coming Saviour. Need any one be surprised if Satan should make a determined effort to wreck this reform movement in the same way that he has attempted to overthrow all the others,—by introducing into it a leaven of false teaching which will rob the gospel message of its power to cope with the subtleties of a heathen philosophy under whatever guise they may appear? This power is found in the presence of a living Christ, who is present by his representative, the Holy Spirit. This blessing comes to us through the ministry of Christ, our high priest in the heavenly sanctuary. Any teaching which tends to weaken our faith in this very definite thing is a long step toward taking awaythe real presence from us by substituting a human conception of the presence of God for the reality of his presence in Christ through the Holy Spirit. It is time that a warning note should be sounded within this denomination. It is no time now to exchange the simple but powerful truths of this message for a sort of spiritual philosophy. There is danger that the messengers shall lose their message, and be used to spread the very false principles which they started out to expose and overthrow. We need now to apply to every teaching, whether within or without the denomination, the divine test, “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” Beware lest any one take away from you the real presence.

All the Fullness of God

By Uriah Smith

No one can read the epistle of Paul to the Ephesians without being struck with the bountiful provision made for the Christian, and the boundless privileges conferred upon him.
In Eph. 3:14-21 the apostle gives one of his glowing and cumulative descriptions, laying before us in progressive steps the great provisions made for the follower of Christ, and the marvelous powers made ready to his hand in his conflict with sin. He goes through his argument step by step, leading us up to loftier heights, and expanding our field of vision, till we are brought to measure the immeasurable, and span the length, breadth, height, and depth, and to “know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge,” and to possess “all the fullness of God.” Then he commends us unto him that is “able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.” Then, in grateful adoration, the apostle ascribes all power to him, in these words: “Unto him be glory in the church” through all space and “throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.” In the preliminary part of this wonderful prayer, he says, “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, . . . that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able,” etc., as already quoted.
The ability to “comprehend” and to “measure” was the subject of the apostle’s prayer. Observe how he prays; how wisely he arranged his petitions. The deepest thoughts in the heart of a spiritual man are sure to come out in his prayer. Hear a man of God pray, and you hear the real man speaking. And when such a man as Paul prays, we may well be all attention to every syllable. His prayer is an ascending one. Each petition rises higher than the preceding. And meditating on this prayer is something like ascending an Alpine peak. You will see that in order that a man may be filled with “all the fullness of God,” there must be an inward strengthening. “There are spiritual faculties, as well as mental, and it is absolutely necessary that these should be strengthened by the Holy Ghost if we are to apprehend anything of Christ in all his fullness. The Spirit of God takes us down, if I may so express it, to the shore of the ocean of redeeming love, and as the soul drinks it in, new life and new power flow into every part of the spiritual system. Then, following that first petition, comes, “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith;” that is, by an ever-acting faith on our part, a whole Christ may be received, and a whole Christ may be retained within the soul.”
“How many there are who only know what it is to have a Christ in the Bible. They know what it is to have a portrait of Christ, and they gaze with rapture upon it, and yet know but very little of what the apostle meant when he said, ‘That Christ may dwell in your hearts;’ that he may be no mere portrait, no mere bright idea; but that, enshrined within your soul, there may be a living Lord. Then you see how naturally comes the following petition: ‘That ye may be filled with all the fullness of God.’ Consider what it is to be filled with all the fullness of God. I take it that it is to have as much of God within us as our nature will contain; to be as full of God as the temple of old was full of Jehovah’s presence. The apostle prays that the Ephesians may have God in their chambers of imagery, God in their motives, God in their meditations, God in their contemplations, God filling their entire manhood. The central thought in this passage is the ability and willingness of God, in Christ, to do according to every possible measure of human need at every possible time. If we realized this, what a changed aspect it would give to this poor life of ours.” — Penny Pulpit.
Christ is said to dwell in our hearts by faith. The soul then accepts of Christ entirely as prophet, priest, and king. To those in whom Christ thus dwells, he is made of God “wisdom,” to cure their ignorance and folly; “righteousness,” to abolish their guilt; “sanctification,” to renew their natures; and “redemption,” to free them at last from the grave, and bring them to glory.
The apostle does not say, God “is willing.” That is unnecessary. He turns the gaze of the Ephesians upon the wonders of God’s power,—God “is able to do,”—and connects it with the love of Christ, and the fullness of God, of which he had just been speaking. He “is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.” The word here is peculiar. It means “out of measure,” surpassingly, transcendently, “breaking over all bounds” of our comprehension. We feel its force more and more when we take in connection the whole of the glowing context in which the language labors hard to indicate the greatness of the idea. We have to comprehend the “incomprehensible” and to measure the “immeasurable.” The measure of what God will give is limited only by his power to do; and its lineal extent is limited only by the love of Christ, which “passeth knowledge;” and both the strength of God and the love of Christ are summed up in that amazing expression, “All the fullness of God.” It is not only abundantly that he is able to do, but “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.”
Cecil says, “Our Heavenly Father always sends his children the things they ask, or better things; he answers their petitions in kind or in kindness. While we think only of our ease, he consults our profit.”
A gentleman passing a church one day with Daniel Webster, asked him, “How can you reconcile with reason the doctrine of the Trinity?” The statesman replied, by asking, “Do you understand the arithmetic of heaven?” U. S.

Open Doors in Europe

By A. G. Daniells

The pressure of other work prevented me from furnishing last week’s REVIEW with an article on “Open Doors in Europe.” In order to refresh the minds of the readers with the statistics presented in my former article, I will restate some of them.
The territorial area of the European General Conference is seven and one-half million square miles—more than twice the size of the United States.
The population is five hundred million—one third of the entire population of the world, and six times that of the United States.
There are thirty nations, thirty languages, thirty governments, and twenty rulers.
Scattered over this great field are eight thousand Sabbath keepers, three hundred churches, and one hundred and seventy-eight regular gospel workers. The annual tithe paid is forty-three thousand dollars.
The United States, with only one sixth of the population, has seven times as many believers, six times as many laborers, and twelve times as much tithe.
In the United States there is one Sabbath keeper for every thirteen hundred people; in the European field there is one for every sixty thousand people.
In the United States we have large printing houses, and many schools and sanitariums. In the European field these facilities are few and small.
Is it not perfectly clear from these figures that the cause in the United States should share its abundance with the European field? Why should a State with only two million people have three thousand believers, fifty preachers, and twenty-five thousand dollars yearly tithe, while Scotland, with five million people, has only forty believers, two preachers, and four hundred dollars tithe annually? No good reason can be given. The only reason why such conditions exist is because this message has been preached in that State thirty years, and in Scotland only one year.
About one year ago one of our ministers went to Scotland to preach the third angel’s message. He located in Glasgow. From the first he found the people ready to hear the message he had to present. Some good preparatory work had been done by a faithful canvasser. During the year forty or fifty people have accepted the truth.
At the close of the London Conference last May, two of the canvassers who went with the company of ten to Great Britain were sent to Scotland. Two months later I met these canvassers at the Leeds camp meeting. They reported large sales, and also stated that they had never met a kinder people anywhere. They brought an earnest, intelligent young Scotchman to the camp meeting to be baptized. This young man had his attention first called to this message by these canvassers. He was the first fruits of their labors in Scotland. The fact that they were able to gather this sheaf so soon, shows how white and ready the field is for the harvest.
What is true of Scotland is true of other parts of Great Britain, and of many other countries on the Continent. Two years ago a young minister was sent to Hungary to learn the language, that he might preach this truth to that people. When he entered that country, there were but very few Sabbath keepers there. During the two years that this brother has been learning the language, he has been working alone for the people, and nearly two hundred have accepted the truth. This is convincing evidence that the Lord has gone before us into all lands, and that he is pouring his Spirit upon all flesh, and preparing hearts to receive his last message of warning to the world.
While in Europe last summer, I had the privilege of visiting one of our ministers who had recently located in Prague, Bohemia. Although this minister had been working in that city only a few months, and had never before come in contact with the Bohemian people, twenty or thirty had accepted the truth. Those I met were as warm-hearted, zealous Sabbath keepers as I have found anywhere in my travels. This minister assured me that he hadnever enjoyed ministerial labor anywhere more than in Prague.
All parts of Europe in which earnest, faithful work is being done bear testimony that the fields are white, ready to harvest. Again I say that the reason why there are so many more believers and laborers and so much more tithe in the various States of America than in the different countries of Europe, is because the message has been preached so much longer in the States than in Europe.
But let us return to our statistics. The Scandinavian Union Conference has three organized union conferences and two mission fields. The conferences are Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. The mission fields are Finland and Iceland.
The population of this union conference is 12,500,000. The number of Sabbath keepers is 2,165, and there are twenty ministers. There is one school in operation, also a printing establishment, and there are two sanitariums and three treatment rooms.
In many respects Scandinavia is a most promising field. When the truth was first presented there, it was readily accepted, and excellent conferences were established. Many promising young men and women were trained in the simple training school conducted by the laborers. These young people have been true to the Lord, and are now bearing heavy responsibilities in different departments of the work. But Scandinavia needs more laborers. Denmark, with two and one-half million people, has but four ordained ministers, and two licensed preachers. One of the ordained ministers is president of the union conference, and another is editor of the Danish paper. We are pleased to report that Elder Lewis Christian, of Chicago, has recently gone to Denmark to strengthen the staff of workers in that conference.
Once Denmark had a school, but it has been discontinued. The educational work in that conference should be started again by the establishment of at least a small training school. This would give the young men and women an opportunity to prepare for efficient service.
The medical work in Denmark is prospering. The Skodsborg Sanatorium is the leading medical institution of our cause in Scandinavia, and most of the time has as many patients as it can provide room for. During the summer months, many guests occupy rooms outside the building, and take regular treatment. Dr. Ottosen and his consecrated staff of helpers endeavor to make this institution a preacher of the third angel’s message. Many people of standing and influence from all parts of Scandinavia, and even from Germany and Switzerland, patronize the Skodsborg Sanatorium, and from it carry some knowledge of the truth for this time.
Since the financial crisis of two years ago, the blessing of the Lord has been especially manifest in the different conferences of Scandinavia. Earnest efforts have been made by the leaders to place the finances in good shape. The efforts of the American brethren to pay the creditors of the Christiania publishing house have brought new life and courage to the Scandinavian brethren. While they have rejoiced to receive this help from America, and to see the cause of God in their country saved from dishonor, they have at the same time put forth the most earnest efforts to wipe out all their debts, and to build up the cause in all its branches. God is blessing their efforts, and new life and large results from labor are being seen.
Finland is a mission field of the Scandinavian Union Conference. It has a population of two million six hundred thousand. In the western part of Finland there are about three hundred and fifty thousand people who speak the Swedish language. It is in this part of the country that we have begun our work. At present we have two ministers at work in Finland. The last report from them stated that at the close of 1901 there were sixty-five Sabbath keepers in that country. The tithe for the year was $540.52. That is over eight dollars per member,—a large tithe compared with what is paid in many of our rich States. During the first four months of this year those poor people paid four hundred and thirty-five dollars tithe.
Owing to the repressive religious laws of the country, our laborers experience many difficulties in preaching the truth, and in selling our books and papers. All our Sabbath keepers must remain members of the Lutheran, or state, church, and pay to it their annual dues. When our minister enters a city to preach, he must notify a minister of the state church, and invite him to attend. This state preacher can permit the meetings to continue, or he can close them. In order to sell our literature, one must have a recommendation showing that he is a good Lutheran, a license from the censor, and a passport from the police.
Yet with all these difficulties, our brethren are working away, and God is blessing their labors. They are gathering out a people for translation. They have sold fourteen thousand copies of “Prophecies of Jesus,” and thirty thousand of “Steps to Christ.” At the present time they are selling two thousand copies of their Finnish paper, The Signs of the Times, every month. One person who lives in a remote part, and whom the ministers have never met, sells one hundred copies each month.
These dear people in Finland have recently been brought under the Russian government, and are fast losing their civil and religious liberty. The greatest blessing that can come to them is the third angel’s message. They are ready for it. Shall we not extend to them our sympathy, prayers, and means? All Scandinavia is a beautiful field, and its doors are wide open for our messengers. Why should not every person who can speak the Scandinavian language give his whole time and energies to that people? Why should not Scandinavia, including Finland, be supplied with a larger staff of earnest workers?
Brethren, let us arouse to the opportunities and demands of this hour.
A. G. DANIELLS.

Strange Sights for Angels to See

By W. A. S.

A LITTLE verse from the German says:—
“The angels from their home on high Look down on us with wondering eye, That where we are but passing guests We build our strong and solid nests, But where we seek to dwell for aye, We scarce take heed a stone to lay.”
The angel Gabriel appeared to Daniel, and explained to him the meaning of a prophetic vision, over five hundred years before Christ. Just before John the Baptist was born, he also appeared to Zacharias, saying, “I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God.”
The angel had seen kingdoms rise and fall, and men devoting their efforts to this or that fond plan, had perished, and had been forgotten by those who followed them.
And all the time God was carrying out his purposes, and seeking to save those who, here and there, were willing to make him first in their thoughts. But most of the human family have chosen the things which they could hold but for a little time.
And now, to this day, the same sight must meet the angels of heaven. Not Gabriel alone, but “all” the angels are sent forth to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation. Heb. 1:14.
They see the world hastening on to the day of God, for the most part careless of eternal interests.
Dreams of empire and colonial expansion, and the struggle for place and power and for necessary food and raiment take up the thoughts of men.
How strange must the sight be to the angels, even after these thousands of years, to see the human family chasing after the unabiding things of earth, and giving little or no thought to eternal realities. Those realities are not vague and undefined to the angels, who see God's face in the courts of heaven. Yet they see men making choices continually — taking practical common-sense views of life, men call it — which show that the darkened minds of men weigh things of this life against all the kingdom of heaven.
And now, while God’s church on earth is commissioned to carry the final message of Rev. 14:6–12 to all the world, the angels are our helpers. The whole work is represented by an angel flying in the midst of heaven; carrying the gospel to every nation and tongue.
All heaven is astir now, and the angel messengers are going to and fro from God’s throne in heaven to this perishing world. Never was there such activity, we know; for the time of the final conflict has come. Even Satan engages with greater wrath than ever, knowing that he has but a short time.
Now, while Christ’s ministry in the sanctuary above is drawing to its close, shall not all heaven see a people humbling their hearts before God, putting away sin, and partaking of the energy of heaven in going forth to bear this glorious message to the world?
“The coming of Christ to this world will not be long delayed. Let this be the keynote of every message.”
W. A. S.
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