p. 15 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 46. (11/15/1899)

LESSON X.—SUNDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1899.

KEEPING THE SABBATH.

Lesson Scripture, Neh. 13:15-22, R.V.

15 "In those days saw I in Judah some treading winepresses on the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses therewith; as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; and I testified against them in the day wherein they sold 16 victuals. There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, which brought in fish, and all manner of ware, and sold on the Sabbath unto the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem. Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said unto them, 18 What evil thing is this that ye do, and profane the Sabbath day? Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring 19 all this evil upon us, and upon this city? yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath. And it came to pass that, when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut, and commanded that they should not be opened till after the Sabbath; and some of my servants set I over the gates, that there should no burden be brought in on the Sabbath day. 20 So the merchants and sellers of all kind of ware lodged with- 21 out Jerusalem once or twice. Then I testified against them, and said unto them, Why lodge ye about the wall? if ye do so again, I will lay hands on you. From that time forth came 22 they no more on the Sabbath. And I commanded the Levites that they should purify themselves, and that they should come and keep the gates, to sanctify the Sabbath day. Remember unto me, O my God, this also, and spare me according to the greatness of Thy mercy."

Golden Text: "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." Ex. 20:8.

SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS.

(1) What was the condition of things at Jerusalem at the time of this lesson? Note 1. (2) What disregard of God's law did Nehemiah observe? V. 15. Note 2. (3) What did he do? Same verse. (4) What further evils did he find? V. 16. (5) What decided protest did he make to the men in authority? Vs. 17, 18. Note 3. (6) What preventive measures did he take? V. 19. Note 4. (7) What effect did these have? V. 20. (8) What did Nehemiah further do? V. 21. Note 5. (9) What change did he give the Levites? V. 22. Note 6. (10) What command should we all heed? Golden text. Note 7.

NOTES.

1. The time of this lesson was in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes. Verse 6. The section includes chapter 13. Read in connection with this lesson Isa. 56:1-8; 58:12, 13; and Jer. 17:19-27. Nehemiah found a sad state of things on his return. One of the chief enemies of the Lord, Tobiah, the Ammonite, a heathen, had been given a place in the temple of the Lord by Eliashib, the priest; the Sabbath was of course desecrated under such a condition of things; and intermarriages with the heathen were becoming frequent.

2. In Judah.—God's people in the country were transgressing the Sabbath. The commercial spirit, the spirit of worldly getting, was absorbing their life and crushing spirituality, even as it is with many to-day. And the men of Jerusalem encouraged the people in the country by buying. And this example of God's own people, of course, encouraged the heathen of Tyre.

3. I contended.—Here were the circumstances; Jerusalem was the city of God; the Jews were the people of God, brought back from captivity to represent Him; they professed so to do and be; and surely Nehemiah had the right, as the Lord laid upon him the duty, to demand that the nobles of Judah should live up to the purpose for which they were called. Wrath upon Israel.—If Israel had but kept the Sabbath in the past, Jerusalem would have remained "forever." Jer. 17:25. But the people turned from God to Baal, from the Sabbath of the Lord to the sun festivals of Baal, chief among which was the sun's day, and Jerusalem was destroyed. Jer. 17:27; 2 Chron. 36:19-21. It was Nehemiah's hope that after the captivity the Jews would reform.

4. Began to be dark.—In this we have a confirmation of the time when the day, and hence the Sabbath day, began, namely, "when the sun was setting," when the heavy walls and gates cast their dense shadows. See also Gen. 1:5; Lev. 23:32; Matt. 8:16; Mark 1:32; Luke 4:40. The Sabbath of the Lord begins at sunset of the sixth day. The only time to keep the Sabbath is to observe it at the time given of God. The doors should be shut.—It was the church of God closing its doors. Nehemiah was acting within the church as a governor appointed of God.

5. Testified against them.—They had no business there at such a time. Note that Nehemiah did not command that the sellers should keep the Sabbath; he simply prohibited them from selling upon ground consecrated to God. They could sell, but not in a city belonging to the Lord and the Lord's people. His act was a faint type of Christ's driving the sellers from the temple courts.

6. Commanded the Levites.—He went to the root of the matter. The priests and Levites were responsible for these evils. Let them be purged from their uncleanness, not a mere ceremonial cleansing, but cleansing of heart, and then they could consistently close their gates to the heathen traffickers. Yet the unconverted Jews and priests and rabbis developed out of this a perverted observance of the Sabbath, so that in Christ's time their way of observing the day had become a yoke of bondage.

7. Remember.—So God commands every one to remember the Sabbath day, the rest day, His rest day. In the same command He tells us what this day is, the seventh of the septenary cycle. God rested upon, blessed and sanctified only one day—the seventh. No other day is His rest day, no other day can be. To keep it holy.—Mortal man can not make a day holy. He can only by divine grace keep holy that which is holy. But he can not keep the Sabbath holy unless he is first holy. The Lord of the Sabbath must sanctify the man before the man can sanctify, or keep holy, the Sabbath. This is evident from the fact that God's "law is spiritual;" His Sabbath or rest is therefore spiritual. It is rest from sin. He only, therefore, who is freed from sin can keep the Sabbath holy. How foolish, then, it would be to endeavor to enforce Sabbath-keeping by law! How doubly foolish and evil it is to endeavor to enforce Sunday-keeping by law; for (1) Sunday is not the Lord's Sabbath; it never can be the Lord's Sabbath; it is not a holy day, and hence can not be kept holy; and (2) no human law can compel a holy observance of any day. Here is true Sabbath-keeping: "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord." Isa. 58:13, 14. "Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil." Isa. 56:2.

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Depart from Evil

"Depart from Evil."—"Evil company doth corrupt good manners," reads the revision of 1 Cor. 15:33. How true this was in the case of Lot! Abraham gave Lot his choice; Lot chose Sodom because it was well-watered and fertile, notwithstanding its wickedness. The good example of Abraham, his uncle, was no longer with him. He became affected by Sodom's wickedness. When he was forced to flee from the doomed city, his married daughters chose the sin of the city. His two virgin daughters had become so blinded by sin that they afterward justified incest in themselves as expedient. And Lot's wife, while she departed from the city bodily, left her heart with it and perished. Lot's fertile land of promise became a salt sea. What is the lesson?—Shun evil company, worldly company. But do such not need to be saved?—Surely. If God send you as He did the angels, go. Go to tell them of God, to warn them of the doom of sin, to live among them the Christ life; but that very moment when you find your conscience becoming benumbed, your heart going out after the world, your spiritual vision dimming, your appetite for the things of God dainty, then flee from every unholy association. Nay, more, wherever you are, even among the wicked, associate only with God and good. Make yourself one only with such. Your only business with the sinful is to win them from evil associations to association with God. "Awake to righteousness, and sin not." 1 Cor. 15:34.

THEY WERE MEN.

A HIGHLY sensational daily of New York has an article headed in these words: "A Picture of St. Paul Found in the Catacombs Proves That the Apostle Really Visited Rome." Well, who disputes it? We know he visited Rome. Why?—Because the sacred Word reveals it.

But, as regards the picture, it is found on a medal or coin three and three-fourths inches in diameter, bearing the outline of "fine features and the skull of a thinker," and the inscription, "Paulus Apostolus Vasekctionis." On the reverse side is an inscription translated thus: "Blessed be the Most High God is this one from out of the sources of Israel, being a child of Benjamin, and a master mind."

If such a thing were found, it may be set down to three or four centuries this side of Paul.

But even tho this were a real likeness of Paul, executed by contemporary artists, of what value is it? O, says this writer, they are "of inestimable worth to Christendom, which would like to know what manner of men these were who took up the burden of the Gospel as it issued from the mouth of Jesus, or developed it into the world-conquering religion of our day"!

They are of no worth to Christendom whatever. Who was Peter? Who was Paul? Hear Peter: "Stand up; I myself also am a man." Acts 10:26.

Hear Paul: "We also are men of like passions with you." Acts 14:15. "Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos [or Peter], but ministers by whom ye believed." "That ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written." 1 Cor. 3:5; 4:6. "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us." 2 Cor. 4:7. We praise God for all He has given us through these men and others; we honor them for His sake; but to Him and His Word, not to them, belongs the glory.

“FEAR YE NOT THE REPROACH OF MEN.”

THE pope's blessing is really more to be feared than his curse. Of late he has been sending imaginary statuettes of Jesus to the crowned heads of Europe, with his blessing, the last to Queen Victoria. The “Golden Rose,” given from year to year to the ruler who has done most for the “church,” has not proved always a blessing. Bomba, king of Naples, lost crown and kingdom within a year after he received it. Francis Joseph, emperor of Austria, was defeated at Sadowa and lost his Venetian possessions within a year after the pope's blessing came. Queen Isabella, of Spain, lost crown and kingdom shortly after its reception. The Empress Eugenie was a recipient, and defeat by Germany followed. Mrs. W. T. Sherman received the “Golden Rose,” and soon died. Spain's armies were blessed, but defeat followed. The pope blessed Boulanger, and Maximilian and his wife, and many others, and disaster followed. An English steamer, laden with Sisters of Charity, sailed for South America in 1870 under the special blessing of the pope, but it never reached its destination. Says the Primitive Catholic of November, 1898, from which we gather these facts:—

“The Grand Bazaar de Charite in Paris, on May 4, 1897, had the papal nuncio to deliver the benediction. It was scarcely five minutes afterward when the building was in flames, and nearly one hundred and fifty of the society ladies of Paris lost their lives. The late Empress of Austria was the recipient of the Golden Rose, accompanied by Leo's blessing. That did not protect her from the dagger of the assassin.

“It is not superstition to regard with dread the special marks of the pope's favor, with such a history. It would be madness to ignore this dreadful record and its manifest instruction to the Christians of the globe.”

The pope has cursed Italy and Germany and England and Luther, and Protestantism in general and particular, but this has not affected their prosperity. “His curse causeless shall not come,” God's Word declares; and it also assures us that “blessed are, they that do His commandments;” and whosoever God blesses shall be blessed.

A Lesson from Sodom

A Lesson from Sodom.—How great is God's mercy! Every example of the past is a revelation to us of what He is now. When Lot was warned of the destruction of Sodom, he lingered. Those who warned him had already saved him from the violence of the wicked of the doomed city. He had seen those who sought to hurt him stricken with blindness, indicative of their spiritual condition; the angels told him to warn his friends and relatives of Sodom's doom. He did, but he seemed to them “as one that mocked.” Notwithstanding all these evidences of the goodness and power of God and the wickedness of Sodom, when the angels told him, “Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city,” the man lingered, loath to leave Sodom. The fibers of his heart had intertwined about the godless place. But God's messengers seize their hands and hurry them forth, “the Lord being merciful.” So would the Lord have done to every soul in doomed Sodom who had the fear of the Lord in his heart. The people were wedded to their sins, identified themselves with the sin, and with the sin they perished. And Sodom is a type of this wicked world. God turned “the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly.” Would we escape Sodom's doom?—Then must we separate wholly from the world and its sin and obey God.

Of Promise.

If the covenant and promises and the Seed had come through Ishmael, his descendants might have had some basis to claim that all were to be the seed of Abraham according to the flesh; for so was Ishmael born. But not so did the Lord work. The covenant and the promises and the Seed all came through Isaac, whose birth was as truly miraculous as a new creation would be. It was a miracle of the Spirit of God, wrought in the very beginning of Abraham's seed, that men might know that the seed of Abraham, the true seed, was spiritual. (Read Gen. 18:1-15; Rom. 4:13-25; Gal. 4:22-31.)

"Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise." The seed of the bondwoman is born after the flesh; the children of the freewoman, through promise. "That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted for the seed." Rom. 9:8.

Lot's Wife

Lot's Wife.—Jesus says to those who are living near the time of His coming, “Remember Lot's wife.” She, it was evidently, who hindered Lot. She never got out of Sodom. The Lord's command was, “Escape for thy life; look not behind thee.” But Lot's “wife looked back.” Her heart was in Sodom; there were her treasures. Physically she was out; spiritually she was yet in the city; and she shared its doom. There are many in the church physically whose hearts are in the world. Unless they leave it, they will share its doom. “Remember Lot's wife. Whosoever shall seek to save his life [entwine it in this world] shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life [die to self and the world] shall preserve it.” It will be hid with Christ in God. Luke 17:32, 33; Col. 3:3. “No man having put his hand to the plow, and looking back [longingly, his heart in the past] is fit for the kingdom of God.”

The World's Harvest Number

By Editor

The World's Harvest number of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES grows on one. He who reads it attentively will desire others to read it. It is, thanks be to God, full of salvation and the bread of life. It brings full-armed a bounteous store of good things from our Father's hand, and it warns in no uncertain tone, yet most kindly, of the evils that beset and lie in wait for the children of earth.

World's Harvest Number Pricing

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World's Harvest Number Edition Exhausted

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Weigh This Issue by God's Word

By Editor

Read the articles in this issue. They are of tremendous importance. Weigh their import not by tradition, not by human creed or opinion or custom or expediency, but by the Word of God. For it is His Word that shall judge us in the last great day.

Sodom's Doom Revealed to God's Friends

"Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?" asks the Lord when Sodom was about to meet her doom. Gen. 18:17. Abraham was "the friend of God." Jesus says: "Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called you friends; for all things I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you." John 15:15. Surely, then, as God foretold Sodom's doom to Abraham, so He will reveal the doom of this world to His faithful people.

A Question and Its Answer

A Question and Its Answer.—Nearly 4,000 years ago the father of the faithful asked the question, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” To poor human judgment God's ways at times seem strange; but faith says, Wait God's time. Those who do will thus sing: “Great and marvelous are Thy works, O Lord God, the Almighty; righteous and true are Thy ways, Thou King of the ages.” Rev. 15:3, R.V. God's finished work has justified all His wise plans. “The good can well afford to wait.”

CONTAINED IN THIS NUMBER.

By Editor

Poetry.

The Harvest of Hate, HOPE ONSLOW . . . . . 5
"Now Is the Acceptable Time" . . . . . 7
No Need Have They to Go Away . . . . . 10
Work of Rum . . . . . 12

General.

Not Man but God . . . . . 1
First a Holy Church Then the Holy Ghost, ALBION F. BALLENGER . . . . . 2
The Law Revealed in Christ, MRS. E. G. WHITE . . . . . 3
Punishment of the Wicked, WM. PENNIMAN . . . . . 3
Friend, How Camest Thou? URIAH SMITH . . . . . 4
The Second Coming of Christ, FRANCIS M. WILCOX . . . . . 5
The Seal and the Mark, G. E. FIFIELD . . . . . 6
Held for Postage, E. L. PAULDING . . . . . 7

Outlook.—If Men Would Only Consider—European Complications—Words! but What Do They Amount to?—The Conditions in Austria—Foreboding Complications. 8, 9

Missions.—The Inhabitants of the Philippines; Their Customs and Peculiarities, EUGENE G. WOOD . . . . . 10, 11

The Home.—The Influence of Mind over Body, DAVID PAULSON, M.D.—Be Your Own Employer, I.—Shine in the Home—Maternal Affection . . . . . 12, 13

International Sabbath-school and Sunday-school Lessons . . . . . 14

Publishers . . . . . 15