During the recent council held in Washington it was voted,—
“That a special and thoroughly organized campaign be inaugurated in all our churches for the circulation, by sale or otherwise, of our literature this fall and winter.”
Every true and wide-awake believer in the third angel’s message must acknowledge that this is one of the most reasonable and consistent proposals that could be made. That being true, every Seventh-day Adventist in America should enter this campaign with a perseverance, a zeal, and an enthusiasm born from above. Every consideration calls for this.
The hour has struck for the work of God to be finished in the earth. This hour came in 1844, when the judgment opened in heaven, and the seventh angel began to sound. Then began the finishing of the mystery of God, which is the gospel. Then the light of the third angel’s message began to be revealed. Then the Lord began to raise up a company of special messengers to carry his message to the ends of the world. Then men began to bring forth, under divine guidance, the most remarkable facilities for a world-wide movement ever known in the history of the world. And then came providential openings for gospel evangelization in all the world, such as have not appeared since Israel crossed the Red Sea.
Here we are, face to face with this remarkable situation. The command of our great Leader is, “Go forward.” There is nothing to prevent us from rising up and speedily proclaiming the message for this hour throughout the length and breadth of this land. This is just what the great missionary campaign7to be inaugurated this fall means.
Every believer who has consented to accept a position as a leader, no matter how small the place, should keenly sense the responsibility resting upon him just now.
The special form the coming campaign is to take will be the circulation of our literature. Brethren, it is not boasting to say that we as a people have been blessed by the Lord in the production of the finest gospel literature in the world. If you have not thought of this before, give the suggestion study. Begin with our large subscription books, such as “Patriarchs and Prophets,” “Great Controversy,” “Desire of Ages,” “Daniel and the Revelation,” and trace your way down through the list of trade books, pamphlets, and tracts, and also our weekly papers. Examine the literature of other denominations, and see if you can find anywhere such a supply of gospel literature as ours. Think of the wide field covered by our books dealing with doctrinal truth, Christian education, and healthful living.
In this campaign a most earnest effort is to be made this winter to place this literature in the homes of all the people in this country.
It was also voted “that this campaign be opened by a missionary convention in all the churches, November 21 and 22.”
This is the date set for beginning this special movement. It is desired that every church, every company, and every person will at that time begin a prayerful, conscientious, and earnest missionary work to continue through the winter. Special meetings, called a missionary convention, will be held in all the churches at that time to mark the opening of the movement.
To aid the churches in this convention it was voted:—
“That the Mission Board be requested to furnish such readings, data, and information for the church conventions on November 21 and 22 as will be best adapted to make the meetings most interesting and profitable.”
The officers of the Board will do all they can to assist in making this work a success. But there must be the fullest co-operation on the part of every minister and every conference and church officer. Let all take hold of this movement, and organize for a great work.
It was decided by the council to open this campaign by the use of the special number of The Signs of the Times on Capital and Labor. This is set forth by the following recommendation:—
“That all our churches and people everywhere in this country make a special effort to sell a large number of the forthcoming special issue of The Signs of the Times on Capital and Labor.”
We are exceedingly glad that we shall have this paper to open the campaign with. It will deal with a living issue that just now commands the profound attention of this whole country. This will greatly help us to begin our work. A million copies of this special number should be circulated. The Pacific Press Publishing Company has voted to donate half the profits on the sale of this special number to the Mission Board for mission fields. From now until the campaign opens, everything required to make the way plain and clear to all will be set forth by those in charge of the work.
Let us all pray the Lord to breathe upon us that we may be vitalized for holy service. A. G. DANIELLS.
The Washington Council
By Arthur G. Daniells
THIS council was held, according to appointment, October 7-21. Nearly all the members of the General Conference Committee residing in the United States were present. The majority of the presidents of the State conferences east of the Rocky Mountains were also in attendance, and several physicians and lay brethren were with us.
This gave us a large and representative gathering for what is usually termed the fall council of the General Conference Committee. But the situation called for such an attendance. It had been two years since the committee had had a satisfactory council. Many important, far-reaching questions had to be dealt with. It was a source of much satisfaction to the members of the committee to have the presence, deep interest, and valuable assistance of so many brethren bearing the chief responsibilities in a large part of this country.
It will be impossible to convey in a brief report a full statement of the value of the meeting. The principal recommendations that were passed have already been published in the REVIEW. But it should be understood that the mere passing of recommendations, however good and far-reaching they may be, does not constitute the greatest value of a gathering like our recent council. The study and discussion of the questions in their broad bearings on this work give greater value to the meeting than the simple adoption of recommendations. But the study and discussion of the council can not be reported in a brief statement. Therefore only those present can fully appreciate the value of the meeting.
The council was characterized by peace, harmony, and hard work. Very little criticism was heard. While the fullest and freest liberty was granted to all to think and speak as seemed right, there was general harmony regarding all fundamental questions. Although there was a long, hard list of matters to be dealt with, they were nearly all carefully considered, and conscientiously disposed of, giving evidence of painstaking effort by the members of the council.
In subsequent issues of the REVIEW we shall take up some of the most important recommendations, and enlarge upon them. This report can only refer to the general features.
We were pleased to have so many of our representative men visit our new headquarters, and study our conditions, and counsel us regarding the development of the work here. We spent a portion of one day at Takoma Park, inspecting our site. As far as the brethren expressed themselves, there was general satisfaction with all they saw. When we came to outline the plans and provide the funds for the development of the work here, the brethren exhibited what impressed me as splendid wisdom and courage. Their decisions exceeded my fondest expectations. As they viewed the situation, they could do nothing else than lay broad plans, and provide for large funds. The undaunted courage manifested by these brethren was exceedingly cheering. It is an omen of good success.
As I review our council, I regret that we did not take more time for earnest prayer for the outpouring of the latter rain. The baptism of the Spirit is our greatest need. It is my prayer that our efforts to carry out the broad, consistent plans laid for the advancement of this cause will lead us all to seek most earnestly for this baptism. This is our need. This blessing will bring all other blessings in its train.
Next week we shall take up the study of some of the most important measures passed by the council.
A. G. DANIELLS.
A Thieves’ School in New York
The arraignment last week in New York City of Alexander Sachs, seventeen years old, of 67 Ludlow Street, brought to light another chapter of a story of real life in New York on the lines of Dickens's narrative of Fagin, the Artful Dodger, and kindred characters in 'Oliver Twist.' According to the story told by the detectives, there is in New York a man who has gotten together no less than 300 boys, principally from the east side, who have been thoroughly trained in picking pockets, and during the last two months have gathered in no less than $1,000 a day in watches, brooches, pocketbooks, and valuables of various kinds. The detectives say that they have discovered evidence showing that on the east side, in one of the dingy thoroughfares of Cherry Hill, there has been conducted a thieves' school, where boys, ranging in age from ten to sixteen years, have been taken off the street and graduated into expert thieves.
—Margaret E. Sangster
By Margaret E. Sangster
Service
Be not an idler in this busy world.
Fill every day with sweetness to the
brim,
Keep all thy radiant flags of hope unfurled,
And lift along the way a joyous hymn;
Strive valiantly, since right must vanquish wrong,
But ever rush to battle with a song.
The Lord, who came to save, came lovingly
To serve, and stooped to lowlier tasks
than thine;
By so much as he did, he asks of thee
To halo toil with tenderness divine.
Humility and patience, grace and peace,
He giveth these, until thy labors cease.
Serve thou in pain, in poverty, in grief,
But never serve in fear, since thou hast
love;
And love can ever send for thy relief
At need, the angel host from realms
above.
Serve where he sends thee; serve the
Lord with joy,
And know his service should thy life employ.
—Margaret E. Sangster
The Workers Needed Now
By Ellen G. White
MRS. E. G. WHITE
God chooses as his workmen men of different gifts and varied abilities. It is his purpose that these workers shall unite with one another in their labor. All selfishness is to be cast out of their hearts. If it is allowed to develop, it will spring up in a root of bitterness, whereby many shall be defiled.
When a crisis comes, there is need of men of deep experience in the things of God, men who can carry the work forward with tact and forethought, and of skill. Those who allow themselves to be leavened by influences that endanger their spirituality are unfitting themselves to be used by God as men of opportunity. God calls for men who are prepared to meet emergencies, men who in a crisis will not be found standing on the wrong side, warring against God, full of wrath and bitterness. Great weakness is brought to his cause by men who, at the very time when they should be quick to discern the specious devising of Satan, are helping him to carry on his work by giving up to the power of his delusions, closing their eyes to light and truth.
We are not to conceal the truth for this time. It is to stand forth in its power and purity. The trumpet is to give a certain sound; for there are those who, though they have long known the truth, need to be awakened. They have closed their eyes to the result of walking contrary to the light that God has given.
We are living in the last days of this earth’s history, and God calls upon those who have an understanding of the truth for this time to pray, to believe, to stand fast in the faith, proclaiming the message of mercy to be given to the world. My brethren, I pray most earnestly “that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.”
There are those who to-day are standing in perilous places, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. From this time on, Satan will bring in deceptive influences of every kind. True, stanch, whole-hearted believers are needed; men who are not fashioned after a worldly mold, but who see and realize that it is at this time that Satan’s power will be exercised through believers who have not kept the beginning of their confidence firm unto the end.
Workers are needed who understand that the warnings given in the Word of God are appropriate for this time. Shall we not pray and watch unto prayer, and see that we need to be re-converted? God’s purpose for us is that we shall be constantly “increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.”
At this time we need men who are as true as steel to principle. We need the help of every one who has had an experience in the giving of the first and second angel’s messages.
There are those who have so linked themselves with the world that they have lost the knowledge of God, and are departing from the faith. How glad we should be to say to all such ones, “And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblamable and unreprovable in his sight: if ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard.”
Paul wrote these words to the Colossians, and he continues:— “Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church: whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God: even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: whereunto I also labor, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.”
There is now need of unity; and there will be unity. Those who have greatly hindered the cause of God, and have caused heavy burdens to rest upon their fellow laborers, because they have lost their bearings, will either humble their proud hearts, and be converted, or they will be moved out of the way! The warning comes:—
“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.”
Amid the temptations that abound in these last days, some will depart from the faith. Those who have been trying to quench their thirst at broken cisterns, which can hold no water, will have a misleading message to proclaim. They will speak smooth things. It is now, just now, that genuine gospel medical missionary work is to be done by men who acknowledge Christ as their Master; who realize, as did Elijah and Jeremiah, that they hold their commission from God, and that they are accountable to God for the use made of the talents entrusted to them. God’s workers are to acknowledge no earthly master. One higher than men, even he who is the way, the truth, and the life, is their Master.
Men are needed who can speak intelligently of the sacredness and the importance of the truth; men who can point their fellow men to the needs of the present hour; men who have an inspiring message to bear against perverted principle; who watch for souls as they that must give an account, pointing souls to God’s standard of righteousness.
Many who have known the truth, but who have not cherished its principles in their hearts, will become leavened with evil. This evil they do not discern. In word and act they say, “Speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits.” We are now to call things by their right names. No longer are we to look upon unrighteousness as righteousness. Let every one now be prepared to lift up the standard of truth. We are to have no fellowship with the worldly practises that have perverted the faith of some who have enjoyed great privileges, and who should now be standing on vantage-ground.
We are to respond to God’s call to take a decided stand for truth and righteousness. No longer are we to bind up with worldly elements. The leaders in God’s work are not to be men who do not know God, who have no experimental knowledge of God. They are to be men who love and fear God and Christ; otherwise, they must be relieved of their responsibilities.
The Spirit of Prayer
“The spirit of prayer is the motive power of our work.”
The Pillars of the Message
By G. B. THOMPSON
G. B. THOMPSON
For nearly threescore years the threefold message of Revelation 14 has been heralded to the world, bearing upon its banner “the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Beginning in weakness and obscurity, having neither wealth nor earthly influence, it has marched steadily onward, until to-day it has girded the globe, and some of its faithful soldiers lie buried in far-off climes. It has been ridiculed, scorned, and hated. Foes within and without have arrayed themselves against it, seeking to arrest its progress, but in vain.
That which has given our work its invincible power, and made us a separate and distinct people, is the clear outline of truth. The fundamental pillars of the message have stood the combined assaults of the enemy, and have been as immovable as the Alps, whose thunder-splintered peaks are reared into the region of perpetual snow. Grounded in the word, they prove a bulwark of strength which the prowess of the enemy has not been able to overthrow.
That master mind, which through the centuries has been trained in cunning deception and seductive arts, well knows that, so long as the fundamental and eternal pillars of the message stand, it will be an invincible power, and that the only way he can hope to measure strength with it and stop its progress, is to enter as an angel of light within the sacred precincts of this citadel of truth, and corrupt its pure doctrine. If he can substitute scientific research and human philosophy in place of the herculean pillars of the message, this artful foe well knows that the structure will then be weak, and that which has stood as a beacon light to bewildered and lost humanity will lose its radiance and become an opaque body. If through sophistry he can so veil in mystery the simple though solemn truths of the message that they will not be clearly seen, it suits his purpose well.
Years ago this solemn warning was given: “I saw a company who stood well guarded and firm, giving no countenance to those who would unsettle the established faith of the body. God looked upon them with approbation. I was shown three steps,—the first, second, and third angels’ messages. Said my accompanying angel, ‘Woe to him who shall move a block or stir a pin of these messages. The true understanding of these messages is of vital importance. The destiny of souls hangs upon the manner in which they are received.’ I was again brought down through these messages, and saw how dearly the people of God had purchased their experience. It had been obtained through much suffering and severe conflict. God had led them along step by step until he had placed them upon a solid, immovable platform.”—“Early Writings,” page 121.
This shows that the body will have an “established faith;” and that the message will not change; and to undertake to change it is a sin of sufficient turpitude to bring a woe upon the one who tries it. This does not mean that we are not to search for light. Far from it! It simply shows that God has established in the earth a message so heaven born in its character that every ray of light which will come from the Word till the end of time will only illuminate more clearly the message, and cause its eternal pillars to be seen more clearly. That an effort would be made to “unsettle the established faith,” and that it would not be countenanced by those “who stood well guarded and firm,” is clearly stated.
That we have reached a crisis in the prolonged struggle is certain. The shaking time is here, and many will lose their bearings, and be left without chart or compass. But the message will triumph. Now as never before, we should plant our feet on the platform, and lay hold of the message with a firm grasp. It is a solemn hour. Loyalty is needed,—a fixed, determined, unalterable purpose in the heart to be as true to God as the needle to the pole. All compromise with sin must end.
It is a dangerous time, and now, as in the days of the Reformation, men as brave as Luther are needed, who in the face of every opposing element will take an unyielding stand. Then “men forsook the precious perfume of faith, and bowed down before the empty vessel that had contained it,” and the living church had retired “within the lonely sanctuary of a few solitary hearts.” “That vital doctrines of Christianity had almost entirely disappeared, and with them the life and light that constitute the essence of the religion of God. The material strength of the church was gone. It lay an exhausted, enfeebled, and almost lifeless body, extended over that part of the world which the Roman empire had occupied.”
But God lived in a few loyal hearts, and he started a movement, which, in a short time, jostled the crown of kings, and kindled a torch of truth which is shining still. Because of his unflinching stand for the Word of God, Luther was summoned before an imperial assembly at Worms, and bidden to retract. The critical hour of the Reformation had come. Would he in the presence of this titled and imposing assembly waver in his determination to maintain the purity of the gospel? “As the time for his appearance drew near, Luther approached a table on which lay the Holy Scriptures; placing his left hand upon the sacred volume, and raising his right hand to heaven, he vowed to adhere constantly to the gospel, and to confess his faith freely, even though he should be called to seal his testimony with his blood.” When ushered into the presence of the Diet and asked to recant, he calmly replied, “I can not but adhere to the Word of God, which has possession of my conscience. Nor can I possibly, nor will I ever, make any recantation, since it is neither safe nor honest to act contrary to conscience. Here I take my stand; I can not do otherwise. God be my help. Amen.”
We are told in “Great Controversy” that “had the Reformer yielded a single point, Satan and his hosts would have gained the victory. But his unwavering firmness was the means of emancipating the church, and beginning a new and better era.”
So now, God wants faithful hearts who will stand by the pillars of the message at the risk of everything. O that God would inspire our hearts with a love for the truth which would enable us to cleave unto him! When a ship is reaching port, the danger from hidden rocks or shoals increases. So now, when the voyage is nearly over, our danger is great. But our God loves us still. His church is the one object on which he bestows his supreme regard. He has spoken good concerning Israel, and will deliver those who are faithful.
The Twelve Spies
(Concluded)
In their rebellion the people had exclaimed, “Would God we had died in this wilderness!” Now this prayer was to be granted. The Lord declared: “As ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward. . . . But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised.” And of Caleb he said, “My servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.” As the spies had spent forty days in their journey, so the hosts of Israel were to wander in the wilderness forty years.
When Moses made known to the people the divine decision, their rage was changed to mourning. They knew that their punishment was just. The ten unfaithful spies, divinely smitten by the plague, perished before the eyes of all Israel; and in their fate the people read their own doom.
Now they seemed sincerely to repent of their sinful conduct; but they sorrowed because of the result of their evil course, rather than from a sense of their ingratitude and disobedience. When they found that the Lord did not relent in his decree, their self-will again arose, and they declared that they would not return into the wilderness. In commanding them to retire from the land of their enemies, God tested their apparent submission, and proved that it was not real. They knew that they had deeply sinned in allowing their rash feelings to control them, and in seeking to slay the spies who had urged them to obey God; but they were only terrified to find that they had made a fearful mistake, the consequences of which would prove disastrous to themselves. Their hearts were unchanged, and they only needed an excuse to occasion a similar outbreak. This presented itself when Moses, by the10authority of God, commanded them to go back into the wilderness.
The decree that Israel was not to enter Canaan for forty years was a bitter disappointment to Moses and Aaron, Caleb and Joshua; yet without a murmur they accepted the divine decision. But those who had been complaining of God’s dealings with them, and declaring that they would return to Egypt, wept and mourned greatly when the blessings which they had despised were taken from them. They had complained at nothing, and now God gave them cause to weep. Had they mourned for their sin when it was faithfully laid before them, this sentence would not have been pronounced; but they mourned for the judgment; their sorrow was not repentance, and could not secure a reversing of their sentence.
The night was spent in lamentation; but with the morning came a hope. They resolved to redeem their cowardice. When God had bidden them go up and take the land, they had refused; and now when he directed them to retreat, they were equally rebellious. They determined to seize upon the land and possess it; it might be that God would accept their work and change his purpose toward them.
God had made it their privilege and their duty to enter the land at the time of his appointment; but through their willful neglect that permission had been withdrawn. Satan had gained his object in preventing them from entering Canaan; and now he urged them on to do the very thing, in the face of the divine prohibition, which they had refused to do when God required it. Thus the great deceiver gained the victory by leading them to rebellion the second time. They had distrusted the power of God to work with their efforts in gaining possession of Canaan: yet now they presumed upon their own strength to accomplish the work independent of divine aid. “We have sinned against the Lord,” they cried; “we will go up and fight, according to all that the Lord our God commanded us.” So terribly blinded had they become by transgression. The Lord had never commanded them to “go up and fight.” It was not his purpose that they should gain the land by warfare, but by strict obedience to his commands.
Though their hearts were unchanged, the people had been brought to confess the sinfulness and folly of their rebellion at the report of the spies. They now saw the value of the blessing which they had so rashly cast away. They confessed that it was their own unbelief which had shut them out from Canaan. “We have sinned,” they said, acknowledging that the fault was in themselves, and not in God, whom they had so wickedly charged with failing to fulfill his promises to them. Though their confession did not spring from true repentance, it served to vindicate the justice of God in his dealings with them.
The Lord still works in a similar manner to glorify his name by bringing men to acknowledge his justice. When those who profess to love him complain of his providence, despise his promises, and, yielding to temptation, unite with evil angels to defeat the purposes of God, the Lord often so overrules circumstances as to bring these persons where, though they may have no real repentance, they will be convinced of their sin, and will be constrained to acknowledge the wickedness of their course, and the justice and goodness of God in his dealings with them. It is thus that God sets counteragencies at work to make manifest the works of darkness. And though the spirit which prompted to the evil course is not radically changed, confessions are made that vindicate the honor of God, and justify his faithful reprovers, who have been opposed and misrepresented. Thus it will be when the wrath of God shall be finally poured out. When “the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment upon all,” he will also “convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds.” Every sinner will be brought to see and acknowledge the justice of his condemnation.
Regardless of the divine sentence, the Israelites prepared to undertake the conquest of Canaan. Equipped with armor and weapons of war, they were, in their own estimation, fully prepared for conflict; but they were sadly deficient in the sight of God and his sorrowful servants. When, nearly forty years later, the Lord directed Israel to go up and take Jericho, he promised to go with them. The ark containing his law was borne before their armies. His appointed leaders were to direct their movements, under the divine supervision. With such guidance, no harm could come to them. But now, contrary to the command of God and the solemn prohibition of their leaders, without the ark, and without Moses, they went out to meet the armies of the enemy.
The trumpet sounded an alarm, and Moses hastened after them with the warning, “Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the Lord? But it shall not prosper. Go not up, for the Lord is not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies. For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and ye shall fall by the sword.”
The Canaanites had heard of the mysterious power that seemed to be guarding this people, and of the wonders wrought in their behalf; and they now summoned a strong force to repel the invaders. The attacking army had no leader. No prayer was offered that God would give them the victory. They set forth with the desperate purpose to reverse their fate or to die in battle. Though untrained in war, they were a vast multitude of armed men, and they hoped by a sudden and fierce assault to bear down all opposition. They presumptuously challenged the foe that had not dared to attack them.
The Canaanites had stationed themselves upon a rocky tableland reached only by difficult passes and a steep and dangerous ascent. The immense numbers of the Hebrews could only render their defeat more terrible. They slowly threaded the mountain paths, exposed to the deadly missiles of their enemies above. Massive rocks came thundering down, marking their path with the blood of the slain. Those who reached the summit, exhausted with their ascent, were fiercely repulsed, and driven back with great loss. The field of carnage was strewn with the bodies of the dead. The army of Israel was utterly defeated. Destruction and death was the result of that rebellious experiment.
Forced to submission at last, the survivors “returned, and wept before the Lord;” but “the Lord would not hearken to their voice.” By their signal victory, the enemies of Israel, who had before awaited with trembling the approach of that mighty host, were inspired with confidence to resist them. All the reports they had heard concerning the marvelous things that God had wrought for his people, they now regarded as false, and they felt that there was no cause for fear. That first defeat of Israel, by inspiring the Canaanites with courage and resolution, had greatly increased the difficulties of the conquest. Nothing remained for Israel but to fall back from the face of their victorious foes, into the wilderness, knowing that here must be the grave of a whole generation.—“Patriarchs and Prophets,” pages 301-304.
Peace or War—Which?
By Benjamin George Wilkinson
B. G. WILKINSON
The present troubles in the Balkan States raise once again the question of universal peace or universal war. And our fears are not greatly eased when we call to mind the statement of the great German general, Von Moltke, that the Balkan States would yet be the theater of universal war.
At the time of writing, a peace congress is being held in the city of Rouen, France. This congress, however, is not entirely under the influence of the Prince of Peace. Being international in its character, one of the first propositions laid before it was that coming from the German delegates, in which, apropos of the question of Alsace-Lorraine, the Teutons requested that the congress vote the principle of the recognition of the status quo international. The proposition was rejected after a warm discussion, in the course of which the French delegates declared that they could not accept the treaty of Frankfort. To come to a peace congress ready to introduce the terrible question of the war of 1870, seems like attempting to create gentleness among wild beasts by throwing into their midst a victim to dispute over.
As often as we are led to the verge of a universal war, so often are we left in wonderment that results do not take their seemingly unavoidable issue. Following the affair of Fashoda, a terrible war between France and England seemed inevitable. However, at the moment Edward VII and President Loubet toast each other's health with the deepest cordiality because the Gaul and the Briton have once more resurrected their fraternal love.11At the time of the Venezuelan difficulties men were asking everywhere, “Shall we have war between the United States and Germany?” But America smiles now that the recent elections in Germany predict a greater market for her products among the defenders of the Rhine. The frightful issues which hung upon the Boxer movement in China are closed, but the threatenings of the Eastern volcano seem to have found another opening in the embittered hostilities of the Macedonian province.
Is it man—individually or collectively—who has found means to hold in check the expected bursting of this war-cloud? If we say, Yes, then could we also say that fire has learned how to restrain its wind-driven ragings. Rather must we look for some power that is restraining the present military-organized humanity. At this moment 2,798,102 men stand in arms, in only five of the great European continental nations, ready to cross the frontiers at the drop of the toga. Of the five, Italy, Austria, and Germany can unite 1,172,577 soldiers against 1,625,525 belonging to Russia and France.
It is not the hostility of national feuds which constitutes the great menace to the peace of the world. If the inhumanity of man to man could be annihilated, then we might look in the moment of international clamor, for a guarantee of peace in the calm feeling and impartial judgment of the individual man everywhere. But while the United States raises a protest against the massacre of the Jews in Russian cities, Russia quickly presents to the eyes of the United States the picture of a negro burning at the stake. While England stands aghast at the butcheries committed by the Belgians in the Congo Free State, Leopold simply asks, What about the Boers in South Africa? We must look outside of men and nations to discover what power restrains the ferocities of inhumanity.
God's Word alone gives us the status quo of the international question: “And after these things I saw four angels standing in the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God; and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.” Rev. 7: 1-3.
There are two points in this prophecy which aid us in determining its time. Knowing the time, its relations to the facts already presented become startling. The first point is the distinction by which we see in the chapter two companies, the first numbered, the second innumerable. “And I heard the number of them which were sealed.” This number is given in detail in verses 4-9. But verse 9 reads: “After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number.”
The first company, the one whose number was one hundred and forty-four thousand, is excluded from the second company. The second company is presented to us before the throne of God. This fact indicates to us that the resurrection is past, and earth's history is closed. And since we see this great company in its redeemed condition, after the work of the angel with the seal, it is evident that the sealing work is the last message of God to gather from among humanity a company ready for the second coming of Christ. These events, therefore, of the first three verses we have quoted take place immediately prior to the promised return of Christ.
Now everybody knows the work of God is best advanced in times of peace. But the winds of war were on the point of blowing over the earth from all four points of the compass, as John saw the angel, carrying the seal, arise from the east. Jesus Christ was born when the world was at peace under the universal sway of the Roman emperor Augustus. As the first preachings of the gospel began in times of peace, so must peace be maintained to consummate the last message, warning men to prepare for the second coming of Christ. This, then, is why, though Europe at the present moment is one vast armed camp, war is withheld from breaking out. The angels of God are restraining the winds of national, international, and universal strife, in order that all who will may be sealed in the final company that shall welcome the return of Christ to earth.