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Signs of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 15.

Editorial

Signs of the Times

Feb 13, 1893

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 13, 1893

Editorial.

By Editor

"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable."—2 Tim. 3:16.
"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
THE moulding principle of the doctrine of Christ is love. The gospel proclaims not only good will to a certain class of men, but good will to men, to all men. The mission of Christ was not to judge the world, but to save the world; and his servants are to carry on the work he begun. Those who seek to enforce the ordinances of Christ upon others, in so doing reject his gospel and usurp his authority of coming Judge and King.
WHEN Moses asked the Lord to tell him what he should say when asked who sent him, the Lord told him that he should say, "I AM hath sent me unto you." What a wondrous name, "I AM"! Besides denoting eternal being, it is God's pledge of every good thing. Fill it out, child of faith, with the promises of God's word. The Lord says, I am light, and knowledge, and wisdom, and sanctification, and redemption, and life, and love. All fullness is found in the adorable name. Jesus lived and died, and lived again, that all these things might be possible unto us, that we might have free access to the riches of God's grace given in the Name.
THE word of God stands. It will endure all the criticism which is brought against it. Children think that the moon is sailing away through the skies when it is only the clouds. Men think they have moved the rock of the word by their flimsy blows, when the only movement has been their own unconscious rebound farther from the truth. And yet that word, smitten as it has been, like its Divine Author, invites its enemies to come and find pardon, peace, and rest. It still lifts for all the weary desert wanderers "the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." Come, poor sinner, and find pardon. Come, weary one, and rest in the shelter of the Rock of Ages.

TWO SUPREME COURT DECISIONS—THEIR EFFECT ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY.

By Editor

IN the month of February, 1892, the Supreme Court of the United States rendered two decisions which strike fatal blows at the liberty given us under God by the fathers of this republic. The second of these, that decided February 29, was the case of "The Rector, etc., of the Church of the Holy Trinity, New York, vs. the United States." It was an appeal from a decision of the lower court concerning the application of the Contract Labor Law. This decision we have noticed several times since it was given. It declares this people to be a "religious people," this nation to be a "religious nation," and that its religion is Christian; for it is declared to be a "Christian nation."
This is not said in a sort of general way. The commission of the Roman Catholic rulers, Ferdinand and Isabella, to Columbus, the grant of King James I. in 1606, the Compact of the Pilgrims in the Mayflower, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, the Charter of Privileges by William Penn, the Constitution of Massachusetts of 1780, authorizing and providing for public worship, maintaining "public Protestant teachers of piety, religion, and morality in all cases when such provision shall not be made voluntarily," the constitution of Delaware of 1776, requiring, beside an oath of allegiance, a profession of faith on the part of its officers to a belief in the Trinity and the inspiration of the Scriptures—these documents, opposed each to the others, the adherents of some of which were persecutors, are all declared to be, together with the Declaration of Independence, in perfect harmony with each other and with the First Amendment to the Constitution.
The commission of the Spanish rulers aboved referred to was for the purpose of establishing the Roman Catholic religion. The object of the grants of King James I. was to establish the religion of the Church of England. The compact of the Pilgrims was for the purpose of spreading abroad and establishing their view of the Christian faith for which the Church of England had driven them out. The object of Penn's Charter of Privileges was to give that freedom of conscience denied by Catholic, Episcopalian, and Puritan. The Declaration of Independence was a war cry against all old world oppression. And the First Amendment to the Constitution was to secure to the people of this great country perennial freedom from any religious yoke whatsoever. And yet the Supreme Court says that there is perfect harmony in all the above. After quoting from them all in the way we have indicated, the court says:—
There is no dissonance in these declarations. There is a universal language pervading them all, having one meaning; they affirm and reaffirm that this is a religious nation.
And this the court declares not to be taught in a general way. It continues:—
These are not individual sayings, declarations of private persons; they are organic utterances; they speak the voice of the entire people.
The court then proceeds to quote from the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania that Christianity is a part of the common law, and from Chancellor Kent that attacks upon Christianity should be amenable to law, while other religions should not have the same privilege; it then cites the Sunday laws, the prefatory words of wills, the form of oath, etc., and again declares:—
These and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation.
And this the Supreme Court declares is in harmony with the First Amendment to the Constitution, which declares that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press." But the court has so construed the Constitution that we have a judge-made law, establishing as the national religion the Christian religion.
It would logically follow from the decision that this is a Christian nation that those dogmas held by the "Christians" of this nation should be enforced by civil law. Therefore last summer, in response to the demands of the religious bodies, especially as represented in the American Sabbath Union, Congress passed a law recognizing Sunday as the "Christian Sabbath," and closing the gates of the World's Fair on that day so far as Congress could close it. It was the work of religion all the way through; and prominent among the arguments then pressed before Congress, and since, when the bill for opening the World's Fair was discussed before thecommittee having it in charge, and repeated over and over again in religious journals, is the decision of the Supreme Court that "this is a Christian nation."
It has been urged by good men that these utterances of the Supreme Court do not have the force of a judicial decision, but we know not how the Supreme Court under the circumstances could have made the matter stronger, and the friends of Sunday law regard it in the same way. We could quote many such utterances would space permit or necessity demand. Suffice to say the decision is made, and the action of Congress concerning Sunday is but a logical step in the downward path of Church and State union. And Congress, having so overwhelmingly committed itself, will take no backward, upward step. It is not the nature of such a movement. From a negative law it will go on to a positive. From the closing of the World's Fair, it will prohibit secular labor on Sunday so far as the Federal jurisdiction extends. State laws like those of Tennessee will assist, as that commonwealth has assisted, in promoting Sunday observance by persecuting those who follow the example of the Lord in observing the day of the Sabbath.
The next step will be the prohibition of the use of the mails for disseminating that literature which points out the iniquity and unchristianity of all Sunday laws, and the absolute falsity of Sunday itself as a Christian institution.

ANOTHER SUPREME COURT DECISION.

It may be thought by the reader that this can never be, for the Constitution declares that "Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press." But that guarantee of liberty is already swept away by another judge-made law, another Supreme Court decision, given on February 1, 1892, which makes Congress as much a censor of the press as existed in the middle ages. The occasion of the decision was certain cases under the lottery law as amended September 19, 1890.
That decision declares that the First Amendment to the Constitution does not restrain Congress from excluding from the mail all documents "condemned by its judgment;" that it may "refuse the facilities for the distribution of matter deemed injurious" "to public morals;" that it "possesses the power to forbid the use of the mails in aid of the perpetration of crime or immorality." The Court contends that this is not a blow at the liberty of the press; that papers may circulate in other ways than by mail; or, in the words of the decision, "The circulation of newspapers is not prohibited, but the government declines itself to become an agent in the circulation of printed matter which it regards as injurious to the people." But Congress has no power over any other means of distribution than the mail; and it was the intent of the First Amendment to prohibit Congress from acting as a censor in the matter of what it was proper, so far as physical character was concerned, to distribute through the mail. This decision means, if it means anything, that whatever Congress may in its judgment condemn "as injurious to the people," or "injurious" "to public morals," it will prohibit the use of the mails, whether the document be political or religious, private or public.

THE RESULT.

As, therefore, Congress has committed itself to Sunday legislation, and as this legislation will be opposed and denounced as wicked and only wicked, and as the very institution over which it has made its fatal plunge (the Sunday) will be shown by the press, as it has been shown in the past, to be a usurper and unchristian, such publications will be "deemed injurious by Congress to the public morals," placed on the "Index Expurgatorius," and prohibited the use of the mails. A censorship of the press will be established, with its necessary inquisition. Thus by this process of legal fiction of judge-made laws, the glorious First Amendment to our Constitution has been wiped out. Says Mr. Taylor:—
Sir Henry Maine in his great work on "Ancient Law," has told us that the most subtle and irresistible device ever employed by judges to change the effect of positive laws and constitutions, without changing their outward form, is what is known to lawyers as a "legal fiction." "The fact is that the law has been wholly changed; the fiction is that it remains what it always was."
And so the First Amendment has been wholly changed save perhaps the clause guarding freedom of speech. But how long will that last? Read Bishop Leighton's article on "Limitation of Religious Discussion," in the North American Review for January, in which he contends that to speak against the Christian religion or its ordinances should be considered treason. Such it will be considered when Congress has fully gathered itself into the toils.
The men behind all these movements may be honest. It may seem necessary to them to establish a censorship of the mails instead of submitting alleged wrongs to "due process of law." Sunday to them may be a sacred institution, a Christian institution. It may seem blasphemous and treasonable against God to speak against these things, and so treasonable and amenable to law in a Christian nation. The men engaged in all this may be sincere. So was Saul and so were the papists of the Dark Ages when they put to death "the whitest of the saints of God." So were the Jews who put to death the Perfect Man. And that Man declared: "Yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me." John 16:2, 3. This is the secret. They know not the gospel of Christ, for to know the gospel is to know God and Christ. Though they know it not, the whole thing is uncharitable, unmanly, unchristian. Sunday is unchristian, therefore the unchristian methods to uphold it. God can care for his own government, and is able to punish all transgressors. He deputizes men not to execute his law, but to preach the gospel of peace. God pity them in their blindness. They know not what manner of spirit they are of.

WE KNEW IT WOULD COME.

Yes, we knew it would come. We have known it and said it in various publications for more than twosecore years. We did not know how it would come or just when it would come, but we knew that all this was coming and coming soon, and we said so. We did not say so because we did not love our country; but we knew it and said it was coming because God's "more sure word of prophecy" said it was coming. We walked by faith then; we walk by sight now. That prophecy is found in Rev. 13: 11-17. God's antidote for it, God's warning against it, is found in Rev. 14: 6-12. The salvation of the world lies in heeding that warning.

Christ’s Soon Return and Reward

"Behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be." Rev. 22:12.

Sunday Leisure and Workingmen’s Freedom

Rev. Joseph Cook says that "every advance towards the secularization of Sunday is an advance towards the enslavement of workingmen." The Providence Journal retorts: "Sunday is the workingman's one day of leisure, and how it is going to enslave him, to permit him to enjoy it as he likes, is quite beyond ordinary comprehension."

THE TRIBUNAL OF THE FUTURE.

DR. JESSE B. THOMAS discusses in the Homiletic Review, says the Voice, "a possible federation of all Protestant denominations into one working body, with one central form of government that shall respect the autonomy of each denomination, as our federal government respects the autonomy of the States." We will then have a national church which can so bring its influence to bear upon politicians that the Church will control the State, and church institutions, like the Sunday, will be enforced by civil law. Then it will be that the demand of the National Reformers, voiced by Rev. J. M. Foster, will be met:—
But one danger lies in this: The church does not speak as a church. The American Sabbath Union has done a good work. The denominations have spoken. But the Christian organized church has not officially gone to Washington and spoken. The work there has been largely turned over to associations. But the voice of God, authoritative, official, is through his church. Should there not be joint action of the denominations in this? They should, it would appear, appoint a joint committee to speak for God, and properly and courageously done, with a plain recital of judgments which will follow upon refusing to hear, there can follow but the very best results. "These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy; and have power over waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues." Rev. 11:6. Much is lost by the church failing officially to speak at the right time and in the right place. No association is clothed with this authority. They are individual and social; but the church is divine. She can and ought to utter the voice of God in the halls of Congress, and as an organized church.
The Church Militant of November, a paper which believes that "the sphere of politics is the most important post of Christian duty," says:—
As we see no signs of such repentance and reformation on the part of the denominations as is necessary to enable them to cope with these evils [intemperance, love of wealth, theater going, etc.], and as good men divided and scattered cannot effectively coöperate in work for needed reforms, we favor decided and speedy action towards the formation of the church of the future, and think its foundations should be laid as deep and broad as the truth of God and his eternal righteousness. In this way God will once more renew his church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Now all this (and we might quote much more) is enacting right over again what was enacted in the beginning of the great apostasy. The church outlined by Dr. Thomas is just such a church as Constantine made, modeled in its government after the State. The highest officers in this great and complicated church would be either officers in the State, or would have great influence in the State.The church, combining for political ends (for this is one of the objects), would be consulted by the State on all so-called "moral" questions, and the Church would dictate such legislation and punish the legislator who dared refuse by killing him politically. We should then have the church and the "voice of God," which Mr. Foster demands, but it would be safer to say that it would be the voice of the same god which thundered out of the Vatican for the 1,260 years of the papal supremacy.
That the men who are looking for a "renewal" of the church from this quarter are many of them honest we have no doubt, but they are blinded to the results which would certainly follow, and which have always followed union of Church and State, a confederacy without Christ. Such church or confederation would be "of the earth, earthy," and it would be moulded by worldly policy and run by worldly men. The results which would follow it would be spiritual death for all connected with it, and persecution of those who, urged on by the Spirit of Christ, exposed its iniquity.

FOR RELIGION'S SAKE.

By Editor

THE necessity for Sunday laws in the earlier career of the "American Sabbath Union" was ostensibly urged on the basis of "a sanitary measure," "a workingmen's day," "a physical necessity," etc., while the real reason was the fact that Sunday is a religious institution and the religious people demand that the day should be protected by law. And this the friends of such measures more freely admit now than in the first stages of the Sunday agitation. At that time, however, the Constitution of the United States and most of the States expressly forbade such legislation. At least the plain, explicit language in which these bills of rights were framed were so read and without "construction" so meant.
But latterly a change has come. In the language of the prophet, "judgment is turned away backward," and those in high places have given some petty Sunday enactment, born of the Dark Ages, the precedence of positive declarations of organic law. That is, the petty civil or penal law, or the decisions of inferior judges, have been made the standard, and the constitutions have been "construed" in harmony with these laws or utterances. Even the Supreme Court of the United States has fallen under this judicial religious blindness, and, on the strength of various utterances, official and non-official, private and public, from the days of the Inquisition to the present time, decided, February 29, 1892, that this government is a religious nation, and that its religion is "Christian." Not only have they decided this contrary to the letter and spirit of the First Amendment to the Constitution, but they have declared that the First Amendment is in perfect harmony with all of the various utterances upon which they have based their decision. They having decided, therefore, that this is a Christian nation, it follows that Christian institutions ought to be observed; and, Sunday being considered a Christian institution, therefore, again Sunday ought to be enforced by law because it is a Christian institution.
We, of course, do not admit for one moment that either this government or Sunday is Christian, but they are so considered by the Sunday-law people, and this is the argument they now put forth as to why Sunday ought to be legalized. Thus it is that this government has been launched upon the sea of what has wrecked nations and slain the people of God in the past, and we have no reason to believe that it will work otherwise in the United States.

Why We Do It

By Editor

Why We Do It.—It is sometimes said that Seventh-day Adventists protest as they do against Sunday laws and religious legislation because they do not believe that Sunday is the true Sabbath; and (2) because they suffer persecution under Sunday laws. As to the first reason we wish emphatically to say that we would oppose just as strenuously a law for the "support," "promotion," or "protection" of the seventh day as for Sunday. In the first place, civil governments have no right to legislate on religious questions, dogmas, or institutions; and in the second place, God does not need the assistance of civil government to compel observance of his laws. The only acceptable observance of such laws is in faith and love, and law cannot compel love; it only develops hypocrisy. God will care for his own. As to the second reason, Seventh-day Adventists do not oppose Sunday laws because they are afraid of being persecuted. They do so because God has bidden those who are bearing "the everlasting gospel" to the world (no matter who they are), to protest against the worship of the beast or his image, or the reception of the mark of the beast. See Rev. 14:6-12. They cannot do otherwise if they are faithful to God. Their natural inclinations would lead them to agree with the majority; their loyalty to God places them on the side of his gospel, his word. As for persecution, they know it is coming, "know it as God's prophets know;" years ago they knew it.
They know it better than the prophet, because what he saw in vision they see in fact in the light of the increase of knowledge promised in the word of God. See Dan. 12:4, 9, 10. What we knew by faith years ago, we now see in fact, while faith takes larger strides for the future before. We know persecution is coming. We do not invite it; we, in the weakness of the flesh, would fear because of it; but in the strength of Christ we are willing to meet it, bearing faithful warning against the mystery of iniquity now fast creeping in to nullify if possible the mystery of God. Yes, we know that it will come, but we are assured in the same word by which we are assured of the coming tribulation, that those who keep the word of Christ's patience, he will keep in the hour of temptation, which is coming on all the world to try them that dwell on all the face of the earth. Rev. 3:10.
May God pity and save those who are blindly opposing themselves against the truth, and may he help his people to reveal Christ and his power to those who are longing for light and power in the darkness and weakness of sin.

The Latest Temperance Move.

By Editor

There has recently been inaugurated the National Anti-Nuisance League, the headquarters of which are in New York, and the object of which is the overthrow of the liquor traffic, not by moral suasion, not by the slow process of prohibitive legislation, but by judicial decision. Taking for their basis the Supreme Court decisions already rendered concerning the traffic that there is no inherent right or privilege of a citizen to sell liquors by retail; that no Legislature can bargain away the public health or public safety, as especially applying to the liquor traffic, together with the facts that the judiciary is a co-equal and co-ordinate branch of our government, and that, while it does not make new laws, it may interpret old ones in harmony with justice and natural law, correcting if need be the errors of legislatures, taking all these as the basis of the argument, it is contended that the liquor traffic may be abolished, even as slavery was in England by Lord Mansfield, by judicial decision. This is a brief statement of the argument of Mr. John Lloyd Thomas, to appear in the Demorest Magazine for February. The writer says:—
If it be true that God's law as revealed in Holy Writ, and nature's law as taught through the discoveries of science, are supreme; if it be true that alcoholic liquors are poison, murdering slowly or rapidly, but always surely, those who purchase and drink; if it be true that "the public health, the public morals, and the public safety are endangered by the general use of intoxicating drinks;" if it be true that "disorder, pauperism, and crime are largely traceable to the drink evil;" if it be true that "the statistics of every State show a greater amount of crime and misery attributable to the use of ardent spirits, obtained at retail liquor saloons, than to any other source," who can doubt that our United States Supreme Court will wisely and righteously respond to the occasion, and declare unconstitutional every law authorizing or permitting, under tax or license fee, the sale of alcoholic liquors as beverages.
Will this be successful? We will wait and see.

Put Not Your Trust in Princes

By Editor

Put Not Your Trust in Princes.—How the great ones of this country have passed away the last few weeks! Ex-president Hayes, Gen. B. F. Butler, Justice Lamar, Phillips Brooks, and James G. Blaine. All earthly hopes reposed in them died with them. They have gone as men go, as all flesh goes. "Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish." But there is one Son of Man, who is also the Son of God, in whom we may trust. Of him it is written, "He ever liveth to make intercession for us." Put your trust in him.

Selecting Missionaries for Foreign Fields

Bishop William H. Hare, after a visit to the China mission of the Episcopal Church, reported in the Spirit of Missions, expresses the belief that the wise method is not the sending of many workers, of whom not a few will of course be persons of small gifts and little force, but the careful selection of a picked few who have ability and training sufficient to enable them to occupy important points of central influence, whether institutional, evangelistic, or pastoral, and to work in them and out from them by means of native helpers. For such foreign fields as China and Japan he would have persons superior both by endowment and acquirement—just the persons whom everybody wants to keep at home.

THE THREE MESSAGES OF REV. 14:6-14.

By E. W. Whitney

BY ELDER E. W. WHITNEY.

No. 7. The Spirit Which Should and Will Accompany Their Proclamation.

As presented throughout these articles, the three angels bearing messages to the inhabitants of earth, are symbols of the special work of God for this time, which of necessity, and as has always been the case, is carried on through the coöperation of human agencies. This union of the human and divine in the work of God is that which constitutes the "mystery of God," or the "mystery of the gospel." Manifestation of this mysterious and to the human mind incomprehensible union is seen in the work of God in all ages. At times the human predominates; at other times the divine is strikingly manifest; but through all the work God, in infinite mercy, has borne with man's perversity, endeavoring to draw him to himself by his love.
The perfection of this union is presented in the person and life of Christ, who, though human, and subject to all the infirmities of the flesh, was yet the very Son of God. This partaking of the human nature by the divine Son of God, which constitutes the "mystery of the gospel," is in reality the ground of our hope, that we through him may be raised from the human to partake of the divine nature and become like God in character. "Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." Heb. 4:14-16.
By beholding the character and glory (oneness with the Father, see John 17:22) of this high priest, Paul says we "are changed into the same image from glory to glory" (2 Cor. 3:18).
This union of the human and the divine in Christ is significant, and is emblematical of a corresponding union of the two elements in the work of God in all ages of the world. God works, but he works through human instrumentalities. Christ through the Holy Spirit supplies the divine element, and such human agencies as will yield themselves to coöperate with the divine, constitute the human element. The presence of this element explains the many seeming imperfections in the work of God, but, as suggested above, "the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will" is, that the human shall, by union with the divine, become transformed until it shall reflect the perfect image of the divine nature as manifest in Christ.
We learn of this presence of Christ in the work everywhere and always. It was Christ who, by his Spirit, was with Noah, preaching to the antediluvians. "And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh; yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years." Gen. 6:3. Peter tells us that this was the Spirit of Christ that strove with the people "when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a-preparing." Read 1 Peter 3:18-20.
It was Christ who really led and instructed the people of God, through Moses, in the wilderness; for, speaking of Christ, Stephen says: "This is He, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him [Moses] in the Mount Sinai, and with our fathers; who received the lively oracles to give unto us" (Acts 7:38); and Paul says of the people at that time that they "did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them; and that Rock was Christ." 1 Cor. 10:4.

THREE MESSAGES.

"I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven." "And there followed another angel . . . And the third angel followed them." Rev. 14:6, 8, 9.

NOTES UPON THE ILLUSTRATION.

1. The first message begins previous to 1844, announcing the hour of judgment, but continues to the coming of Christ, proclaiming the gospel and the worship of the true God (the commandments) as the basis of the following messages. 2. Simultaneously with the opening of the first message, and as a special feature of its introduction, it is joined by the message of the angel of chapter 10, which continues to 1844 and ceases. 3. Subsequent to 1844 the truths of the first message became more fully understood and preached, though generally rejected, and as a consequence it is joined by the second message, proclaiming the fall of Babylon, which also continues to the end. 4. Later the two are joined by the third, warning against the worship of "the beast" and his image and the reception of his mark, and also continues to the end. 5. Just before the end of gospel work the three are joined by the message of chapter 18, announcing the complete fall of Babylon, and calling upon God's people to come out of her because of her sins. 6. This in effect produces a loud, earnest, and extended giving of all three messages combined, resulting in the lighting of the earth with all truth, and the development of a company keeping all the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and fully prepared to meet Christ when he appears in the clouds of heaven.
It is Christ also who speaks through all the prophets: "For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, or Spirit" (2 Peter 1:21); and Peter says that this Holy Spirit was "the Spirit of Christ which was in them." 1 Peter 1:11.
Christ also promised that he would, by this same Spirit, be with his people to the end. "I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you." John 14:18. "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him; but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." Verses 16, 17. "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." Verse 26.
A marked fulfillment of this promise was experienced by the apostles in the opening of their work upon the day of Pentecost, and during all their succeeding labor; and John, near the close of the first century, when the vision containing these messages was given him, writes of it: "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John." Rev. 1:1. This same angel, as related in the last chapter, when John was about to fall down and worship him (probably supposing him to be Christ), says: "See thou do it not; for I am thy fellow servant, and [the fellow servant] of thy brethren the prophets, and [the fellow servant] of them which keep the sayings of this book" (Rev. 22:9), proving that the self-same Spirit which has ever been the divinely appointed means of communication between God and his people, continues his work down through the Christian dispensation to the close of time, for the benefit of those who "read" and "keep" the things written in this book. Thus we see that the "Holy Spirit," the "Spirit of Christ," that "one and the selfsame Spirit," as Paul calls it, has, through all the history of the work of God in the earth, from the fall in Eden to the close of human probation, been the medium of union between the divine and the human—has, in fact, constituted the divine element.
At times of apostasy and departure from the truth, this element has in a measure disappeared from the work, as evidenced by a lack of the exercise of spiritual gifts, such as prophecy, the gift of tongues, healing of the sick, etc.; while at all times of special revival of the work, and returning to the truth, these gifts have been more or less prominent.
As the opening of the work in this dispensation was marked by a great outpouring of the Spirit, as witnessed by the exercise of all these gifts, it is but reasonable that in the closing of the work, the same Spirit and power will be manifest. Intimation of these two seasons of spiritual refreshing is given by James, when he says: "Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain." James 5:7. The interval between the "early" and "latter" rains implies a season of spiritual dearth and departure from the truth, fitly representing the long period of papal apostasy; but as these messages sound forth to the world, calling attention to the worship of the true God and the everlasting gospel, the Spirit of God witnesses to the uplifting of the down-trodden truth by the restoration ofthe gifts of the Spirit among the believers in proportion to their faith and love.
It is the exaltation of the gospel and the commandments of God, accompanied by the exercise of the gifts of the Spirit, which especially arouses Satan to persecute those who engage in the work. Paul states the exact truth when, after speaking of the persecutions which he endured, he says: "Yea, and all that will live godly [according to the law of God] in Christ Jesus [according to the gospel] shall suffer persecution." 2 Tim. 3:12. In Rev. 12:17 we are given the definite reason for Satan's wrath against the people of God in the closing work: "And the dragon was wroth with the woman [the true church], and went to make war with the remnant [the last] of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ."
Here evidently the same company is referred to as in the expression following the third message, "Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Those then who "keep . . . the faith of Jesus," "have the testimony of Jesus Christ." In Rev. 19:10 is plainly stated that the "testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." We have here, then, further proof that the gifts of the Spirit will be in exercise in this closing work. Paul says the object of the gifts is "the perfecting of the saints," and that they are to continue "till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." Eph. 4:12, 13. He also gives us to understand that the gift of prophecy is the best of all the gifts, because of its purpose and use (read 1 Cor. 14), and David says that "no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly" (Ps. 84:11). Then surely the exercise of the best gift may be expected in connection with the work which develops such a people as do these messages.

Truth Shall Ever Come Uppermost

By Charles Mackay

But never a truth has been destroyed; They may curse it and call it crime, Pervert and betray, or slander and slay Its teachers for a time; But the sunshine aye will light the sky, As round and round we run; And the truth shall ever come uppermost, And justice shall be done. —Charles Mackay.
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