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CAN THE SOUL DIE?
Some startling statements and scriptural conclusions on this subject will be found in the little work entitled, “Scripture References.” It is well worth a careful examination.
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THE TWELVE MISSIONARIES.
By James M. Whiton
BY REV. JAMES M. WHITON.
It is only by a trick of words that this title does not at a glance reveal who are the persons referred to. Just such a trick was played on the readers of the Bible when the word church was substituted by King James’ intimation to the English translators that so it should be, for the word congregation, as Tyndale had given it. We all believe that the men whom Jesus chose for His first disciples became missionaries. But they are not so termed in our English Bibles, which always call them apostles, and it is commonly thought that there have been no apostles since the death of John, the last survivor of the twelve. Then ended, according to church historians, the “apostolic age.” And if in reading Luke 6:13, “He chose twelve, whom also He named apostles,” one should substitute the word missionaries for apostles, many would suspect him with meddling with the text. But such a reading is literally correct, and it has the advantage of carrying a clear definition of the idea, as the word apostles does not.
These two words are, in fact, of identical meaning, their only difference being that apostle is a Greek word, and missionary a Latin word. Each of them is derived from a verb that means to send, and each of them means a person who is sent. In John 13:16 the marginal reading of the Revised Version so explains it. Jesus Himself so defines apostle in His prayer at the Last Supper: “As Thou didst send Me into the world, even so sent I them into the world.” And so He gave them from the first the name apostles.
The word apostle, or apostles, occurs in the New Testament nearly fifty times, and seven times as often in the Pauline portion (including the third Gospel and the Book of the Acts) as in all the rest. This is significant. We naturally ask why it should be so. Evidently, because Paul was the chief missionary in that time. More than half the book of the Acts is concerned with his missionary journeys and activities. He himself tells the Corinthians: “I labored more abundantly than they all; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” Yet he says: “I am the least of the apostles [missionaries], that am not meet to be called an apostle [missionary], because I persecuted the church of God.” In the person and work of Paul, Jesus’ designation of His first disciples as missionaries was abundantly justified. The word is matched by the deed. How appropriately he begins his letters: “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ.” How much more significantly to our minds, long blinded by the trick of a word ill understood, when we give that ancient term its modern and luminous equivalent, “Paul, a missionary of Jesus Christ.”
It would be worth while to do this—at least in our private reading, and perhaps on other fit occasions—when we come across the ancient Greek term in our English New Testament. See, for instance, Matt. 10:2: “The names of the twelve missionaries are these;” Luke 17:5: “The missionaries said unto the Lord, Increase our faith;” ch. 22:14: “He sat down [at the Last Supper], and the missionaries with Him;” Acts 2:43: “Many wonders and signs were done by the missionaries.” Carrying this substitution through the New Testament has an effect like that of clearing away the mold from an illegible inscription in a graveyard till the letters stand out distinctly.
Other results follow both naturally and inevitably. Missionaries come to their rights. Even in the church, except among a well-informed and earnest minority, the missionary—that is, the man and his work—is not rightly valued, and so is not rightly supported. When he has done a great work, and returns, the father of churches that he has planted on the frontier or in non-Christian lands, there is, of course, the general rising up to do him honor, which is the world’s way of recognizing brilliant achievement. But when he goes forth to Africa, Alaska, or anywhere as a recruit, a beginner, conscientious and chivalrous, as all sound-minded people must believe him, many yield him this tribute with an undertone of regret for what they deem rather visionary, misjudged, impractical; thinking, if not saying, “Why go to the ends of the earth for duty when there is so much of it to do at home?” This is a most un-Christian mistake. The missionary is the original Christian institution, antedating the church itself, and older than her sacraments. So, at any rate, we are informed by Paul himself. Read the list of “holy orders” that he sent to the church in Ephesus: “He gave some to be missionaries [translated “apostles”]; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers.” Thus is emphasized by the man who of all the twelve showed most of the mind of Jesus, the thought of Jesus in designating the twelve as His “apostles.”
The real truth in regard to “apostolic succession,” so belabored and beclouded in futile disputes, now comes out in clear and convincing light. If the New Testament is permitted to speak on this question with final authority, the genuine apostolic succession is a missionary succession. Of the first admission to it, after Jesus’ time, we read that to supply the vacancy created by the apostasy of Judas, Matthias was chosen, “and he was numbered among the eleven apostles [missionaries].” Many a humble missionary, on whose head no bishop’s hands have ever been laid, is numbered in this succession. Outside of it have been many mitred and throned prelates, “princes of the church.”
A more important question is also settled: What is the true church? Paul is the conclusive witness. He tells the church at Ephesus that it is “built upon the foundation of the apostles [missionaries] and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone.” And agreeably to this, the seer of the Apocalypse beheld in his vision that future City of God, of which the church on earth is but the dim prototype, as having for its wall “twelve foundations, and on them twelve names of the twelve apostles [missionaries] of the Lamb.” The house of God must stand square on its foundations. The mark of the true church is its fidelity to its original design. A church is a church of Christ only so far as animated by the spirit of the great Missionary whose name it bears. Bishops or no bishops, creeds or no creeds, matter little, but this matters everything for the right of the church to be.
The corollary to this requires final mention. What is true of the church is true of each member of it. None is what Paul calls “a man in Christ”—though he may be a “babe in Christ” in whom Christ’s missionary spirit is lacking or undeveloped. He must find or make a way to expand it, to exercise it without partiality for a special interest, and a consequent narrowing of Christian sympathy for those whom Christ would heal. For this the Holy Spirit was originally given when Jesus, on the Passover eve, said: “As my Father hath sent Me, so send I you,” and then “breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Spirit.”
When Christian consciousness gets firmer hold of these foundation facts of Christian faith, Christian character will be enriched, Christian enterprise will expand, the day of small things will be succeeded by a day of power, and scoffing tongues will be dumb.—Home Missionary.
How the Bible Entered Spain.
The National Bible Society of Scotland made its way into Spain as far back as 1865. The story, as told by a secretary of the society, is a remarkable one: “While yet the Bible was confiscated at every frontier, Manuel Matamoros showed us how the Book might be printed in Spain itself, for the use of the faithful souls, who, meeting in secret and under feigned names, were feeling their way toward the light. In a back room in a back street in the Cathedral city of Malaga, at a rickety old handpress, with scanty supply of type, a godly printer, with his own hands and such help as13his wife and boy could render, printed at the cost of the society 3,000 large type New Testaments in the course of seventeen months’ labor, during every hour of which he stood in danger of arrest and the galleys—a feat which will live in history with the achievements of those who counted not liberty or life dear to them for the sake of Christ and His Gospel.”
HIS LOVE.
By Frank Walcott Hutt
[Frank Walcott Hutt, in S. S. Times.]
THE oceans of His love are wide,—
They touch the bounds of all His world;
And, round the farthest islands curled,
They bear His word on every tide.
But what hath greater joy for me
Is that my lesser harbor knows
The fulness of the tide that flows
In from His love's unfathomed sea.
THE SPIRIT OF SACRIFICE.
From a synopsis of a missionary address delivered by President A. G. Daniells, at the late Indiana camp-meeting, published in the Daily Bulletin, we cull a few items. After reading a letter from Dr. Miller and wife, the speaker said:—
“These physicians recently went to Honan, China, where they are now giving the truth in this dark land of heathenism. This marks a new era of our work in missions. Honan is the last of eighteen provinces to be entered by missionaries. It is very densely populated, having 22,000,000 inhabitants. These missionaries have to work very differently from other missionaries who do not believe in the soon coming of Christ. They left the most highly civilized land, with all its comforts, and plunged into the very darkness of heathenism in inland China. Yet they cling to the promise, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” The customs of living are the most primitive, and the inhabitants dwell in walled cities. The language is very difficult to learn, yet Dr. Miller has in six months become able to read, and hold services in the Chinese tongue. He has read the Gospels and the book of Revelation. The natives are very ignorant, only one woman in ten thousand, and one man in twelve, can read and write. But they are just as quick to detect the Third Angel’s Message as are the people of Indiana. A convert of Brother Pilquist has prepared a Chinese hymn book. He is a graduate of the Chinese schools, and accepted the truth against great opposition on the part of influential men, and was even disinherited; now he is a Chinese evangelist. Having learned the trade of printing and book-making, he was able to produce our Chinese hymn book, and is getting out tracts in the language. Surely the hand of God was preparing this man to print the message.
“Dr. Selmon has succeeded in securing a large house, for ninety-nine years, for $1,000, which will afford splendid facilities for hospital work. These missionaries are there to stay. They have no desire to come back to the States. Thank God that this denomination can produce such missionaries. Let us send them to the uttermost parts of the earth. Do we not see in this work evidences of the fulfilment of the scripture which says: ‘Lift up thine eyes round about, and see; all they gather themselves together, they come to thee; thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side. Thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, and the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee.’ Isa. 60: 4, 5.
“Many loyal parents have sacrificed sons and daughters in foreign lands. When one brave worker in Africa gave up his life in service, and the news was carried to his mother, she said: ‘The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. I have a second boy that Africa can have.’ He went, and died there, then that mother said, ‘The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. I have another boy that Africa can have.’ He went, and did a glorious work. That is the spirit that must animate this denomination. Japan orders her men to the front to shoot men. How much more blessed for our Commander to order us, not to shoot men, but to save them.”
OUR WORK AND WORKERS.
SEPTEMBER 17, Brother H. Nicola baptized four candidates at Charlotte, Mich.
THREE candidates were baptized at Sweetwater, Texas, on the 18th ult., by Brother A. W. Jenson.
At the last quarterly-meeting of the church in Oakland, Cal., four candidates were baptized by Brother J. D. Rice.
MEETINGS recently held at Howard, Mich., by Brethren A. L. Evans and James Thorp resulted in the baptism of seven converts.
A LETTER from Brother E. L. Sanford, dated Winchester, Ky., September 12, notes the organization of a church of ten members in that place, as the result of tent meetings.
PROF. N. W. KAUBLE, late of the Industrial School at Sheridan, Ill., has been chosen as principal of Emmanuel Missionary College, Berrien Springs, Mich. Prof. J. W. Covert succeeds him at Sheridan.
WRITING from Naruna, Va., Brother C. B. Rule reports that he pitched a tent in that place and commenced meetings September 2, and by the 18th fourteen persons were keeping the Sabbath. This letter dated the 21st says, “We have now sixteen, and three others have said they are ready.”
At the late session of East Michigan Conference, the following officers were chosen: President, E. K. Slade; vice-president, A. R. Sanborn; secretary and treasurer, Frank Hiner; field secretary, H. B. McConnell; superintendent of education, J. G. Lamson; secretary and treasurer of Sabbath-school work, Tillie E. Barr.
We have received the first annual calendar of the Maplewood Industrial School, situated twenty miles west of Minneapolis, Minn. The post-office address is Maple Plain, Minn. The prospect for this new educational institution is apparently good, and surely the purpose is good. “The school farm consists of ninety-two acres of fertile land. About forty acres of this is covered with heavy timber, a large portion of which is sugar-maple; hence the name, Maplewood.” The calendar is illustrated with several fine views of the premises. For particulars, address O. O. Bernstein, principal.
A LETTER from Brother H. G. Thurston, president of Mississippi Conference, speaks encouragingly of the work in that field. There are now ten organized churches in the conferences, besides some companies not organized. A year ago there were but three churches. The present condition is the result of new accessions, and the gathering and organizing of scattered forces. They have money in the treasury to pay all bills, which, Brother Thurston says, would hardly be true but for the liberality of California brethren. He has also been able to gather several hundred dollars in New York and Pennsylvania for the Industrial School at Huntsville, Ala., which is one of the important interests connected with the work for the colored people of the South.
THE following extract is from Brother W. W. Eastman’s report in the Southwestern Union Record: “In her report one of our workers writes, ‘A few days ago, while canvassing, I was showing a lady my book. She learned that I was a Seventh-day Adventist and said, “I don’t want any Seventh-day Adventist book. I have a book on the coming of the Lord by my own denomination.” Then she went on to tell what a wonderfully good book it was. Finally I asked for the title of it, which she could not give; so I asked to see it. When she brought the book, to my surprise, it was “Heralds of the Morning.” I said to her, “Why, that is a Seventh-day Adventist book.” Then I had a good talk with her about it.’ Another canvasser writes that, after showing a lady the book, she said, ‘Well, if that is Seventh-day Adventist doctrine, I am one and did not know it.’ She gladly took a book.’”
In the Sabbath-School Worker for September we note an excellent article by Sister Carrie Knight, of Bocas del Toro, Republic of Panama, from which we clip this excerpt: “Just think of it! Only twenty workers in this vast field! They are obliged to endure hardships to which our people in America are strangers. The work is so great that they are compelled to work far beyond their strength. Their money is so scarce that they must sacrifice the comforts which you enjoy at home. They meet discouragements such as you never dream of. They never complain, knowing that these things ‘work for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.’ They need your sympathy, your prayers, and some of the means God has given you. O for a faith like Paul’s, ‘to work’! O for a faith like Abraham’s, who ‘went out, not knowing whither he went’! O for a faith like that of the poor widow, who ‘cast in all that she had’!”
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(8) “Now the king of Syria was warring against Israel; and he took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp. (9) And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thou pass not such a place; for thither the Syrians are coming down. (10) And the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God had told him and warned him of; and he saved himself there, not once nor twice. (11) And the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing; and he called his servants, and said unto them, Will ye not show me which of us is for the king of Israel? And one of his servants said, Nay, my lord, O king; but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber. (13) And he said, Go and see where he is, that I may send and fetch him. And it was told him, saying, Behold, he is in Dothan.
(14) “Therefore sent he thither horses, and chariots, and a great host: and they came by night, and compassed the city about. (15) And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, a host with horses and chariots was round about the city. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do? (16) And he answered, Fear not; for they that are with us are more than they that are with them. (17) And Elisha prayed, and said, Jehovah, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And Jehovah opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. (18) And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto Jehovah, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And He smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha. (19) And Elisha said unto them, This is not the way, neither is this the city; follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek. And he led them to Samaria.
(20) “And it came to pass, when they were come into Samaria, that Elisha said, Jehovah, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. And Jehovah opened their eyes, and they saw; and, behold, they were in the midst of Samaria. (21) And the king of Israel said unto Elisha, when he saw them, My father, shall I smite them? shall I smite them? (22) And he answered, Thou shalt not smite them: wouldest thou smite those whom thou hast taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow? set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master. (23) And he prepared great provision for them: and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. And the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel.”
Golden Text.—“The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them.” Ps. 34:7.
SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS.
(1) What king warred against Israel, as recorded in this lesson? In his counsel of war, what did he decide to do? Verse 8. Note 1. (2) Through whom was the king of Israel informed of these plans? What warning was given him? Verse 9. Note 2. (3) How did the king of Israel verify these warnings? Verse 10. Note 3. (4) How was the king of Syria affected by the failure of his plans? Whom did he suspect of treachery? Verse 11. (5) What information did one of his servants volunteer? Verse 12. Note 4. (6) What order did the king then give? What did he learn through this search? Verse 13. Note 5. (7) What effort was made to capture Elisha? Verse 14. Note 6. (8) What did Elisha’s servant see early in the morning? What did he say to his master? Verse 15. (9) How did the prophet answer the servant? Verse 16. Note 7. (10) What was the prophet’s first concern? How did the Lord answer? What then did the servant see? Verse 17. Note 8. (11) When the Syrians came in to take Elisha, to whom did he appeal for help? What was his prayer? How was this prayer answered? Verse 18. (12) What did Elisha say to his enemies? Then where did he lead them? Verse 19. (13) What prayer did Elisha then offer? How was this petition regarded? And what did the prisoners see? Verse 20. Note 9. (14) What did the king of Israel say to Elisha? Verse 21. Note 10. (15) What was the prophet’s reply? Verse 22. (16) What then did the king of Israel prepare for his enemies? When they had eaten, what further was done to them? With what result? Verse 23. Note 11.
NOTES.
1. The king of Syria was Ben-hadad II., and the king of Israel was Jehoram. In Ben-hadad’s counsels of war he planned his route of march toward Samaria, and announced the places where he would camp.
2. The Lord defended Israel against the Syrians through His prophet Elisha. The Spirit made known the secrets of Ben-hadad to the prophet, and he declared them to the king of Israel. “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets.” Amos 3:7. The Lord patiently sought to show the kings of Israel the superiority of His prophets as counselors over the prophets of Baal. Had Jehoram conceded this fact, he would soon have learned that the God of heaven was the true God, and he, as well as his people, would have been spared many trials and much humiliation.
3. Notwithstanding Jehoram’s persistent worship of Baal, he and his people were many times spared through the timely warnings of Elisha. How much the people might be benefited in our own time if they would heed the warnings of God’s prophets! A timely injunction of the Apostle Paul is, “Despise not prophesyings.” I Thess. 5:20. As also the declaration of David, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; the people whom He hath chosen for His own inheritance.” Ps. 33:12. But this blessing is soon lost through a neglect or rejection of God’s means of blessing, namely, the Spirit of prophecy.
4. Elisha was known to the Syrians, no doubt mainly through the healing of Naaman’s leprosy, which was the subject of last week’s lesson.
5. Dothan was about twelve miles north of Samaria, and on the route of the Syrian army from Damascus to Israel’s capital. It was near Dothan where Joseph’s brethren were pasturing their flocks and herds when they sold him to the Ishmaelite traders.
6. There were two reasons for sending a “great host” against one man: (1) It was in the heart of the enemy’s country, and they did not know what forces might be encountered; (2) it was deemed necessary to effectually surround the town in order to prevent Elisha’s escape. His capture was thought to be an essential point in the campaign.
7. The servant could see nothing but the army of the enemy; he saw only calamity. The prophet saw the greater and more powerful army of deliverance. Here is an illustration of the difference between the discernment of faith and the sight of the natural eye.
8. Elisha was first concerned for the deeper instruction of his servant in spiritual things. He was not at all alarmed for their safety. “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16), and the young man’s spiritual vision was enlarged that he might see the host of “ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation.” Heb. 1:14.
9. Elisha was evidently in the position where he could ask what he would, and it would be done for him. See John 15:7. True enough, they were in the city which the Syrian army had aimed especially to invade, and there was the man, the king of Israel, whom they had most desired to capture.
10. It was a cruel proposition of King Jehoram to slay a helpless mass of men who had been captured without any effort of himself or his army. But retaliation is always the impulse of an unregenerate heart. Mercy is always the inspiration of the Spirit of God, no matter by whom exercised.
11. The prophet of Jehovah, whose prisoners these men were, gave the more merciful, as well as the more expedient, advice, namely, to feed the prisoners and send them home. So, in later times, the Apostle Paul gave this similar counsel: “If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink; for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head.” Rom. 12:20.
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More about the Great Four-Section Signs of the Times
By Editor
A Description of the Series
The title will be “The Third Angel’s Message Series of THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES.” In harmony with the title, each paper will treat upon some phase of the Third Angel’s Message. Here are titles of a few of the articles:—
Christ, Coming King
ISSUE OF NOVEMBER 2.
“Are the Scriptures Inspired?”
“Evidences of Inspiration.”
“Christ’s Coming, Literal, Personal, Visible.”
“Signs of His Coming in the Heavens.”
“Signs of His Coming in the Earth.”
“What His Coming Means to Mankind and the Earth.”
Christ, Our Saviour
ISSUE OF NOVEMBER 16.
“Christ and the Law—Lawgiver and Lawkeeper.”
“The Giver of Life to the Dying and Dead.”
“The Sign of Creative and Redeeming Power.”
“The Blessing of Its Observance.”
“How This Sign Has Been Ignored.”
“How This Sign Is to Be Honored.”
Christ, Our Judge
ISSUE OF NOVEMBER 23.
“Was the Death of Christ Necessary?”
“An Object Lesson in Redemption.”
“The Judgment in Type and Antitype.”
“The Hour of His Judgment Is Come.”
“The Great Final, Fiery Test.”
Christ, the Restorer
ISSUE OF NOVEMBER 30.
“The Sick World—Its Counterfeit Panacea.”
“The Only Remedy—Its Rejection.”
“The Sign of Apostasy.”
“God’s Last Great Invitation.”
In addition to the above there will be special articles on the Law, Capital and Labor, Church and State, Nature of Man, together with excellent articles on the home.
The Series will be quite fully illustrated and each will have a finely engraved cover.
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