Review and Herald, Vol. 83, No. 6. (2/8/1906)

Review and Herald

Feb 8, 1906

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Feb 8, 1906

The Perplexing Problem of Worldly Prosperity

Surely God is good to Israel, Even to such as are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet were almost gone; My steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the arrogant, When I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no pangs in their death; But their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men; Neither are they plagued like other men. Therefore pride is as a chain about their neck; Violence covereth them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness: They have more than heart could wish. They scoff, and in wickedness utter oppression: They speak loftily. They have set their mouth in the heavens, And their tongue walketh through the earth. Therefore his people return hither: And waters of a full cup are drained by them. And they say, How doth God know? And is there knowledge in the Most High? Behold, these are the wicked; And, being always at ease, they increase in riches. Surely in vain have I cleansed my heart, And washed my hands in innocency; For all the day long have I been plagued, And chastened every morning. If I had said, I will speak thus; Behold, I had dealt treacherously with the generation of thy children. When I thought how I might know this, It was too painful for me; Until I went into the sanctuary of God, And considered their latter end. Surely thou settest them in slippery places: Thou castest them down to destruction. How are they become a desolation in a moment! They are utterly consumed with terrors. As a dream when one awaketh, So, O Lord, when thou awakest, Thou wilt despise their image. Ps. 73: 1-20.

Our Publishing Work

By Editor

The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it. Psalm 68:11.

Any publication mentioned on this page may be ordered through your conference tract society or from any of our publishing houses or their branch offices. See last paragraph on this page for addresses of our publishing houses.

HAVE you read “Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. VIII? It contains important instruction which you ought to understand. Prices: cloth, 75 cents; full limp leather, $1.25.

WE expect to have a supply of “Christ in Song” ready for shipment from our factory in Battle Creek, Mich., about February 12. Stock can be furnished by our various publishing houses and branches as soon after that date as it can reach them. Order from your usual source of supply.

CIRCUMSTANCES which no one could control have delayed the publication of the Year-book for 1906. It is now nearly finished, and we hope to have books ready for shipment by February 15. It contains a brief but full resume of the actions of the last General Conference, together with complete denominational directories. The price is 25 cents. Order at once.

ONE of the most practical books for everyday use by every individual is the New Webster’s Dictionary, a complete vest-pocket library, by E. E. Miles. This little dictionary is of convenient size to carry in the vest pocket, yet it contains over 45,800 words, not counting the definitions. It is conveniently indexed, and is one of the best pronouncing dictionaries and spellers published. It contains a complete parliamentary manual, a rapid calculator, a compendium of business and social forms, a letter writer, a literary guide, a book of English synonyms, test words, domestic and foreign postal guide, and many other valuable helps which are always necessary in the business and social affairs of every man and woman. Plain cloth binding, with red edges, 25 cents; leather binding, gold stamp, gilt edges, 50 cents; with calendar, memoranda, and postage-stamp holder, 60 cents.

“TESTIMONIES FOR THE CHURCH, Series B, No. 7,” is just printed, and will be mailed for 5 cents a copy, the same price as the recently published “No. 6” of the same series. “No. 7” contains 64 pages on the following subjects: A Warning Against Present Dangers, A Warning and an Appeal, A Solemn Appeal, A Message to Our Physicians, A Solemn Warning, The Warning Repeated, The Reopening of Battle Creek College, Danger to Students, Decided Action to Be Taken Now, Unity in Christ, A Great Opportunity Slighted, The Result of a Failure to Heed God’s Warnings, Standing in the Way of God’s Messages, Come Out and Be Separate. As may be seen by the above subjects, this last number of the Special Testimonies is one of the most important ever received by this people. Every individual in any way interested in the denominational work should secure and read a copy of “No. 7.”

READ Life and Health for February. It is now ready. Price, 5 cents. See more extended notice on last page of this paper.

THE three boxes of kindergarten material which are used in connection with the teaching of the lessons found in “Bible Object Lessons and Songs for Little Ones” have been out of stock for a time, but a new supply will be ready during this month. The price of the three boxes is $1.75, post-paid.

DON’T think that the “missionary campaign” is over now that a new year has begun. We should be pressing forward every kind of missionary work more vigorously than ever. Books, tracts, and periodicals must be circulated in ever-increasing quantities, till the world is warned. Are you faithfully doing this work in that part of the Master’s vineyard where he has placed you?

OUR feathered friends, the birds, will soon be returning to the familiar scenes of their summer homes. Are you acquainted with them? If not, do you not know that their habits and customs are most interesting? Buy a copy of Dr. Reed’s “Garden Neighbors,” and with it as a guide, you can soon become on the best of terms with the bird and animal neighbors, and you will find much to interest and instruct you in this study. Place a copy of this book in the hands of a boy who is inclined to be cruel to dumb animals; it will direct his interest into a new channel. Price of “Garden Neighbors” is $1.

HOW it thrills us to hear an old pioneer relate some of the early experiences in this message! Then as God’s dealings with his people are traced down to the present time, our faith is increased, and we feel renewed confidence in the work, and rejoice in the hope of its early triumph. Elder Loughborough’s book, “The Great Second Advent Movement,” rehearses these early experiences. He describes the progress of the work, not as spectator, but with the intimate knowledge of one who acted a part in what is described—he speaks with authority. Elder Loughborough’s long acquaintance with Mrs. E. G. White, and his personal knowledge of the spirit of prophecy as exercised through her, enables him to give a deep insight into her work. He has seen her in vision about fifty times, and calls attention to twenty-six predictions made by her which have been fulfilled. Read it and have your children read it. It will do much to stem the tide of unbelief in the Testimonies which is coming in among us. Price, $1.50.

ORDERS for any publication mentioned on this page may be sent to any conference tract society or to any of the following: Review and Herald Publishing Association, Washington, D. C., and Battle Creek, Mich.; Pacific Press Publishing Company, Mountain View, Cal., also Portland, Ore., and Kansas City, Mo.; Southern Publishing Association, Nashville, Tenn., and Fort Worth, Tex.

The Blessed Hope

THE second coming of our Lord in power and great glory, bringing his reward with him, is fittingly designated as “that blessed hope.” It is this hope which ministers comfort in the trying hour, and turns apparent defeat into victory. It is this hope which enables the believer to forego the attractions of the world,—wealth, honor, power,—“choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.” It is this hope which sustains the repentant and believing sinner when the wasting physical frame is racked with pain, and death, “the last enemy,” stalks into the chamber to claim his victim. The blessed hope of the resurrection and the triumph over death, the blessed hope of seeing our Redeemer face to face, the blessed hope of a welcome to the city of God, the blessed hope of life unending and free from sin on the earth made new—who can estimate the value of such a hope as this? “Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure.” Blessed hope!

Miracles

The subject of the Sabbath-school lesson for February 17 is “Miracles.” It is a subject to which thoughtful study ought to be given at this time. Within recent years a concerted effort seems to have been made to confuse the minds of Christian believers concerning this whole question by advocating the modern notion that every revelation of the working of God’s power is a miracle. Those who are not willing to accept this philosophy have been represented as believing in “an absentee God” who had no direct connection with his universe, but left it to run itself. We are not compelled, however, to choose between these two alternatives. Neither one is in harmony with the truth.

All God’s works are wonderful. “Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done.” “O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!” But those revelations of his power which are designated in the Scriptures as “miracles” constitute a separate class of “wonderful works.” They were wrought and recorded for a special purpose. To attempt to break down this distinction is a long step toward that conception of God which, while it appears to bring him very near, in reality destroys any true idea of a personal God, banishes the God of the Bible from his rightful place upon the throne of the universe, and substitutes for him the god of modern philosophers—impersonal power.

As stating the truth concerning miracles in a clear manner, we commend to the attention of our readers the following extract from the writings of Archbishop Trench upon this subject. It is taken from his chapter on “The Miracles and Nature.” Written more than fifty years ago, it is free from the ideas of the “New Theology.” Dr. Trench says:—

The distinction indeed which is sometimes made, that in the miracle God is immediately working, and in other events is leaving it to the laws which he has established, to work, can not at all be admitted; for it has its root in a dead mechanical view of the universe which lies altogether remote from the truth. The clock-maker makes his clock and leaves it; the ship-builder builds and launches his ship, and others navigate it; but the world is no curious piece of mechanism which its Maker makes and then dismisses from his hands, only from time to time reviewing and repairing it; but as our Lord says, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work;” he upholdeth “all things by the word of his power.” And to speak of “laws of God,” “laws of nature,” may become to us a language altogether deceptive, and hiding the deeper reality from our eyes. Laws of God exist only for us. It is a will of God for himself. That will indeed, being the will of highest wisdom and love, excludes all wilfulness—is a will upon which we can securely count; from the past expressions of it we can presume its future, and so we rightfully call it a law. But still from moment to moment it is a will; each law, as we term it, of nature is only that which we have learned concerning this will in that particular region of its activity. To say, then, that there is more of the will of God in a miracle than in any other work of his, is insufficient. Such an affirmation grows out of that lifeless scheme of the world, of which we should ever be seeking to rid ourselves, but which such a theory will only help to confirm and to uphold.

For while we deny the conclusion, that since all is wonder, therefore the miracle commonly so called is in no other way than the ordinary processes of nature the manifestation of the presence and power of God, we must not with this deny the truth which lies in this statement. All is wonder; to make a man is at least as great a marvel as to raise a man from the dead. The seed that multiplies in the furrow is as marvelous as the bread that multiplied in Christ’s hands. The miracle is not a greater manifestation of God’s power than those ordinary and ever-repeated processes; but it is a different manifestation. By those other God is speaking at all times and to all the world; they are a vast revelation of him. “The invisible things of him . . . are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead.” Yet from the very circumstance that nature is thus speaking unto all, that this speaking is diffused over all time, addressed unto all men, from the very vastness and universality of this language, it may miss its aim. It can not be said to stand in nearer relation to one

man than to another, to confirm one man’s word more than that of others, to address one man’s conscience more than that of every other man. However, it may sometimes have, it must often lack, a peculiar and personal significance. But in the miracle wrought in the sight of some certain men, and claiming their special attention, there is a speaking to them in particular. There is then a voice in nature which addresses itself directly to them, a singling of them out from the crowd. It is plain that God has now a peculiar word which they are to give heed to, a message to which he is bidding them to listen. . . .

But while the miracle is not thus nature, so neither is it against nature. That language, however commonly in use, is yet wholly unsatisfactory, which speaks of these wonderful works of God as violations of a natural law. Beyond nature, beyond and above the nature which we know, they are, but not contrary to it. Nor let it be said that this distinction is an idle one; so far from being so, Spinoza’s whole assault upon the miracles (not his objections, for they lie much deeper, but his assault), turns upon the advantage which he has known how to take of this faulty statement of the truth, and, that being stated rightly, it becomes at once beside the mark. The miracle is not thus unnatural, nor can it be; since the unnatural, the contrary to order, is of itself the ungodly, and can in no way, therefore, be affirmed of a divine work such as that with which we have to do. The very idea of the world, as more than one name which it bears testifies, is that of an order; that which comes in, then, to enable it to realize this idea which it has lost, will scarcely itself be a disorder. So far from this, the true miracle is a higher and a purer nature, coming down out of the world of untroubled harmonies into this world of ours, which so many discords have jarred and disturbed, and bringing this back again, though it be but for one prophetic moment, into harmony with that higher. The healing of the sick can in no way be termed against nature, seeing that the sickness which was healed was against the true nature of man—that it is sickness which is abnormal, and not health. The healing is the restoration of the primitive order. We should term the miracle not the infraction of a law, but behold in it the lower law neutralized, and for the time put out of working by a higher; and of this abundant analogous examples are evermore going forward before our eyes. . . .

The miracles, then, not being against nature, however they may be beside and beyond it, are in no respect slights cast upon its ordinary and every-day workings; but rather, when contemplated aright, are an honoring of these, in the witness which they render to the source from which these also originally proceed. For Christ, healing a sick man with his word, is in fact claiming in this to be the lord and author of all the healing powers which have ever exerted their beneficent influence on the bodies of men, and saying, “I will prove this fact, which you are ever losing sight of, that in me the fontal power which goes forth in a thousand gradual cures resides, by this time only speaking a word, and bringing back a man unto perfect health;”—not thus cutting off those other and more gradual healings from his person, but truly linking them to it. So again when he multiplies the bread, when he changes the water into wine, what does he but say, “It is I and no other who, by the sunshine and the shower, by the seed-time and the harvest, give food for the use of man; and you shall learn this, which you are always in danger of unthankfully forgetting, by witnessing for once or for twice, or if not actually witnessing, yet having it rehearsed in your ears forever, how the essences of things are mine, how the bread grows in my hands, how the water, not drawn up into the vine, nor slowly transmuted into the juices of the grape, nor from thence expressed in the vat, but simply at my bidding, changes into wine”? . . .

And we can quite perceive how all this should have been necessary. For if in one sense the orderly workings of nature reveal the glory of God, in another they hide that glory from our eyes; if they ought to make us continually to remember him, yet there is danger that they lead us to forget him, until this world around us shall prove, not a translucent medium, through which we look to him, but a thick, impenetrable veil, concealing him wholly from our sight. Were there no other purpose in the miracles than this, namely, to testify the liberty of God, and to affirm the will of God, which, however it habitually shows itself in nature, is yet more than and above nature, were it only to break a link in that chain of cause and effect, which else we should come to regard as itself God, as the iron chain of an inexorable necessity, binding heaven no less than earth, they would serve a great purpose, they would not have been wrought in vain.

Editorial

By Editor

Explanations

WHEN Saul was reproved by the prophet Samuel for disobeying the counsel of the Lord, he made his course perfectly clear by an explanation. He had obeyed the command of the Lord, but certain circumstances over which he had no control had given to his conduct the appearance of disobedience. This was, perhaps, unfortunate, but it could all be satisfactorily adjusted if Samuel would only be willing to accept an explanation in lieu of obedience. The apparent evidences of disobedience were due to the course of the people with whom Saul was associated, rather than to any failure on his part to heed the voice of the Lord. Saul’s ability to make such an explanation as would shift the responsibility for taking a course to gratify his own ambition upon those who were the mere tools of that ambition has not perished from the earth.

No Turning Back

By William Ambrose Spicer

THE reports from the mission fields have not much to say of the difficulties. However these abound, the grace of God for courage still more abounds. There is no thought of turning back, among the workers. Now and then a laborer may have to fall back for a new hold on life. But the Mission Board correspondence shows that the greater the difficulties encountered, the deeper the needs of the fields take root in the heart of the worker.

While at 'home the believers are praying and sacrificing for missions, depend upon it, the laborers in the fields are enduring hardness as good soldiers. We are all one family in the faith of this third angel's message, and it is not out of place to allow now and then a glimpse of correspondence not intended for publication, but which speaks from the heart the spirit that holds the missionaries to the line of outpost service in spite of difficulties.

Last season was a particularly trying one in the fever districts of Central America and the West Indies. In the latter field, Elder Sweany, for one, had a serious struggle for several months with the fever. He writes us that he has apparently won the victory over it, and adds this declaration of undaunted missionary faith:—

I believe with all my heart that if a band of men, whose hearts God has touched, will report for service anywhere, at any thing, to do and dare, live or die, for the advancement of this cause, it will speedily be finished, and then we can all go to our eternal home to stay. The evidence that God wanted us to come to the West Indies was as clear and satisfactory to us as if we had heard his audible command, and the devil and death can not scare or drive us from this place, until the Lord, in some way, as plainly orders us elsewhere. We were equally clear in going to Trinidad, and also in coming here to Grenada. We have seen trouble and difficulty everywhere, especially here, but our courage has never wavered, and our fondest hope is that we may stay at the front till the battle is over.

Our minds never turn to more favored fields or pleasant places; but we do often, often think and plan and pray for the unconquered countries, with a willingness and longing to help answer our prayers. For many fields we know we are not fit, and are not very well equipped for any place, but 'there's surely somewhere a lowly place in earth's harvest-field so wide, where we may labor, through life's short day, for Jesus the crucified.'

Our hearts leap for joy as we note the advancement of the message in all the earth. We rejoice most of all, in the rapidly increasing instances of the direct providence of God in fields we have not yet reached. It will henceforth keep us busy to follow the advancing providence of God, as it sweeps through the waiting nations.

Another letter comes from Dr. Hetherington, who was compelled to retire from Central America, on account of his wife's health. He writes from Arizona:—

Now, I have been planning to make a special donation to the Mission Board, but the more I thought over the matter, the more I felt that it would be a blessed privilege to pay back to the Board an amount equal to what they had to expend to place me in the foreign field in the first place. I feel impressed to do this now, for I am confident that the Board would be able to place one (possibly two) more workers in the field if they had this amount. So instead of making a special donation this year, I want to ask the privilege of paying this sum to the Board (about four hundred dollars), as I am able.

It makes me happy to plan this, and I trust it will meet with your approval. The Lord is good in giving me health and strength and the ability to make my work self-supporting, and I am willing to trust him.

My heart is still turned toward Central America. If the Lord is willing, we hope to return to that field next spring. My wife is steadily building up in health, and we are trusting God for the rest.

So through all the needy fields the laborers are working, and enduring, and planning to devise ways and means to hasten the message on. Personal contact

with unwarned millions presses the burden of the work heavily upon their hearts. We must stand by them in sending forward the means and men with which to work. W. A. S.

Church Union in Canada

By L. A. S.

WHAT is to be known as the “United Church of Canada” is now in process of formation in that country, the component elements being the Methodist, Presbyterian, and Congregational Churches of Canada. It is proposed to unite these churches into one on the basis of a common creed and system of government. Representatives of these three bodies have been in conference on the subject, and the result of their deliberations is an expressed belief that no insuperable obstacles exist to such a union. A “tentative plan of union” has been formed, which will be submitted to the Methodist General Conference, the Presbyterian General Assembly, and the Congregational Union for further action, and it is believed will be submitted to the general membership of these bodies for ratification.

The movement has, naturally, attracted much attention in Canada and in the United States. The report of the joint committee of the three churches is hailed by the Toronto Globe as being “the most remarkable ecclesiastical document issued in Protestant Christendom since the Reformation.”

The doctrinal basis of the proposed union is a formulated creed, which in the view of some religious journals sacrifices essential tenets of Christian belief. Thus the Southern Presbyterian (Atlanta, Ga.) says of it:—

‘So far as we have caught its meaning, it omits plenary inspiration, leaves out all the virility of foreordination, ignores the representative covenant with Adam, omits particular election and particular redemption, and the preservation of the saints.

Its ecclesiastical paragraphs fail to distinctly exclude transubstantiation or consubstantiation. They speak not a word as to mode of baptism, leaving full room for the introduction of immersion. It provides for church government by “officers,” but says nothing about ruling elders, so far as we can see, and nothing about deacons.

Another Presbyterian journal remarks that the proposed union “may lose in intention what it gains in extension.”

There can be no real Christian union which involves the sacrifice of truth. Doctrinally, the only basis of Christian union is that of faith in every word of God. There can be no such thing as compromise over points of belief. “The whole Bible” is the creed of the Christian. This is the creed of true Protestantism, and anything less than this is a compromise with the papacy. The faith is all-important. “I have kept the faith,” said Paul as he summed up his life record. He had separated from the Jews, he had lost his membership and standing with them, he had withdrawn from the church of numbers and wealth, but he had kept the faith. And in the last days, when many shall depart from God, the special care of the Christian must be to “contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” Real Christian union comes from rallying around the standard of this faith.

The three churches concerned in this contemplated union have a combined membership in Canada of 1,786,676, which is nearly one third of the whole population of that country.

L. A. S.

Confidence

BACK of legal provisions and formal declarations concerning the administration of a trust there must be confidence in those who carry the responsibilities in any enterprise, or there will always be uncertainty as to results. Selfishness and ambition are not easily controlled by statute. The perversion of a trust into a means of self-exaltation is a difficult thing to prevent or to punish by law.

A writer in one of the current magazines has set forth clearly the relation between confidence and success in business ventures. He says:—

The principal factor in corporation success is the confidence of that part of the public known as investors and capitalists, and confidence stands for credit, prestige, good-will. The chief cause of failure is the lack of this confidence. With confidence the securities of a given project will enjoy the high regard of investors and capitalists though they pay but four per cent, whereas other securities based on the same project, lacking that confidence, will be spurned though returning twelve per cent. . . . Let me illustrate: A certain man in a village who has won the reputation of having a word as good as his bond, offers for sale ninety shares in a grist-mill project at one hundred dollars a share, nine thousand dollars in all. His friends know the property is earning eighteen per cent on the three thousand dollars it cost him, but he proposes to rebuild the mill with the additional six thousand dollars, and frankly tells them that they must temporarily be content with six per cent on their investment. They are glad to come in because they know the amount they contribute will be honestly expended on the property, and because their money will be secure. On the other hand, a man in the same village, offering a similar project but lacking his rival's reputation, finds it difficult to persuade his neighbors to buy ninety shares at thirty-three dollars a share, even though he offers an iron-bound guarantee that he will each year return dividends of eighteen per cent. The prospect of a six-per-cent return with safety looks better to an investor than eighteen-per-cent interest on a 'perhaps.'

The same principle applies in the conduct of a public institution. When its supporters lose confidence in the management, it is of little use to appeal to the legal provisions for their protection as evidence of good faith. There are some people who prefer to spend their money and energies in directions where they will not be constantly invited or driven to the courts to secure the rights which a wise management would grant unasked. In these days of betrayal of trust on every hand, it becomes those who desire to retain the confidence either of persons or of a denomination to think twice before they use the language or assume the attitude of those who appear to regard lightly the feelings or the interests of those whom they are supposed to represent. Confidence once ruthlessly destroyed is not easily restored.

The Difference

By L. A. S.

In a recent issue of the Catholic Mirror a Roman Catholic writer defines the gospel as being an “inspired record of a portion of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of mankind,” and says that on the significance of the words, “a portion of the life and teachings,” hangs the whole rule of Christian faith. The statement follows that “the Protestant doctrine . . . is that the Sacred Scriptures contain the entire revelation of faith and morals for the guidance of mankind. In regard to the subjective element [the interpretation of doctrines defining what must be believed and done in order to be saved], they say that the interpreter of this body of doctrine is the individual reason. Certainly that principle can not be right which results in so many conflicting opinions. In regard to the text, ‘This is my body,’ there are in vogue over one hundred different explanations, which shows how the individual mind may wander when it is a question of interpreting a plain statement. Now the Catholic Church teaches that the Sacred Scriptures are a divine revelation of the life and teachings of Christ, but not a complete one, and that the interpreter, the one interpreter of this revelation, is the Catholic Church.”

True Protestantism always appeals to the Scripture, and on this point the plain statement of inspiration is that the Holy Spirit is the Guide into all truth. The Holy Spirit, and not “individual reason,” is for Protestants the interpreter of Bible doctrine. For Roman Catholics, on the other hand, the church is the “one interpreter” of divine revelation. But divine revelation explained and interpreted by a human agent loses both its divinity and its character as a revelation. A human explanation and interpretation of God’s Word, though the Word itself is divine and infallible, is but the product of a finite mind. “The individual reason”

has much more to do with papal doctrine than with that of Protestantism. The rule of Protestantism, indeed, expressly excludes it.

It is true that many people holding divergent views of Christian doctrine class themselves as Protestants, but this does not vitiate the Protestant rule that the Word of God, as interpreted by the Holy Spirit to each individual believer, is the true foundation of Christian faith.

It is a choice between the Word of God and the traditions of men; between the Holy Spirit as the interpreter of the Scripture, and the church as the interpreter. It is, therefore, a choice between the divine and the human, as the basis of our hope of salvation. Protestantism chooses to base its hope on that which is wholly divine. L. A. S.

Continue reading: A Statement of Facts Concerning Our Present Situation