p. 5 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 12. (3/20/1907)

Signs of the Times

Mar 20, 1907

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, Cal. · Mar 20, 1907

What the People Say

Myrta M. Kellogg, Educational Secretary of the North Michigan Conference, writes of the True Education Reader Series, "I am glad that we have a book to place in the hands of the teachers which is in line with the more advanced methods of teaching. The inexperienced teacher can scarcely fail in teaching from such a book, and one who has taught longer will certainly find this book a joy to her heart. I am especially pleased with the large place which has been given to phonic work. The subject matter is most excellent. The seat work will be a great help, especially to the busy teacher who must handle many grades, as so many of our church-school teachers do."

R. B. Thurber, Superintendent of Department of Education for the East Michigan Conference, writes, "A copy of your recent publication—True Education Reader No. 1—has just come to hand, and I have examined it closely. I take pleasure in complimenting you upon the excellent contents and good binding of the book. This is what we have needed. On account of past experience I can appreciate this good series of readers. It is the best ever for our church schools. You may count on the church schools in this conference taking a large number of these books. I hope that these readers will accomplish their mission in the educational work."

Prof. I. C. Coleord, Educational Secretary of the California-Nevada Conference, upon receipt of True Education Readers, writes, "As I unwrapped the package and saw what it was, I said, 'The thing attempted has been achieved;' we now have readers that at once have our confidence, knowing that they are safe, because they contain the truth. I trust that our church schools everywhere will avail themselves of these readers."

W. D. Curtis, Educational Secretary of the Lake Union Conference, writes, "I have examined books 1 and 2 of the True Education Reader Series, and am pleased with the mechanical make-up. They are of a convenient size, and seem to be well bound, two very important points in text-books for primary grades. The paper is good, the type large and clear, and the illustrations attractive.

"The development, which means much to the teacher, is worthy of more than a passing notice. The phonic, word, and sentence methods are the most natural, and hence most readily grasped by the pupil. His ear is trained by the phonics, and his eye by the word and sentence methods.

"The plan of correlating language, geography, spelling, writing, physiology, Bible nature, and to a certain extent, number work, is one which will be hailed with delight by the over-burdened teacher; as at least a partial emancipation from an overcrowded daily program, while the patrons will accept it as an economical feature of the Series.

"Another very praiseworthy feature of the readers is, the authors, in the selection of subject-matter, have drawn from the true and beautiful in nature and the Bible. This is so far removed from the general plan of the school readers now on the market, which are filled with fairy tales, adventures, and fiction, that the True Education Reader Series occupies a unique position in the field.

"Your readers will doubtless come into general use."

A leader in the church-school work writes, "I feel that your readers will prove a great blessing to our primary school work. They will fill a place that has not been filled in the history of our schools. They ought to come into general use in the schools of this denomination."

COURSE OF BIBLE STUDY.

By Editor

The first eight subjects to be presented in this special series beginning May 1, are:

THE BIBLE.
PROPHECY.
THE COMING OF THE LORD.
OUR SACRIFICE AND PRIEST.
THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES.
THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL.
MAN AND HIS DESTINY.
SPIRITUAL GIFTS.

Here are outlines for the next six studies:

9. ELECTION, PREDESTINATION, AND FREE WILL.

10. THE GREAT THREEFOLD MESSAGE. (a) The Condition of the World. (b) God's Healing Message. (c) Message Rejected, and Result. (d) The Beast. (e) The Image. (f) The Mark. (g) The Result of the Messages. (h) God's Sealing Work.

11. THE CHURCH. (a) What the Church Is. (b) The Called-Out Ones. (c) The Apostate Church. (d) The Two Witnesses.

12. BIBLE TEMPERANCE. (a) The Temple of God—Eating, Drinking, Dressing, Exercise, and Breathing. (b) True Sanctification.

13. THE SABBATH, THE TEST OF THE AGES. (a) Its Origin, Nature, and Object. (b) The Sabbath in the Old Testament. (c) The Sabbath in the New Testament. (d) The First Day of the Week. (e) The Change of the Sabbath. (f) The Restoration of the Sabbath.

14. THE GREAT FEDERATION MOVEMENT. (a) Federation of Capital. (b) Federation of Labor Organizations. (c) Federation of Socialistic Societies. (d) Federation of Religious Bodies. (e) The True Church Unfederated.

Think of the value of having such a course of Bible lectures given right in your own home. Each study can be placed on file for future reference. Better still, with the course in this form, at a very slight expense you can make it possible for your friends, near or at a distance, to enjoy it with you.

Prices on this series of 26 special numbers, beginning May 1, are: On clubs of five or more to one address, during the six months, 50 cents per copy; On single subscriptions, 75 cents for the six months.

Address early your tract society, or SIGNS OF THE TIMES Mountain View, Cal.

Attractive Books

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Sent post-paid at above prices. Address your State Tract Society, or

Pacific Press Publishing Company

Mountain View, Cal. 285 Salmon St., Portland, Ore. 1109 East 12th St., Kansas City, Mo.

AN OPEN HEAVEN.

By Editor

OUR illustration is of the closed altar to the Temple of Heaven in Peking. That temple has also its open altar, far less magnificent; the first is open once a year to the royal magnate of the empire, but prohibited to the common people; the other open to those who have the means to gain the favor of the cordon of priests which perpetually surround it. It is a good illustration of the perverted ways of God, the way of man's devices.

THE CLOSED ALTAR TO THE TEMPLE OF HEAVEN, PEKING, CHINA.

How unlike the way of the true God. His word to the people of earth is, "Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it." From the beginning of God's revelation to its close we read of an open heaven to the children of men, from which God is pouring out the exceeding riches of His grace, to which man has access in the simplest way, the easiest way, which it is possible to devise. That way is the infinitely wise way of love on God's part, the simple way of faith on man's part.

THE American Standard Revised Version reads: "Behold, I have set before thee a door opened, which none can shut." Rev. 3:8. Christ Jesus opened the door which sin had shut. He "gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us out of this present evil world." Gal. 1:4. He "gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a people for His own possession, zealous of good works." Titus 2:14. He is "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." Rev. 13:8.

THRU all the rolling centuries has that love been tested, and still it pleads, still it pours out the richest of Heaven's blessings, still it invites man to the heavenly places. From the open heaven with its shining stairway, filled with angel ministrants, revealed to the sinful and despairing Jacob at Bethel, to the glorious visions of John on barren Patmos, it is ever the open door, and the heavenly call to the tempted, sinful, sinning, hopeless, despairing children of men, COME.

BUT to enter that door, to place ourselves in the way which leads to the eternal land of light and love and blessing, we, too, must open a door, the door of our hearts, fast closed by sin and selfishness, at which the Master may have knocked, lo, these many years; but we have been too busy, or careless, or indifferent, or rebellious, or enslaved by sin, to heed the knocking of Him who to us is a stranger. Yet He comes to be a friend. He comes to bring light where hitherto there has been darkness. 2 Cor. 4:6. He comes to speak into order and beauty the heart which sin had reduced to chaos and ruin. He comes to transmute the base and vile into the precious and clean. He comes to sweep away the enfogged wilderness of fen and mire, and plant in our heart

"the highways to Zion;" that the "valley of weeping" may become a "place of springs," covered "with blessings" by "the early rain;" that we may "go from strength to strength," so that every one who has opened the door to the King may appear "before God in Zion." Ps. 84:5-7. But if we choose, we may close that door forever.

SOUL, come. Are you not sick of your own ways? Have you not had enough of sin and its fruits? Are you not convinced that the ways of men, so often right in their own eyes, lead but to death and disappointment? Have you not become sufficiently discouraged in trying to overcome your sins and sinful disposition to give it all up to God, lay down the arms of your rebellion, submit to all the blessed requirements of His blessed government, and heed His call, Come?

THEN do not put it off for one moment. Come now. It is the Father’s call, “Child, come home! Leave the sin, the evil, the plague spots of earth; leave the pleasures that lure to destroy, the gains which harden the heart, the lusts which vitiate and disintegrate all moral fiber, the ambitions which spur to disappointment and death, all the vain, glittering, evanescent bubbles which please for the moment and vanish; leave the husks and the swine, and come home to the Father’s house, with all its riches of grace and glory. It is the conquering Captain’s call, “Come, I lead; you follow Me.” There will be contests, combats, wars, fighting, but there is eternal victory to all who will enlist in the militant army of Jesus Christ, the Captain of Jehovah’s host. All Heaven calls thee. From God’s first call to the brother-hating, sin-loving Cain (Gen. 4:7) to the last chapter of the Book of God (Rev. 22:17) rises the cry of the agonizing love of God to the sinful and dying, Come, come, come. “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” “Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die?” “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” “And the Spirit and the bride say, COME. And he that heareth, let him say, COME. And he that is athirst, let him come: he that will, let him take the water of life freely.” Come home!

IS IT LIFE-UNION?

"I AM the vine; ye are the branches," declares Jesus Christ to His disciples. There is, there can be, no other union between a vine and its fruit-bearing branches than that of life. Branches may be tied together, or tied on to the tree. But in such bringing together there is no union. There may be unity of purpose on the part of him who tied them together, but there is no life-union. Break the outward tie; and the branches fall away. There is no flowing of life-current, no fiber strain; for there has been no real union. How are you connected with Christ? Are you tied on by church forms? or is there life-union?

GOD’S REMEDY.

By Editor

The New Theology—“The Parting of the Ways.”

WHEN we wrote “The Parting of the Ways” in our last week’s issue, “Our London Letter,” printed in our Outlook Department, had not come to hand. We commend its careful perusal to our readers. It will give added emphasis to the testimony presented last week as to the condition of religion in America. The simple awful fact is that “higher criticism” has stripped Protestantism of her strength in the three great Protestant strongholds of earth,—Germany, Great Britain, and the United States.

The very fundamentals of Protestantism demanded faith in the Bible as the word of God; faith in the Bible story of man’s fall and utterly helpless, sinful condition; faith in the Bible’s vicarious Redeemer and Saviour, the God-man Christ Jesus, the “Word made flesh,” the resurrected, almighty, divine-human Saviour. All mutable, imperfect, human creeds—and such all are—must be subject to that word. All union with the State must be forever broken. The civil magistrate is to have no authority, no power, no place, in matters of faith. If this be not true, the Reformation was a colossal mistake.

But did not God know of this departure from the faith—from the primitive faith of Pentecost? Truly, He did; and He forewarned His church and gave them the remedy. Listen to the words of Paul to a band of church elders:

“Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood. For I know this, that after My departing shall GRIEVOUS WOLVES ENTER IN AMONG YOU, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, SPEAKING PERVERSE THINGS, to draw away DISCIPLES AFTER THEM. Therefore watch, and remember that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.

“And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and TO THE WORD OF HIS GRACE, WHICH IS ABLE TO BUILD YOU UP, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.” Acts 20: 28-32.

Listen again to his charge to the Christian ministry:

“I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: PREACH THE WORD; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when THEY WILL NOT ENDURE SOUND DOCTRINE; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall TURN AWAY THEIR EARS FROM THE TRUTH, AND SHALL BE TURNED UNTO FABLES.” 2 Tim. 4: 1-4.

Read also what Jesus says in Luke 12: 22-40; 18: 1-8; and His apostle in 2 Peter 2: 1-3; and another in 2 Thess. 2: 1-12, and other passages.

But the warnings uttered were not heeded. The apostasy came. The false philosophies did their work. The virgin church became a harlot, and united with the kings of earth, and as the result came the Dark Ages, strange children, and the earth deluged with blood.

The Reformation brought light and hope and life to the world; but from its principles of life the Reformation churches have departed. They have either wedded themselves to the creeds of men instead of the word of God, or they have utterly perverted Christianity by the false philosophies of the higher critics and infidel science. There the church stands to-day. There the prophet of God saw it nearly three thousand years ago, and thus declared his vision:

“Put ye in the sickle, for the HARVEST IS RIPE: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. MULTITUDES, MULTITUDES IN THE VALLEY OF DECISION; for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.”

He spake truly. Multitudes are in the valley of decision, undecided and deciding. Shall it be a return to Romanism? Shall it be a twice-dead and creed-bound Protestantism? Shall it be drifting without chart or rudder among the philosophic icebergs and rocks and shoals of “science falsely so-called,” “higher criticism,” or oriental mysticism? Or shall it be a return, simple, forthright, absolute, to the word of God?

For this very time God has lifted His ensign and spread athwart the sky His banner. For this very time His trumpet may be heard certain and clear among all the discords of earth. Read and listen to one of its melodies, represented like that Gospel message over the plains of Bethlehem as given by His shining messengers to men:

“And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, FEAR GOD, and give GLORY TO HIM; for the hour of HIS JUDGMENT IS COME; and WORSHIP HIM that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” Rev. 14: 6, 7.

It is an old, definite message: it presents the same age-lasting Gospel.

It is a universal message: it goes to all alike, knowing neither creed nor nation. It calls from the fear of man, “higher” critic or ruler tho he be, to the fear of God, the One who gives life and salvation, before whom the nations are but as “a drop in the bucket” and “the small dust of the balance.”

It calls us away from giving glory to man, glory to poor, sinful, dying self, poor, worthless self without God, and demands that we render to God the honor and glory that are His due; the honor and glory of obedience explicit and implicit, to all He requires; the honor and glory that is due from the great Gift of heaven for our salvation; the utter paling and fading of all human creeds and human schemes in the light of that glory.

It is a final message: it brings us to that hour when His judgment is pending; when we shall be judged, not by human creeds or standards or conceptions, but by His holy law; when we shall stand face to face with God alone.

It is a spiritual message, recognizing the need of humanity, some object of worship; but it calls us away from the worship of self or selfish desires to the only object worthy of worship, the Creator of the heaven and the earth. And the highest worship, on the words of Christ, is service. Matt. 4: 10.

The heeding of this message leads in the fourth road, the highway cast up for the ransomed to walk in. Who they are is not noted in the earthly halls of fame; but of them Inspiration declares: “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. 14: 12.

All that comes between them and that message—great Babylon and her errors and the pomp and power of the beast and his image—are set aside. The world and its standards are chaff; God's word is the wheat, the rock, the refuge.

Questions on Matthew 28 Resurrection

By Editor

2023.—Matt. 28:1-11.

(1) Please explain Matt. 28:1-11, so there will be harmony between this and other texts on the resurrection. (2) Can "late on the Sabbath day," or "in the end of the Sabbath," mean twelve hours later? (3) Was not the Sabbath that followed the crucifixion a yearly or passover Sabbath instead of a weekly Sabbath? (4) If it was late on the Sabbath would not counting back seventy-two hours, or three days and three nights, bring it to Wednesday evening as the crucifixion day? V. T.

We can only briefly answer this question at this time. Later on when we get time, we shall publish an article on the whole subject. But replying to your questions concisely, would say that to our mind the last verse of chapter 27 ought to be connected with chapter 28, according to the suggestion which Greenfield gives in his Greek Testament, and which would make perfect harmony with all the other evangelists. It would then read: "So they [the priests and Pharisees] went, and made the sepulcher sure, sealing the stone, the guard being with them, late on the Sabbath day. Now as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher," making the "late on the Sabbath day" refer to the time of the sealing of the stone and the setting of the guard; which makes harmony throughout.

2. There are good scholars who hold that "late on the Sabbath day" or "in the end of the Sabbath," means, as Mark expresses it, "after the Sabbath is passed," simply a general form of expression meaning after the Sabbath had ended and toward the dawning of the light part of the first day. Mark 16:9 reads, "Now when He [Jesus] was risen, early on the first day of the week;" the Interlinear Translation, "Now having risen early the first day of the week." Murdock's translation of the Peshitto Syriac, one of the best New Testament versions, reads: "And in the morning of the first day of the week, He arose," which seems quite decisive.

3. The Sabbath day following the crucifixion was probably both a yearly and weekly Sabbath. "That Sabbath" would naturally refer to the weekly Sabbath, and the high day would refer to the fact that it was one of the great days of the Passover; not that it was a high day Sabbath, but that it was a regular Sabbath and also a high day.

4. There is no ground whatever for contending that there should be seventy-two hours in the three days and nights of Matt. 12:40. If you will search the Old Testament Scriptures, you will find that parts of days are counted as whole days; neither does Matt. 12:40 say that Jesus would be in the grave three days and three nights. These are suggestive thoughts, and I hope that you will study them.

Fish

By Editor

2025.—Fish.

Is fish meat? SUBSCRIBER.

What is meant by the term "meat"? Meat sometimes covers the same idea as food. It is a common thing for an old English farmer to ask his servant, "Have you given the horses their meat?" We use the same term when speaking of the meat of the nut, meaning that substance which is used for food. Of course fish is not the flesh of quadrupeds, it is the flesh of fish, and therefore is animal and not vegetable. Fish is truly a kind of flesh, notwithstanding the alliteration of "flesh, fish, and fowl." All these are flesh; one may be the flesh of the ox, another the flesh of fowl, and the other the flesh of fish.

The matter of condemning the eating of flesh rests between the one who eats it and the Judge of all. We do not recall any instance where one is put under condemnation for eating fish. It is, however, pointed out to us that many times these are very unwholesome and utterly unfit for food, and more and more as the earth nears the end, will all such foods as this become unfit to eat.

2024.—The One Hundred Years of Isa. 65:20.

By C. M. S.; A. J. F.

Please explain Isa. 65:20.

First of all, note the context from verse 13. The time is the time of the judgment when God's servants, hitherto oppressed, shall be oppressed no longer, but those who have oppressed them will themselves suffer. His people shall sing, while the wicked shall weep and wail. To cheer His people, He holds out before them the promise of new heavens and new earth, so glorious and beautiful that all the former things shall not be remembered nor come into mind to weigh upon the heart. The New Jerusalem will be in that new earth, "a rejoicing, and her people a joy;" the voice of weeping will be forever banished. In that blessed land there will not be seen what is in this land, "there will be no more thence an infant of days," neither will old men be seen who have not filled their days. Why?—Because just before God's children enter upon that new heaven and new earth the irrevocable judgment of God will have been visited upon sin. This is more fully described in Revelation 20. "At the end of the thousand years" the city of God descends upon the place described in Zechariah 14. His people descend with that city, the wicked dead are raised, Satan goes out into the four corners of the earth to deceive them, making them believe that the city of God can be taken, that the kingdom which has come to God's children can be made the kingdom of his followers. They prepare for war, and come up over the breadth of the earth and compass the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city. Just how long this period of time is, Revelation does not say, but it seems very reasonable that right here should apply Isa. 65:20. There will be the young and the old who have so transgressed against God that they have shut themselves away from His promised mercy. There will be the old man, and the child who has passed the age of probation and is therefore responsible, and who has chosen sin instead of righteousness. The old man shall live during that hundred years and die, and the responsible child shall live during that same period and shall die; and then, after the purifying fire shall purge the earth of its sin, God's people shall dwell therein forever.

No One Hath Ascended into Heaven

By Editor

2026.—"No One Hath Ascended into Heaven." John 3: 13.

Will you please explain in the Question Corner of the SIGNS, John 3:13, especially in view of the fact that Enoch and Elijah ascended into heaven?

There is perfect harmony if we will only keep the context in mind. Nicodemus wanted to know God's way. He came to Jesus to find out. Jesus assured him, in the eleventh verse, that He spoke that which He knew, and bore witness of that which He had seen, "and no one hath ascended into heaven," to learn those things and bring them back to earth; "but He that descended out of heaven." That is the thought of the text. Enoch and Elijah ascended into heaven, but they did not come back to tell us what they learned there. Jesus came from heaven in order that He might reveal to the world heavenly things, and no one save Christ has done this.

The Lord’s Supper

By Editor

2027.—The Lord's Supper.

Should little children who have not been baptized, under six years of age, partake of the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper?
Should adults not of the faith be offered the ordinances, especially when we know their lives are contradictory to the Scriptures and they do not try to live right?

1. It would seem as tho parents would so instruct their children that the children would not wish to do this. Properly, baptism precedes the Lord's Supper, the communion of the body of Christ among those who have by faith accepted of Him. The better way with children would be to instruct them in this respect, and then it would be very clear to them.

2. If those who we feel are not Christians present themselves at the Lord's table among those that are, the responsibility of their eating and drinking rests with them and not with those who administer these emblems. The Lord knew the heart of Judas was not right, and yet Judas partook of the emblems of the Lord's body and blood at that supper, but the responsibility rested with him and not with Christ. When the Lord's Supper is administered, these things should be stated clearly: that the Lord's Supper is free and no one is debarred from partaking, but such communion involves certain obligations, according to the Scriptures, and those who take upon themselves to engage in it must themselves bear the responsibility, as set forth in First Corinthians 11.

2028.—Drinking Cider.

By Editor

Is cider unfermented, or is it wholesome drink which can be used without sin? Y.

The juice of good, wholesome apples direct from the press is not fermented. Such drink could not be considered intoxicating. Fermentation has not yet begun in it, but cider does not have to wait very long before fermentation does begin. In others words, before it begins to get "hard." And "hard" cider is certainly intoxicating, and hard-cider drunkards are about the worst and most selfish class of drunkards there are. The drinking of cider which has become hard in any way will certainly have a tendency to lead right on to the drinking of stronger intoxicants. Measured by 1 Cor. 10:31 surely it would seem that a Christian ought to discard the drinking of such beverages.

Continue reading: THE GREAT SALVATION