Signs of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 47. (12/10/1885)

Signs of the Times

Dec 10, 1885

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 10, 1885

General Articles.

By Ellen G. White

Christian Helpfulness.

BY MRS. E. G. WHITE. "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." WE have read accounts of travelers climbing mountains. How careful they must be where they step! They must have a guide along the rugged and dangerous ascent, lest they make a misstep, and be lost. Sometimes, in passing over very dangerous places, the whole party is bound together with ropes, so that if one should slip, the others would hold him until he could regain his footing. And thus they were able to make their way up the steep and dangerous mountain.

We are on our way to the city of God, and the perils of the last days are all about us. The path we are climbing is narrow and dangerous, and we do not want to make any false steps. At such a time as this, a faithful guide is as necessary to us as to the mountain-climbers, and such a guide is provided for us in the word of God.

On this perilous journey we should be a stay to one another. It is not safe for any of us to stand alone. We must be bound together by the cords of truth and love. Let us press together, allowing nothing to weaken the bonds of union, so that if one should slip and fall, others can lift him up. We must not think that no responsibility rests upon us in the case of our brother; but we should ever manifest the tenderest interest in one another's welfare, and should seek to be helpful to those around us. Being thus bound together, and to the great heart of Infinite Love, the powers of darkness cannot harm us; and when the storms of temptation and persecution break upon us, we shall not be swept away.

Many wish to engage in the missionary work, and this is right; it is our duty to do what we can for others. But do not think, Christian friends, that you can let your children go to destruction, and yet bring others into the kingdom of God. This is not commencing in the right place. The work should begin at home, and then go to others. But we cannot begin the work in our families, unless we first bring our own hearts into subjection to the will of God. "Return unto me, saith the Lord of hosts;" "and I will heal your backslidings." We must each have an experience in the things of God. Like Joshua of old, we must decide, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." When we see the power of God manifested in our families, we may take it as evidence that we shall have divine aid in working for others.

The children need guidance. It is true there are some that do not want any restriction placed upon them. They do not want any one to say to them that they must do so and so. But they should be taught the lesson of perfect obedience. When they are not called away by duty, they should be at home, under the parental roof. When, with our children, we go to the house of God, they should take a seat by our side; and when the service is over, they should return with us to our homes.

Parents, agonize with God in behalf of your children. If you have Christ in your hearts and in your homes, you will not exert an influence to lead others away from the path of righteousness. You will not, like Eli, let your children go on in sin until the leaven has gone through the camp of Israel, while you feel that your darlings are about right. How can you expect the divine presence in your homes, when you take just the course that Eli did? It is the letting down of the standard of piety that is depriving us of the blessing of God; and yet his blessing is of more worth than the golden wedge and the Babylonish garment, for which it is so often bartered.

There is a doubting and fear that is not Heaven-born; it is unbelief. Persons who are affected by it will go this way and that, until they are confused, and do not know when they are right, and when they are wrong. Small things take their minds, and keep them in a constant fever and unrest. Some matter which does not belong to them attracts their attention, and they keep agitating it, as though that were the all-important matter to be considered. If these persons would manifest all this earnestness and zeal to strike the blow where it is so much needed, their course would be commendable; but they neglect the weightier matters,—the duties of the heart and the home. When it comes to being a true Christian, one that does his duty every day, and endures trials without complaining, these persons know nothing about it.

The time is not far distant when Satan will come down having great power, and will work wonderful signs and great miracles; and with his delusions he will sweep away every one who does not stand upon the rock of eternal truth. God is even now proving us. We see some who claim to be followers of Christ working miracles; but do they keep the commandments of God? We will go to the inspired word, and try every one of them. "To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." When the youth go out from our schools, they will have to meet these people; and we want them to be firmly established in the truth. We want them to have a training that will prepare them to withstand error, and will guide their feet in the narrow, upward way.

And as you go out into the world, dear youth, remember that you are to seek and to save that which was lost. How precious are the souls for whom Christ died; but where is the love for sinners which he manifested? Who will go and bring back those whose feet have wandered from the right way? And where is the rejoicing over the lost sheep that has been found and brought back to the fold again?

There is very little of this work done today. If there were more of it done, there would be more order and harmony in our churches. In order to do this work, we must connect with Christ, take hold of Infinite Power, and be real Christians at home. But none should feel that they are entitled to eternal life because they have given to God their money, their education, or even themselves; for all was his before, and they have only returned to him his own. For our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might become rich. He has intrusted us with ability; he has given us all things freely; and he expects his gifts to be returned with usury.

If we appreciated what Christ has done for us as we should, what we do for him would not be done reluctantly. Here is the means which has been intrusted to us. Our Saviour directs: "Provide yourselves bags which wax not old." These "bags which wax not old" are the treasuries of Heaven. Are we putting our means into them? Are we cutting down, or adding to, our earthly possessions? If we sell a farm now and another by and by, and put the proceeds into the bank of Heaven, we may not be able to embellish our homes so elaborately; but it will not be like putting money into the banks of this earth. We shall have a treasure "that faileth not," and it will be something to rejoice over when we reach Heaven.

But some one will say, "Suppose I give away all that I have, and then become dependent on others. It would be said, That man was a fool to do as he did; and what shall we do then?" That is not the way the Majesty of Heaven talked. He did not count the cost of saving sinners. He became a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and had not where to lay his head, that you and I might be saved. But we seem to think that if we make a little sacrifice, we have done a great deal, when we should say with David, "All things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee."

Christian friends, let your treasures go over on the other side, and let your sympathies go out for one another and for sinners around you. And we want our hearts to go out after Jesus, the Fountain of living waters, that we may behold his matchless charms. I love him, and I want him to take possession of my soul. We can afford to be ridiculed and to suffer for his sake, if we can have his blessing with us. What are the sufferings of this present life, compared with the final eternal weight of glory? "They that be wise shall shine as the brightness

of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars forever and ever."

May God help us to get our hearts right before him. When divine love transforms the heart, working out of it everything that is selfish and covetous, we shall bring all our tithes and offerings into the store-house of the Lord, and he will pour us out a "blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive." And by and by, when we have kept the truth even to the end, the gates of the heavenly city will be opened to us, and we shall hear the voice of our Saviour saying, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."

SACRIFICE.

By George Klingle

THE keynote of life's harmony is sacrifice. Not twice, or thrice, Beneath each sun will souls bow down To lay the crown Of will or time beneath strange feet, But many times, that life's chords may be sweet. Who sacrifices most, Drinks deepest life's rich strain, counting no cost, But giving self on every side Daily and hourly, sanctified But in the giving. Living Is but the bearing, the enduring, The clashing of hammer, the cutting, The straining of the strings, The growth of harmony's pure wings, Life is the tuning-time, complete Alone when every chord is sweet Through sacrifice. No untuned string Can music bring; No untried life Has triumphed, having passed the strife. True living Is learning all about the giving.

—George Klingle, in Illustrated Christian Weekly.

How Shall We Read Our Bibles?

By E. P. Goodwin

A writer in the Advance of October 29, thinks we must read them with careful discrimination. We must not say the Bible is the word of God, but the Bible contains the word of God. We must not claim the same divine authority for the one hundred and thirty-seventh psalm as for the twenty-third. We must pick out and emphasize as divine the things that are undeniably such in their spirit, and let the things that put a strain on faith or reason go as of little or no value.

Another theory of discrimination says we must take heed not to read our Bibles too literally. We must remember that the writers of Scripture were all men of the East, given to figures and extravagances of speech. Some of them were poets, and testified in the language of vivid imagination. We must allow for this, and when we come upon things here and there that seem contradictory or improbable, dismiss them as the inexact utterances of high-wrought fancy or of poetic license.

Is this, now, the way to read our Bibles? No question can be of more importance. Obviously the authority of the Bible as a revealer of God's truth and a supreme standard of doctrine and morals, and its value as a guide and help to Christian life, will depend on the answer we accept.

Fortunately we are not left here to the opinions of uninspired men. We have ample and plain testimony as to how our Lord and his disciples read the Scriptures. We shall make no mistake if we read them in the same way. Rather, we have no liberty in the matter. We must read them as they did, or we shall dishonor alike the word and Him who gave it.

Our Lord was the great truth-teacher. "For this cause came I into the world," said he to Pilate, "that I should bear witness unto the truth." It is impossible that if there were parts of the Scriptures then in the hands of the people, and received as the word of God, which were not divinely inspired, or were not binding, or were clearly untruthful and misleading, those who read them or heard them taught by errors of fact or of doctrine, or of a spirit not of God breathing through them,—He should not have testified explicitly thereto. He was the one to point out discriminations to be made, to tell us when and where to make exceptions. Not to do this with his perfect knowledge of such falsities and of the consequences that would inevitably result from their non-exposure, would be to lend himself to the cause of untruth.

But how did this All-knowing One treat the Scriptures? He did point out and condemn most unsparingly the misinterpretations and perversions of Scripture taught by the rabbis, but never uttered a word impugning the divine authority of the Scriptures themselves. On the contrary, he was always exalting them as in all their parts of co-equal divine authority: "Search the Scriptures; . . . for they are they which testify of me." "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures;" "The Scriptures must be fulfilled;" "The Scriptures cannot be broken." This is his constant testimony.

Such an indorsement of these Old Testament Scriptures by our Lord is most significant. The Jews of his day recognized precisely the same sacred books as do the Jews of our day; the same, though differently arranged, that make up the Old Testament of our Bibles. The witness of Christ sets upon these the seal of authority as the divine and infallible word of God. After his resurrection, he reproached the two disciples on the way to Emmaus for their ignorance, saying, "O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken." And when he revealed himself to the twelve, he said unto them: "These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things might be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms concerning me." Here is a twofold witness to the divine character and authority of the Scriptures. The expression, "the law, the prophets, and the Psalms," was the current one among the Jews for all the books of the Old Testament. Our Lord therefore indorses these as a whole as divinely originated, and then indorses all their teachings as divinely inspired.

More, even. He puts the emphasis of his indorsement on what most advocates of discrimination either reject or set aside as unauthoritative and unprofitable. The testimony of Moses is with the critics particularly uncertain and unsatisfactory. But our Lord cites Moses more than any other writer, and plants himself on what Moses says as of equal authority with what he says himself.

The theory of a Bible with parts of different authority and value, reckons the story of the deluge an allegory; that of Sodom or of Jonah, a myth or a creation of fancy, to point a moral. But our Lord, as it were, singles out these very records, and not only puts the stamp of truthfulness upon them, but takes them as the types of certainties the most absolute and stupendous of any in the whole sweep of his teaching. He stakes the certainty of his death and resurrection upon the literalness of the record as to Jonah. And the doom of Sodom as an actual event, terrific and remediless, he makes the prophecy and the symbol of the dark and hopeless future of the unsaved.

There is little need to add that the disciples of Christ read the Scriptures in the same way. Paul writes to Timothy: "From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation." He calls these Old Testament writings "the oracles of God." And he declares that in all his preaching he has said "none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come." The witness of Peter and James and John is to the same effect. Beyond doubt, the disciples of our Lord stood exactly on his ground, and recognized the whole of Scripture as a unit, a book of testimony as to law, doctrine, facts, originated under the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and meant to be regarded as the infallible word of God.

All this bears directly on the other point also, viz.; as to the literalness with which we shall read our Bibles. Neither Christ nor his apostles ever suggest any caution about poetical license, Oriental imagery, peculiarities of style, and the like. They quote the Scriptures just as they find them in law, prophets, Psalms, and take them as they read. We have noted how our Lord cited the records of the deluge, the overthrow of Sodom, the account of Jonah and the whale. He read these literally. But just so he read Isaiah and the Psalms. He cites them just as he cites Moses. David means David, Jerusalem means Jerusalem, Zion means Zion, Jews means Jews, Gentiles means Gentiles, and kingdom means kingdom. He quoted in his first sermon from one of the most intensely poetical passages of Isaiah, but he applied it to himself as literally true, word for word. So always, whether the prophecies concerned his sufferings and death, his resurrection, or his future glory.

The disciples did likewise. When Peter quoted Joel and David at Pentecost, he quoted them as meaning just what they said. And just so when James quoted Amos in the council at Jerusalem, and Paul quoted Moses and the prophets before Agrippa.

Obviously this is the only way in which we can read our Bibles and do them honor. There are, of course, figures of speech, symbolisms, every variety of language here, and these are to be taken just as in any other book. We have little difficulty anywhere in understanding these by applying the ordinary and simple rules of interpretation. Just so in the Scriptures. To a greater degree than many think, they furnish their own interpretation as respects even what seems at first obscure. The one law to be followed is to assume that these Scripture writers mean just what they say. Wherever unusual symbols and imagery occur, or there is a figurative presentation of the truth, there will invariably be that in the immediate connection, or in other Scripture related thereto, which will make this clear. It is surprising to every thoughtful student of the word how true this is. When Daniel dreams a dream or sees a vision, the record so states, and the key of the dream or the vision is given. When Zechariah sees strange-looking horses among the myrtle trees, the man by his side shows him what they represent. When John sees seven golden candlesticks, the Lord Jesus himself explains their meaning. So ever.

There are doubtless deep things and hard to be understood; but the inspired preface to the book most difficult of all to fathom, says, "Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy." God's word is not a dark lantern, but a lamp. And the true way to use it is to let its own light shine, to take it just as it reads. Take, for illustration, the account in the first chapter of Luke, of the coming of the angel to Mary and his message, How shall we read this, as part literal and part figurative? Shall we say there was a literal angel and a figurative message? A literal child with a literal name, but a figurative man with a figurative career? A literal "Son of the Highest," and a literal "Lord God," but a figurative "throne of David," a figurative "house of Jacob," and a figurative "kingdom" of which "there shall be no end"? Obviously we cannot read this scripture thus. The exaltation must be as literal as the humiliation, the throne as the manger, the house of Jacob and the kingdom as the angel and the mother.

Just so of all other scriptures. Neither prophets nor apostles ask us to apologize for or defend them, but to read and believe what they say as moved by the Holy Spirit. If people find the difficulties of Scriptures a stumbling-block, let us remember that Christ himself was "a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense even to them which stumble at the word." Yet God gave his Son and his word to be alike the light of the world. There were none so blind in the old time as they who having eyes saw not. Yet they were within the church, and claimed to be wise in the things written. Let us take heed that we do not walk in darkness for the same reason.

Tears and Providence

By Theodore L. Cuyler

GOD sometimes washes the eyes of his children with tears in order that they may read aright his providence and his commandments. —T. L. Cuyler.

The Gift and the Kind Word

By Arthur Helps

THERE is a gift that is almost a blow, and there is a kind word that is munificence; so much is there in the way of doing things.—Arthur Helps.

Be Sure Your Sin Will Find You Out.

By E. Hilliard

It is often the case that sin is its own detector. When an individual commits a crime, he carefully conceals everything that would serve to expose his deed. It often happens that the very things that he was so careful to hide are brought into court as the strongest evidence to condemn him. But whether he is found out and brought to justice in this life or not, he must lead a miserable life. He nervously watches every avenue of detection, and his life is one of painful anxiety. This shows that sin brings fear, and with fear there is torment. It is not always the sinfulness of the deed that causes this state of mind with the criminal, but it arises from a knowledge of the just penalty that is only awaiting the detection of the deed.

It is the great, and seemingly the only, anxiety of many who are following in the pathway of sin, to see that their sins do not come to public view. Many, many professors of Christ have no greater burden than this. How little such realize the Saviour's words: "For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known." Searching words! Those who have a greater burden to conceal their sinful deeds than they have to repent of and forsake them, will at last stand trembling victims before a vast multitude, while their sins are exposed to all. When the penetrating gaze from the eyes of Him who cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance will be fastened upon them, then, for once, although it may be for the first time, they will realize the exceeding sinfulness of sin.

Why will men be so foolish as to fear the condemnation of their fellow-men more than that of the great God? God has provided a way by which our sins can be forever buried in oblivion. Christ, the great sacrifice, has borne the wages of sin—death—that he might thereby be enabled to blot from his book of remembrance the sins of all the truly penitent. He says: "I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins."

There is no work that causes more joy in Heaven than that of forgiving and forgetting sin. When God forgives us, for Christ's sake, we stand as innocent in the sight of Heaven as though we never had committed a single sin. Through faith in a crucified Saviour, Christ's righteousness is imputed to us. Oh how great and wonderful is the plan of salvation! If we just believe that Christ lived a righteous life and suffered an unrighteous death, and believe that this was for us personally, we are accepted the same as though we had lived a pure, holy life. But this must be upon conditions that we live not henceforth unto ourselves, but unto Him who died for us. 2 Cor. 5:15. What unparalleled mercy! Surely "He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him."

How much better to come to such a loving, forgiving Saviour, and in tears of repentance, have our transgressions removed as far from us as the east is from the west, than to carry a load of guilt through our lives, and at last experience the wrath of an offended God. But a little while longer will the invitation from the sacred word be held out to the sin-laden soul, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

When our load of sin and guilt is rolled upon the Redeemer of the world, and in faith we grasp his hand so graciously reached down to help us, how little we care for the opinion of men. The stinging sense of sin is gone, and deep love and gratitude fill our hearts. How we love such a merciful, forgiving Saviour, above any of our earthly friends! How willingly will we sacrifice and labor to the best of our ability for the up-building of his kingdom! We shall feel that a debt has been paid for us that never could have been canceled by any other being but Christ. We shall realize, too, that it took his life to cancel it. Who can desire eternal life for any other reason than to love and praise him throughout the endless ages? May God help us, dear reader, to appreciate the great offering so freely made.

Medford, Minn. E. HILLIARD.

The Sweets of Submission.

By R. F. Cottrell

THE duty of submitting one to another in the fear of God, and especially of the younger submitting to the elder, is clearly taught in the word of God. 1 Pet. 5:5; Rom. 12:10; Eph. 5:21; Phil. 2:3; Heb. 13:17. And none can fully taste of the joys of the truly converted, till they have learned this lesson. This is especially the case at the present time. The Lord is sending forth a message, foretold in the prophetic word, to gather his people—his scattered and bewildered people—into one, that they may be disciplined and prepared for the last great struggle with the powers of darkness, and for translation into the kingdom of God without death. They have had a vast variety of teaching, and have been subject to various surrounding influences. Almost every one has some unscriptural notion, which is considered by the individual as sacred truth, and has been so long considered so that it is almost out of the power of argument to remove it from the mind. Hence the necessity of the gifts of the Spirit in the church, to correct these erring ones, to cause them to lay aside their selfish preferences and groundless notions, and come into the truth.

When a person is fully converted into this message, he receives the gift of prophecy that has accompanied the message from its very rise. He submits himself to be led out of his errors into the truth. He lays down his erroneous notions at the Lord's bidding, and when they cease to be a part of himself, and are so far separated from him that he can view them in the light of Scripture and reason, he sees they are not what he thought them, and he has no desire to receive them back. When he views their deformities, he is glad they are gone from him forever.

My brother, my sister, young in the truth, if you have not yet learned this lesson of submission, learn it without delay. You do not know the sweet peace and joy it will yield. When once learned, you never will repent it; but if it is not learned, you will not be prepared for a place in the kingdom of God. The Lord has turned your feet unto his testimonies through the instrumentality of the preaching of the third message. That message has been sustained and aided and brought to you through the instrumentality of the gift of prophecy; and you are indebted to God, and these his chosen instrumentalities, for the light on the commandments which you now enjoy. Do not fear, then, to venture your all on the message. Do not fear to own the instrumentalities by which you have received so much good. Venture wholly—put all on board, for the vessel is sufficient to carry you safely over.

R. F. COTTRELL.

Don't Ask God to Do Your Work.

It is said that Mr. Moody, in his early days in Chicago, was a regular attendant on the noon-day prayer-meeting. At one of these meetings a rich brother rose and told those present of an opportunity to do a certain good thing if only three or four hundred dollars could be raised for the purpose, and asked them to pray earnestly that it might be done. In an instant, Mr. Moody sprang to his feet, and said, "Brother, I wouldn't trouble the Lord with a little thing like that; I would do it myself."

A Minister's Tact.

HERE and there an eccentric minister is found, who, in spite of his queer dress and strange manners, is known as a devoted disciple and an attractive preacher. Rowland Hill was an eccentric; yet he was the great man of the London pulpit. Peter Cartwright, one of the pioneers of Western Methodism, could enforce silence—and often did—in the roughest crowd, and then charm them with his bucolic eloquence. Jacob Gruber, an old-fashioned Methodist minister of the South, was always spoken of with great respect, though he was a little "queer," on account of his devotion to his work and his tact in dealing with all sorts of persons.

In those days, it was the custom for Methodist ministers to carry in their saddle-bags religious books, which they sold to the people living on the "circuit." One day, while Mr. Gruber was stopping with a pious family, a bright, giddy girl of sixteen took one of the minister's books, and, in a spirit of mischief, said to the old man,—

"Mr. Gruber, give me this book."

"I will sell you the book—my books are for sale," answered the minister.

"Yes, I know you have books for sale," the girl continued, in her bantering way; "but as this one did not cost much, I think you might give it to me."

"I will give you the book," said the old man, seriously, after a moment's thought, "if you will promise to do what I tell you."

"No, Mr. Gruber, I can't promise that; you might ask me to do something which I ought not to do."

"No, no, my daughter, I couldn't do that; it will be something your parents will approve."

"Then I promise," answered the giddy girl, anxious to know.

"You promise me, my daughter," said the old man solemnly, "that till I come here again, four weeks hence, you will every night pray your heavenly Father to forgive your sins and to take care of you while you sleep. Then in the morning you will thank him for his care, and pray for guidance during the day. Do you promise to do this every morning and night for the next four weeks?"

"I do," said the sobered girl, receiving the book.

Punctual to his appointment, Mr. Gruber was at that house on the last day of the fourth week. "Did you keep your word?" he asked, brusquely.

"I did, sir," she promptly answered.

"You never skipped one morning or evening?"

"No, sir, not one."

"Then the book is yours, and you can now stop praying; you have kept your promise," said the old man, turning away.

"But I don't wish to stop praying," said she.

"You don't?" and the venerable minister stopped. He had gained what he sought.

"That's right, my daughter! don't stop praying, and God will bless you."

It was not long before the minister had the pleasure of receiving her into the church.—Sel.

Sunshine in the Soul

Dr. Theodore L. Cuyler gives the following valuable recipe for securing sunshine in the soul: 1. Look at your mercies with both eyes; at your trials and troubles with only one. 2. Study contentment. In these days of inordinate greed and self-indulgence keep down the accursed spirit of grasping. What they do not have makes thousands wretched. 3. Keep at some work of usefulness. 4. Keep your heart's window always open toward Heaven. Let the blessed light of Jesus' countenance shine in. It will turn tears into rainbows.

The Dogs of the World

By Samuel Rutherford

If ye were not strangers here, the dogs of the world would not bark at you.—Rutherford.

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