Signs of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 5. (1/29/1885)

Signs of the Times

Jan 29, 1885

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 29, 1885

General Articles.

By Mrs. E. G. White

The Preaching of John.

BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.

JOHN was a faithful minister of Christ, bearing earnest testimony for his Lord on every suitable occasion. He had not enjoyed the training of the schools, his early life having been passed by the Sea of Galilee in the society of uncultivated fishermen; but, by association with the great Teacher, he had obtained the highest education which mortal man can receive. He drank eagerly at the fountain of wisdom, and then sought to lead others to that "well of water springing up into everlasting life."

He had a clear understanding of the character and mission of Jesus. The evidence that the despised Nazarene was indeed the Messiah for whom Israel had so long waited, seemed to him so clear that none need walk in the darkness of error. But the Jews would not believe. The apostle's heart was grieved as he saw that the prejudice and hatred which they so obstinately cherished, were bringing ruin upon the nation, and destroying their hope of everlasting life; that their own blindness, pride, superstition, and ignorance of the Scriptures, were riveting upon their souls fetters that would never be broken. Yet, notwithstanding their stubborn resistance to the truth, John ceased not to warn them, and to present Jesus as their only hope of salvation.

In preaching the words of life, John spoke with great power and feeling. The simplicity of his words, the sublime power of the truths he uttered, and the spiritual fervor that characterized his teachings, gave him access to all classes. He seemed ever to be imbued with the Holy Spirit. The wisdom with which he spoke caused his words to drop as the dew, softening and subduing the heart. It was his constant aim to bring the minds of the people up to grasp the unseen; yet even believers were unable to fully comprehend the sacred mysteries of divine truth unfolded in his discourses.

John believed in God as a child believes in a kind and tender father. His great love expressed in giving his Son to die for a lost race seemed to the apostle too great for language to express, a mystery which finite minds might not fathom. "Behold," he exclaims, "what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." He was lost in amazement that the plan of salvation, devised at such a cost to Heaven, should be refused by those for whom so great a sacrifice had been made. His favorite theme was the infinite love of Christ. When speaking on this subject, he forgot self; and the love and trust that pervaded his own heart gave a thrilling power to his words.

He had a keen sense of the love that should exist among Christian brethren; and he urged this love upon his children in the faith as an essential characteristic of the followers of Christ. While the heart is destitute of Christian charity, all pretensions to the Christian name are vain. "He that loveth not his brother, whom he hath seen, how can he love God, whom he hath not seen?"

The apostle was a teacher of practical holiness, giving, in his sermons and writings, unerring rules for the conduct of Christians. He declared in unmistakable terms that to be a Christian is to be Christlike. It is to be pure in heart and correct in morals; in no case should one rest satisfied with an empty profession. His own life was an illustration of his teaching, both in practical holiness and in love to God and man. It was his one great aim to conform to the will of God. He followed his Saviour so closely, and had such a sense of his purity and exalted holiness, that in contrast, his own character appeared exceedingly defective, and his humility was deep and genuine.

Although exposed to persecution and peril, and meeting many hindrances in his work, John was spared to the church for many years. Evil men, instigated by Satan, plotted to cut short the useful life of this man of God; but holy angels protected him from their malice. The church needed his testimony, and he was permitted to stand as a witness for Christ.

The apostle lived to see the gospel he loved preached far and near, and thousands eagerly accepting its gracious offer of pardon. But the joy of seeing sinners brought to Christ was not unmixed with sadness as he saw many come into the church who were not thoroughly converted, and who brought with them pernicious errors. Some were deceivers. While professing to believe the gospel, they denied Christ, and taught false doctrines; and the times were full of peril for the infant church. Some claimed that faith in Christ released them from the necessity of obedience to the law. Others held that the law was binding, also the Jewish customs and ceremonies, and that the observance of these was sufficient to insure salvation without the blood of Christ. They held that Jesus was a good man, like the apostles, but denied his divinity.

John saw the danger to which the church was exposed, and he acted with promptness and decision. The emissaries of Satan sought through misrepresentation and falsehood to stir up opposition and hinder his work. But John had been intimately associated with Christ; he had listened to his teachings and witnessed his mighty miracles; and he bore a convincing testimony that made the falsehoods of his enemies of no effect. He wrote to the churches, exhorting them not to give the leaders in these heresies the least encouragement, and by his personal influence and his zeal for the truth he hedged up their way, and saved many souls from ruin.

To one of the helpers in the gospel, a lady of good repute and extensive influence, he wrote: "Many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver, and an antichrist. Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward. Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him Godspeed; for he that biddeth him Godspeed, is partaker of his evil deeds."

He also taught, in the most unequivocal terms, the binding force of the law of ten commandments. "Whosoever committeth sin," he said, "transgresseth also the law; for sin is the transgression of the law. And ye know that He was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not; whosoever sinneth [transgresseth the law] hath not seen him, neither known him."

The apostle testifies that those who profess to know God, and to be living without sin, and yet break the divine law, give the lie to their profession. His epistles breathe a spirit of love; yet when he comes in contact with this class, he does not hesitate to reprove them sharply, and to warn them of their fearful deception. He says: "He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." "If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth; but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us." "Little children, let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous. He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning."

Here the apostle speaks in plain terms, as he deemed the subject demanded. In this age of boasted liberality, such plainness would be branded as bigotry. "You must have charity," is the cry everywhere, especially from those who profess sanctification. But charity is too pure to cover an unconfessed sin. The apostle teaches that while we should manifest Christian courtesy, we are authorized to call sin and sinners

by their right names, and that this is consistent with true charity. While we are to love souls for whom Christ died, and labor for their salvation, we should not make a compromise with sin. We are not to unite with those who are rebelling against divine authority, and call this charity.

The character of God has not changed. He is the same jealous God to-day as when he gave his law upon Sinai, and wrote it with his own finger on the tables of stone. Those who trample upon his holy law may say, "I am sanctified," but to be indeed sanctified, and to claim sanctification, are two different things. John enjoyed the blessing of genuine sanctification; but he did not claim to be sinless. He sought perfection in the way that Christ indicated in his prayer for his disciples: "Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth."

The errors that crept into the early church, and threatened its prosperity, have never been extinct. They are peculiarly active at the present time, constituting one of the perils of the last days. And God requires us to stand, as did John in his time, unflinchingly for the truth. With the love of the truth burning in our hearts, we shall "earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints."

SHALL WE BE READY?

Will the work that we are doing Stand the test of that great day, When the Lord will come to Judgment, All that's wrong to sweep away?

Will he speak the words of welcome When he comes to claim his own? Will he say, Thou hast been faithful; All thy work has been well done?

Have we built on the foundation, On the rock that's firm and true? Have we made a full surrender, Striving with our might to do

All the work the Master gives us, With our armor ever bright, Walking in the narrow pathway, Ever keeping in the light?

Oh! we must be more in earnest; We must choose the Lord to-day; Choose him as our only portion, While in this dark world we stay. —Sel.

Value of the Old Testament Scriptures.

By George R. Bristor

RECENT years have witnessed strong and persevering attacks upon the purity and binding authority of the Old Testament Scriptures. From without the church the cry has come that Moses' writings contain much contrary to known facts of science; that many of the characters of the Old Testament display grossness, immorality, and vice; that most of its teachings as to God portray a cruel, vindictive monster, in perfect opposition to the loving and pleading God of the New Testament; and that, therefore, because of such contradictoriness, all the thoughtful of earth must either discard both Testaments as a fraud upon human credence, or abandon the Old Testament as contradictory to, and inconsistent with, the spirit of the New Testament. Timid hearts within the church, fearful lest they might be driven to the former evil, have called upon their brethren to accept the latter. These Christians were ready to accept the books from Genesis to Malachi as historic records of the Jewish nation, worthy of preservation with the histories of other races and other times; but admitted that the morality it portrayed was that of a darker age than that in the days of Christ, and that the old moral code was therefore abrogated and the entire record made comparatively valueless and unauthoritative to us by the revelations of the gospel.

But both to the skeptic from without, and the fearful from within, the church, let the decisive words be repeated: "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable."

However these two Testaments differ in their form of recording, yet the thoughtful student is forced to the conclusion that they teach the same facts and principles. Boil down to its quintessence the entire New Testament, divesting it of all collateral matters, all arguments and conclusions, all pleadings and warnings, and it enunciates but three clear facts: The sinfulness and weakness of man, coupled with the purity and power of God; the naturalness and the futility of all efforts for human self-preservation and salvation; the possibility and actuality of a redemption in and by God himself. Boil down the old record, divesting it of all collaterals, and we find only the same three facts.

True, differences in clothing of these facts are evident in the two records. True, one looks to Calvary through the eyes of prophecy, while the other looks backward to an already offered sacrifice. Yet these are differences only of view or of presentation, not discord or differences of underlying facts. The same differences—if separate lines of approach be differences—exist in the apostolic writings, and in an especial degree in the evangelists' descriptions of Christ. The roots and buds of all the fragrant flowers blooming on the New Testament pages may be clearly discerned in the Old Testament. Daybreak proves the existence of a sun equally as well as midday; the latter, only more clearly than the former, shows its nature and power. So in their purport these two volumes do not differ.

It is true the Old Testament tells how Abraham lied, how Solomon lusted, how David sinned. Let it also be acknowledged, however, that all such evils in the chosen of God, occurred when, morally and intellectually, men walked in the twilight, and the evils decreased as the day dawned. And let it also be recognized that, although recorded in the record, they never were approved of by God. But as a father, for the guidance of the younger child, tells to him the sin of the older one and the punishment it necessarily brought, so in the Bible God tells his younger children, that they may be warned, of the sins of his former servants and the consequent punishment.

The very existence of the Old Testament in our day, as a part of the accepted Bible, should also be admitted as a strong argument for its harmony with the thoughts of the New. Through long ages the fires have continually burned about the book; the strokes upon it of the sharpened sword have been many and strong; the acids of criticism have been poured upon it even unto this day. No voice of its defenders has been equal to its own argument. It survives. Had the Old Testament taught a different theology from the New, had the writings, as through Moses received, lacked harmony with those through John, the flames of persecution would long since have burned the green withes which bind them together as one book; the sword long ago would have succeeded in separating the discordant parts; the acids of criticism would ere this have shown the jointure of welding together the gold and the base metal. And yet out of the smoke and heat of battles have come, alike unharmed, Moses and Matthew, Isaiah and John.

But there is an unanswerable argument in the claim made by Jesus the Christ, that he inspired Moses and Isaiah with the same inspiration which stirred the minds, and started the pens, of John and Luke and Mark. He, unhesitatingly, faces the records of the law, and announces they are as true as the declarations of the gospel. He insists that his authorship must be recognized in the former as in the latter. That being conceded, the consistency of the two revelations is beyond reasonable cavil. Christ speaking in the flesh can but speak in harmony with the Christ speaking through his prophets. It is "Jesus Christ the same yesterday and to-day and forever." Whenever he speaks, through whatever media, or in person, he must be self-harmonious, self-consistent, or his whole claim of divinity abandoned.

So the Old Testament, at least to Christians, as regards the principles it annunciates, ranks as equal in value with the writings of the New Testament.

But what is the value of the old records viewed from a scientific standpoint? In his gospel, John goes farther than the annunciation of Christ as the inspirer alike of the teachers of the old and new dispensations. He declares that not only "the Word was with God, and the Word was God," but adds, "By him were all things made." To emphasize this creative work of Christ, John afterward adds: "By him were all things made, and without him was not any thing made that was made." So this same Christ who taught as a man, and who spoke through the prophets, made also every flower that blooms, every tree that waves its arms in the storm, every star that sparkles.

When the world was made, and "hung on nothing," he did it. It was his voice that, amid the darkness, said, "Let there be light, and there was light." It was the skill of his hand that piled up the strata of the earth, that buried the coal under the hills, and the gold in the hidden veins. This is the New Testament claim. With the sad remembrance of Calvary about him, John traces Christ, not only through the prophets and entire Old Testament, but recognizes him as the Master-builder and Workman of creation.

So, despite the objections made, there lies the world created by Christ. In its very strata he must teach consistently with the words of his mouth. The rocks and the flowers, the birds and the trees, the sun and the cloud, the Genesis by Moses and the Psalmody of David, the moans of Jeremiah and the waning voice of Malachi, if we but understood them all aright, teach but the one story that is recorded in the Gospels. To do otherwise would be an inconsistency in the Creator and Author.

So, when compared with the New Testament, the Old Testament is found teaching the same principles, and of the same value that the opening bud is to the opened flower, or the day-dawn to midday. As compared with contradictory science, the Old Testament must be understood as requiring only the same faith in its dicta as is necessary for the acceptance of scientific claims. And the value of the Old Testament, as compared with that of assailing science, must be in proportion as the word of the eternal God is of value when contradicted by the word of human wisdom.—George R. Bristor, D. D., in Sunday School Times.

Christian Consciousness.

THE experimental test concerning the truth of religion in general, or of any truth in particular, is of great importance. But when it is placed above the inspired and infallible teachings of the word of God, it inculcates one of the worst heresies that can be taught. Christian consciousness, like conscience, is capable of great growth, or of contraction, as regards its clearness and justness of conception. Peter speaks of Christians who could not see afar off; they were morally near-sighted, and needed to have their spiritual sense more fully exercised and developed before they could see clearly the truth in its length and breadth. See 2 Pet. 1:9.

Paul, also, in speaking of the adverse judgment of his Corinthian brethren concerning himself, says: "But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of man's judgment; yea, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by myself, yet am I not hereby justified, but he that judgeth me is the Lord." But, says one, may not the combined convictions of the majority of Christian people become an infallible standard of truth? By no means. At one time all of Paul's brethren in Asia were turned away from and against him. Did their agreement prove that their judgment was infallible? Let God be true, though all men be found fallible and mistaken. To the law and the gospel; if a man's conscience agree not therewith, it is because he, and not the book, is wrong. Every page of the book was written by holy men as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, that we might have one final and infallible appeal in all honest endeavors to find the truth.—Sel.

Walking in the Presence of God

By Jeremy Taylor

HE that often converses with God in earnest prayer and communion; that runs to him with all his necessities; that asks counsel of him in his doubtings; that opens all his wants to him; that weeps before him for all his sins; that asks remedy and support for his weakness; that fears him as a judge, reverences him as a Lord, and obeys him as a father; he walks in the presence of God.—Jeremy Taylor.

Obedience and Sacrifice the True Test of Love to God.

By E. Hilliard

If the majority of professors of religion had more regard for the word of God, there would not be such a slackness in obeying its teachings. If we would consider the commands we read from its sacred pages, the same as though their Author stood in our presence, we would not be so reluctant to obey.

To know God's commands, to learn our Saviour's instruction, we must search diligently the word. Some portions of Scripture may be hard to understand, but with comparison and a close study of the bearing that one passage has upon another, we may be enabled to find its true meaning. This effort, however, must be accompanied with earnest prayer, to be fully successful. "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." 1 Cor. 2:14. The Bible was written by the aid of the Holy Spirit, and many truths are buried just far enough beneath the surface to require his assistance to bring them to light.

Whoever has a desire to obey the teachings of the Bible will also have a desire to know what it teaches. If there is a difference of opinion respecting those things which affect the soul's salvation, no one who realizes the worth of his soul, will rest easy until he has made a prayerful research into the sacred word. He will not depend upon a happy flight of feeling as a warrant of his acceptance with God, but will earnestly desire the Spirit's presence to quicken his mental faculties so that he can readily comprehend the truth upon the question at issue.

Some will not investigate certain unpopular themes, for fear they may be sustained by the Bible. How much does such a soul love eternal life? Does he not love the world and the praise of men more than God and the world to come? We are just as responsible for our opportunities of knowing truth as though we knew the truth and rejected it. If we shun a knowledge of the truth because it requires a sacrifice to obey, can we expect that he who left the glories of Heaven and sacrificed his life for us will give us a life without end? "If we suffer, we shall also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us." We cannot more positively deny him than by refusing to obey his precepts. If we love Christ we will obey him. He says, "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love." John 15:10. He told the rich young ruler that came to him to inquire what he should do to inherit eternal life, to keep the commandments (Matt. 19:16, 17) and to sell all that he had and give to the poor. Does any one suppose that our Saviour would require such a sacrifice upon the part of the rich nobleman, and then excuse us because we have to make a small sacrifice to obey the same commandments that he told him to keep?

Nay, verily, his commands are just as binding on us, and his demand for obedience just the same, no matter what the personal inconvenience, or worldly loss. "If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him." No better proof can be given that the love of the Father is not in us than when we turn away from his requirements, for worldly prospects. E. HILLIARD.

Religion at Home.

It is laughable to see one hunting high and low for his spectacles when they have been only shoved over his forehead. But it is not laughable to see Christians hunting for what they call opportunities to honor God while overlooking such opportunities, which they undoubtedly carry with them wherever they go. A slovenly carpenter was once heard, at a weekly prayer-meeting, to pray with great fervency for the spread of Christ's cause—a cause which he disgraced and hindered in his sphere every time he stood at his bench.

When he ended his prayer, a hearty "Amen!" came from a servant who puts his mistress out of temper many times a day by his carelessness. A clerk, also, was there, who, although he taught a class in the mission school on Sabbaths, was always late at his employer's store on week days. He whispered, "Amen," too, and meant it, as far as he knew himself. A lady hearer, as she listened, resolved to join the church missionary society, and then went home and found unreasonable fault with her cook. And others also felt constrained to do something for Christ, who never even dreamed that religion, like charity, begins at home.

The mechanic who is powerful in prayer-meeting, and weak at his trade, is not a credit to the cause he professes. The servant who drops tears feelingly at religious services, and drops dishes unfeelingly in the kitchen, has her tenderness altogether too much on one side. And it is a poor kind of religion which seeks opportunities to set others straight, but overlooks one's own crookedness.—Sel.

Christian Character a Growth.

If we sow a handful of wheat in our garden, we could not tell, though we watched ever so narrowly, the exact moment when it germinated. But when we see the waving grain in the autumn, we know it did germinate, and that is all we care for. The young disciple should not expect too much light at once. It will grow brighter with every Christian duty he performs. The Christian life is a sort of mountain path; and the higher one climbs, the clearer the atmosphere, and the sooner he will see the morning sun. To the adventurous traveler who has ascended to the summit of Mont Blanc, the sun rises earlier, and sets later, and night is therefore shorter than to the peasant who lives down in the valley at the base. So it is in the Christian life. Cleanness of vision, and firmness of foot, and beauty of prospect, come only to those who have struggled up the heights—to the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Conversion may be the work of a moment, but a saint is not made in an hour. Character, Christian character, is not an act, but a process—not a sudden creation, but a development. It grows, and bears fruit, like a tree, and, like a tree, it requires patient care, and unwearied cultivation.—Messiah's Herald.

Prayer.

By Talmage

IN childhood we begin with, "Now I lay me down to sleep," and we learn the Lord's Prayer, and then, in after life, we get a few formulas of prayer, and go on with the same thing year by year, as though we did not have every day new sins to confess and new blessings for which to thank God.

What is prayer? A doctor in the army said he was going over a battle-field after a great conflict. He had but a small supply of medicine, and there were enough men wounded to occupy twenty or thirty surgeons. He could only attend to a small part of the wounded. It was doleful, he said, to hear the cries of the wounded men. One cried out: "This artery is bleeding me to death, doctor; won't you bind it up?" And some one else cried: "Doctor, can't you give me an anodyne to soothe this pain?" Hundreds of voices crying out all over the battle-field. Ah, that was prayer!

We are wounded from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot—hurt with wounds that will be our death unless we have the divine Surgeon come to our relief. Are we holding up these gashes of soul before Christ, our divine Physician? Are we anxious for him to come and heal us? That is prayer, and anything short of it is no prayer at all.—Talmage.

The Shortness of Time.

By C. A. Osgood

"THIS I say, brethren, the time is short." Time is a very small fragment of eternity. The eternal past, and the eternal future, what finite mind can comprehend? Compared with eternity, the six thousand years of time dwindle to a point; they are short indeed. And if we compare the seventy or eighty years that some men now live, with the thousands that are past, how short is a life-time! Or, if we compare the period of the life-time of men now with that of those who lived before the flood, truly we may exclaim, "The time is short."

But when we look upon the future in the light of prophecy, this statement of the apostle is most emphatically true. We have reached that period in the history of the world when the four universal kingdoms represented by the four beasts of the seventh chapter of Daniel are in the past. The little horn of the fourth beast has had its rise and triumph, and its dominion has been taken away, to consume it unto the end. See Dan. 7:26. We have evidently reached "the time of the end" (Dan. 12:4), when, it was predicted, many should run to and fro, and knowledge should be increased.

The time has come when the signs in the heavens were to show that the second coming of our Lord would soon take place. These were to appear soon after the close of the great papal persecution, which threatened to destroy all the people of God. Matt. 24:22, 29. These signs were fulfilled by the darkening of the sun and moon in 1780, and the falling of the stars in 1833. And now we have right before our eyes "distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth." Luke 21:25, 26. Our Saviour said, "When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." Verse 28. And "when ye shall see all these things, know that it [margin, he] is near, even at the doors." Matt. 24:33. Thus we see that we are living in the very latest period of this world's history. That which remains of probationary time is short indeed. Truly "the end of all things is at hand." How carefully then ought we to live; how diligent should we be, to prepare to meet our Lord in peace.

In view of the shortness of time, Paul said: "It remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none; and they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and they that use this world, as not abusing it." 1 Cor. 7:29-31. This is as though he had said, Let not the affections of men for their wives hinder them from a faithful improvement of time, in laboring diligently for the spread of truth, and the salvation of souls; and let not sorrow be permitted to weigh down our minds so as to prevent us from performing the important duties God requires to be done during the brief period allotted us here. Nor should buying or selling so engross our minds that we should fail to lay up treasure in Heaven. They that use this world should use it as not abusing it; but most men—yes, most professed Christians—do abuse the things of the world.

Some plants that are only fit to grow wild are extensively cultivated, bought, and sold, to the great detriment of those who use them. Many of God's blessings are turned into curses by a wrong use of them. Many things useful in themselves are idolized, and so made the cause of untold suffering. But we are too near the Judgment to thus squander our Lord's property, and abuse his gifts. The talents the Master has intrusted to us should be so improved that when he returns he may say to each one of us, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant; . . . enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." C. A. Osgood.

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