Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Sep 17, 1903
Publishers’ Page
Conducted by the Department of Circulation of the Review and Herald Publishing Company
Our Paradise Home
On August 4 the first copy of the book, “Our Paradise Home,” was finished. No announcement of the book was made, nor any advertisement sent out, prior to its completion. Yet on September 4, one month from the day the first book was finished, eight thousand of the books were sold, and the orders were coming in so rapidly that a new edition of ten thousand was immediately provided for.
This prompt demand is in itself an excellent testimonial in behalf of the merits of the book; but with the orders for the books came many letters, from which we select the following testimonials:—
I feel free in recommending “Our Paradise Home” as a book well worthy the careful reading and study of every one whose eyes turn longingly toward the promised inheritance. The book will inspire a desire in the heart of the reader to meet the difficulties of the way now, that his place shall not be vacant in the circle of the Lord’s home, to which he will welcome his children.
It being a small book, the price is within the reach of all, and it will no doubt enjoy a wide circulation.
T. E. BOWEN,
Secretary of N. Y. Tract Society.
I have just read “Our Paradise Home,” and find it an interesting, instructive, and readable little book, filled brimful of present truth from cover to cover. It would seem that all our canvassers should esteem it a privilege to carry this book to the people. The price is low, and the subject-matter of general interest to religious people of all denominations. It can be used as a “help,” and will do much to enlighten the mind on the important subject discussed in the light of Holy Writ. May this little volume have a wide circulation.
Yours for the circulation of good literature,
E. W. CARY,
Secretary of Cumberland Tract Society.
“Our Paradise Home,” while compact and brief, is very comprehensive, and the author has succeeded in holding forth in new setting the everlasting gospel. It is just the book to place in the hands of all who are longing for that better home.
Very sincerely,
ELDER S. B. HORTON.
Brother Lane has certainly done well in the subject-matter of “Our Paradise Home.” Its presentation of the message now due to the people is clear and pleasing, though in simple language and straightforward; and while calculated to avoid controversy, it is none the less convincing. It deals in present truth, and that is what imparts power to a book. In considering it with our State agent, we have thought to use it in our fall campaign. We wish it success.
LYMAN D. RANDALL,
Secretary of South Dakota Tract Society.
After a most thorough examination, I consider the book “Our Paradise Home” one of inestimable value. The author’s plain, forcible style of dealing with the subject can not help but win from all profound admiration. No one can read the book without having his love increased, and his desire renewed for a home in that paradise.
A. M. NEFF,
Secretary of Virginia Tract Society.
I have examined the new book, “Our Paradise Home,” and pronounce it a most valuable book for the money. I know of a no small book which so nicely outlines the great plan of redemption. I trust it may have a large circulation.
ELDER E. J. DRYER,
President West Pa. Conference.
Order of the State Tract Societies, or of the Review and Herald, Battle Creek, Mich.; 222 North Capitol St., Washington, D. C.
The Bible Text Book
A NEW edition of this book is just completed. There has been a steady, growing demand for this little work. It is a compendium of Bible subjects, containing forty-nine Scripture readings. Being of a convenient size to carry in the vest pocket, it is a very desirable little companion.
It contains 208 pages, a table of contents, and a complete index of subjects; bound in cloth and leather. Prices, 30 and 50 cents.
The Eastern Question
WHILE nearly every man and woman in this country is much interested in the unsettled condition of affairs in the East, the book written by H. E. Robinson, “The Eastern Question,” should be presented to them. These governmental upheavals should be made to serve in warning the world of the event foreshadowed by them. Our people should stand as minutemen, ready to improve all the favorable openings for the circulation of our literature.
“The Eastern Question” throws the searchlight of prophecy and history upon one of the greatest and most important questions now agitating the world. It explains the Eastern question, “the sick man of the East” and the time of his end, and the nations that are most intimately concerned in his downfall, and also tells the outcome of the struggle. These are some of the questions now puzzling the world’s keenest intellects, and this book answers them, and countless other questions bearing upon the Eastern question, with an accuracy and foresight born only of a careful study of history and the prophetic books of the Bible which deal directly with this great issue.
The book contains 276 pages, nicely and substantially bound in cloth; price, $1, postpaid. Kept by the Tract Societies.
Hymns and Tunes
By Editor
By the time this issue of the REVIEW is out, a new edition of "Hymns and Tunes" will be ready and orders can be promptly filled.
The complete book will hereafter be bound only in four styles, as follows: Cloth, Russia, Turkey Morocco, and Levant, flexible.
The cheap style with words only will be bound in Russia, plain edges, and calf, gilt edges.
Order of the State Tract Societies.
Daniel and the Revelation
A NEW edition of this excellent book has just been completed. Orders for all the styles of binding can be promptly filled, with the exception of the paper covers.
BEREAN LIBRARY, NUMBERS TWO AND THREE
These books will be ready after September 15.
Order of the State Tract Societies.
An Excellent Sabbath Tract
Number 26 of the Words of Truth Series
A NEW edition of this tract has just been printed. It contains a letter—written by an honest non-professor who knows the teachings of the Scriptures—and is addressed to the ministers of the popular churches, requesting them to explain why they do not teach in harmony with the Bible relative to Sabbath observance, and his replies to their answers. It is a good tract for general circulation.
Price, one cent a copy. Kept by all State Tract Societies.
Friend in the Kitchen
A PRACTICAL vegetarian cook-book. It contains over 400 palatable and wholesome recipes free from flesh foods, also many suggestions on foods and their combinations, and miscellaneous instruction of practical value and importance to every housekeeper. Bound in two substantial bindings: Oilcloth and oil paper; prices, 50 cents and 25 cents, postpaid. Kept by all tract societies and publishing houses.
_FOREIGN PUBLICATIONS_
_Danish_
_Tracts_
Three Worlds........................ .02
Tithing............................ .02
True Conversion.................... .02
Two Laws, The...................... .01
Two Covenants, The................. .02
Two Thrones, The................... .02
Twofold Apostasy Twice Repeated.... .02
Use of Tobacco, The................ .01
Which Day Do You Keep?............. .01½
Who Changed the Sabbath?........... .01½
Wine and the Bible, The............ .01
_Danish Library_
1. Reign of Righteousness........... .01½
2. Last Day Tokens.................. .03
3. Marshalling of the Nations...... .10
4. The Bible: Its Inspiration and Purposes.................... .01
History of the Sabbath (Biblical part only).................... .40
Last Day Tokens.................... .15
Ministration of Angels............. .20
Sabbath of the Moral Law........... .10
The Rich Man and Lazarus........... .10
_Tracts_
Alarm of War....................... .02
Are You in Darkness?............... .01½
Bible Conversion................... .02
Bible: Its Origin and Importance... .01
Bible Symbols...................... .01
Brief Thoughts..................... .01½
Can We Know?....................... .01½
Christian Sabbath, The............. .01½
Departing and Being with Christ... .01
Editorial
By Editor
Times of Testing
Those who have followed the course of God's providence and the history of this work during recent years ought to be able to recognize that the time of test and of trial, sometimes called the shaking time, is now here. Events are now shaping which will bring a separation between those who have either never been converted to this message or have lost their first love and those to whom this truth is a living reality. Unbelieving indifference is now changing to open opposition, and the quiet doubters are becoming the out-spoken scorners. At the same time those who really love this advent message are being stirred to new activity and a new consecration to its advancement. Here is the fulfilment of the statement that a new power would soon be revealed both for and against the truth. This experience indicates that the time is near for the final decision of character in the judgment of the living, and the final decree from the court of judgment, “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: . . . and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: . . . And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” This is indeed a most solemn time. The daily decisions now have a strong influence upon the final decision. Only in the light which shines from the heavenly courts can we understand what these things mean. Only in the power of endless life can we be kept from being overcome by the enemy. Only in perfect submission to the will of God is there any safety for us. “Behold, the judge standeth before the doors.”
Following Christ
It is such a simple thing to follow Christ when the heart is really yielded to him. The difficulty arises when we attempt to follow Christ, and yet are not willing to separate from the world. There is nothing in common between Christ and the world. He tells us plainly that his kingdom is not of this world. When we profess to be followers of Christ, but cherish in our hearts a love for the world and the things of the world, there is a constant conflict between the claims of Christ and our worldly projects, and we have no rest of soul. We can settle all these difficulties by cutting every cord which binds us to the world, and giving ourselves unreservedly to Christ and his service. We shall even then have a warfare on our hands, but it will be an open warfare with the enemy of Christ, and we have the assurance of victory. “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” In this warfare we have peace in the soul, and enjoy a foretaste of the fruits of the final victory. But in following Christ we must not attempt to justify our course by an appeal to the wisdom of the world. Even Christ’s own brethren could not account for his course of life, and their advice, which he did not follow, was from the worldly standpoint. In reply the Master said, “The world can not hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.” In following the world, we place the material things first; but in following Christ, we must give the first place to the spiritual. In following the world, we seek the honor that is of the world; but in following Christ, we seek the honor which cometh from above. As followers of Christ we identify ourselves with the meek and lowly Nazarene, and our Lord will not rest until we are identified with him in his glory. To each one of us the Master speaks to-day, saying, “Follow me,” and he listens eagerly for the hearty response, “I will follow thee, my Saviour.”
“Remember Lot’s Wife”
By L. A. S.
FOR the joy that was set before him, Jesus Christ, our example, “endured the cross, despising the shame,” and persevered without fainting or faltering to the end. His earthly pathway was darkened by the shadow of greater conflicts and4greater suffering than fall to the lot of any of his followers.
Jesus looked before him, and beheld the joy that awaited him at the end of his course. Looking back, he might have beheld the throne of glory which he had left to come into the human family, and thought of all that was once his in the royal courts; but he looked not back. Not once did his mind turn with longing to the pleasures left behind. His eyes were ever steadily fixed on the joy that was set before him, which he counted greater than all that had been relinquished.
How essential to the Christian that he look not back! He is called to leave pleasant homes and pleasant associations and occupations, to go to strange lands and suffer the loss of many things, and how natural that his thoughts should turn with longing to the pleasures he has left. Yet it is not this which will nerve him for the difficulties of the way in which he has set out. Its effect will be just the contrary. Longings for the things left behind quickly bring feelings of bitterness that paralyze the moral energies. “Remember Lot’s wife.”
The Christian, like his Master, must keep in view the joy that is set before him. That joy is greater than any that he can leave behind in this world. He leaves the pleasures of this world, not to go hopelessly into a joyless realm of hardships, but to go to a greater joy and to attain an “eternal weight of glory.” Let us keep in view the things to which we are going, and not those from which we are going. “Remember Lot’s wife.”
L. A. S.
A Willing People
THE successful accomplishment of the Lord's work demands the hearty co-operation of the people with the divine purpose. Human instrumentalities are to be used in the work of reaching humanity with the saving truth. “It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” The power for the work is all of God, but this power needs the channel of humanity, in order that it may touch fallen humanity, and bring lost sinners back to a loving Father. A refusal to be used in this way is the same as saying, “We will not have this man to reign over us,” and invites the wrath of God. The curse was upon the inhabitants of Meroz “because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty.” In the psalm which gives the assurance of the triumph of the Son over his enemies, the Lord says, “Thy people offer themselves willingly in the day of thy power, in holy array.” This day which is so near to the time of final victory is the day of power, even the power of the Holy Spirit poured out abundantly, and the call now is for a people who will offer themselves willingly. The Lord has waited long for this people, and has earnestly and repeatedly urged them to give themselves wholly to his service, but the time has now come for him to have a willing people, and such he will have. Those who refuse to offer themselves willingly do not recognize the day of their visitation. “Who then offereth willingly to consecrate himself this day unto Jehovah?”
Deliverance in the Tiger Jungle
By W. A. S.
WHEN the monsoon rains have raised the rivers of India over banks, travel along the low country is even now attended with difficulty. Forty years ago there were still less facilities in the way of roads and river boats. About that time, Dr. Jacob Chamberlain was pioneering the Godavery district, of west central India. He had made a long journey into the interior, where foot of missionary had never before passed, and was returning with his party of coolies and guides and several native preachers.
At a point where they expected to find a government steamer, they learned that the boat had broken down in battling against the fierce current. Their only course was to make a seventy-five mile journey through the jungle. The coolie carriers deserted, followed by the armed guard, rather than attempt the journey through the deadly jungle, with rivers in flood. Other carriers were secured and the missionary pressed on through the uninhabited country. Just before reaching the fords of a stream across which was higher ground on which they could camp for the night, they met two hunters who told them that the fords were impassable, and that there were no boats or material for rafts in all the region. Night was coming on, and the tigers had begun to roar about them. The guides and the party felt the situation hopeless.
Then Dr. Chamberlain went aside and sought God for direction.
He pleaded with the Lord that the journey was for his sake; that he had promised, “I will be with thee.” “Now we need thee,” he cried. “We are in blackest danger for this night. Only thou canst save us from this jungle, these tigers, this flood. O Master, Master, show me what to do.”
“Turn to the left, to the Godavery, and you will find rescue,” came the reply, not audible to the ear, but as clear and distinct as though spoken aloud.
Guides insisted that to go to the left meant certain increase of the danger. The river was overflowed, and there was no high ground. The missionary again went aside and pleaded with God.
“Turn to the left, to the Godavery, and you will find rescue,” came the reply again.
But the guides, who knew the country, were only more determined that to go to the left would defeat their plan of making a high bluff, six hours’ journey beyond them. It would surely mean all night in the swampy jungle, with tigers all about.
For the third time the missionary rode apart to send up the petition that heaven would not allow him to follow any false impression of his own mind. Again there came the same distinct command, “Turn to the left.”
“It is God’s answer to my prayer,” he said. “I can not doubt it. I must act immediately.”
By exercise of arbitrary authority he led the party to the left into the low land along the river. To all who inquired or remonstrated, he could only cry out, “There is rescue at the river.”
Approaching the river, the missionary pressed on ahead, looking expectantly for the sign of the promised rescue. As he came out of the jungle upon the river bank, there at his feet he found a large river barge, tied to a tree. Two men were in it, who explained that in spite of their efforts, the boat had broken from its moorings away up the river. It had, they said, acted like one possessed, and they had been unable to stop it till they reached the point where the missionary came to the river. The promised rescue was assured, for the missionary had full authority from the government to take possession of the barge for his journey down the stream. Dr. Chamberlain says:
“Who had ordered that tidal wave in the morning of that day, that had torn that boat from its moorings, and driven it so many miles down the river (and across from the north to the south bank), and that had thwarted every endeavor of the frightened boatmen to force it back to the north shore, and had brought it to the little cove-like recess, just at that point where we would strike the river? Who, but he on whose orders we had come,—he who had said, “I will be with you,”—he who knew beforehand the dire straits in which we would be in that very place, on that very day, that very hour,—he who had thrice told me distinctly, “Turn to the left, to the Godavery, and you will find rescue?” I bowed my head, and in amazed reverence thanked my God for this signal answer to my pleading prayer.
W. A. S.”
Turning of Our Captivity
By L. A. S.
“WHEN the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.” Ps. 126:1.
How contrary to all human expectations, how far beyond all human calculations, are the workings of the providence of God! Men may form their own conceptions of things to come in the fulfilment of prophecy, and become so accustomed to those conceptions that they would be in no wise surprised by their realization; but when they come face to face with the workings of the mind that is infinite, all their human conceptions sink into insignificance, and they can only stand still and behold with wonder the salvation of God. “How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out.”
How like a dream are the changes that have come to hasten the work of God in the earth to its completion; for verily the turning of Zion’s captivity has begun. No longer will Zion be bound and the work delayed by the old order of things. How wonderful the sudden change from that order of things! and how foreign to all human calculations a few short months in the past!
But there is more to this happy dream. “Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, the Lord hath done great things for them.” And verily this part of the inspired prediction will not fail. The time has come for God to do great things to exalt his name among the heathen. The truth of God, the last saving truth the world can know, has gone in comparative quietness along the byways of the earth; but it is now to5go “with a loud voice” along the highways.
And all this will be not because the instruments through which God will work will be greater or better than any he has used in the past, but because he can do that which he pleases with humble instruments which offer no resistance to his will. It will be because of the willingness of his people in the day of his power. Let every obstacle be removed from the King’s highway.
L. A. S.
The Fruit of Church and State Union
By L. A. S.
SOME “reasons” in favor of a union of church and state in the French republic, appear in a recent issue of the Catholic Mirror. The basis of what the Mirror says is an article by a French writer, M. Hubert-Valleroux, published in a French journal, showing to the satisfaction of the Catholic mind that the threatened disruption of the relations between the church and the state in France would be unfortunate for the people and the cause of religion in that country. What the article really does show in a most striking way, though seemingly unconsciously to the writer, is the utter worthlessness of the papal religion, judged by the fruit it has produced at the end of a long period of uninterrupted supremacy. The article really amounts to an unsparing arraignment of that religion by one of its adherents, and as such it is worthy of note. We quote some of the statements made which show what the union of France with the papacy has done for the French people:—
Without the permission of the civil authorities, and particularly without official encouragement, they are slow to embark in any new undertaking. Even in matters affecting their temporal interests, they show great apathy. As to ecclesiastical affairs, they are the concern of bishops and priests. It has never occurred to the people that they should be one day called on to provide for religious worship. Their church is the property of government. Why it is so they know not, nor do they care to inquire. Their priest is paid by the government—in their eyes he is a government servant. Their bishop is paid by the government—he is also a government functionary. These simple folk never ask themselves whether such a system is good or bad, whether there is not a better one; in fact, they hardly think the question worth a thought.
If the Concordat, or agreement which unites church and state in France, were dissolved, and the people were called upon to support the clergy by voluntary contributions, “they would tell you,” this authority says, “that it was none of their business to provide for church or cure—that was the affair of the government. And thus in many parishes public worship would cease, as the peasants would make no attempt whatever to meet the necessities of the occasion.”
As it is, there is no little murmuring in many places against even the payment for seats in the church, although the charge is but a trifle, people objecting (of course erroneously) that everything is amply provided for by the government. Something like a surgical operation would be necessary to get it into the heads of the French peasantry that they are under any obligation to pay dues to their pastor.
In considering this question of the maintenance of the clergy, M. Hubert-Valleroux has omitted any reference to a most important circumstance—he does not take into account the profound and widespread religious indifference that prevails among his countrymen, an indifference which the events of the past year or two have forcibly brought home to us all. If the faith of the so-called Catholics of France were genuine and profound, there would be small difficulty in procuring ample means for the carrying on of public worship, but, as we know, multitudes of Frenchmen are simply hostile to religion, while to the great majority anything and everything pertaining to divine worship are matters of absolute indifference. From such people no sacrifices may be expected for the maintenance of religion.
And since all this is so,—since under the union of the French government with the papacy the people have been brought to a state of utter religious indifference, so that they have no concern whether their religious system is good or bad, regarding that as a question for the priests and the government alone; and since they feel no personal interest for the support of religion, and since “multitudes of Frenchmen are simply hostile to religion, while to the great majority anything and everything pertaining to divine worship are matters of absolute indifference,”—since the union of church and state in France has borne such fruit as this, therefore the writer gravely argues that such a system ought to be continued! Surely the mind must be strangely affected which from such premises can arrive at such a conclusion.
The tree is known by its fruit. And such fruit as that described by this Catholic writer affords conclusive evidence that the tree which bears it is not of divine planting.
L. A. S.
What Was Abolished by the Death of Christ?
By L. A. S.
The death of the Son of God on the cross did not abolish the law of God, but gave the strongest possible testimony to the fact that the law of God could not possibly be abolished or changed.
It put an end, not to the law which condemns sin, but (through faith) to the sin which the law condemns.
It did not change God’s standard of righteousness, but changed man’s standard so as to bring it into harmony with the divine standard.
It did not reconcile God to human sinfulness, but reconciled sinful man to God, by slaying the enmity which sin had put between them.
It abolished, not the law, but death which man had incurred as the penalty of the law’s transgression.
It abolished, not God’s rule of right, but the law of sacrificial offerings by which men had shown their faith in the coming true Sacrifice for sin.
It did not obviate the necessity of keeping the law, but provided a way whereby the law might be kept.
It did not abolish that which condemned the carnal heart, but abolished the thing that was condemned, putting in its place a new heart which God approves.
It did not abolish the law, but abolished the curse of the law, Christ “being made a curse for us.”
It did not destroy the law which the devil has so long and persistently warred against, but made sure the destruction of the devil, who has opposed that law.
It provided, not that the law should be abolished, but that the righteousness of the law should be fulfilled in those who walk by faith.
Without the law, there could be no foundation for the gospel.
L. A. S.
God's Unchanging Love
By Lytton
LIFE'S sorrows still fluctuate; God's love
does not,
And his love is unchanged, when it
changes our lot.
—Lytton.
Missionary Need in the Sudan
It is said that a line could be drawn inside the Sudan, enclosing an area of a million and a quarter square miles and from sixty to ninety millions of souls, and yet find that inside of that line there is not one missionary, not one Christian, and scarcely any have so much as heard of Jesus Christ. Where are the missionaries who will enter such fields for Christ’s sake?
Missionary Work in Egypt
AT Asyut, situated about half-way between Cairo and the First Cataract, the United Presbyterians have a mission, with a flourishing school of five hundred pupils. In a recent revival one hundred and twelve volunteered for missionary work. One of the college students, a Greek, receiving a bequest of $6,250, gave it to the forward work in the Nile Valley. The converts in Egypt paid thirty thousand dollars last year for evangelizing work, in addition to what they contributed toward sustaining the one hundred and eighty Christian schools.—Selected.