Leading Priest Charges Protestants with Following Rome—He Specifies Some Particulars
By George W. Reber
In a book bearing the title, “The End of Religious Controversy,” written by “the Right Rev. John Milner, of the Catholic Academy of Rome,” the author advances evidence which, to his mind, is proof positive that Protestant denominations are not, in their practices, consistent with their profession.
His argument runs thus: “The first precept of the Bible is that of sanctifying the seventh day. Gen. 2: 3. This precept was confirmed of God in the Ten Commandments, Ex. 20: 8-11. On the other hand, Christ declares that He is not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill. Matt. 5: 17. He Himself observed the Sabbath. Luke 4: 16. His disciples likewise observed it after His death. Luke 23: 36.
No Authority for It
“Yet with all this weight of Scripture authority for keeping the Sabbath, or the seventh day, holy, Protestants of all denominations make this a profane day, and transfer the obligations of it to the first day of the week, or the Sunday. Now what authority have they for doing this? None at all but the unwritten word or tradition of the Catholic Church.”
“Then with respect to the manner of keeping that day holy, their universal doctrine and practice are not less at variance with the sacred text. The Almighty says, ‘From even unto even shall ye celebrate your Sabbaths’ (Lev. 23: 32), which is the practice of the Jews down to the present time, but not of any Protestants that I ever heard of.”
The Ordinance to Wash Feet
“I will confine myself to one more instance of Protestants abandoning their own rule, that of Scripture alone, to follow ours, of Scripture explained by tradition. If any intelligent pagan who had carefully perused the New Testament were asked, ‘Which of the ordinances in it is most explicitly and strictly enjoined?’ I make no doubt but he would answer that it is ‘the washing of feet.’ To convince yourself of this, be pleased to read the first seventeen verses of John chapter 13. Observe the motive (love) which Jesus assigns for the ordinance; then the stress that He lays upon it; and finally His injunction at the conclusion of it: ‘Ye call Me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.’
“I now ask, On what pretense can those who profess to make Scripture alone the rule of their religion, totally disregard this institution and precept?”
He Excepts One Denomination
One further quotation from the same work, page 277, reads, “Our church teaches that to326enter into life we must keep God’s commandments.”
Alongside of this I will quote from a prominent churchman of the same denomination to which Mr. Milner belongs. In a Catholic convention held in Durban, Natal, South Africa, in which the question of keeping the commandments of God was under discussion, one of their principal speakers made the following sweeping statement: “When it comes to literal obedience to the Ten Commandments, there is not a Christian denomination upon the face of the globe that obeys the Decalogue.” Suddenly checking himself, he remarked: “I am in error. There is one small sect who literally keep the commandments. I think they are called ‘Seventh-day Adventists.’ They alone, of all Protestants, are commandment keepers.”
Thus according to the confession of the Catholic Church, there is one Christian denomination who are consistent in their profession and practice. It is not only consistent Protestantism to keep the Sabbath enjoined in the Scriptures and observed by Jesus and His disciples; but in the settling of the question of one of the most prominent and important practices in religion,—that of regarding a day to the Lord,—it is absolute safety to keep “the Sabbath day according to the commandment.”
Martyr and Persecutor Meet in Glory
By Edith Friday
THERE is no event in the history of the world which means so much to mankind as does the coming of our Saviour to this earth. It is through Him that our brightest hope may be realized,—the hope of meeting again the loved of earth.
“How the heart of the apostle Paul swelled with holy exultation as he looked away from his scars, and his chains, and his coming martyrdom, to the moment of his Lord’s appearing, when his children in the gospel should come and stand by his side!”
Think of Paul’s meeting with Stephen! When last they exchanged glances, Stephen was the martyr, and Saul was the persecutor; but in the heavenly kingdom they will embrace each other, and bow together at the Saviour’s feet, washed in the same blood, martyr and persecutor, trophies of the same love.
Edith Friday.
Always Employed in God’s Work
“If you really want to work for God you will never be out of employment.”
IS MAN IMMORTAL?
By Albert M. Dart
If Not, May He Secure Immortality? What Is the Process?
By Albert M. Dart
Many, in reading the following article, will doubtless have come into mind the questions, Where are the dead? And what is their condition? We are pleased to announce that an article from Elder Dart next week will answer these questions.
Editor.
Webster thus defines the word “immortal”: “Exempt from death; eternal; never ending; imperishable.”
Is man immortal? This is one of the great questions. If we are to be guided in our conclusions by the teachings of God’s word, it would hardly seem necessary to give this question extended consideration; for the most familiar and simple statements of inspiration settle it negatively. Take, for instance, John 3: 16: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Now to be immortal is to be imperishable, and it would be charging God with folly to say that He gave His Son to rescue imperishable man from perishing.
Every religious belief must be tested by the gospel. “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel, . . . how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.” 1 Cor. 15: 1-4.
The gospel, then, presents Christ dead, buried, and risen. Let us apply this fact to the immortality question. It goes without saying that He died to save us from death. So we read that He “hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” 2 Tim. 1: 10. Now since life and immortality are brought to light through the gospel, it is patent that without the gospel, neither is possessed. Thus the gospel test applied, finds man in sin, without immortality.
SEEK FOR IMMORTALITY
“And when they had found Him, they said unto Him, All men seek for Thee.” The disciples had been seeking for Christ, and found Him. Did they have Him before they found Him? Did they continue to seek for Him after they found Him? These questions seem ridiculous; but I ask them in order to make forceful another thought. Here it is: In Paul’s epistle to the Romans, second chapter, sixth and seventh verses, it is stated that God “will render to every man according to his deeds: to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life.”
Would the Lord exhort us to seek for immortality if we had it? Would this thought not be just as ridiculous as the thought of seeking the Saviour after they found Him? The facts are that man in sin is without glory, without honor, and without immortality, and of course without eternal life, for the latter is the reward of seeking the former.
If man were immortal, inspiration would not speak of him as mortal. Job 4: 17. Neither would it say that God only has immortality. 1 Tim. 6: 16.
IMMORTALITY FOUND
Because man in sin is without immortality, and in this condition is subject to decay, perishable, and unless rescued, would lose his identity in the universe, God made provision for him to secure it. This must be true, else He would not have said, Seek it. It would be denying Himself for God to say, Seek that which cannot be found.
Where is immortality to be found?—Manifestly where life is to be found; for we find man receiving it at the close of the gospel age, when Jesus comes to receive those to Himself who have sought and found “glory and honor and immortality” and “eternal life” in Him. “For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” 1 Cor. 15: 52, 53. Surely such language could not be used if man had inherent immortality.
THE ONLY IMMORTALS
Let it be emphasized that immortality is put on only by those who have sought and found it through Christ, and such are henceforth incorruptible. Not so with those who go down in death without Christ. They come up corruptible, without immortality, even as they went down, and pay the penalty of sin in the second death, which the Saviour fain would have saved them from had they sought Him. Rev. 2: 11.
Dear reader, what is your relationship to Christ? The question of immortality for you is all determined by this. Without Christ—without immortality, without life, without anything but death. Can you afford it? Can you afford to be ignorant of His purpose for you in this all-important matter?
O, to be certain that should our eyes be closed in death, the next sensation will be the thrill of immortality, with no more corruption and its attendant grief, misery, sorrow, and death, but a full realization, in eternal bliss, of “the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.”
Holiness as Persevering Obedience
HOLINESS is no blazing comet, amazing nations with transient glory; it is a fixed star, which with still, calm radiance, shines up through the darkness of a corrupt age. Holiness is persevering obedience; it is not holiness at all if it be occasional zeal and sensational piety.—Spurgeon.
Would Muzzle the Press in New Zealand
By J. M. Cole
Efforts in That Distant Island to Suppress Anti-Catholic PublicationsAn Active Organization for the Purpose
By J. M. Cole
The accompanying article by Elder Cole shows that New Zealand is having some of the same experiences we are having in this country, in meeting the papal program to suppress publications that do not harmonize with Rome. Freedom of speech and of the press should be alike dear to every one, and should be defended by all. But these foundation principles of liberty are very obnoxious to despots of the church; and it matters not whether this religious despotism be under the guise of Catholicism or Protestantism, it is alike tyrannical. But the union of the church and the state is coming back again all over the world. The Bible prophecies call for it, and we can see the activities that herald its rapid approach. Editor.
FOR about two years, Roman Catholics have been aggressive in the dominion of New Zealand in pushing a campaign to exclude from our mails all publications that they consider “scurrilous.” A little more than a year ago, the Catholic Federation of New Zealand succeeded in stopping an American paper called the Menace from coming into the dominion. Later a book was noticed in the window of one of the leading book shops in Auckland. The novel had in it something about a priest. A representative of the Federation waited on the manager of the book shop and asked that the book be not sold to the public. It was taken out of the shop window, and to-day very few copies of that book can be found on sale in the city.
Imprisoned the Faith Healer
In the month of November, 1914, Pastor Wilhide, a faith healer, distributed a tract of his in Petone, a small town near Wellington. From a Wellington paper we quote: “The police had many complaints from mothers and fathers and from the secretary of the Catholic Federation, and the police had the greatest difficulty in preventing the enraged parents from executing their own punishment.” — Truth, December 23, 1914.
In Truth of January 2 appeared a full report of the trial and conviction of Elder Wilhide, faith healer, poet-preacher, who had been charged with delivering a document of immoral and mischievous nature into the hands of several persons at Petone.
The document or pamphlet in question was headed and entitled, “The Restorationist, Gospel Message.”
In summing up, Magistrate Cooper admitted he was convinced “that the pamphlet had been written and circulated from high motives,” and then by some astounding process of reasoning concluded that he must convict and penalize the accused. He thereupon inflicted a fine of £5 on each of the three counts; but in order to allow of an appeal being lodged, the fine in one instance was fixed at £5 1s.
As the sum required to lodge an appeal amounted to twenty golden sovereigns, this hurdle proved too stiff for Mr. Wilhide to clear, and so the first penalty held good, and the strong elder was asked to pay up £15, with some 30s in addition as expenses. This the faith healer couldn’t do. He seldom has two coppers to rattle on the proverbial tombstone. He and his wife live from week to week, not knowing whence the next meal is to come, and any surplus wealth they have they dispense in charity. So last Wednesday morning he was collected by the unsympathetic John Hops and placed in the cold stone jug, there to work out his atonement to the satisfaction of the law.
The Pamphlet That Imprisoned Him
“Who is Elder Wilhide, and what is this crime of which he has been convicted? Mr. Wilhide is known in Wellington, and much further afield, as a person of most exemplary character. He is known as one who has given of himself unstintingly to the service of man, spending and being spent in order to help or lessen the load of poverty and pain which is the lot of so many ‘bottom dogs’ to-day. He is a man who has seen the evil ravages made by the scarlet scourge upon the manhood and womanhood of our large cities, and set himself the task of arousing the community to the danger that threatens its very existence. For this purpose, he wrote the pamphlet complained of, and for the publishing of which he now lies languishing in durance vile. Truth cannot admit the Indecent Publications Act was meant to apply to such men or such cases. The purpose of the act is to prevent or punish for the publication or sale of any indecent document for carnal gratification or for personal profit. In fact, clause 5 especially provides for the exemption of such a case as that of Elder Wilhide. The clause reads:
“In determining whether any document or other matter is indecent within the meaning of the act, the magistrate shall take into consideration not merely the nature of that document or matter itself, but also the nature and circumstances of the act done by the defendant with respect thereto, and the purpose with which the act was done.”
“This clause surely covers the whole of the ground so far as the act of Elder Wilhide was concerned. In delivering his judgment, Magistrate Cooper said the fact that the pamphlet had been written and circulated only from high motives, would influence him in imposing a penalty.
“Truth’s scribe is merely a layman, and makes no pretensions to an intimate knowledge of law. Nevertheless, he makes bold to say that the magistrate misread the above clause, in accordance with the terms of which, he admitted, he inflicted a modified penalty. Truth contends that the clause has nothing whatever to do with determining the terms of punishment, but that it distinctly determines ‘whether any document or other matter is indecent within the meaning of the act.’
“As Magistrate Cooper admitted that he was convinced that the pamphlet on which the prosecution was based was published in good faith, in the public interest and not for personal profit, such an admission was tantamount to a verdict of not guilty.”
The Catholic Federation Behind It
At a diocesan council in Wellington held January 21, 1915, in St. Patrick’s Hall, Boulcott Street, it was admitted by the Catholic Federation organizer, Mr. Girling-Butcher, that back of this arrest and imprisonment of Mr. Wilhide was the Catholic Federation. From the report of this meeting published in the Tablet, the leading Catholic paper in New Zealand, we quote:
“The question of preventing the sale and distribution of objectionable literature has received much attention during the period. It was found that booksellers were in all cases quite willing to withdraw from circulation any works which Catholics might deem offensive, and in many cases asked to be informed from time to time of the names of such books. A case occurred recently at Petone, where a person was found distributing a pamphlet of a highly indecent [?] nature to children leaving the Catholic school grounds. The matter was instantly reported to your executive by the secretary of the Petone committee. The case was referred to the head office, with a recommendation that it be placed in the hands of the police. This was done, and the offender was convicted in the Magistrate’s Court, the total amount of the fines and costs being over seventeen pounds. The executive commends the action328of the Petone committee to the notice of all parish committees.”—New Zealand Tablet, January 28, 1915.
In the Tablet of the same date we have the official report of a Federation Council meeting held in Christchurch, January 18, 1915:
“After the roll call of delegates, the chairman welcomed the general secretary and organizer, Mr. G. Girling-Butcher, to the meeting. Mr. Girling-Butcher suitably replied, and explained that his chief object in coming, at the request of his executive, was to meet and become acquainted with the delegates, so that when he commenced his organizing tour, he would know some one in each of the various districts he had to visit, who would be helpful to him, and he would thus not be a total stranger. Another reason why he had come south just then was to meet the Westland clergy when coming out of retreat.”
“The chairman moved that the question of public libraries be thoroughly discussed in so far as anti-Catholic literature is catalogued, permitted on the shelves, and thence distributed, having special reference to the local and general government subsidies. An interesting discussion ensued.”
“Mr. Hayward spoke of recent activity on the part of the Diocesan Council executive. Mr. M. Corrigan followed. Mr. W. Angland laid stress on the advisability of having a representative selection committee on libraries. Mr. J. P. Leigh pointed out the futility of spasmodic action, and spoke of the laxity observable in a large center he had visited where a certain book, so much condemned, was displayed for sale in the shop windows. Mr. Angland desired to add that the forthcoming local elections would present a favorable opportunity for the Catholic voice being heard on this subject. The secretary stated that the worst offending publishing firm had a depot in Melbourne. All the most offensive anti-Catholic literature was catalogued by this firm, and it should be a recommendation to the dominion executive to ask the Victorian Catholic Federation to bring pressure to bear upon it. The Very Rev. Dean Tubman urged all branches to take practical steps to minimize, if not entirely suppress, this class of literature by reporting to the diocesan secretary any such coming under notice. An index of bad books could then be compiled, and lists furnished to every branch. It was decided to adopt this course.”
A few days after this council to “entirely suppress” “anti-Catholic literature,” Mr. Girling-Butcher called on the manager of a café in Wellington, and said that complaints had reached him of magazines from America making scurrilous remarks about the pope and the holy Catholic faith.
“Signs Magazine” Condemned
One of the café customers had found on the free reading rack a copy of the Signs of the Times Magazine No. 12 of last year. This customer felt very much abused because of an article in this paper on “God’s Eternal Purpose in Christ,” by T. E. Bowen. He at once reported it to the organizer, Mr. Girling-Butcher. We will quote the paragraph in the article so hurtful to the Catholic faith: “Here are some quotations direct from Roman Catholic authority, which bear positive testimony upon this very important question as to whether, in very fact, Catholics themselves attribute to the pope’s titles which belong only to the Father or His divine Son:
“Blasphemous Titles of the Pope
“Christ intrusted His office to the chief pontiff; . . . but all power in heaven and in earth had been given to Christ; . . . therefore the chief pontiff, who is His vicar, will have this power.”—‘Gloss on the Extravagantes Communes,’ book 1, chapter 1. See the body of the canon law, published in 1556, volume 3, Extravagantes Communes, column 29.
“All names which in the Scriptures are applied to Christ, by virtue of which it is established that He is above the church, all the same names are applied to the pope.”—Bellarmin, ‘On the Authority of Councils,’ book 2, chapter 17, in the edition of his works published in 1628, volume 1, page 266.
“For thou art the shepherd, thou art the physician, thou art the husbandman: finally, thou art another God on earth.”—The oration of Christopher Marcellus in the fourth session of the Fifth Lateran Council. See Labbe and Cossart’s edition of the Councils, published in 1672, volume 14, column 109.”
The manager of the café was told that if this kind of reading matter was given out any more, his café would have few customers.
The Love of Pleasure
By Walter A. Nelson
It Has Absorbed the World—It Is Supplanting Godliness in the Church Itself
By Walter A. Nelson
The love of pleasure is a striking tendency of the day. People want what they call “a good time.” Life itself, they think, is too mild and commonplace without some exciting pleasure. So during the baseball season, the cars for the ball park are crowded; the street at the entrance of the grounds is a moving mass of eager humanity; automobiles are lined up on both sides of the street for a block or more; and the grand stands within the park are packed with excited spectators, all anxious to satisfy their love for pleasure.
A New National Amusement
But baseball is no longer the national amusement, if we judge by numbers; not that its attractions are decreasing, but larger crowds are drawn by another amusement—the moving-picture show. There are now nearly 20,000 motion picture theaters running in this country, showing annually something like 40,000 miles of film. Every day, an average of 7,200,000 persons visit the picture show. Annually $275,000,000 in nickels is received at the gilded cage in front of the motion picture theater.
A sad feature of the shows is the baneful influence they are exerting over so many children. Miss Flora Hendley, a supervising principal of public schools in Washington, D. C., said in an address at a meeting of the Mother’s Congress: “I have found that five children in one hundred go to moving-picture shows every day. Twenty-five per cent go more than once a week. Fifty per cent or more go at least once a week. Seventeen per cent go to moving pictures before six o’clock in the evening, and the rest after that time. Half of them go alone or with other children.”
Even professed Christians appear to love pleasure more than the things of God, and amusements now have a large place in church activities. A prominent Baptist clergyman, addressing a camp meeting audience of about six thousand last summer, said that our parents of a few decades ago could enjoy a camp meeting of ten days, listening to preaching three or four times a day, without any special recreation; but their children want to associate amusements with their religious gatherings, and so the demand must be met. Then followed an announcement of motion picture shows and concerts to be given in connection with the camp meeting.
Amusements in the Church
The churches in general have concluded that to hold their members and to win the young people, amusements must be given in the church. For this reason, baseball teams are organized among the members, and social evenings are planned. A writer in a leading paper went so far as to say that if moving pictures are wanted in the church, they should be given.
Scriptural Predictions
The lack of spiritual power in the lives of many who are professedly Christian is one of the principal causes of this condition. The gospel has lost its attraction to them. They still wish to share in the Christian’s rewards, but fail to sense the importance of dying to the world and living for Christ. Religion is to them but a mere form with a few minor requirements. The Lord, speaking to Ezekiel of such a class, says: “They sit before thee as My people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.” Eze. 33:31. Speaking of such a class living in the last days, Paul says that they are “lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” 2 Tim. 3:4, 5.
Procrastination and Our Lord's Return
By Denton E. Rebok
It is a common trait to procrastinate—to put off until to-morrow that which should be done to-day. This habit enters into every phase of life.
How easy it is to allow matters of a very trivial character to crowd out of our daily program the proper consideration of the weightier matters! Think of the great number of men and women who give no thought to their future. They do not give thought to the preparation for eternal life until some calamity or sickness comes to them. It behooves us to prepare while the time is opportune, and not to put off the day of salvation.
There is a tendency to procrastinate in regard to the second-coming of Christ. The Bible speaks of a class who will not give heed to the warning messages from God, but will walk according to their own pleasures. The church of Christ must awake before it is too late, and with Him as their leader, seek the experience of Paul, who counted all things but loss for Christ. Such are the people who have not been overcome by procrastination, but who have overcome the tendency to delay preparation for our Lord's return. On which side am I?
DENTON E. REBOK.
The Path of Daily Duty
“An elevated purpose is a good and ennobling thing, but we cannot begin at the top of it. We must work up to it by the often difficult path of daily duty—of daily duty always carefully performed.”
WAS IT THE WEEK OR THE SABBATH DAY?
By A. C. P.
Were Our Translators at Fault?—Would We Have a New Sabbath if the Text Were Correctly Rendered?
No transference of the Sabbath is authorized by Christ, according to the English version of the New Testament; but some persons have suggested that the Greek teaches such a transference in Matt. 28:1 and parallel passages.
It is said that the Greek reads, “In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first of the Sabbaths.” It is urged that such a reading brings in a new series of Sabbaths, and brings the end of the former series. In order that the reader may have the benefit of the teaching of the Greek on these passages, we will give a brief space to the study from that viewpoint.
BOTH “REST” AND “WEEK”
In our study of the Sabbath question, we have found that the lexicons give the primary definition of “Sabbath” as “rest,” and the secondary meaning as “week.” With this definition before us, let us study the original of Matt. 28:1: “In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher.” On this text, Mr. Bliss, of Boston, a first-day observer, made the following remarks:
“Lest any should gather that the word ‘Sabbath’ is represented by the phrase ‘first day of the week,’ we would add that ‘Sabbath’ is simply translated ‘week’ in those texts, other words indicating the day of the week. The word ‘Sabbath’ is originally a Hebrew word, and signifies rest; but occurring at regular intervals, by a metonymy it became significant of the period separated by those rests. So that we have the seventh day of the rest, and the first day of the rest, week, or Sabbath.”
SOMETIMES THE WHOLE WEEK
It is evident, therefore, that the word sabbaton sometimes means the whole week. How can we determine when it has that meaning? Robinson is good authority, and he says that it has this meaning “after the numerals denoting the days of the week.”
The following correspondence is to the point:
“Is it allowable to translate the Greek of Matt. 28:1, ‘At the end of the Sabbaths, as it began to dawn toward the first of the Sabbaths’? It seems to me as if we might, and it would be quite an argument of a change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week, because the resurrection morning stood between the two Sabbaths.”
Kafir Home Life, Graham's Town: South Africa
In reply to this question, Dr. Walter Quincy Scott, one of the instructors in the Bible Teachers’ Training School of New York City, addressed the following letter to Dr. W. White, the editor of the Bible Record, in whose columns the question appeared:
“New York, September 8, 1904.
“My Dear Dr. White: Your correspondent asks, ‘Is it allowable to translate the Greek of Matt. 28:1, “At the end of the Sabbaths, as it began to dawn toward the first of the Sabbaths”?’
“Such a rendering is impossible.
“1. Mian is feminine, and sabbaton is neuter. Mian agrees with hameran understood.
“Your inquirer remarks on this point (as made by writer in Sunday School Times), ‘Neither do they (mian and sabbaton) agree in number.’ Of course not; a substantive followed by a partitive genitive cannot agree with it numerically.
“2. It seems idle to add anything to the foregoing grammatical prohibition of the rendering proposed. But I may add that mian sabbaton is a Hebraism corresponding to the rabbinical designation of the days of the week. They called each day of the festal week a ‘sabbath,’ and indicated each day by its proper ordinal prefixed to ‘sabbath.’”330
“And in Greek eis is commonly used (as here) instead of protos.
“The Septuagint and New Testament alike use ta sabbata in sense of singular—‘the Sabbath day,’ and also in the meaning ‘week.’ Mian sabbaton in Matt. 28:1 cannot mean anything else than the ‘first day of the week.’ The Revised Version correctly translates the verse.
“Your correspondent will find ample scholarly notes in Lange’s Matthew, by Schaff. Yours very truly,
“Walter Quincy Scott.”
This letter from a genuine Greek scholar appeared in the issue of the Bible Record for January, 1905. It is the deliberate utterance of one whose ability and fairness prevent him from perverting the meaning of the passage as it is in the Greek language. In the May issue of the same publication there appeared another letter upon this subject, from which we make the following quotation:
“Editor of the Bible Record:
“Dear Sir: The query in the issue of January, 1905, as to ‘Sabbath or Sabbaths,’ seems to call for a further warning. The querist asks if Matt. 28:1, Opse de sabbaton, te epiphoskouse eis mian sabbaton, may not be rendered, At the end of the Jewish seventh-day Sabbaths, as it began to dawn toward the first of the Christian first-day sabbaths. The superb negative answer given should be heralded far and wide. People of excellent intention and deep piety, but with little knowledge, are making such an interpretation in fortifying themselves against ‘Saturday keepers.’ I own two books, and have read two others, in which each writer claims to have made the great discovery of said translation, and has based his book thereon.
“These good men had only a rusted smattering of classical Greek, and in their zeal without knowledge, they stumbled upon this rendering, with a carelessness that few students of a month would make. ‘A little learning is a dangerous thing.’ And more than that, acquaintance with classical Greek is not enough for the reading of the New Testament Greek. One must have large acquaintance with the grammar and the lexicon of the Greek Old Testament, and behind that, as the key to many of its peculiarities and mysteries, of the Hebrew Old Testament also.”
The writer of this second letter is stated to be a professor in a theological seminary, but his name is not given. It very fittingly accompanies the previous letter from Dr. Scott.
These letters are both written by Greek scholars who observe the first day of the week as the Sabbath and defend the practice. They both appear in a publication whose editor and publishers do the same. Both writers affirm that any such translation as is proposed by the writer of the article under consideration is impossible.
A. C. P.
LED THROUGH STRANGE PATHS
By W. A. S.
Wandered from Cambridge to Find Christ in Darkest Africa
By what strange paths are some souls led into the light! Yesterday I held a meeting with a company of Kafirs who have accepted the truths of the advent message. The Kafir “location,” as it is called, just outside the beautiful city of Graham’s Town, is a well arranged settlement, most of the houses having proper walls and corrugated iron roofs. We, however, passed some huts of the true Kafir type, as shown in the photograph.
Drifted to Kafirland
Our meeting was held in the house of a believer, a colored man, whose childhood home was in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He became a wanderer, and drifted over the earth, finally to become a member of the Kafir settlement in this eastern part of the Cape Province.
Hard Character Saved
He was rather a hard character when this blessed truth found him and saved him; and now, in his old age, with the victory over tobacco and evil ways, he rejoices in the hope of Christ’s soon coming. He thanks God for the strange providence that found his lost soul in this far land.
And it is remarkable, is it not, as we think of this man leaving Cambridge, and the shadow of Harvard College, to plunge into a long, dark life of roving, finally to find the light of salvation in a Kafir “location” in Africa!
Comfort and Hope for Every People
As I spoke to the company gathered in the little room, with its clean, hard earth floor, I was glad that God’s blessed word has its message of comfort and hope for every people. The superintendent of our Kafir missions, E. W. H. Jeffrey, translated for me into the Kafir language.
To-day we are going on to our main station in Kafirland, the Maranatha farm and school, some twenty-five miles from Graham’s Town.
The message of Christ’s coming is, to go to every tribe and people. Kafirland is hearing it. W. A. S.
