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Review and Herald, Vol. 81, No. 51.

Night of Wonder

Review and Herald

Dec 22, 1904

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Dec 22, 1904

Night of Wonder

By H. Bonar

Night of wonder, night of glory, Such as time has never seen! Theme of old prophetic story, Night all solemn and serene; Sweetest silence, softest blue, That earth's darkness ever knew!
Night of beauty, hour of gladness, Of all nights the first and best! Not a cloud to speak of sadness, Not a star but sings of rest; Holy midnight, showering peace, Never shall thy radiance cease.
Happy city, dearest, fairest, Lonely, tranquil Bethlehem! Least and lowliest, richest, rarest, David's city, Judah's gem; Out of thee there comes the light That dispelleth all our night.
In thee heaven and earth are meeting! Lo, there comes the angel throng; We give back the heavenly greeting, Joining in the holy song,— Song of festival and mirth,— Song of morning to the earth.
Babe of weakness, Child of grandeur, At Thy stony crib we bow; Not a trace of heavenly splendor, Yet the King of angels Thou! Soon by earth to be adored As creation's Heir and Lord.
Light of life, Thou liest yonder, Mystery of mighty love; Naught from Thee our souls shall sunder, Naught from us shalt Thou remove. Take these hearts, and let them be Throned and cradled both for Thee!
Rose of Sharon, springing sweetly In this sacred solitude, Every gracious leaflet fitly Folded in this tender bud; All the beauty yet concealed, All the fragrance unrevealed.
O'er Thy cradle we are bending, Singing low our song of love, Soon to sing the song unending In the Bethlehem above; Through the ages gazing on, Not the cradle, but the throne. — H. Bonar.

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Heralds of His Coming

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The Gospel Message for To-day

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Who Changed the Sabbath?

The majority of people probably know that Sunday is not the day originally set apart for observance. How has the change come about? Perhaps this little tract contains the briefest statement of the reasons ever published.
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Life and Health for 1905

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Letters From a Physician to His Son

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Healthful Living

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The Household Department

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The Medical Missionary at Work

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The News Notes

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consists of five packages of tracts selected for a judicious presentation of truth. The series is furnished in large envelopes, with full explanation printed on the outside of each.
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Editorial

By Editor

Sentimentalism

THERE is a false religion of sentimentalism. It consists of about equal parts of emotional feeling, mental ecstasy, and unbalanced fervor. It rests upon no solid foundation, does not build with substantial material, and will not stand the stress and strain of storm and trial. This sentimentalism is not sturdy enough to perform any good works. It does not stand with positiveness for any essential doctrines. It leads in no reforms. It is content with the accepted standards of mediocrity, and does not wish to be disturbed in its self-satisfaction. It is a very travesty on religion.

Service

GENUINE religion means service. It is not the service of a hireling,—merely for a reward,—but it is rather the necessary expression of a life within, whose very continuance depends upon finding opportunities to reveal itself. Such service is love in a concrete form, and is the evidence of a healthy religious life. Such service is not, technically speaking, righteousness by faith, but as a matter of actual experience it is inseparably connected with this gift of righteousness. It is a revelation to the world of what it means to keep the commandments of God. It is the true method of letting the light so shine that men may see good works and glorify the Father in heaven. There is an immeasurable gap between the false religion of sentimentalism and the genuine religion which makes its possessor the servant of all.

Self-Righteousness

THERE is a constant danger that Christian service may be perverted into righteousness by works. It seems to be a difficult matter for some to maintain the difference between cherishing the life which works and working to obtain the life. By belittling, or at best passing over lightly, the value of sound doctrine and of observing the divinely ordained forms of religious worship, and by emphasizing the doing of Jesus at the expense of the teaching of Jesus, it is easy to substitute human philanthropy for Christian service, self-effort for the faith which works. The next step soon follows, and the doing of alms is advertised with a loud sound of a trumpet. Such service as this puts humanitarian reforms and principles in the place of the gospel, the benevolence of man in place of the love of God, and exalts man instead of God. There is as great a difference between true Christian service and this self-righteousness as between mere sentimentalism and true service. We must not be deceived by either sentimentalism or self-righteousness, but yield ourselves to be “servants of righteousness.”

Doing a Great Work

THIS is the day of great things. Gigantic enterprises are undertaken without hesitation, and are successfully carried through. Great ships are being built. Great railways are constructed. Great tunnels are excavated under mountains and broad streams. Great buildings tower above the sidewalks in great cities. Great subways under the streets of the overcrowded centers of population provide a means of rapid transit for the throngs of people. Great trusts control the manufacture and sale of many of the necessities of life. Great combinations of capital dominate the financial world, and make their own terms with would-be independent competitors. The leaders in all these great things are naturally regarded as great men, and in many cases, from the merely commercial standpoint, the honors are well deserved. We would not minimize the value of the service thus rendered in contributing to an advancing civilization. It can all be made to redound to the glory of God. But greater than great ships, and great railways, and great tunnels, and great buildings, and great subways is the great work of calling the world to repentance in this judgment hour, and of making ready a people prepared for the Lord. At the head of this great work is “the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” Its purpose is to make known “so great salvation,” the last message of salvation before the close of probation. This is the great work to which this people has been summoned, and that is the real meaning of this present missionary campaign which has been entered upon with the definite purpose of continuing it until the work is done, and the Lord comes. No other movement in the world involves such tremendous consequences. It should be given the first place in all our plans, and it should command our best efforts. Let no heart faint, and let no hand be slackened, until this great work is finished. Then we may enter into the joy of our Lord.

Significant Changes

It is plain to all that this advent movement has been passing through a crisis during the last two or three years, and we hope it is equally plain that there has been a positive and marked return to first principles in the face of an effort to bring in a new theology. It has been a turning-point in the history of this message. A failure to recognize and repudiate this perversion of the truth would have involved this denomination in the same experience that has come to nearly all the older and more popular denominations—a departure from its original platform, and an acceptance of human philosophy as a greater gospel.
The change which has come as a result of this experience is for the better. The evil which threatened has been plainly pointed out, and the vital and fundamental principles of this closing message have been more clearly defined. The hope of the immediate coming of the Lord, which had become almost a forlorn hope with many, has been revived, and there has been a most encouragingresponse to the rallying call for means and messengers to carry the threefold message quickly “unto every nation and tribe and tongue and people.” Although this experience has been a trying one in some of its details, yet, when viewed from the right standpoint, there is encouragement in it. God gave a message to those people to give to the world, and the message as he gave it, and not a perversion of that message, must be proclaimed in order to meet the purpose of God. The original message is designed to meet the needs of this generation, and to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord. As “the word of God came to John,” the forerunner of Jesus at his first advent, and as it was the preaching of the pure word of God as against tradition and perversion which prepared the way for the first advent, so it is to-day. Tradition and human speculation have supplanted the pure word of God. There is a scientific interpretation of the Scripture which robs it of its life and power. In this message the Lord gave the pure word again to the people, and it was necessary that it should be freed from any perversions or false interpretations before the real power of the truth could be revealed, and the message accomplish its work. This is the meaning of this experience. It is a sign of the nearness of the end and a preparation for cutting the work short in righteousness. It therefore only needs to be rightly understood in order to afford encouragement to those who are earnestly longing for the triumph of this truth.
While this significant change has come in the recent history of this denomination, there has also come an equally significant change to other denominations. For nearly twenty years the leading Protestant churches have been in conflict with the advocates of the new theology and the higher criticism. There was at first a disposition to repudiate the new teaching as subversive of the truth of the gospel, but so much tradition and speculation had already been mingled with the Word of God, and so much weakness had resulted from the persistent rejection of the advent messages that the defenses against error were largely broken down. The new school of interpretation rapidly gained influence and adherents, until now it has practically taken possession of the theological seminaries and the pulpits of Christendom. The situation is well stated in the following declaration by one of the leading organs of the movement, as its deliberate conclusion after a review of the twenty years’ conflict:—
Liberty to think and teach in the terms of the new theology, and to interpret the Bible in the terms of the new criticism, is no longer denied in the Protestant churches.
This is the change which has come to the other denominations. Read the extract a second time and a third time. It announces the surrender of Protestantism by the Protestant denominations. In the struggle with sophistry and skepticism they have been vanquished, and they will never be able to recover their ground. The original platform of Protestantism, as established by the Reformers, has been practically repudiated, and the authority of human reason and speculation has been accepted in place of the authority of God’s Word. Some of the results of the apparent triumph of false teaching are already discernible, and others will soon follow. It is also a sign of the nearness of the end.
The special significance of this change within this denomination and this change in the other denominations is worthy of our serious consideration. We have known for years that we were in the time of the loud cry of this message, and we have been sorely grieved because of the delay, but recently we have been comforted with the assurance that “there shall be delay no longer.” The time has fully come for this promise to be fulfilled. These changes have prepared the way. In calling his people back to the original message as he gave it to them, the Lord is getting them ready to co-operate with heavenly agencies in the final scenes of the conflict. In repudiating the original platform of Protestantism the churches as a body are taking that further step described in the prophecy: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, and is become a habitation of demons, and a hold of every unclean spirit, and a hold of every unclean and hateful bird.” Now must be sounded with a loud cry the call, “Come forth, my people, out of her, that ye have no fellowship with her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” This is the message of the angel of Rev. 18:1. “The work of this angel comes in at the right time to join in the last great work of the third angel’s message, as it swells to a loud cry. . . . This message seemed to be an addition to the third message, joining it as the midnight cry joined the second angel’s message in 1844.”
These are truly stirring times, but we shall miss their real meaning to us, and shall be deprived of the experience which we ought to have individually, unless we recognize God’s working and respond to his call. O for eyes to see and hearts to appreciate the significance of our position at the present time! Surely there would then be a new consecration to God and his service. Some will respond to the call of the hour. Some will have a part in the loud cry of this message. And the time is at hand.

“Helping Together”

By W. A. S.

THERE can be no question as to the anxious, hopeful interest with which our workers in the mission fields will now watch for the reports from the annual offering. Money, consecrated to God, is ammunition for the missionary battle line. It is not counted “mere money,” not by any means; for it provides the facilities for laying hold of souls struggling in the darkness, and decides many a problem that presses with crushing weight upon hearts facing tremendous needs. Our missionaries will watch the growing column of the annual offering report as men watch gathering rain-clouds in time of drought. It is a splendid privilege to give for missions.
But already, I know, fresh courage fills the hearts of the workers as they have realized during the week of prayer that thousands were unitedly praying for the fields. It is the knowledge of the praying body of believers in the churches that strengthens the hands of the missionaries, and cheers them on, whether prospects and facilities are favorable or unfavorable. Many a worker abroad is very much alone. Continual contact with conditions that try the soul would depress, save for the love and good cheer that come down from heaven. The thought of coming to the mercy-seat before which thousands of believers are kneeling, and there joining in a missionary prayer circle that girdles the earth, is a very precious and uplifting experience. Already, we know, a thrill of new life and courage has swept through the hearts of our missionaries in every land.
“Though sundered far, by faith we meet Around one common mercy-seat.”
From the lips of our comrades on every shore we hear the summing up of their requests, “Finally, brethren, pray for us.” It includes the whole circumference of need. We send the word out to our brethren that we in the home lands shall pray for them. It shall be but a week of prayer that ushers in a year of more fervent prayer that shall uphold the hands that are struggling in conflicts too great for human strength to bear.
Paul thanked God for a great deliverance, in which every praying believer in Corinth had a part, though he was far away from them: “Ye also helping together by prayer for us.” Believing prayer actually does things. It opens barred gates, it strengthens hands that would hang down, and presses the frontier lines of our work forward. When the work is at last finished, andthe harvest gathered, our missionaries will divide all their sheaves in lands afar with the praying believers who have all along been “helping together” in the work with them.
W. A. S.

“Lord, Is It I?” Matt. 26: 22

By Arthur Grosvenor Daniells

“WILL a man rob God? yet ye rob me.” Mal. 3: 7, American Revised Version.
This is a serious statement. It should alarm us. Will a man rob God? Will a poor, helpless human being who depends upon his Maker for every breath he draws, for every ray of sunshine, drop of water, and morsel of food, turn around and rob the Giver?—It would seem impossible. And yet that Giver says: “Ye rob me.”
“But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.” This charge is plain, direct, and specific. We do not have to draw conclusions from inferences. We are not left to search for the way the robbery is committed. It is in withholding from God tithes and offerings that belong to him in a special sense.
“Ye are cursed with the curse; for ye rob me, even this whole nation [people].” This is the result of our sin of robbing God. We may not realize that we are cursed. Only the true Christian knows what a sinner, who is in rebellion against God, is missing. None but God, and a church that is faithful in returning a full tithe to the Lord, can know what is being lost by robbing God of his tithe. But the awful statement to an unfaithful church is, “Ye are cursed with the curse; for ye rob me.”
“Bring ye the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.” This is the only remedy. Nothing can take the place of returning to God his tithe. Much praying, either in public or in private, will not atone for robbing God of tithes and offerings. Sabbath-keeping can not take the place of tithe paying. Christian philanthropy will not pass for obedience in tithing. These deeds are all good. They are necessary. But one can not take the place of the other, nor can all of them together take the place of faithfulness in returning to God his own in tithes and offerings.
“Bring ye the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.” A whole tithe is called for. Nothing less than one dollar is a whole tithe of ten dollars. Fifty cents is not a tenth of ten dollars.
There is a positive statement that the payment of the whole tithe by the church will make a full treasury; or, as stated in another way, there would be “no want of means with which to carry forward the last warning message to the world.” At present there is a great want of means. Our treasury is empty, while many wide-open doors are unentered, and many Macedonian calls are unanswered. What is the matter?—All are not paying the full tithe. What is the remedy?—“Bring ye the whole tithe into the storehouse.”
The entire tithe paid by Seventh-day Adventists during the year 1903, as reported by the church treasurers, was, $684,030.54. This amounts to an average of $9.04 for each Sabbath-keeper. Nine dollars and four cents, as all can readily see, is a tithe of $90.40. This indicates that the average annual income of Seventh-day Adventists is $90.40. That is an income of $1.93 a week for each Sabbath-keeper.
Now, we all know that this is not a correct representation of the income of our people. There are different ways of demonstrating this. In the first place, the majority of our people enjoy good health. Nearly all are able to work. And in these prosperous times work brings good returns. Wages in every department of labor are high. Prices for commodities of every kind are high. Demands for the products of labor are good and steady. The scale of reward for every kind of service is far above what is received by our people as indicated by the tithe they pay. The office clerk, the teacher, the mechanic of every sort, the farm hand, the cook, the kitchen girl, the janitor, gets more than this for the service rendered. And surely the business man and the farmer who owns his business, land and stock, gets as good wages as the common laborer.
Furthermore, the cost of living, especially in the United States, requires an income of more than $1.93 a week. This may house, board, and clothe a child, or a very aged person, but it is not enough for the average person. This will be seen when applied to families. Take a family of four. The father and mother belong to the church. The children, eight and ten years of age, do not. According to the figures given above, the income of that family is $3.86 a week. This is the amount on which the father and mother pay tithe. Does that family pay house rent, purchase fuel, food, and clothes, and school the children on $3.86 a week? That is what the amount of tithe we pay indicates.
O, may God, who knows the facts, alarm and arouse his people! Brethren, this is court week, and each one has a case pending. One of the charges preferred against us is that we are robbing God in tithes and offerings. How can we expect to be acquitted unless we make this right? And more, how can we expect the showers of the latter rain to fall upon the church while this sin is being committed? The prophet Jeremiah says: “But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone. Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the Lord our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest. Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withheld good things from you.” Jer. 5: 23-25.
These statements clearly show that for the church to harbor sin of any kind will be to prevent the gift of the Holy Spirit in the latter rain. We have been in the time of the latter rain many years, yet we do not see the showers falling on the church as they should. Who will dare to say that the sin of withholding the tithe from the Lord is not one of the reasons why the showers do not fall? May the Spirit of the living God speak effectually to every heart regarding this important duty. A. G. DANIELLS.

The Sunday Law Movement in Europe

By L. A. S.

In the December issue of the Christian Statesman, an advocate of Sunday legislation says of the recent progress of the Sunday movement in Europe:—
An international Sabbath federation . . . has existed for some forty years, with its headquarters at Geneva, Switzerland. More recently a Popular League for Sunday Rest has been organized in France, which has done grand work in closing shops, factories, public offices, and business houses. In Belgium alone two thousand freight trains are discontinued on the Lord’s day that run on other days. Russia forbids all factory work on Sunday, and most places of business are closed. Drinking places are closed all day on Sunday in Norway, Holland, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. A determined effort is being made in the same direction in England, where already such places are closed Sunday mornings, but open in the afternoons.
A wonderful advance has been made in France by voluntary effort. Till recently, all the shops in Paris were open on Sunday, and thronged with buyers. Monsieur Honore, the director-general of the shops of the Louvre, sent out many thousands of letters to the ladies of Paris, simply asking them if they could not do their shopping on weekdays. The replies were surprisingly favorable. Now the shops on the Louvre are all closed, besides many other shops in Paris and other cities of France. This shows what can be done when one tries.
The power of royal example is strong. Hence we were delighted by a newspaper paragraph the other day—we hope it is authentic—to the effect that King Edward, after a sojourn in Scotland, refused to return to London by a Sunday train, and declared his intention hereafter to refrain from all Sunday travel, to have no more social functionsat court on that day, and to have the king’s Sunday table served simply with cold meats.
All over Europe no delivery of parcels is allowed on Sunday by the post, and only a single letter delivery, whereas till recently this was all the same as on week days.
No reference is made by this writer to recent developments in Italy and Spain, but readers of the REVIEW know that the Sunday-law movement is gathering great force in those countries.
What is the significance of this world-wide rally in behalf of the institution which is the special sign of the power and authority of “the beast”? This question every Seventh-day Adventist should be able to answer. L. A. S.

Note and Comment

By L. A. S.

Attorney-General Moody, at the instance of the president, has written a decision affirming the illegality of “guessing contests,” which are declared to be lotteries in disguise. Such enterprises are hereafter to be forbidden the use of the United States mail service. The popularity of such forms of gambling in this country is indicated by the fact that the “World’s Fair Contest Company,” which invited people to send in estimates of the whole attendance at the St. Louis Fair, at twenty-five cents per guess, received, according to the attorney-general’s estimate, replies from about one million people, bringing to the company $250,000, for which the company paid out in return, in prizes, $85,000.
The educational controversy in England is taking on a new phase, which is greatly to the disadvantage of those who have heretofore profited by the Education Act which precipitated the strife. Church-schools supported by public money are required by the act to have school buildings conforming to a certain standard of fitness for school uses, and failure to meet this requirement cuts off all claim upon the public treasury. It is stated that “the surveys now making in London indicate that about $750,000 will be required for this purpose from Anglican and Roman churchmen.” The Education Act gave the control of the public or Board schools to the ritualistic party in the established church, and non-conformist opponents have refused to support the schools on so unjust a basis, and have for their “passive resistance” to the act been penalized by fines and imprisonment. The London County Council, the majority in which are opposed to the act, are now turning the provisions of the measure against its
adherents, putting upon them what is considered “a grievous if not unbearable burden.” It was predicted some time ago that the resistance to this act would force its early repeal by Parliament, but the measure still continues to be a fruitful source of injustice and strife in English religious circles.
The important question whether, with the change in the nation’s political ideals indicated by the subjection to its will of a foreign people, there is to be a re-establishment of involuntary servitude at home, is now pending for a decision in the Supreme Court at Washington. The question comes up in connection with the peonage system which has been established in some parts of the South. The case now before the Supreme Court is that of a Georgia planter who, in 1902, was convicted in the federal courts of that State, and sentenced to four years’ imprisonment at hard labor, on the charge of having held two negro men in peonage on account of debt, in violation of section 5526 of the revised statutes. The constitutionality of these statutes has been several times affirmed in the federal courts, but it is stated that the government “is powerless to compel their enforcement or observance, even in the most typical and flagrant cases.”
In the brief filed in the case by the attorney-general, the latter says:—
We think we may truthfully say that upon the decision of this case hangs the liberty of thousands of persons, mostly colored, it is true, who are now being held in a condition of involuntary servitude, in many cases worse than slavery itself, by the unlawful acts of individuals, not only in violation of the thirteenth amendment to the Constitution, but in violation of the law which we have here under consideration.
The history of this and of similar cases shows that there is little or no sentiment against this peonage system in the localities where it has been set up, and only the federal courts stand between it and its would-be victims.
The present status of the Sunday-enforcement movement in Washington is indicated by this announcement in the Post of December 13:—
The Association of Christian Clergy of the various Protestant churches of the city met at a luncheon yesterday at Rauscher’s, and decided that the first Sunday in the coming year should be devoted to the discussion of the question of “Sabbath Observance” in the city of Washington. These sermons are to be expressly aimed at the governmental practise of making certain employees work on Sunday. A systematic campaign will be inaugurated to remedy this state of things.
The meeting, which was an adjourned one from the session of the Christian clergy held at the Ebbitt House last winter, was called for the purpose of promoting better fellowship and understanding among the ministers of the various Christian denominations represented in the city. The resolution for the sermons on the subject of “Sabbath Observance” came up as a minor consideration, but was so favorably received that it was decided that the day mentioned be chosen as the day for the beginning of the combined attack.
Every “attack” of this nature creates an opportunity for a campaign of education among the people which those bearing the last-day message of Sabbath reform should not be slow to improve.
The Italian government, it is reported from Rome, was greatly impressed with the ceremony at the recent unveiling in Washington of the statue of Frederick the Great, and is considering the advisability of following suit and presenting to the United States a statue of a great Italian warrior, for which her choice would be Julius Cæsar. Italy is prompted to this action by the understanding that it is the desire of the Washington government to erect at the entrance of the war college which has been established at the capital city, a group of the world’s greatest military figures, among which would be Alexander the Great, Hannibal, and Napoleon.
This glorification of war, which was a noticeable feature of the speeches made in connection with the unveiling of the statue of the Prussian monarch, is a sign of the times. The United States government did not rise to its present position of greatness through war and conquest, as did other great world powers, but by the peaceful methods of settlement and purchase. This nation has stood before the world not in a warlike attitude; it has represented power and greatness not achieved by the sword, but by the peaceful conquest of the spirit of liberty and progress. It has not held aloft the sword, but the torch of “Liberty enlightening the world.” Now, however, there is a change. The nation has become an empire, a “world power,” in the military sense of the term. There is talk of a strong standing army and a great navy. The inauguration of the president has become an imposing military spectacle.
Nothing else than this, however, was to be expected, because it is the spirit of strife, and not of peace, that rules this world, and will rule it until its kingdoms are swept aside and give place to the kingdom of the Prince of Peace, when wars shall be no more. Men now talk peace, but their actions show that the spirit of war is in the ascendancy, and that the final appeal in the settlement of international controversies will be to the sword. For this all nations are now preparing. L. A. S.
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