1 I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing. 4 Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 5 doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not account of evil; 6 rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth; 7 beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. 8 Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall be done away; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall be done away. 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; 10 but when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away. 11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child: now that I am become a man, I have put away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know fully even as also I was fully known. 13 But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
EARLY IN NOVEMBER WE WILL ISSUE A SPECIAL EDITION OF
The Signs of the Times
ON THE SUBJECT OF CAPITAL AND LABOR
24 Pages including Cover
Beautifully Illustrated
LABOR UNION PARADE, CHICAGO, SEPTEMBER 7, 1903.
The Whole Question Will be Treated in a Fair and Impartial Manner in this Special Issue
A Live Question
OF INTEREST TO ALL
The relation of Capital and Labor is acknowledged to be one of the most perplexing problems of the Twentieth Century
Never before in the history of our world was there so much agitation over the subject as now
Never before were the laboring classes so well and so thoroughly organized as now
Never before were there such gigantic combinations of capital and moneyed interests as now
Never before was there so much discontent among the laboring classes as now
Never before was there such a large and general demonstration by laboring men all over this country as on Sept. 7, 1903
What Do These Things Mean?
Some of the Subjects
TO BE CONSIDERED
1 The Fundamental Differences between Capital and Labor. What is necessary in order to a permanent settlement and peace.
Capital’s Side—Some representative of Capital
Labor’s Side—Some Representative of Labor
2 Individualism—The Human Unit
3 Christian Union versus Trade Union
4 The Great Strife for Power
5 The Oppression of Wealth
6 Dangers and Warnings
7 How Came this Great Conflict?
8 Utterances from Eminent Men
9 Statistical and Biographical Data
What Will be the Final Outcome?
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Address SIGNS OF THE TIMES
OAKLAND, CAL.
Our Present Duty
By Editor
Editorial
Our Present Duty
WE are now called upon to be laborers together with God in a most earnest and practical way. The closing message of salvation through the merits of a crucified Redeemer is to reach every home in every land, and is to be carried even to the homeless ones. Every one of us has an appointed part to act in union with every other believer. Our literature is to be placed in the hands of all the people. The Lord's treasury is to be supplied with needed funds. Workers are to go to unentered fields. A great work is to be done, and it is the duty of every one to act his part. Let us unite heartily in doing our present duty.
Fruitless Branches
FRUIT bearing is the essential condition upon which life is continued to any branch. “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away.” “He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: . . . if a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.” Life is too precious a thing to be wasted in a mere existence. The life which is given out in fruit bearing is preserved in the lives of others, and he who thus loses it will save it unto life eternal. And since the harvest time is now at hand, the difference is being plainly revealed between the fruitful and the fruitless branches. The Master is now looking for fruit. He is hungry for fruit. We shall disappoint him and seal our own condemnation unless we bear fruit to his glory. “Every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.” Is your life without fruit to God? Tremble at the fate of the fruitless branch. Even at this eleventh hour there is now opportunity for a transformation. Do not delay. Become joined in vital union with the true Vine, and let the heavenly life have free course. Soon the harvest will be past, and the summer will be ended. The fruitless branch will soon be taken away. Its end is to be burned. Be fruitful.
We Are Able
IN the face of the evil report which the ten spies had made concerning the land of Canaan, Caleb said, “Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.” To this courageous exhortation the overwhelming majority replied, “We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.” Then Caleb declared the ground of his confidence: “Rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defense is departed from them, and the Lord is with us: fear them not.” The whole question of success or failure turns upon our relation to the Lord. We are nothing without him, and we can do nothing without him. But when he is with us, we can do all that is included in his purpose for us. His instruction to do a thing has in it the enabling power for doing that very thing, however difficult it may seem to us. When we are under his leadership and are obeying his commands, our belief that he is able will make us able. Discouragement comes when we leave the Lord out of our reckoning, and base our hope of success upon our own ability to meet the difficulties. We need to be often reminded of these principles, and to apply them in our present work. The Lord has called upon us to go up and possess the land in this generation, and over and over again he has promised to supply all our need in meeting the difficulties, which are many and real. We are able to do this work in this brief time because the Lord is with us, and he is able. Let our faith make this real to us. Our murmuring and our unbelief have long hindered the advancement of this message, and it is time for all this to cease. “Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.” The Lord's call is, “Go forward,” and we are able.
The Outlook
THERE has been no time in recent years when the outlook for the speedy triumph of this message has been so hopeful as it is just now. It is true that we face serious difficulties, but it is plain to those who have eyes to see it that the Lord is putting his hand to the work with the purpose to remove the hindrances, and to reveal his power in behalf of his truth and his people. We have believed from the living Word that “there shall be delay no longer,” and now we are beginning to see it. The professed adherents to this movement who have really been standing in opposition to the counsel and the plain providences of God will either be converted or set aside. The many solemn messages of fearful warning and of blessed comfort which have come to us in the recent weeks through the spirit of prophecy indicate that the Lord has a controversy with his people which must be settled at once, and that he plans to lead a company of loyal, obedient soldiers of the cross to the final conflict and victory in our day. In view of this we take courage. We have not hoped and prayed and believed in vain. “We have not followed cunningly devised fables.” Our feet are upon the solid foundation of the truth of God. This advent movement did not originate with men, neither has it been developed through human leadership, and men will not be able to overthrow it. It is a part of the eternal purpose of God as set forth in the scriptures of the prophets, and this third angel's message will do the work of preparing the way of the Lord. To faith's eye the outlook is most encouraging. Let no one be discouraged now, when the glory of the coming day can already be seen. “Be strong and of a good courage.”
Courage to Resist Evil
“If Daniel had not been courageous to resist “the king’s dainties and the wine which he drank,” he never would have been the leader of Babylon’s wise men. Resistance of evil is only another name for persistence in good.”
Brief Outline of the Sabbath Question
By William Ambrose Spicer
In Four Parts
No. 1—Jesus a Sabbath-Keeper
CHRISTIANITY is the life of Jesus Christ in his followers. Christ, the divine Son of God, lived as the Son of man in this world to show how man ought to live, “leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps.” 1 Peter 2:21.
“He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.” 1 John 2:6. Jesus was a commandment-keeper, and a Sabbath-keeper. Christians ought to walk even as he walked.
He now dwells with the believer and walks with him, and Jesus Christ is “the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.” Heb. 13:8. Therefore the person who allows Jesus to live in him and walk in him in Christ’s own way, will be, like Christ, a Sabbath-keeper. And therefore Seventh-day Adventists, who desire to follow Christ, keep his holy Sabbath day.
Jesus says that he kept his Father’s commandments, and he commended all who should “do and teach them.” Matt. 5:17-19. His gospel, through faith, saves men from sin, which is “the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4), and makes them obedient. Jesus came not to save men in sin, but from sin. Matt. 1:21. Sabbath-breaking is sin, and Jesus saves the believer from it, and makes him a Sabbath-keeper.
Not Salvation by Works
It is not that any are saved by keeping the ten commandments; they are saved from sin, through faith in Jesus, in order that they may keep God’s holy law, which is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Rom. 8:4. But the man truly saved will be obedient to God’s law. Only the “carnal mind” is “not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Rom. 8:7.
So the very promise of the new covenant is that God will write his law in the heart and in the mind. Heb. 8:10. When it is so written, it will be lived in the life, for out of the heart are “the issues of life.” Jesus had the law in his heart. Ps. 40:8. Therefore he lived obedient to it. Every heart that by faith lets Jesus in will have also the power of obedience, as Jesus had it, and still has it.
Freedom to Obey or Disobey
Some seem to think Jesus came to set men free from obeying God’s law. But he came to set us free from disobeying it, so that we may through his indwelling power keep it now and evermore. Breaking it is bondage, condemnation. Keeping it is liberty. Ps. 119:45.
Who walks the streets free from the civil law against stealing? The man who keeps the law? or the man who breaks it? The man who steals is under the law at once. Just so the man who through faith keeps God’s law, is free from the condemnation of the law. But the man who breaks God’s law is under its condemnation at once.
Who is “under the law”? — The one who breaks it. Who is “under grace”? — The one who accepts the grace of Christ that brings pardon and the power of obedience; for grace reigns “through righteousness,” or right doing.
This modern preaching of freedom to disobey is but making a religion of lawlessness. It will yet, according to the Word of God, fill the earth with violence and lawlessness as in the days of Noah.
When we teach people to follow Jesus in Sabbath-keeping, some, we find, feel very hardly toward this teaching. But surely it is not a bad thing to teach that we should live as Jesus lived, and walk as he walked! Jesus did nothing bad.
It is surely safe also to take the Scriptures as the authority in religion, for they only are able to make the man of God “perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” 2 Tim. 3:16, 17.
This great advent movement for which Seventh-day Adventists stand is but a call to the world to follow now in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, so that, when he shall come the second time, all who believe may follow the Saviour in eternity.
W. A. S.
The Message for This Time
(Concluded)
THE message for this generation is designed to detect and to expose the very perversion of gospel truth which Satan has prepared as a snare for this generation. Can we believe that, having made the sacrifice of himself in the person of his Son, and having endured for these centuries the burden of sin in the earth, our God will permit his salvation, his gospel, to be covered, hidden, perverted, misinterpreted to the world in this closing generation, and not let a great light shine upon it which will reveal the difference between the true and the false? I tell you Nay.
If the threefold message in Revelation 14 is the preparation for the coming of the Son of man on the white cloud, just according to the setting given to it, it is the revelation of truth to the world that will make that Son of man stand out in his true character before the world before he appears on the white cloud, that every cloud of darkness, misinterpretation, and deceit may be removed from him, and that the people may see the Son of man without clouds between them and him, before they see him coming on the cloud. That is the purpose of this message. This message, preached at this time as God would have it preached, will do that work. And if it is not doing that work under our ministry, it is our fault, and not the fault of the message.
Now note further in this setting of this message. This message in its beginning and its ending is built upon the very same idea that the prophecy of 2 Thessalonians, the second chapter, is built upon. That is, if the prophecy of 2 Thessalonians, second chapter, had been given to a people who had never heard of the salvation of God as set forth in the sanctuary and its services, that prophecy would not have been a light to them. Note that with clearness. I say again that if the prophecy of 2 Thessalonians 2 had been given to a people who had not been taught, and had not become personally acquainted with, the true salvation of God, as taught and set forth and ministered in the sanctuary and its services, that prophecy could not have been understood; but when to a people who knew God as their salvation, from the ministry that he himself had provided, there was read that prophecy which said, There shall arise one who will exalt himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he as God will take his place in the temple of God, and set himself forth as God, they knew what it meant; they knew that there would be such a perversion of the gospel of Christ as set forth in the sanctuary and its services, as would leave it simply the gospel of man, and not the gospel of God at all. And in the gospel of man there is no salvation. God is our salvation.
The prophecy of Revelation 14 is built upon the same basis. To one who knows the truth of God as set forth in the sanctuary and its services, the prophecy stands out with clearness. It fits into the prophecies from the same source which have gone before. It fits in exactly with that prophecy given so many centuries ago, “Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.”
And this movement in this generation to preach the gospel of the kingdom anew in the way that the true idea and the true conception of God shall be made plain to the world as salvation, not as abstraction, but as personality, for a personal experience in the flesh,—this movement is not a thing apart from God’s other providences, or apart from the other experiences in this gospel work. This movement fits into every teaching and Scripture interpretation of the past in such a way as to make one undivided whole of it. The past would be incomplete without the present; the present would be incomplete without the past. Present and past are joined together in this message. The third angel’s message throws light upon the past; it gives us5understanding of the present; it throws light upon the future.
Now note how this is done in this scripture, in the fourteenth chapter of Revelation. First, “The hour of his judgment is come.” That is the first foundation stone, as it were. The everlasting gospel is to be proclaimed now with a great voice, “for the hour of his judgment is come.” And every one who was familiar with the great day of atonement in the sanctuary service, would know where that scripture applied; and through the prophecies he could fix the time. That of course brings in not simply the element of time, but the work for the time. It is not simply that the hour of his judgment is come, but his judgment is come. So that it is not simply to demonstrate that we have reached the time, but the message here involves the work also for that time. “The hour of his judgment is come,” which means that to the people of this generation must be made plain anew the whole teaching of the sanctuary and its services; which means that this truth, so familiar in the olden time, this truth which was like a great object lesson before the minds of young and old, familiar to them in every detail, but which by this perversion of the gospel had been set aside, and a new temple introduced, a new leader, a new sacrifice, a new service, a new priesthood, and no salvation,—it means that all that is to be brushed aside in this generation, and the old truth is to come forward in its vividness and saving power, the truth of salvation through faith in Christ, our sacrifice, our substitute, our surety, our great high priest, our God in the flesh. That, then, is as it were the foundation stone of this message in this day.
Now note again: just at the close, and as the result of this message, we have this statement, in the twelfth verse,—and this is after the most terrible warning given against the false worship,—“Here is the patience of the saints, they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” These expressions, when they are seen in the right light, will make clear where this issue centers; because the purpose of God in revealing himself as salvation in the person of his Son, the purpose of God in giving his Son to be our sacrifice, our substitute, our surety, the purpose of the whole ministry of the sanctuary in its reality, is not an abstract purpose, but a very definite and real purpose; namely, that, as the result, there should be developed those in this world, in the flesh, who should be the perfect revelation of what God had in mind in the creation of man in the first place. That is to say, that creative power and that wonderful glory which were revealed in the creation of the world through his Son at the beginning, are to be revealed anew in the re-creation through his Son in the flesh and the sanctuary ministry. And the sanctuary ministry is the channel of re-creation by which that law which was written upon the hearts of men in the first creation shall be written anew in the new creation.
So we read in the sixty-third Psalm, “To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.” And one who does not see, and who does not receive from the ministry of the sanctuary, creative power and divine glory, has not become acquainted with God in his personality as salvation. This makes it clear that the center of the controversy, as of old, is concerning the law of God, the commandments of God.
And the purpose of this perversion is plainly set forth in the very name that is given to the one who leads in the perversion, as stated in the second chapter of 2 Thessalonians, and that is, “the lawless one.” The lawless one works in the mystery of iniquity, and the purpose of it all is so to pervert the true idea and conception of God as salvation in Christ through the ministry which he has provided, that, instead of having the law of God as God knows it, as he himself has interpreted it to us in the person of his Son,—instead of having that law written upon the heart, that law shall be set aside, and at best the human idea of the law shall be written in the heart, which means no salvation.
Now the closing words of this message, or the verse which describes the result of this work in this generation, is, “Here is the patience of the saints: they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” It may not be quite so clear to your minds at the first that this statement involves the whole question of the sanctuary, just as does the first one; and you may not have seen with clearness that this threefold message is flanked on either side by the sanctuary question. But note the prophecy of the eighth chapter of Daniel, which sets forth the work of the same power mentioned in the second chapter of 2 Thessalonians. It is said that there shall a power arise that shall exalt himself against the Prince of princes; that he shall cast down truth to the ground; that he shall take away what is called “the daily sacrifice,” or, as it is translated in the Revised Version “the continual burnt offering.” In both of these cases supplied words turn aside the thought; because the word “sacrifice” and the words “burnt offering,” the supplied words, do not express the real thought of the prophecy. He shall take away the continual—burnt offering, says the text. He shall take away the continuance. Salvation is a question of continuance. Sin is a question of non-continuance. “The wages of sin is death.” “The gift of God is eternal life.” This gift of God comes to us through the gift of his Son, ministered to us through the sanctuary service.
If you can so pervert the sanctuary truth that that one thing is left out, you may keep all the rest, and no salvation is ministered. Salvation is a question of continuance. Without salvation from sin no one will continue. If you take out of the ministry of the sanctuary that principle,—not that thought, but that vital principle which means eternal life,—you have destroyed the sanctuary service as the ministry of God’s salvation to man. That principle of continuance was brought to the flesh in the person of Jesus Christ, himself taking the flesh, and becoming in his own person the high priest, and ministering in himself his own presence, his own personality in the Holy Spirit. Leave out that connection with heaven, and you leave out salvation. Put your leader on the earth, put your temple on the earth, put your priest on the earth, and you have taken away the one thing in the sanctuary ministry which means salvation. It was prophesied by the prophet Daniel that this should be taken away; it has been taken away. It is the purpose of this message to restore in the sanctuary and its services, to restore in the church, and to the church, that which has been taken away. And when that is restored,—and it can be restored only through the restoration of the true sanctuary idea and the true conception of God as salvation through that ministry,—when that is restored, the work is done. When that is restored to the world through the church, that is the thing that accomplishes the work in this generation. That is restored by giving to Christ his own place, and to God in Christ as interpreted to the world in Christ, his true place in the gospel of salvation; and giving to man as man his true place: one in the dust, and the other on the throne.
When this work is accomplished, it will be said, just as in the words of this prophecy, “Here is the patience of the saints,” or as the marginal reading of the American Standard Version gives it, “Here is the steadfastness of the saints.” The very word used here and translated “patience” or “steadfastness” is the word that is used in the second chapter of the epistle to the Romans, eighth verse, where it speaks of those who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory, honor, and immortality; and this expression “patient continuance” was simply the effort of the translators to give the meaning of this same Greek word in that connection. Now we have the whole thing here under this message, and as the result, the restoration of the truth that God is salvation, the giving to Christ his true place, and to the Word of God its true place; in other words, the simple, plain ministry of the gospel6as Christ himself taught it in the earth, taught now for this generation through the sanctuary and its services. There will be restored to the church as their salvation that presence and power of the continual One that will give them victory over all the power of the enemy, and bring them safely into the eternal kingdom.
That is the work of this message. That can only be done through the right gospel teaching of the sanctuary and its services. And in the prophecy, and in this threefold message which God has given to us as the basis of our work, this is set forth; and I say to you that there can never be a giving of this threefold message to the world in a way to accomplish God’s purpose for the world in this time, except it be given in the setting of the sanctuary and its services. To ignore that question in the true light of the Scripture now, or to pervert that question from the true light of the Scripture now, means to pervert this message. In view of this, it seems very evident to me that it is the duty of this whole people—and if we can emphasize at all, it is doubly the duty of the ministry of this people—to present the true gospel of God through the sanctuary and its services as set forth in the Scripture, because, bound up in that truth, set forth in that way, will be the whole truth of a complete gospel of salvation.
“Behold, God is my salvation.” “Behold your God!” “Behold, the Lord God will come.” “Behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.” “Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!” “Behold, I come quickly.”
Not Men, but Principles
By L. A. S.
We can not judge correctly of the merits of any cause merely by looking at the men who may be connected with it. Good men are often connected with a bad cause, and a good cause often has bad men among its adherents. To make comparisons between men as a means of discerning between right and wrong, is totally misleading. We must look not at the men who may be connected with any cause, but at the principles which it represents. All men are sinful and erring, and there is no cause which may not be discredited if it is to be judged by the characters or by the mistakes of some of its adherents.
Men change, but principles remain ever the same. A good principle is good always, and will never lead any person in the wrong path. An evil principle, likewise, is evil always, and can never do else but bring its adherents to grief, sooner or later, no matter how good or how great men may be its champions.
When a controversy arises in the Christian church, the thing of chief importance is not the reconciliation of the opposing parties, however desirable this in itself may be. There is something more essential than this, and that is the maintenance of the principles of righteousness. But in order to see this, and do it, we must get at the principles which are involved in the controversy, and not merely compare the opposing parties with each other. We must look beneath the surface, disregarding mere appearances, and discover the foundation principles which are staked upon the issue.
When Luther and his associates raised a protest against the practices of Rome, there were many who saw in it only a church quarrel, which called merely for some action that would reconcile the opposing factions. But it was vastly more than a controversy between men; it was a contest between principles. Judged by some of the men who contended for it, the cause of Rome was a good cause, and Luther and the Reformers made a mistake in persisting in their opposition to it, thereby causing a permanent division in the Christian church. And for a like reason many regard it as a great mistake for people to separate from the Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, and other churches adhered to by many good and eminent men, and which are doing much philanthropic and Christian work, to constitute a new sect known as Seventh-day Adventists. But a principle is involved which justifies all the sacrifice that can be required to uphold it—the Protestant and Christian principle of obedience to the Word of God as constituting the sole rule of Christian conduct, in opposition to human traditions and the mandates of men.
At all hazards, and at whatever cost, this principle must be maintained in the Christian church. Only by its maintenance can the cause of God move forward in the earth. No unity or peace which is gained at the sacrifice of this principle amounts to anything for Christian purposes. God's way, God's word, and not man's, must be followed. We are never safe when we follow men, but only when we know and follow the voice of the good Shepherd. Let us make no comparisons between finite, erring men, but only between the principles for which men stand; and when we have found the underlying principles involved in any issue which may arise, let us choose the right, and stick to it. L. A. S.
