Signs of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 13. (3/27/1884)

Signs of the Times

Mar 27, 1884

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 27, 1884

General Articles.

By Mrs. E. G. White

Erroneous Doctrines Dangerous.

BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.

SAYS the apostle Jude, "Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints." The apostles and their co-laborers in the early Christian church were constantly obliged to meet heresies, which were brought in by false teachers in the very bosom of the church. These teachers are represented not as coming openly, but creeping in unawares, with the gliding motion of a serpent. They followed their own pernicious ways, but were not satisfied without drawing away others with them. They had no connected chain of truth, but taught a disjointed medley of ideas, supported by a passage of Scripture here and another there. These disconnected scriptures were woven together into a tissue of falsehood that would strike the fancy, and would deceive those who had not, by searching the Scriptures for themselves, become established in the truth for that time.

Satan worked through these false teachers. Under a profession of regard for the truth, they concealed base purposes, for their hearts were corrupt. Had they come disclaiming faith in Christ, they would have been rejected at once; but professing to believe in him, they gained the confidence of some, and without shame or conscience perverted the truth to suit their own unsanctified hearts. And when once these deluded souls had departed from the old landmarks of faith, they had let go their anchor, and were tossed about like the waves of the sea. These lying prophets are described in the word of God; their deeds are recorded in the register of Heaven. Their hearts and their deceptive, wicked works were not understood by men; but the Lord saw them; he read their hearts as an open book, and knew that their very thoughts and purposes were corrupt.

False teachers are just as active in our day as they were in the days of the apostles. Satan has many agents, and they are ready to present any and every kind of theory to deceive souls,—heresies prepared to suit the varied tastes and capacities of those whom he would ruin. There are cheap fallacies for those who are easily led into error, and who desire something new, odd, or fanciful, which they cannot explain intelligently, or even understand themselves. A mysterious, disconnected set of ideas is more in accordance with their minds than the plain truth, which has a "Thus saith the Lord" for its foundation. He has other heresies,—intellectual poisons,—which he has concocted for another class of minds in this age of skepticism and proud reasoning. These sophistries have a bewitching power over minds, and thousands are deceived by them.

One class have a theory that there is no personal devil, and that Christ had no existence before he came to this earth; and they try to maintain these absurd theories by wrestling scriptures from their true meaning. The utter folly of human wisdom in matters of religious faith is thus made manifest. The heart that is not sanctified, and imbued with the spirit of Christ, is perverse in its interpretation of the inspired word, turning the truth of God into senseless falsehood; and some who have not searched the Scriptures with humble hearts allow these wild speculations to unsettle their faith; they accept them in place of the plainly revealed will of God.

Satan assails another class with arguments that present a greater show of plausibility. Science and nature are exalted. Men consider themselves wiser than the word of God, wiser even than God; and instead of planting their feet on the immovable foundation, and bringing everything to the test of God's word, they test that word by their own ideas of science and nature, and if it seems not to agree with their scientific ideas, it is discarded as unworthy of credence. Thus the great standard by which to test doctrines and character is set aside for human standards. This is as Satan designed it should be. Some say, "It is no matter what we believe, if we are only honest." But the law and the testimony remain valid, and we are to seek unto them.

The law of God is the great moral standard by which character is to be judged. It is the expression of his will, and must be obeyed from the heart. Its holy principles must underlie our course of action in all our business relations. Those who belittle their profession of faith by conformity to the world, show that they despise the riches of the grace of Christ. They cry, "The grace of Christ! we are not saved by works, but by Christ;" but they continue in sin,—continue to transgress the law of God. They act as though they considered it their privilege to live in sin that grace may abound. But every indulgence in sin weakens the soul; it welcomes Satan to come in and control the mind, making the individual his effectual servant.

In these days of delusion, every one who is established in the truth will have to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints. Every variety of error will be brought out in the mysterious working of Satan, which would, if it were possible, deceive the very elect, and turn them from the truth. There will be human wisdom to meet,—the wisdom of learned men, who, as were the Pharisees, are teachers of the law of God, but do not obey the law themselves. There will be human ignorance and folly to meet in disconnected theories arrayed in new and fantastic dress,—theories that it will be all the more difficult to meet because there is no reason in them.

There will be false dreams and false visions, which have some truth, but lead away from the original faith. The Lord has given men a rule by which to detect them: "To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." If they belittle the law of God, if they pay no heed to his will as revealed in the testimonies of his Spirit, they are deceivers. They are controlled by impulse and impressions, which they believe to be from the Holy Spirit, and consider more reliable than the inspired word. They claim that every thought and feeling is an impression of the Spirit; and when they are reasoned with out of the Scriptures, they declare that they have something more reliable. But while they think that they are led by the Spirit of God, they are in reality following an imagination wrought upon by Satan.

Their character was described and their doom denounced by the ancient prophets. It was ordained of old that those who unsettle faith in the word of God should bear the condemnation of God.

Jude says, "I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not." This will be the sure fate of all the characters described by Jude, who depart from God, and lead others away from the truth. Although the Lord gave Israel the greatest evidences of his favor, and upon condition of obedience, the rich promise that they should be to him a peculiar people, a royal nation, yet because of their unbelief and disobedience he could not fulfill the promise. Because of their transgressions, he removed his restraining power over their enemies, the ungodly nations around them, and did not protect them as he had done.

Some profess Christianity year after year, and in some things appear to serve God, and yet they are far from him. They give loose rein to appetite and passion, and follow their own unsanctified inclinations, loving pleasure and the applause of men more than God or his truth. But God reads the secrets of the heart. Base thoughts lead to base actions. Self-righteousness, pride, and licentiousness are far-reaching, deep, and almost universal. These are the sins for which God destroyed the inhabitants of the old world by a flood of water, and

they are corrupting the churches in these last days. They are the hidden rocks upon which are wrecked thousands and tens of thousands who profess godliness. Only those who are closely connected with God will escape the devices of Satan and the prevailing moral corruptions of this age.

The character is revealed by the works, not by occasional good deeds and occasional misdeeds, but by the tendency of the habitual words and acts. Those who would put God out of their knowledge will show a want of principle. Every man will show which master he is serving with the strength of his intellect, his skill, and his ability. The servant of Christ will watch unto prayer; he will be devoted, humble, meek and lowly in heart, seeking to know and do the will of God. Whereas he was once the servant of sin, he has, through the grace of God, become transformed in mind and character. He will love the day of Christ's appearing; for he will be able to say with Paul, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith."

THE MORNING COMETH.

By Lucy D. Harrington

BRIGHTLY gleams the golden morning, Swiftly speeds the coming day; Hasten, Lord, the promised dawning— Let thy kingdom come, we pray.

Tarrying for the wondrous vision Soon to burst upon our sight; List'ning for the songs elysian Of the seraphs robed in white;

Looking for our heavenly Lover, Longing for our Bridegroom Friend; Gladly soon we shall pass over Where our joys will never end.

Hail! bright day of Zion's glory, Day of hope, and dawn of rest; Watchman, tell the wondrous story— Bear the news from east to west.

Pilgrims, lift your voices clearer, Louder yet in songs of praise, For the time is drawing nearer, Crowned with wealth of gladsome days.

We shall rest beside the river Flowing from the throne above; Deathless we shall bask forever In the sunshine of His love.

Heaven and earth in endless union Alleluia soon shall sing, Praising him in sweet communion— Christ the Lord, of kings the King. —Lucy D. Harrington, in Herald of Life.

A Lesson From The Ninevites.

By A. S. Hutchins

As we reflect upon the prophecy respecting the great city of Nineveh, the course of action of this people when the message concerning its overthrow was proclaimed, and the long-suffering of the Lord toward them, an important lesson may be learned.

1. The city. This was the metropolis of ancient Assyria. It had stood some fifteen hundred years, and was long the mistress of the East. It was about sixty miles in circumference. The walls of this city were one hundred feet high, and so broad that three chariots could drive abreast on them. Upon them were fifteen hundred towers, each two hundred feet high.

Thus securely fortified, why should this people fear? No doubt they often reasoned within themselves, We dwell safely, and there is no occasion of fear. Indeed, a prophecy had come down to them from their fathers, that their city could not be taken until the river should become their enemy.

2. The warning given. God pitied this wicked people in their blindness and hardness of heart. To Jonah he said: "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me."

"Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey. And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown."

This was not a familiar sound; it was new and unheard of before. The preacher came not from their schools of learning. He was a stranger and alone. He had no Bible in his hand to prove his message from; no prophecy to spread out before them which could be proved true by an overwhelming amount of evidence flashing and burning before them. Again, the message was a very unwelcome one. "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown." Let such a declaration be borne to one of our cities, under similar circumstances, at the present day, and no doubt the preacher would be counted as a madman.

3. The reception of the message, and the effect produced on the people. The faith of the Ninevites was one of the most remarkable on record. In the threatened overthrow of Nineveh there were no conditions specified, yet the people understood well that they might exist in the mind of a merciful God.

"So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them." Here faith and works united, which proved the salvation of the city.

Of this fast it has been said: "Never was there one so general, so deep, and so effectual. Men and women, old and young, high and low, and even cattle themselves, all kept such a fast as the total abstinence from food implies." There was something more than fasting. The proclamation of the king was: "But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God; yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?" This was a move in the right direction, one of which Heaven could approve.

4. God's mercy to the people. He has declared: "At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them." Hence, his mercy and long-suffering here. "And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil that he had said he would do unto them; and he did it not."

The overthrow of the city was delayed about one hundred and fifty years. But divine love and pity leave not this people now. In the most solemn and stirring manner are they warned by the prophet Nahum, of their final destruction and utter blotting out, following which, we have no record of repentance on their part. One hundred years fly away, when the cup of "the bloody city, full of lies and robbery," was filled to overflowing; and what will soon be true of all the nations and cities of earth, was true of great Nineveh; notwithstanding her pride and power, her magnificence and boasted fortifications,—she was no more. The prophecy was fulfilled, "The gates of the river shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved."

5. Practical instructions from the history of Nineveh. Said the Saviour to his hearers: "The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it; because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here."

And, again, "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." Men can see how this declaration may be true of past generations; but how will it be with this generation? Has God given us light sufficient to condemn us if we reject it?

From the childhood of many of us, the sound of the coming of Christ "at the doors" has been heard, sustained by unmistakable evidences. The commandments of God for years have been proclaimed. His downtrodden Sabbath is being restored. The preparation of heart to meet the Lord has been preached thousands of times. Many of us have heard it, and these solemn warnings have sunk deep into our hearts. We have had precept upon precept; line upon line. And will not God hold us responsible for these truths?

Perhaps we may decide with respect to men of this world. We may see why they should call to reeling mountains and hurling rocks. "Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb." We may understand why nominal Christians who oppose the proclamation of the third angel's message, who reject the light of God's word and trample it under their feet, should come up to the Judgment deceived and hear the awful words from the lips of the Judge, "Depart from me ye that work iniquity." But are we aware of the doom that awaits those who apostatize from present truth? Will they be favored above other men? Can they turn away from the truth and settle down into unbelief and infidelity, and yet escape the judgments which hang over the impenitent?

My soul trembles as I reflect upon the amount of light, and the harmonious truths of the Bible which have been presented to our minds and urged upon our consciences; and which have been by us acknowledged and received as binding and important to salvation. What must be our condemnation if we sink with so much light beaming upon us?

Will not the men who from one sermon were moved to prayer and fasting, to robe themselves in sackcloth, to sit in ashes, and to repent of their sins, arise in Judgment against such? But there are those who will not draw back unto perdition; but who will "believe to the saving of the soul." May we be of the number, and enter into the joy of our Lord.

The Whole Bible.

"You are not going to lose the Bible, for you don't read it now. Few read it all. I hear now and then of a man who has read it through and is still in good health."

This is what Mr. Beecher said to his people last Friday evening, and it is this kind of talk that lowers the tone of reverence for the word of God, which in many quarters is too low already. It may be a sad fact that too few read the Bible all through, but everybody ought to do so, and they would then understand better what revealed religion is. Mr. Beecher's language is calculated to produce the feeling, in young minds especially, that much of the Old Testament is useless lumber, trash, and that they need not read or study it. "Still in good health," after reading the Bible through! It sounds very much like vulgar slang. Has Mr. Beecher ever known anybody to get sick and die from the reading of God's word? Is it a rare thing to survive the perusal of the whole sacred volume? Why, some men have even written commentaries on it and are "still in good health."

We found the late venerable Dr. B. C. Taylor one day in his study with his Bible before him. "I have made it a practice," said he, "for many years past, to read God's blessed book through at least once every year in regular course. I am now going through it for the third time this year, and O, how increasingly precious it becomes every time. I have been studying the lives of the patriarchs, and I am more and more impressed with the richness and beauty of the Old Testament."

Contrast this language with the flippant talk of the "Prince of American Preachers," and judge who is the more worthy of respect as a religious teacher. The truth is that such want of gravity, sincerity and reverence in some brilliant preachers has done more to degrade the pulpit than all their splendid talents can do to elevate or adorn it.—Christian Intelligencer.

Divine Fullness.

By Spurgeon

DEAR brethren, when you are all full of divine grace, you are filled for all the circumstances of life. If you go filled with God, you are provided for every emergency. Come calamity or prosperity, whatever shape temptation may assume, if the love of Christ has filled you with the fullness of God, you are ready for it. See how prepared you will be to meet your brethren and benefit them. Suppose you should make one in a little gathering of believers, and they should ask you to speak a word; if you are full, your speech will be worth hearing, but if you are empty, your communications will be empty also. Sometimes when we preach we are conscious of unfitness for the work, because our soul is poverty-stricken. There cannot be much in our mouths if there is little in our hearts. Out of an empty sack you cannot shake a bushel of wheat, even if you shake it very hard. I have heard a brother pray a wearisome while, and I believe he was long because he had nothing to say. A horse can run many miles if he has nothing to carry. Long prayers often mean wind and emptiness. The Lord be with you and in you to the full.—Spurgeon.

The New Theology.

By J. E. Rankin

THE new theology, so called, gives us a new theory of last things. It is with this new theory of last things that this brief and hurriedly-prepared paper will have to do. The trouble in the minds of the advocates of this new theory of last things is this: it seems to them that a vast majority of mankind, especially the heathen, have not, under the present economy, had a fair chance; and that, in order to vindicate his moral economy, God must give them a future probation. It is not claimed that there is much in Bible authority for this view. One solitary text of disputed interpretation, like the single thread by which Mohammed's coffin was suspended between heaven and earth, is what is especially relied upon. It is claimed that St. Peter teaches in this solitary text that between his crucifixion and his resurrection the Lord Jesus Christ preached to spirits of the antediluvians, giving them a second chance, though they had a first chance when Noah, "a preacher of righteousness," was building the ark; and though in his next epistle St. Peter cites the same antediluvians as illustrations of God's knowing how to "reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished;" which passage certainly implies a denial of any second chance before the day of judgment. If the passage proves anything, it proves too much. These antediluvians were disobedient when the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing. Noah's carpenters were ordained evangelists. Every nail driven was an epistle of God's forbearance. And if St. Peter's interpretation of this event in Noah's life be true, the event itself was symbolic of the believer's salvation by the resurrection of Christ Jesus. The Saviour himself has described to us how Noah's contemporaries carried themselves: "But, as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For, as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not till the flood came and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." Did he not know that he was to preach to these people, and that they were not finally overtaken? How, then, could the coming of the flood be taken as the analogue of the coming of the Son of man, which would be without remedy?

But the new theory of last things, although its advocates try to make St. Peter father it, has very little patristic support. According to Professor Shedd, who will be accepted as fair authority in history, if not in theology, the ancient church, with only two considerable exceptions—Clement and Origen—regarded the punishment of the future endless; doubtless an understatement of the truth, for the sake of brevity. And Clement is careful to teach that the doctrine of endless punishment must be preached in order to deter men from sin, although the hope of the final salvation of all is permitted to the thinker; showing what he thought about the practical immortality of the doctrine. The church of the Middle Ages was a unit in believing, as Dante did, that he who entered the realms of the lost left hope behind. And, until recently, no considerable number of preachers out of the ranks of Unitarians or Universalists have given public utterance to any other view.

Let us look a moment at this matter of heathenism. How does it come about? There are, doubtless, perhaps hundreds of them, within the shadow of this building where we meet; thousands, tens of thousands, in this great city. I will not say—for I desire to be charitable to all my hearers, especially those of the Congregational name—I will not say there may not be heathen in this very presence. What is the process by which heathen are made? Geologists tell us that if we want an object-lesson in the science of geology, if we want to see how the thing is done which we read in the rocks, go to the delta of the Mississippi or the Nile. There Nature is making her deposits and building solid earth, crowding back the seas, saying, in the Creator's voice, "Thus far, and no farther!" We look at those vast heathen regions, where whole continents know not God, and they are like the great ages of geology—we cannot understand them. They seem a blot upon the work of the Creator, inexplicable exceptions to his economy. But you and I can see how, from inherited tendency to evil, from neglect of parental training, from the pride and luxury of the Christian churches, from the licensing of those breathing-holes of perdition, liquor saloons—you and I can see how, in the third, or even in the second generation, a heathen can be made right here in this metropolis out of the child of Christian parents. Has not the man had a fair chance? He has heard church bells from the day of his birth; he actually bears upon his brow the seal of Christian baptism. But to-day he is just as ignorant of the way of salvation as a Hottentot. And this has come to him mainly through the law of solidarity, according to which God has constituted the human race; a law which is thus recorded in the decalogue: "For I, the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments." According to that law, this man has become a heathen. Let him and his children alone for generations, and this heathenism becomes only the more perfect and awful, until it will be true of them that "knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them." And this, as the apostle claims, is because they would not retain God in their knowledge; they would not recognize him in the things of nature, in their own things, in his things.

You say, you "do not believe in any such law of solidarity; any such constitution of mankind." Believe in it or not, you cannot help being the fruit of it. The qualities which distinguish you as a man you have got from the loins of your ancestors; you have got from your domestic and social surroundings; they have come down to you through angels descending and ministering to you in answer to the prayers of the dead and living; as they ministered to Jacob of old in his dreams. This law of solidarity, of moral and spiritual heredity, is just the same law whichever direction it takes, whatever its results. If it is just in your case and my case, what is its injustice when it works the other way? There are men in this presence, whose names will occur to you at once, who bear about in their threefold being a heritage of family graces richer than that ever coming through the loins of kings. Their ancestors believed, and taught, and acted on this law of God's moral government; and it has made their children what they are. It remains to be seen whether, denying it, their children will be worthy to bear the name they themselves bear.—Rev. J. E. Rankin, D. D., in Christian Union.

The Judgment Hastens.

By J. Cross, D. D.

AWAKE, awake, ye heralds of my God, and let the warning thrill the drowsy world—"Fear God, and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is come!" The omens are everywhere—natural omens, and political omens, and ecclesiastical omens—omens commercial, and omens mechanical, and omens scientific and literary—omens in the heavens above, and on the earth beneath—in the air, and on the sea; The Moslem trembles for his approaching doom and the hoary Mystagogue of the seven hills reels blindly toward the brink of the unsounded gulf; and men's hearts are failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth; and falling thrones, and dissolving empires, and revolution threatening all rule, and anarchy with crimsoned hands and clotted hair shrieking through the visioned future,—all are heralding Him "who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom."—J. Cross, D. D.

Joy in God. Rom. 5:11.

By Thomas Chalmers

THERE is much, we think, to be gathered from the consideration, that joy in God forms one of the exercises of a Christian mind—a habit or condition of the soul into which every believer is or ought to be translated—a spiritual eminence that may be gained, even in this world, and where the heart of man may experience a relish, and imbibe a rapture, which the world most assuredly knoweth not. To feel as if you were in the company of God—to have delight in this feeling—to triumph in God as you would do in a treasure that had come into your possession—to dwell upon Him in fancy and with fondness, just as one friend dwells on the pleasing remembrance of another—to reach the ecstasies of devotion, and find that the minutes spent in communion with the heavenly and unseen witness, are far the sweetest and the sunniest intervals of your earthly pilgrimage—to have a sense of God all the day long, and that sense of him in every way so delicious as to make the creation seem vain and tasteless in the comparison—to have his candle shining in your heart, and a secret beatitude in him of which other men have no comprehension—to bear about with you that cheerful trust in him, and that cherished regard for him which children have for a father in whose love they rejoice, and of whose good will they are most thoroughly assured—to prize the peaceful Sabbaths and the sacred retirements, when your soul can wing its contemplation toward his sanctuary, and there behold the glories of his character, at the very time that you can exult in confidence before him—thus to be affected towards God, and thus to glory and be glad in him, is certainly not a common attainment; and yet we do not see how any true saint, any genuine disciple can be altogether a stranger to it. "Rejoice evermore," says the apostle of the New Testament; and "the Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice," says the venerable patriarch of the Old.

It is easy to walk in the rounds of a mechanical observation, it is easy to compel the hand to obedience, against the grain and inclination of the heart. It is very easy to bear towards God the homage of respect, or fearfulness, or solemn emotion; and to render him the outward obeisance, and even something of the inward awe, of worship. It is somewhat natural to feel the dread of his majesty, or to be visited by a sense of his terrors, or to be checked by the thought of his authority and power. And, under the weight of all this impressive seriousness, it is even somewhat natural and easy to pray. But it has been well remarked, that praise is not so natural, or so common, nor withal so easy as prayer; that delight in God is a rarer and a loftier condition of the soul than devoutness of feeling to God—that the sigh of repentance may be heard to ascend towards him in many cases, while the singing of the heart towards him may only break forth in very few.—Chalmers on Romans.

Earnestness and Greatness

WITHOUT earnestness no man is ever great or does really great things. He may be the cleverest of men; he may be brilliant, entertaining, popular; but he will want weight. No soul-moving picture was ever painted that had not its depth of shadow. The counterfeit coin is always lacking in weight.

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