Review and Herald, Vol. 88, No. 26.
— Marie Conway Oemler, in the New York IndependentPage 1
Earlier text: — Marie Conway Oemler, in the New York IndependentCHARLES P. WHITFORD
By Charles P. Whitford
A GENTLEMAN who attends the Methodist church, and who seems to be a very zealous gospel worker, said to me, the other day: “The greatest fault I find with the Adventist people is that they talk continually about the Sabbath question.” To this remark I made no reply. After a moment’s silence, he continued: “I believe the all-important thing to do is to get salvation. What we need is the blessing of sanctification and the Holy Spirit; then if our conscience tells us to keep the Sabbath, why, let us keep it.” It truly is all-important to get salvation; but what is salvation? Webster says it is “redemption of man from sin, and from liability to eternal death.” According to this definition, the individual who has obtained salvation has obtained freedom from sin. But what is sin? Let the Bible answer: “Sin is the transgression of the law.” 1 John 3:4. Since salvation is the “redemption of man from sin,” and since “sin is the transgression of the law,” what relation does one who has obtained salvation sustain to the law?—Surely he must be living in harmony with its requirements. We hear a great deal to-day about getting salvation, and about being sanctified and holy; but we do not hear very much about the law of God, which points out sin. We do not hear very much about that law of which Paul spoke when he said: “By the law is the knowledge of sin,” and again, “I had not known sin, but by the law.” There are many people who claim freedom from sin who are every week violating the commandment which says, “The seventh day is the Sabbath.” Seventh-day Adventists do not believe that all who do not keep the Sabbath will be lost. On the contrary, they believe there are many excellent Christians in all the churches. They believe, as stated in 1 John 1:7, that “if we walk in the light, . . . we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” Let us each ask ourselves: Am I walking in all the light and truth that God in his love and mercy has permitted to shine upon my pathway? If we are, “the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” There are many conscientious persons whose attention has never been called to the prophecy concerning a Sabbath reformation in the last days. They are walking in all the light they have seen, and are enjoying the favor of God and the blessing of the forgiveness of sins. But “light is sown for the righteous” (Ps. 97:11), and “the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” Prov. 4:18. When honest, God-fearing men and women are shown additional light and truth, they thank God for it, and allow their lives to be shaped into harmony with it. But when individuals stubbornly refuse to study the Word of God in reference to the Sabbath question or any other question, when they deliberately close their eyes and ears to the light, we can not understand how the blood of Christ could avail in cleansing them from sin. If we are sanctified, it must be because we love truth, and obey it. Jesus prayed for his disciples: “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy Word is truth.” I do not read anywhere in the Bible that we are to be guided in our religious faith and practise by the voice of conscience. On the contrary, the Lord says: “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Isa. 8:20. Again, in 2 Tim. 2:7, we read: “Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.” In 2 Tim. 3:15 Paul, writing to Timothy, says: “From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” And finally, in verses 16, 17, he says that the Scriptures are able thoroughly to furnish the man of God unto all good works. In all these scriptures our minds are directed to the Word of God as a guide in matters pertaining to our duty toward God. In Acts 20:32 Paul says: “And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.” If the Word of God is able to do so much for us, then in all candor I ask: When the question is raised as to which day we shall keep for the Sabbath, shall we allow so important a question to be settled by our conscience? or shall it be settled by the Word of God? When we are seeking the blessing of salvation from sin, shall we allow conscience to tell us what sin is, or shall we allow the Lord to tell us? In all matters that pertain to our duty to God, we should study the Bible to learn what his will is concerning us. We know nothing concerning our duty to him except as it has been made known to us through his Word. This is what God gave us the Bible for. It is a revelation of God’s will to man. It reveals to us the great plan of salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord. When our conscience has been enlightened by the Word of God, then, if it has not been seared as with a hot iron by oft and continued transgression of that Word, it will be quick to reprove us when we knowingly violate a single principle of God’s holy law. When we read the fourth commandment, which says, “The seventh day is [not was] the Sabbath: . . . in it thou shalt not do any work,” true loyalty to God would lead us to say, “Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight.” Ps. 119:35. “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.” I John 5:3. To such as are true to the government of heaven the blessed promise is recorded: “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” Rev. 22:14. May reader and writer have abundant entrance therein! Thanksgiving in Every Circumstance
To the Christian every day should be one of thanksgiving. Few indeed are the days when one may not put his finger upon some blessing, some cause for thankfulness. Even in the midst of trouble and anxiety there is some rift of light which separates the dark cloud, and gives cheer and hope to the heart. If we are sincere Christians, we can not doubt God's love for us, and that whatever befalls us is permitted by him for some wise purpose. When the shadows fall heavily, we may be tempted to wonder if God cares; but if we trust him, the time will surely come when we shall feel true gratitude for the frowning providence which seemed to surround us.
— Christian Work and Evangelist. To a Wife
By Strickland W. Gillilan
WE have had our little sorrows,
We have known our little pain;
We have had our dark to-morrows,
Had our sunshine after rain; But the worst of all our losses,
Loyal comrade of my heart,
We have found the little crosses
That we tried to bear apart! Care we jointly bore proved blessing,
Care each bore alone proved blight;
Till, with humbly frank confessing,
Each returned to each for light; Till we learned the law unfailing
That controls our happiness;
Prayers and tears are unavailing,
Prayed or shed in selfishness. Then, though bleak or blithe the weather,
Be the landscape gray or green,
Let us cling so close together
Not a care can creep between. — Strickland W. Gillilan. D. H. KRESS, M. D
By Daniel H. Kress
We have reached the time of year when ptomain-poisoning will be common. Already the papers are beginning to report cases. Among them is the following, which appeared in the Washington Post of May 23:— “PEABODY, KAN., May 22.—At a meeting of the Pleasant Hill Missionary Society at the home of a farmer living three miles north of here, twenty-six persons were poisoned from eating pressed chicken in which ptomain had developed. Two of them have since died, and the other twenty-four are now in a dangerous condition.” Last year over thirteen thousand cases of acute ptomain-poisoning were reported in the United States. About three thousand of these died within twenty-four hours after the poisoning occurred. Many who recovered never fully regained their health, and some will bear a burden of ill health for life. While acute ptomain-poisoning has slain its thousands, chronic ptomain poisoning has slain its tens of thousands. Yet very little is said in the newspapers concerning the latter. Not merely does it destroy its tens of thousands, but it disables millions yearly, unfitting them for work and the enjoyment of life. In acute ptomain-poisoning the foods eaten have already undergone decay, perhaps in the can, or after the opening of the can. Or the meat may not have been properly embalmed by the butcher, and so have undergone putrefactive changes before or after selling it. The fish may not have been kept on ice. The poisons developed by the putrefaction of meats of any kind are most deadly. When developed outside of the body, being soluble, they are rapidly absorbed from the mucous membrane of the mouth and alimentary tract in sufficient amounts to cause immediate serious and often fatal results. In chronic ptomain-poisoning the meats undergo putrefaction chiefly after they are eaten. The poisons are formed gradually, and are, therefore, not absorbed in sufficient quantities to cause immediate fatal or even serious results; but they do produce headaches, nervousness, insomnia, and a host of other disagreeable and unwelcome symptoms, which hinder men and women from engaging in active work, and which tend to make life miserable. The matter does not end here, however. The continuous absorption of these poisons, while it does not cause death within twenty-four hours, kills just as surely. They shorten life. It is a well-established scientific fact that most of the ills of humanity are due to what is termed autointoxication, or self-poisoning, and that the foods which are chiefly responsible for this condition are the highly albuminous foods, which readily undergo decay under favorable conditions. It is also recognized that the continuous absorption of this small amount of poison tends to bring about degenerative changes in all the tissues of the body, chiefly, however, the arteries, the heart, the kidneys, liver, brain, and other glands. It brings about premature old age, or a condition known as arteriosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries. Most of the deaths after the age of forty are due to these changes. During the past few years, deaths due to cancer, Bright’s disease, diabetes, heart failure, and apoplexy have been rapidly on the increase. Men apparently in robust health drop over suddenly on the streets, in their offices, or in their homes, and expire in a few moments. It is considered strange; but there is nothing strange about it. Death is due to chronic ptomain-poisoning. Insidiously, by the continuous irritation caused by these poisons, changes were taking place in the blood-vessels which destroyed their elasticity, and caused them to become hard and brittle. This change is usually most pronounced in the blood-vessels of the brain. The increased blood pressure resulting from this condition throws an extra burden on the heart and the blood-vessels. Some extra physical exertion or excitement is all that is needed to increase the blood pressure sufficiently to cause one of the thin-walled blood-vessels in the brain to rupture, or the heart to give out. We have suppressed, in a measure, contagious and infectious epidemic diseases, and have thereby greatly increased the average age of life. But while we are able to keep alive a greater number to the age of forty, there are fewer who live to the age of sixty than when the average age of life was much less than what it is to-day. Men are cut off suddenly at an age when they should be able to accomplish the greatest good, and to continue their usefulness for another half-century. While tobacco, alcohol, tea, and coffee—the four great poisoners of the human race—all tend to bring about these same degenerative changes in the arteries and glands of the body, the poisons formed in the alimentary tract by the free use of foods which readily decay are without doubt one of the chief causative factors of premature old age, and of the great increase in the number of deaths due to cancer, apoplexy, heart failure, Bright’s disease, and diabetes, diseases which to-day are responsible for most of the deaths. It is especially unwise to eat largely of flesh foods in warm weather,—first, because of their increased tendency to decay outside of the body, and second, because of the decrease in digestive juices, and the consequent increased tendency for them to decay within the body. In fact, it would be well to cut out altogether the flesh of animals as an article of food, especially during the summer months, and in its place to use fruits, grains, vegetables, etc. Those who subsist on such food seldom die of the diseases named. Of course they usually possess the good sense to abstain from the use of alcohol, tobacco, tea, and coffee. It is unsafe to use meats at any time, and especially is this the case during warm weather. While those who do use them may not be cut down suddenly from an overdose of poison, they are nevertheless surely being cut down from the effect of the smaller doses which are daily absorbed from the alimentary tract; but “because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” The number of diseases and the many premature deaths due to meat-eating are not appreciated as they should be. In the Way He Should Go
By C. G. Bellah
“Didn’t I tell you not to play around the flower-bed?” Howard had felt sure he could help his mother by trying to weed out the little bed of violets. But he obediently left this very interesting occupation, and his chubby hands sought the other amusement. Finding the hatchet that his Uncle Ned had given him, he began driving sticks into the ground, as the men drove supports for the grape-vines.9 Mrs. Norton, not hearing her little boy for some time, wondered what he was doing now. Slipping a pie quickly into the oven, she glanced out of the window. Seeing him, she exclaimed, with no little impatience in her voice: “Howard, don’t drive those stakes in the ground. You’ll spoil the lawn. Take them out this very minute.” Howard couldn’t understand, yet he did as his mother requested, wondering what he could do. If he might not play with anything in the yard, perhaps he would better go outside. After many vain efforts, he succeeded in raising the heavy latch on the front gate. Now what a good time he would have! But the little face changed painfully as Mrs. Norton came to the door, and said, in no uncertain tones: “Howard, if you don’t behave, I’ll have to punish you. Come inside immediately!” The little fellow again obeyed, as he nearly always did. What should he do? First he thought of going in where his mama was; then he remembered that she was very busy, and had sent him outdoors because she could not be bothered with him. Were little boys a bother? Doubtless he would be in the way. He couldn’t drive sticks, pull weeds, nor play outside. Finally he thought of his little wagon, but it was no fun at all unless it was loaded, and there was nothing inside,—O, if he might go outside just for a little while! What could he do to which his mother would not object? Climbing upon the high door-step, he sat down to think. How lonesome he was! It seemed a long, long time that he sat there. The chubby little fists just would go to his eyes. How he did want to do something, but it almost broke his heart to have his mother speak crossly to him. The longer he sat there, the less he seemed to be able to think of anything that she would not object to. Again Mrs. Norton, becoming uneasy, came to the door to see what mischief he might be in now. Her little boy’s tears greatly touched her heart; for she was a good mother, and really desired to be very kind to him. Drawing the quivering little body close to her, she said, tenderly, “What is the matter with my little man now?” Choking back the sobs as best he could, and looking appealingly into her face, he replied: “Mama — what — may — I — do?” It struck her heart like an arrow thrust. Why hadn’t she told him before what he might do, rather than what not to do? Right then she determined to plan amusement for Howard, that the pent-up energies of childhood might have opportunity for exercise. Holy Writ says: “Train up a child in the way he should go,” not, “out of the way he should not go.” Many parents place prohibitions on their children, but forget to suggest things that they may do. Too often it is, “Don’t do this,” and, “Don’t do that,” instead of, “You may do this,” and, “You may do that.” There is a vast difference between training a child in the way he should go, and training him out of the way he should not go. With every prohibition should go the privilege of engaging in some harmless diversion. May the blessed Saviour, who so often placed his hands on the heads of the children, help us to train up the lambs of the flock in the way they should go. What Your Mother Felt in the Long Ago
THERE'S a something comes to you when
you're old,
When a blue-eyed baby with curls of
gold
Climbs up in your lap and snuggles
down,
As the lights in the windows across the
town
Flare up and twinkle across the night —
A sort of holy and calm delight,
A sort of feeling that now you know
What your mother felt in the long ago. When the little bit of a cuddled heap,
Not quite awake and not quite asleep,
With a twisting and burrowing motion
lies
Against your bosom with half-shut eyes,
And begs for a “tory,”—“Do, mama,
prease!” There is something comes to you, times
like these,
That lifts you up till you sit alone
With your babe in a world that is all
your own. You look away past the building-blocks,
And the raggedy doll, and the wee pink
socks,
And the cotton rabbit and Teddy-bear,
And you press a kiss on the baby’s hair,
While you croon a song that your mother
knew
In the far-off days that she sang to
you;
You are just beginning to feel and know
How your mother loved in the long ago. And the sweet, sweet pain that a mother
feels
Gets hold of your heart as you sit, and
steals To your eyes, and you kiss a wee,
dimpled hand,
And you wish that the baby might understand
What is in your heart as you sit and
croon A lullaby to a world-old tune
That shall live as long as the world
shall live—
But the mother-loving is always,
“Give!” You know, as you snuggle the baby
form,
And hold her closer and fold her warm,
What no mere daughter may ever
know,—
What your mother felt in the long ago! What she gave to you when you lay
asleep
In her arms when the shadows began
to creep,
And you joy to think, In a better land
She will some day know that I under-
stand. A RECKLESS man in a zoological garden once seized a venomous serpent by the nape of the neck, and held it up before his companions. The man thought he had the serpent wholly in his power. But it began to coil its long body about his arm, and then slowly to tighten its grasp, until the man in agony was obliged to drop his hold of its neck. Quickly then it turned and bit him, and soon the man was dead. He thought he was strong enough to play with the serpent, and then thrust it from him when wearied of the play. Many think they are strong enough to play with temptation of any sort; but they find, sooner or later, that the temptation has mastered them. “Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation,” said Christ. It is the entering into temptation that is to be guarded against. — Morning Star. THERE is probably no mistress of a household who has not felt uncertain about asking guests to join in family worship. Every one has acquaintances she would not hesitate to ask to the table, but would hesitate to ask to the home altar. Perhaps the reluctance arises from a dissimilarity of creed, and a fear of offense in consequence. But the diversity of the creed is no bar. Prayer has nothing to do with creeds. Prayer is the universal religion, and men of every creed and men of no creed may meet together at the feet of our Heavenly Father. The reluctance arises more likely from that weak shamefacedness which too often prevents sympathy between friends on spiritual subjects. They are afraid to be misunderstood, smiled at, criticized. This latter idea is one which even good and great men have not always met bravely; for when Dr. Fuller once had some guests of great quality and fashion, God-fearing as he was, he omitted his family worship on their account. This act, which he bitterly repented, he designated as “a bold bashfulness, which durst offend God, while it did fear man.” But we should remember, with the grand old preacher, that our guests, though they be ever so high or rich, are yet by all the laws of hospitality below us while they sojourn under our roof; therefore, all who come within our door should also come within our household customs and discipline. If they sit at our table for meat, it is but kind and right that they should also bow at it in prayer.
— Ladies’ Home Journal. The Value of Humility and Silence
“THE longer we live in this world,” says Edward W. Bok, “the more we become convinced how little we know. The people most humble in their opinions are generally the best educated. It is an art which only a few learn,—to be reticent of our own opinion when every one around is expressing his,—yet this is one of the attributes of the well educated. Silence often speaks louder than speech.” THE “sure word of prophecy” had foretold the coming of the solemn hour of the investigative judgment, in 1844. As that hour drew near, there arose the great awakening as to the second advent, the proclamation to the world that the hour of God’s judgment was at hand. THOSE who engaged in the advent proclamation before 1844 thought that the opening of the judgment meant the coming of Christ to this earth. They did not understand the heavenly sanctuary and its cleansing. But the message for that time was the judgment-hour cry, and they gave the message, just as the disciples and the populace fulfilled the prophecy in proclaiming Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, even though disappointed in their expectations. ALL along many had scoffed at the doctrine of Christ’s second coming. But when the time passed, a storm of derision fell upon those who had looked for the Saviour. In the Review of July 15, 1880, was printed a letter which Wm. Miller, one of the leaders in the 1844 movement, had written to the father of the late Elder C. W. Stone soon after the disappointment, being dated Dec. 17, 1845. Wm. Miller said:— Every possible effort is now put in requisition by Satan, the church, and the world, to bring into disrepute the most glorious point of the revelation of God,—the coming of Christ, the resurrection, and the kingdom,—the very capstone of grace, the conclusion of the gospel, the conquest of the enemies of God, the destruction of death, the fulfilment of all prophecy, the completion of salvation, the redemption of the body, the fruition of faith, the realization of all promises, the inheritance of the saints, the fulness of time, the end of the world, the beginning of eternity, the fruits of eternal life,—all, all dependent on one event, which will be in a moment, suddenly, like the lightning shining from the east even unto the west. THESE were the words of a man who loved the “blessed hope” of the church, and was not to be turned from it because he had not fully understood all the prophecy. He added:— Old age, infirmity of body, and want of means of conveyance, put it out of my power ever to think of doing more in person to warn my fellow men, or to try to take away their prejudice. Thanks be to God, I have done all I could for the world, and have borne their hatred and scoffs, their lies and misrepresentations. I know my own motives and objects; and now I have worn myself out in trying to benefit man. I have spent all my living except just enough to keep me at home, and give me bread and a couch; I have destroyed my character in the eyes of the world; I have no redress but in the judgment of the great day and the justice of a righteous Judge. To him and to that day I appeal. Assailing God's Character
By F. M. W.
God is love. Every exercise of the divine power in behalf of his creatures is a manifestation of love. Understanding and comprehending this character of love, every intelligent being in the universe would be drawn to the divine Author. Knowing this, Satan has sought throughout his entire history to misrepresent God's character. The Creator has been made to appear arbitrary and exacting, tyrannical and vindictive. His words have been misconstrued, his purposes misrepresented. God has been represented as having such a character that it was deemed necessary to appease his wrath, to obtain his forgiveness through the intercession of intermediaries; and the exercise of his mercy, instead of being considered the outflowing of a heart of love, has been regarded only as the exercise of stern tolerance. One of the greatest imputations against the character of God is found in the doctrine which at one time was earnestly taught in the Christian church, and is still theoretically regarded as an article of faith,—that of an everlasting, burning hell fire, in which the impenitent were punished throughout endless ages. It is but a few years since this doctrine was advocated from nearly every pulpit in the land. Clergymen of nearly every church made it a basis of appeal to sinners for repentance. It was held up in warning tones as a judgment which threatened all who would not make their peace with God. A quotation from the eminent Spurgeon, as given by Dr. J. H. Pettingell in his book, “The Unspeakable Gift,” page 327, affords an excellent example of the belief in this doctrine:— Only conceive the poor wretch in the flames. See how his tongue hangs from between his blistered lips! How it excoriates and burns the roof of his mouth, as if it were a fire-brand! Behold him crying for a drop of water. I will not picture the scene. Suffice it for me to say that the hell of hells will be to be forever. Thou wilt look up there on the throne of God—and on it shall be written, Forever. When the damned jingle the burning irons of their torments, they shall say, Forever. We are sometimes accused, my brethren, of using language too harsh, too ghastly, too alarming, with regard to the world to come. But if we could speak thunderbolts, and our every look were a lightning flash, and our eyes dropped blood instead of tears, no tones, words, gestures, nor similitudes of dread could exaggerate the awful condition of a soul which has refused the gospel, and is delivered over to justice. Jonathan Edwards, another eminent divine, has, in Volume VII, page 166, of his sermons, thus expressed his view of the doom of the finally impenitent:— The world will probably be converted into a great lake or liquid globe of fire,—a vast ocean of fire, in which the wicked shall be overwhelmed, which will always be in tempest, in which they shall be tossed to and fro, having no rest day or night, vast waves or billows of fire continually rolling over their heads, of which they shall forever be full of quick sense within and without: their heads, their eyes, their tongues, their hands, their feet, their loins, and their vitals shall forever be full of glowing, melting fire, fierce enough to melt the very rocks and elements; and also they shall eternally be full of the most quick and lively sense to feel the torments; not for one minute, nor for one day, nor for one age, nor for two ages, nor for a hundred years, nor for ten thousands of millions of ages, one after another, but forever and ever, without any end at all, and never, never to be delivered. The preaching of this doctrine produced a natural revulsion of feeling on the part of many students of Scripture. It gave impetus to another doctrine, equally as pernicious and unscriptural; namely, that of universal salvation. One extreme created the other. From the belief that God in his wrath would burn men throughout the endless ages of eternity, some recoiled in horror, and contended that God was so merciful and loving that he would eventually save every one of his children. The government of God is founded upon two great principles, love and justice. We use these terms in the sense that they are ordinarily understood. If the principle of love alone should be followed, as regarded by those who believe in universal salvation, the government of God would be weak and pusillanimous. If, on the other hand, God's government were built alone upon justice, as regarded by those who believe in the eternal torment of the impenitent, his government would be cruel and tyrannical. We can not for a moment conceive of a compassionate, loving God taking men and women who have spent, in sin, lives of twenty-five, fifty, or one hundred years on this earth, and plunging them into a burning lake of fire to be punished throughout the endless cycles of11eternity. Nor can we believe that God will save all mankind irrespective of character. How much more reasonable is the view of this question presented by the Scriptures of truth. Says the apostle Paul, “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Rom. 6:23. Eternal life in the kingdom of God is the great reward set before the righteous. This reward they can never earn. Doing the best they can, they still fall short of infinite perfection; eternal life is bestowed upon them as the gracious gift of God's grace. But the wicked earn what they receive. Death is paid to them as wages. Failing to avail themselves of the provisions of God's grace, refusing to take the life revealed to them through the gospel by Jesus Christ, they are left to perish. They are deprived of the life which otherwise they would have shared. The criminal in this world is incarcerated for his evil deeds; his punishment is in depriving him of the rights of free citizenship. It takes from him the liberty he would have enjoyed had he been a loyal citizen. Thus it is in God's great plan. By a brief probation which God has granted man in this world, the wicked demonstrate that if they should possess all eternity, they would squander eternity even as they squander time; hence God deprives them of that which they demonstrate their inability to use aright. Sin entails sorrow, suffering, and misery. Prolonging the life of the wicked would add to their suffering. Hence God's love is shown in depriving them of a life which has become a burden, of an existence fraught only with pain and suffering. The agent of their punishment will be the fire of the last day, and through this agency they will become totally annihilated. By it they will be punished according to their deeds. Says the prophet Malachi, speaking of this visitation of divine judgment:— “For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.” Their destruction will be complete. Says the prophet Obadiah: “They shall be as though they had not been.” God will purge out of his universe sin and all of its followers. His righteousness will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea, and from one end of his fair domain to the other there will not exist one foul blot or one remnant of earth's sin-cursed history. Then it is as declared by the revelator that every creature in heaven and in earth shall ascribe praise to the Majesty of heaven. Rev. 5:13. God will then have vindicated his character before all his children; he will have demonstrated that all his ways are wrought in righteousness; and in this righteous decision every intelligence throughout his universe will voluntarily and cheerfully acquiesce. Feeble Forces Attacking Great Problems
By William Ambrose Spicer
The call to attack the city problem is not a call to wait for the heavy brigades to form. Meager as their facilities are, the believers in South America are looking to God for help in attacking their city problem. We do not always remember that of the five great cities of the New World, two are in South America. The order is, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Buenos Aires, and Rio de Janeiro. The Lord is blessing in Buenos Aires, and we hear of four companies now meeting in that city, where a few years ago there was but one. Here is a word from Sister F. W. Spies, of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, whose husband is in charge of the work in this city of a million, but who also has the presidency of the Brazilian Union Conference,—covering an area equal to that of the United States,—with the superintendency of several mission fields in the union; so that he can do little in Rio. Sister Spies writes:— Well, in reading in the “Testimonies,” one day, I found the promise that if we would enter the great cities, we would find not only means, but strong workers to carry the work forward. I felt impressed to go out with our paper, O Arauto da Verdade (Message of Truth), and commenced immediately. I have received quite a number of subscriptions, and sold many papers singly, entirely among business men, in the business section. The workers have not appeared yet, but a number of gentlemen are reading with interest, and the Lord will certainly raise up workers for this people. We have one canvasser who is working faithfully, and one Bible worker. It is surely a little band for a great city, but there is a mighty host of angels on the side of these workers. From Montevideo, the great city of Uruguay, Miss Kerr, leader of the band of four missionary nurses who are the only workers in the city, writes:— Another thing we are praying for is a God-fearing minister, with an experience in city work, to come here. Words fail to express our great need at this time. O how we need men who have a living knowledge of this truth and a burden for souls to come and help us just now, when the Catholic Church is on the verge of being overthrown in these countries where she has so long held complete control! We are too few in numbers in this great field. Nevertheless, we know “there is no restraint with the Lord to save by many or by few.” We pass on these words of battle cheer from sisters in far fields. This hour’s need is a call to get in among the multitudes with the message, in the love of Christ and with the burden for souls, and somehow, by the blessing and power of God, the victories will be won. In New York City, a few weeks ago, as the time for launching their summer’s tent campaign was at hand, the churches gathered in Brooklyn for a united consecration service. They were but a little band, all told. But after that example of old,—when “all Judah stood before the Lord, with their little ones, their wives, and their children,”—the believers stood in surrender to service, with the prayer: “O, our God, . . . we have no might against this great company; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee.” These are the times for great things to grow out of simple effort. The multitude was fed as soon as the five loaves and two small fishes were in the hands of the Master. The Lord will cut short the work in righteousness, and every soul hungering for his salvation will be searched out. But wo to any Seventh-day Adventist whose prayers and means and service are not swallowed up in the work of God as the closing witness is borne! W. A. S.