MARGARET J. PRESTON, in the Christian Intelligencer, gives the following incident, as told by a Scotch clergyman whom she heard recently at Torquay, in England:—
“I was sitting in my study one Saturday evening, when a message came to me that one of the godliest among the shepherds who tended their flocks upon the slopes of our highland hills was dying, and wanted to see the minister. Without loss of time I crossed the wide heath to his comfortable little cottage. When I entered the low room I found the old shepherd propped up with pillows, and breathing with such difficulty that it was apparent he was near his end.
‘Jean,’ he said to his wife, ‘gie the minister a stool and leave us for a bit, for I wad see the minister alone.’”
“As soon as the door had closed he turned the most pathetic pair of gray eyes upon me I had ever looked into, and said, in a voice shaken with emotion, ‘Minister, I am dying, and—and—I’m afraid!’
“I began at once to repeat the strongest promises with which God’s word furnishes us; but in the midst of them he stopped me—
“‘I ken them a,’ he said mournfully, ‘I ken them a’; but somehow they dinna gie me comfort.’
“‘Do you not believe them?’
“‘Wi’ a’ my heart!’ he replied earnestly.
“‘Where, then, is there any room for fear, with such a saving faith?’
“‘For a’ that, minister, I’m afraid—I’m afraid!’
“I took up the well-worn Bible which lay on his bed and turned to the psalm which I have read to you to-day. ‘You remember the twenty-third psalm?’ I began.
“‘Remember it?’ he said vehemently, ‘I kenned it lang afore ye were born; ye need na’ read it; I’ve conned it a thousand times on the hill-side.’
“‘But there is one verse which you have not taken in.’
“He turned upon me with a half reproachful and even stern look. ‘Did I na’ tell ye I kenned it every word lang afore ye were born?’
“I slowly repeated the verse, ‘Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.’
‘You have been a shepherd all your life, and you have watched the heavy shadows pass over the valleys and over the hills, hiding for a little while all the light of the sun. Did these shadows ever frighten you?’
“‘Frighten me?’ he said quickly, ‘Na, na! Davie Donaldson has Covenanter’s bluid in his veins; neither shadow nor substance could weel frighten him.’
“‘But did these shadows never make you believe that you would not see the sun again—that it was gone forever?’
‘Na, na, I couldna be sic a simpleton as that.’
‘Nevertheless, that is just what you are doing now.’ He looked at me with incredulous eyes.
‘Yes,’ I continued, ‘the shadow of death is over you, and it hides for a little the Sun of Righteousness, who shines all the same behind it; but it’s only a shadow; remember, that’s what the psalmist calls it; a shadow that will pass, and when it has passed, before you will be the everlasting hills in their unclouded glory.’
‘The old shepherd covered his face with his trembling hands, and for a few minutes maintained an unbroken silence; then, letting them fall straight before him on the coverlet, he said, as if musing to himself, ‘Aweel, aweel! I hae conned that verse a thousand times amang the heather, and I never understood it so afore—afraid of a shadow! afraid of a shadow!’ Then, turning upon me a face now bright with an almost supernatural radiance, he exclaimed, lifting his hands reverently to Heaven, ‘Aye, aye, I see it a’ now! Death is only a shadow—a shadow with Christ behind it—a shadow that will pass—na, na, I’m afraid nae mair!’”
THE GREAT DELIVERER.
By Selected
THE deliverance of the children of Israel from Egypt was one of the earliest instances of God’s protection of his church, and often have his people turned to it since to assure themselves in peril. Richly have the evidences of his protecting presence been multiplied. Such scenes, remembered among his people, have made heroes. By them the might of Moses as an Egyptian soldier became the power that conquered the ignorance and sinfulness of the Israelites, and the perils of the desert during the long campaign of forty years. By them Joshua took heart, Gideon went to the battle, David braved the Philistine giant defying the armies of the living God, Elijah met the idolatrous priests at Carmel, Daniel entered the den of lions, Paul went to Rome. The covenant-keeping Jehovah, who came between the Israelites and Egyptians that memorable night, has come to dwell in his church. Its history repeats on higher planes the journey in the desert. Its deliverances have been marvelous. Thousands re-echo the ancient psalm, “If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us, then they had swallowed us up quick.” This same protecting God dwells by his Spirit in each renewed life, and looks out on its foes as he did on the Egyptians at the Red Sea. “Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.”
God opens a way for his people in their need. Shut in by mountains and the sea before and on each side of them, with the Egyptians behind and pursuing, there was no escape. “When Israel went out of Egypt . . . Judah became his sanctuary. The sea saw it, and fled.” “He saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make his mighty power to be known.” That was no triumph of man. Never were people more helpless than they. All that they could do was to “stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.” That deed shows God to us. That scene has become the symbol of the deliverance of the soul from sin and death. The words “Saviour” and “redemption” took their place in the Bible in connection with this deliverance from Egypt, and that other deliverance which always recalled it—the return from the captivity.
But these words have gathered new significance with human experience and hope, till their fullest meaning appears in the shouts of the victorious host standing by the glassy sea and singing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb. Rev. 15:3. And still the God who delivered his chosen by opening a way in the sea, who has redeemed by the sacrifice of his Son those enslaved by sin, is the God of our daily lives, to whom in every strait we may appeal, “Lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.” When we come to impassable waters, we have a more powerful instrument than the mantle of Elijah. 2 Kings 2:14. We have the wonder-working Spirit of God. In every peril wherein our adversaries are too great for us, if we turn to him, “God is faithful, who . . . will with the temptation also make a way to escape.”—Selected.
SOMETHING WRONG IN THE HEART.
By Archbishop Trench
I CANNOT believe that we can have earnest piety among ourselves unless we feel that these blessings which we ourselves possess we must impart to others; and unless they are like fire in our bones that can set others alight with the same blessed fire—that fire which Christ came to kindle upon earth. I believe that when a church renounces missionary work, or when a church is not expanding in the missionary work, there is something fatally wrong in the heart. I am sure that when ancient imperial Rome began to contract its dominions and to recall its legions and armies from one and another distant land; and when, for instance, she left the Dacian provinces; and when again she left England, and could no longer possess it as she had done for centuries, these were signs that she herself was stricken with death at the heart, that the augury was true concerning her.—Archbishop Trench.
PURE IN HEART.
ALMOST everyone appreciates the duty of governing the tongue, although few people dwell upon the necessity of controlling the thoughts. Right speaking is a recognized duty, but right thinking is too often classed among the impossibilities of life. “It may be wicked to feel so, but I can’t help my thoughts,” apologetically says some detractor. The excuse is a generally accepted one, but it has not sufficient foundation in fact. Isolated thoughts cannot always be controlled. They flash into the mind like obstinate sprites, and the more one fixes the attention upon them in disapproval, the more impossible does it become to expel them. It is, however, within the limits of human effort to control the tendency of the thoughts. When a malicious or frivolous member of the tribe starts into being, they can best be combated, not by out and out fighting, but by turning instantly to another class of valuable and interesting reflections. The mind may be so thoroughly disciplined that its thoughts shall be drilled battalions of soldiers. They will doubtless be always raw troops, not marching according to strict military rule, and not in all cases sure to obey upon the moment, but they will steadily improve with practice, conforming themselves more and more to the true and the good.
Physiologists have a great deal to say about the force of habit. Dispose the brain toward a certain line of thought, and it will keep it with increasing steadiness, for purely physical reasons. It has its automatic action, as the fingers have theirs, when they so accustom themselves to seeking the keys of the piano that they find them without the aid of the eyes. The discipline of the thoughts contributes to the intellectual as well as moral development. There are in all lives unoccupied intervals of time—when one is riding to and from his place of business, or taking his “constitutional,” for example. He cannot read or study to advantage at such moments, but instead of letting the mind drift whither it will, he can fix it upon the last poem he has read, or upon some truth from an author of value.
But, after all, intellectual development is of small value as compared with that of the moral nature. The study to which everyone should lend the greatest energy is that of uprooting all evil from the heart and mind, denying shelter to whatsoever is not absolutely pure and true.—Anon.
Daily Lifting of the Heart
LET not a day go by without a silent lifting of the heart to God in prayer.
THE SPIRIT OF ANTICHRIST. NO. 3.
By W.
WE shall now proceed to show that the teaching of the doctrine of the natural immortality of the soul, has from the very beginning been accompanied by sin, and that it is the cause of all the sin that has ever cursed this earth.
When God placed our first parents in Eden, everything was perfect and pure. Adam and Eve were sinless. They had full liberty to enjoy the fruit of every tree that was pleasant to the sight and good for food, with the exception of one tree in the midst of the garden, which was a test of their loyalty to God. Into this garden of delight the tempter came. "Now the serpent ["which is the devil, and Satan," Rev. 20:2] was more subtil than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" Gen. 3:1. In this question we find a covert insinuation against the justice of God. The idea is this: "Is it so, that God has said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? Has God been so arbitrary as to thus curtail your happiness?" There was an attempt to make Eve feel that she was being wronged, in being deprived of the fruit of that tree, and that she was not treated with the consideration due to so noble a creature. She replied that God had said that they should not eat of the tree, nor touch it, lest they die. Satan then replied:—
"Ye shall not surely die; for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." Gen. 3:4, 5.
It is unfortunate for the advocates of the natural immortality of the soul, that the very first announcement of it that was ever made was made by the father of lies. We have already demonstrated from the Scriptures that the teaching that man can have immortality without Christ is the spirit of antichrist, and here we find that the doctrine was introduced into the world by the very antichrist himself. If we study Satan's words a little more closely we shall find that they were identical with the teachings of modern Spiritualism, and that the first Spiritualist lecture ever delivered was given by the devil in the garden of Eden, with only Eve for an audience.
When Satan affirmed that Adam and Eve were by nature immortal, by saying, "Ye shall not surely die," he added, "For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." This was as much of a lie as the other, and was a companion to it, and a necessary consequence of it. Our common version does not give the full force of the original. We know not why the translators rendered it, "Ye shall be as gods," for the Hebrew plainly reads, "Ye shall be like God, knowing good and evil." This lets in new light on the subject. It shows that Satan recognized the fact that immortality is an attribute of Deity, and that the possessor of it must necessarily be his own judge of right and wrong. It was by this lie that Satan deceived Eve, and caused her to sin. Notice that the assertion of immortality and of the power of judging for themselves of right and wrong, constitutes the one deception; and bear in mind that it was this claim of natural immortality for man which "brought death into the world, and all our woe, with loss of Eden." Therefore we have proved the proposition that the doctrine of the natural immortality of man is the cause of all the wickedness that has ever cursed our earth.
We may go back even further than this, to the time when sin first entered the universe, and we shall find that the cause of it was pride, and the claiming of attributes that belong to God alone. In Isa. 14:12-14 we read the following description of the fall of Satan:—
"How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! for thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into Heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High."
This gives in plain language the sin of Satan. He aspired to be equal with God; he coveted the position that belonged only to the divine Word, the Son of God; and then the spirit of antichrist first sprung into existence. Turn now to Eze. 28:11-19, and read a description of Satan's former position in Heaven, and the cause of his fall. Satan here appears with the title, "King of Tyrus." He is so called because he is "the god of this world" (2 Cor. 4:4), and the one who actually holds the reins of power in all wicked governments, such as that of Tyre. The man who held the position of king of Tyre is in the prophecy called "the prince of Tyrus" (Eze. 28:1-10), because he was secondary to Satan, who controlled him. Moreover it is certain that verses 13-15 could refer to no one but one who had been in Heaven. Now read the description:—
"Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the King of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God, Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold; the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so; thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned; therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God; and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness; I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffic; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee; thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more."
Thus we learn that pride, an undue regard for self, forgetfulness of the fact that no one can have anything except from God, and a desire to be equal, in some respects at least, to God, led to Satan's fall. And this cause of his fall was exactly the same in nature as that by which Eve fell; and it is the identical principle by which Satan has perpetuated sin in the world until the present time.
From the fall of our first parents, every great system of error has been based upon that first great falsehood uttered by Satan. How natural that it should be so! Error is simply a departure from God, a failure or refusal to acknowledge him as of supreme authority. But just in proportion as men fail to recognize the claims of God, they usurp the place which he should occupy. That is, to the extent that they neglect God, they follow their own ways, and thus to that extent they make themselves gods, and worship themselves. But, as we have already seen, the claim that man is immortal is also a claim that he is a god. Thus the two things go together. The doctrine of natural immortality, being a gross error, leads to the commission of the sins which are natural to man. It was the first cause of sin. But if there should be a people who had no belief of any kind concerning man's nature and his future condition, but who were following their own inclinations, they would soon develop the idea that they were immortal. And this would be because pride, which is always present in the natural heart, would lead man to feel that there could be no being in the universe greater than himself. As Gibbon aptly expresses it ("Decline and Fall," chap. 15), "It must be confessed that in the sublime inquiry [concerning the nature of man], their reason had often been guided by their imagination, and their imagination had been prompted by their vanity. When they viewed with complacency the extent of their own mental powers, when they exercised the various faculties of memory, of fancy, and of judgment, in the most profound speculations, or the most important labors, and when they reflected on the desire of fame, which transported them into future ages, far beyond the bounds of death and of the grave, they were unwilling to confound themselves with the beasts of the field, or to suppose that a being for whose dignity they entertained the most sincere admiration, could be limited to a spot of earth, and to a few years of duration." And so dead men would be deified.
THE LINK IS STILL MISSING.
By W.
A VERY zealous defender of the first-day sabbath has unearthed the following. It is not new, but it is just as good as new, for its extreme thinness has hindered its being used very much:—
"Consider a few facts as to why the Jewish Christians did not immediately give up the observance of the seventh day. How carefully and gradually Jesus unfolded his new doctrines, even to the chosen apostles. To the multitude he spoke only in parables, 'as they were able to hear it.' Mark 4:33. Had Jesus at once and plainly told the people the radical change which he had come to make in the Jewish system of worship, they would have killed him immediately. Even the apostles would have been horrified, and doubtless would all have left him. During all the ministry of our Lord, nothing stands out more prominently than the fact that he was gradually but cautiously preparing the minds of his disciples for the great change which his gospel was destined to make in the worship of God. . . . Just before Jesus died, he said: 'I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of Truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth.' John 16:12, 13."
Well, now, what a pity that, after spending the three years and a half of his ministry in "cautiously preparing the minds of his disciples for the great change which his gospel was destined to make in the worship of God," he did not once even so much as intimate to them what that change was to be! Surely this was an excess of caution. True, indeed, he spoke to the multitude in parables, but to his own disciples he spoke plainly. Many things he said to them that would not have been listened to by the mass of the Jews. But he gave his disciples the following commands and exhortation, which would insure that everything that he said should have the widest publicity:—
"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." Matt. 28:19, 20.
"If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household? Fear them not therefore; for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known. What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light; and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops." Matt. 10:25-27.
It is certain that the disciples followed this counsel, for but a few weeks after the resurrection, Peter stood before the entire Jewish Sanhedrim, and boldly charged those men with the murder of Jesus. When threatened with imprisonment and stripes, the apostles plainly told the Jews that they should743pay no attention to their commands not to preach, but should obey God rather than men. And that they did proclaim all that they had learned of Jesus, is shown by the words of Paul, who, like the rest, had seen the Lord and learned of him. To the Ephesian elders he said: "I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you;" "wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God." Acts 20:20, 26, 27. This he did in the face of death, showing that he was not deterred by fear, yet never a word did he say about the change of the Sabbath. Why this silence on so important a subject?
If anything more were needed to show that a disregard for the law of God is always accompanied by a low estimate of Christ's character and work, it is shown in the statement that Christ refrained from telling the Jews about the change of the Sabbath, for fear that they would kill him. Such a base charge could not be made except by one whose disregard for the law has blunted all his finer sensibilities. The idea that Jesus, who came to earth for the express purpose of giving his life for man, should, through fear of man, keep back part of his message, is too absurd for sober comment. Read the eighth chapter of John, and learn how he called the Jews liars and murderers, and charged them with being children of the devil; read the denunciations in the twenty-third chapter of Matthew, and then try to imagine him cowering before their hard looks, to the extent that he would not tell them necessary truth. Such an imputation indicates that the one making it regards Christ as less than man.
It is indeed true that Jesus said that he had many things to say which the disciples could not then bear; but if the change of the Sabbath was one of those things, how does it happen that the Holy Spirit did not reveal it, so that it could appear in some of the writings of the apostles? Is it claimed that the Holy Spirit did gradually lead the church into Sunday-keeping? Where is the proof? If the church was gradually led to that practice, it must be that at first only a very few were led to that practice. Where are their credentials? What have they to show that they were led by the Spirit more than others? Nothing but their own assertion, even as "the church" can give nothing but its own assertion to show that it is led by the Spirit in its practice of Sunday-keeping. But if we are to believe every man who claims to be led by the Spirit, we shall have to accept all the errors that flood the earth. No, we will "try the spirits, whether they are of God," and we can try them by nothing except the law and the testimony.
It would seem as though the frantic efforts of the Sunday advocates to find something to support their cause, ought in itself to be sufficient to show thinking persons its inherent weakness. Never did evolutionists search more eagerly for the "missing link" than do the advocates for Sunday for some direct evidence to show that the Sabbath has been changed from the seventh to the first day of the week. They have no doubt but that the change was made, only both Jesus and his apostles neglected to say anything about it. We appeal to candid people, who desire to know and obey the truth, if the fact that the Bible nowhere mentions the change of the Sabbath, nor intimates that any change was made, nor commands anybody to keep the first day of the week, is not sufficient evidence that the Sabbath never was changed by divine authority, and that the Lord did not design that anybody should ever keep the first day of the week. Shall we be Bible Christians? If not, can we be Christians at all?
Two separate French writers of note have recently made the statement that "in these times it is no longer the church which influences society, but that society influences the church." This is said of Protestantism. The Christian at Work remarks that "doubtless they are right now;" and adds that "it is, unfortunately, too true that the church everywhere is too much inclined to compromise with the world."
THE THIRD ANGEL'S MESSAGE.
THE Third Angel's Message being that part of the truth of God which is designed especially to warn the world against the worship of the beast and his image, and which embodies the truth, the love of which will save from the deceptions of Satan all who receive the love of it; and as the enforcement of the worship of the beast and his image, and the accompanying power and signs and lying wonders, is, as we have seen, most dangerously near, it becomes especially important that we should study this message with the most intense interest. This message presents the truth of God which is to save the people of this generation, whosoever of them will be saved when the Lord comes.
The Third Angel's Message calls all men to the keeping of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. The commandments of God here referred to are the ten commandments—the law of God—and that "law is the truth." Ps. 119:142. The faith of Jesus is the faith of Him who said, "I am the way, the truth." John 14:6. The truth of this message is therefore the very supremacy of truth itself, and to receive the love of the truth of this message is to receive the love of the very highest manifestation of truth that is known to the universe of God. How appropriate therefore that this should be the message which should be given to men to save them from the influence of the "lying wonders" of Satan's greatest efforts—that this should be the truth the love of which should save the men of this generation from the delusion of believing only a lie.
The law of God is itself righteousness (Ps. 119:172), and therefore holds as unrighteous all the race of man, because all have transgressed it. Rom. 3:19, 20. And being transgressors, the only way in which they can ever attain to harmony with the righteous law of God is through the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ. Rom. 3:20, 21. The righteousness embodied in the Third Angel's Message, therefore, is the very supremacy of righteousness itself, and to receive the love of the truth of this message is to receive the love of the highest manifestation of righteousness that is known to the universe of God. How appropriate therefore it is that this should be the message which should be given to men in this generation to save them from all the "deceivableness of unrighteousness" which Satan will seek with all "power and signs and lying wonders."
The line is clearly drawn. The "strong delusion that they should believe a lie" comes upon men because "they believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." Because men received not the love of the truth, Satan works in them with all deceivableness of unrighteousness. In the Third Angel's Message is embodied the supreme truth and the supreme righteousness. Satan's work is to deceive men into the making of an image to the beast, and the worshiping of the beast and his image. The Third Angel's Message is aimed directly against the worship of the beast and his image. Therefore it is absolutely certain that in the Third Angel's Message is embodied the truth, the love of which alone will enable any person to withstand the power and the lying deceptions of Satan, which are now dangerously near to being plunged upon the world. This message alone embodies the truth, through the love of which alone any soul will ever get "the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name."
We have found that the agency through which Satan is to develop his lying wonders is already in the world, and that the power—the tyranny of a national religion—by which Satan's work is to be made effective is not only already in process of formation, but is near completion. But is not the Third Angel's Message also already in the world? Most assuredly it is and has been for forty-two years. Starting in February, 1845, with but one person, it has spread from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from British Columbia to Mexico; building up thirty-eight Conferences; establishing two large printing-houses, issuing millions upon millions of pages of printed matter every year; building one of the largest health institutions in the world, besides other important health and educational institutions—all in our own country. From this country it has spread to Australia, New Zealand, and the smaller islands of the Pacific; to Europe, establishing missions, churches, Conferences, and printing-houses in Great Britain, Scandinavia, Russia, and Central Europe; to Central America, South America, and South Africa: thus having almost compassed the earth with its solemn warning and its gracious call. The "few" everywhere receive the love of the truth which it embodies, while the "many" believe not its truth, and receive not the love of it, but have pleasure in unrighteousness.
That the Third Angel's Message shall encompass the earth, even to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, giving them ample opportunity to receive the truth and the love of it, which, if received, will deliver them from the power of Satan and give them victory over all his deceivableness of unrighteousness, is clear from the word of God. This we shall now make plain.
1. This is the "third" in a series of messages in which the second and the third follow the first in quick succession. Rev. 14:6-12. The first of the three (verses 6, 7) said with a loud voice to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people; the second followed this one, and the third angel followed them. As, therefore, the first one was to go to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, and as the third one follows, it likewise must go to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.
2. The third angel says with a loud voice, "If any man worship the beast and his image," etc. This phrase, "If any man," shows that it is to all men; that it is a universal message.
3. Of the beast it is said that, "All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb." Rev. 13:8. The work of the image of the beast is to cause the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the beast, as well as himself; therefore, the worship of the image of the beast is indirectly the worship of the beast, and it is the mark of the beast which the image causes men to receive. Now as the worship of the beast is to be by "all them that dwell on the earth;" as the Third Angel's Message is the warning against that worship; and as obedience to this message is the only means of escaping that worship and the wrath of God; it is, therefore, certain that this message must go to "all that dwell on the earth"—the warning must be as extensive as the worship will be.
Here, then, is a message of the word of God which is to be sounded loudly to all the world, calling upon men to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, that out of "all that dwell upon the earth" there may be gathered a people of whom it can be truly said by the Lord, "Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus," and that so all who will may escape the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation. Having almost compassed the earth, the preliminary work of this message is almost done. Soon it will rise up in the strength of God, and speak with a mighty voice that will arrest the attention of the nations and kingdoms of all the earth, and turn it to such a worldwide study of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus as there has not been since the world began. This makes it incumbent upon all people now to study the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus as they have never studied them before, asking themselves the question, "Am I one of whom this scripture speaks? Am I one who truly keeps the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus? Have I received such a love of this truth that I can stand against all the wiles of Satan when he shall work with all power and signs and lying wonders?"744
By the evidences which we have now presented from the word of God, it is certain that we have reached the day and generation when all these things shall be. God sends no message to a people to whom its warnings do not apply. He did not send a warning of a coming flood to a people who should never see a flood; the people whom the Lord warned of a coming flood, those were the very people who saw the flood come. The people whom the Lord besought to escape from the impending doom of Sodom, those were the people who saw the doom of Sodom. So the people to whom the Lord sends this message of warning against the worship of the beast and his image, these are the people who will see the worship of the beast and his image. The people upon whom God calls to keep his commandments and the faith of Jesus, that they may escape the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation, these are the very people who will see the wrath of God poured out without mixture—these are the people who will see the seven last plagues poured upon the earth.
It was necessary to bring out the points shown in this and the four preceding articles, that the reader might fully understand that which is to follow. In the next two, or perhaps three, articles we shall trace the development of the working of Satan, even to its culmination. J.