Earlier text: A TRUE PICTURETime of the End.
By M. Wood
“But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, even to the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” Dan. 12: 4. There never has been a time in this world's history when the Advent doctrine has been so profusely scattered abroad as at the present time. And never since the '43 and '44 movement, have men's minds been so thoroughly stirred by the Advent message as at the present time. Those who a few years ago deemed the Advent publications unworthy of their time and attention, now give them their closest scrutiny. Our publications, which go forth bearing a world-wide message are perused by men occupying some of the highest positions. Public sentiment runs strongly in favor of prophetical study. Our books, periodicals, and tracts, are in very many cases eagerly sought after. Lectures on the prophecies and the second advent of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, to this earth, are listened to with marked attention, and the honest-hearted souls are being gathered from every nation under heaven. The leaven is working. God's people are being sealed with the seal of the living God. People are getting their eyes open to these solemn, serious truths. They begin to believe that there is a reality in the truths we profess to believe. Professors of Christianity are becoming alarmed. They fear that the third angel's message preached by S. D. Adventists is impelled forward by the spirit of the faithful and true Witness. Men's hearts are failing them for fear of those things that are coming upon the earth. The truth-seekers read our publications with joy and thanksgiving. They pursue the course adopted by the Bereans, and examine the Scriptures, to see whether these things are really so, while the murmuring, doubting unbelievers, are content to seek counsel, not from God, but from their minister. And these perishing souls are deceived into the belief that Christ's second coming is at death. One minister in particular, living not a thousand miles from Boston, told his congregation that the second personal appearing of Christ was nowhere taught in the New Testament—that Adventism was the work of the devil; and, if there were any Adventists within his church, he would very respectfully invite them to leave. He also informed his congregation that if they tolerated Adventism in the least degree, he should deem it his duty as a Christian and as a minister of the gospel, to hand in his resignation. Thank the Lord that there are a few people, even in Boston, who read the Bible for themselves. And as some of this minister's congregation are constant readers of the REVIEW AND HERALD, we would call their attention to the sayings of Jesus, found in John 5:39. “Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” He Careth for You.
By Mary Myrtle
“Casting all your care upon Him; for he careth for you.” These words have been very precious to me of late, while passing through a peculiar season of great trial and affliction; and in those dark hours of bitter sorrow, when every earthly prop had failed, and everything seemed so dark and dreary, these words have often had a soothing power, and they have sometimes come to me with such force that it has seemed as if some kind angel had whispered them to me to revive my drooping faith and courage, and I have felt reproved for my lack of faith. He that numbers even the very hairs of our head will not forget his suffering children, and he will not forsake them in the hour of affliction, but in his own good time he will deliver. He knows so much better than we do ourselves what is for our good. Even the trials and afflictions, which to us seem so mysterious, may be a proof of our kind Father’s love. We must be purified from the sins which shut Jesus out of our hearts, and these trials, and afflictions, and temptations may be just what is needed to purify us, and to wean our affections from this vain world. If we murmur and complain, we make the cup more bitter, and show our lack of faith in God and his promises. Jesus wants us to trust in him in these hours of trial, to cast all our care upon him, believing that he careth for us, and that he will do all things well. If we trust in the Lord as we should, we shall find that in these hours of trial we shall have the presence of Jesus with us, and we will feel his saving power. Oh! ye tempted, tried, and weary ones, be not discouraged. Jesus cares for you, and, though he may suffer the fires of affliction to be kindled, yet he is watching that nothing but the dross shall be consumed, and he will bring you safely through, if you only trust in him. We must all be tested, and our faith, must be tried, and Jesus knows just what trials we need to purify us, and we shall have no more than will be necessary to purify us, and fit us for a place in those mansions, which Jesus has gone to prepare for us. The Horrible Doctrine.
By D. T. T.
Look at these pictures of an eternity of future misery, from the pen of an ardent believer in the awful doctrine, and, say, reader, how you like them. From a book entitled, “A Sight of Hell,” by Rev. Father Furniss, C. SS. R., printed by “permission of the superior,” and thus indorsed by the heads of the Romish church, and recommended to be used along with the catechism in Sunday-schools as part of a course of religious instruction, it being, we are told, one of a series of “books for children and young persons,” (!) I copy the following extracts:— “Little child, if you go to hell, there will be a devil at your side to strike you. He will go on striking you every minute forever and ever without stopping. The first stroke will make your body as bad as the body of Job, covered from head to foot with sores and ulcers. The second stroke will make your body twice as bad as the body of Job. The third stroke will make your body three times as bad as the body of Job. The fourth stroke will make your body four times as bad as the body of Job. How, then, will your body be after the devil has been striking it every moment for a hundred million of years without stopping?” Then comes “A Dress of Fire,” thus: “Are not thy garments hot? Come into this room. You see it is very small. But see in the midst of it there is a girl, perhaps about eighteen years old. What a terrible dress she has on—her dress is made of fire! On her head she wears a bonnet of fire. It is pressed down all over her head; it burns her head; it burns into the skin; it scorches the bone of the skull and makes it smoke. The red-hot, fiery heat goes into the brain, and melts it. You do not, perhaps, like a headache. Think what a headache that girl must have. But see more. She is wrapped up in flames, for her frock is on fire. If she were on earth she would be burned to a cinder in a moment. But she is in hell where fire burns everything, but burns nothing away. There she stands burning and scorched; there she will stand forever burning and scorched. She counts with her fingers the moments as they pass away slowly, for each moment seems to her like a hundred years. As she counts the moments she remembers that she will have to count them forever and ever.” We then have the picture of “A Boiling Boy.” It is as follows: “But listen! There is a sound just like that of a kettle boiling. Is it really a kettle which is boiling? No. Then what is it? Hear what it is. The blood is boiling in the scalded veins of that boy. The brain is boiling and bubbling in his head. The marrow is boiling in his bones.” Once more, we have a peep at the “Roasted Baby,” as follows: “The baby is in a red-hot oven. It stamps its little feet on the floor of the oven. You can see on the face of this little child what you see on the faces of all in hell—despair, desperate, and horrible.” But enough. Here we have immortal-soulism and endless misery gone to seed. Is this Bible doctrine? Never, never!—D. T. T., in Bible Banner. REV. NEWMAN HALL delivered a very earnest address to the “unemployed,” in the hall of the Boston Young Men’s Christian Association on Thanksgiving afternoon, in which he related the following touching story:— As I was traveling over the mountains of Cumberland some years ago, I heard a lamb bleating. I listened, detained, as I am sure, by a loving Providence. It was a pitiful cry. It seemed to say, “Help me, pity me, save me!” I started in the direction whence it came. The little thing saw me, and came running to meet me. “Help me, pity me, save me!” It was half starved. I took it up in my arms. I think I talked to it. I saw an old sheep near by, and carried it to her. She would not notice it, and as I walked away, the little creature came tottering after me,—“Help me, pity me, save me!” I thought, “I cannot leave ye, little one, to perish. I wouldn’t mind carrying ye seven miles in my arms; but if I should meet the shepherd, what would he think of me? would he believe me?” Just then I saw the tall form of a man rising above the top of one of the hills. It was my friend Richardson, the shepherd with whom I passed the night before. I had left some papers at his house, and he had hurried to bring them to me. I told him about the lamb. “Yes,” he said, “sheep will abandon them sometimes at this season of the year, when feed is so scarce. I will take it.” He took the lamb in his arms and held it against his bosom; and as I saw him going away over the hills, I could but think of the great Shepherd, who carries “the lambs in his bosom.” And I thought if I, a sinful man, so pity a little creature God has made, with how much greater tenderness will he pity us, who is the father of us all. Do you think that when the weakest of you cry to Jesus, “Help me, pity me, save me!” he will refuse to listen? Never. Two years afterward, I visited friend Richardson, the shepherd, and asked him what became of the little lamb. “Why,” said he, “it is now the finest of the flock.” “So may the feeblest soul that cries to Heaven for help be strengthened by grace, and become the noblest and most useful in the flock of God.” After the telling of this story the whole audience rose and sung,— “Jesus like a shepherd lead us.” Time Misspent Is Time Lost
He lives long that lives well; and time misspent is not lived, but lost. Hymn: The Lord of Every Motive
Is there a thing beneath the sun
That strives with Thee my heart to share?
Oh! tear it thence, and reign alone,
The Lord of every motive there.
To know thy power, to hear thy voice,
To taste thy love—be all my choice. Men Are Like Trees: Strength Through Exposure
Men are like trees. Standing in the forest with their fellows around them to keep off the storms, they grow with shallow roots and high heads. Only out in the open field, exposed to every blast, do they branch low, root deep, and grow strong. The Camp-Meetings.
By James White
SEVENTH-DAY Adventists hold, the present season, thirteen camp-meetings in the States of California, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, New York, Massachusetts, Vermont and Maine. These are large gatherings. Our churches having no settled or stationed pastors, it is regarded very important that there should be a general attendance of the membership at these annual assemblies, to enjoy practical sermons from those eminently qualified to feed the flock of God, and to participate in social worship. Camp-meetings are rather a necessity than choice with our young, widely-scattered and growing organization. As with the Methodists, in their early days when their scattered condition and want of houses of worship made general gatherings in camp a necessity, these annual meetings of our people are attended with the signal blessing of God. We have received reports of the first two camp-meetings of the season from Elder Butler, president of our General Conference. These suggest some thoughts of interest which we here express. THE MISSOURI CAMP-MEETING.
The scattered friends in the Missouri and Kansas Conference have just made a grand and very commendable rally. The report states that more than two hundred brethren and sisters were present, and that many of them came with their teams from one hundred to three hundred miles to attend their annual camp-meeting. Twelve new churches were added to the Conference, making the present number twenty-two. Young men are entering the ministry, so that four tents are to be manned out in that Conference the present season. The liberal feature of the work in that new Conference is worthy of notice. Besides purchasing two new tents, and meeting local expenses, they voted donations to the Danish, Swedish, and North Pacific Missions, and to aid us in the publication of the Signs, and to establish the press on this coast. Accompanied by Mrs. W., three years since, we made a trip to Missouri and Kansas, and, assisted by Eld. Butler, held a very small camp-meeting. We scattered publications and preached the word. We organized the Kansas and Missouri Conference, which was at that time very small and weak. The situation of things was discouraging, yet commendable efforts have been made, and the results are glorious. The Iowa tent and publications were expressed to Kansas at considerable expense, and traveling expenses were large. The means expended in that effort, amounting to about seven hundred dollars, were cheerfully donated by persons in different States. But as little immediate fruit appeared, we at one time regretted the investment. Now we regret our want of faith, and pray, Lord, we believe; help thou our unbelief. Such evidences of prosperity attending liberal efforts come pouring in from every side. And, with a solemn weight of the vastness and importance of the work, and the certainty of the blessing of God attending well-directed efforts, our leading men are still led out in yet broader plans for its extension. The Iowa Camp-meeting is reported to have been the largest and most important gathering in that State. That Conference has four tents in the field the present season. Mrs. W. was at this meeting the last day. A lively interest was taken in the work on the Pacific Coast. The brethren in Iowa have confidence in the work, and also in those who have given their lives to it from the first; and they are ready to act their part cheerfully and promptly in establishing the press on the Pacific. It was but a few years since, when the cause in Iowa was young and feeble, that one family in New England let us have three hundred dollars without interest to purchase a tent for Iowa, until friends could be raised up in that State to pay for it. And now comes the return. At its recent session, the Iowa Conference voted three hundred dollars to the support of the Signs of the Times; and, what is far more, that Elder R. M. Kilgore be spared from the tent campaign in Iowa to labor the present season in New England. When that first tent was purchased for Iowa, Elder Kilgore was a captain in the army of the North, without Christ, and without the least knowledge of the people with whom, and the cause in behalf of which, he now fights the battles of the Lord. The camp-meeting season has opened most encouragingly. We shall look for reports from Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, with hopeful anxiety. We can do no less than to express feelings of gratitude to our old friends east of the Plains for their confidence and liberal co-operation with us in our work here. May it provoke and kindle the same in the hearts of our newer friends on this side. It will not be denied that there are dangers of over-action in a rapidly growing cause like ours, which demands faith and action relative to its future operations. But, if the hand of God is with this cause, that hand will guide the men who are, with the greatest care, annually elected to the highest office. In faith, and much prayer that the Guiding Hand may be with them, a people as consistent as our people are on all other points, will confide in the judgment of the General Conference Committee, so long as they hold them in office. These men are naturally over-cautious and unassuming. And, if they appear otherwise to those who are led by the spirit of this world, it is because the power of the truth and the Spirit of God, presses them out of their natural course. They are men “terribly in earnest.” And well may they be. The subject, and the work to be accomplished in a short time, fully justify it. And the spirit of our irreligious times, and the condition of apostate Christendom, demand it. Thus saith the Lord, “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.” Isa. 58:1. When the voice of truth is heard in earnest tones, in perfect accord with prophecy applicable to our time, every Christian heart should sympathize and respond. J. W. The Review and Signs.
By James White
1. They are by no means rivals, but are lifting at the same great wheel of reform, in the advocacy of truth against error, and in teaching redemption from sin, and from the grave to immortality, alone through the Redeemer. 2. It is recommended that all our people who are able to do so, and have an interest in what is going on among our people, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, take both papers. 3. Those of our people who decide to take but one paper, especially those east of the Plains, should take the REVIEW. That will communicate more directly with the eastern brethren in matters of local importance and interest than the Signs will. 4. The Signs will be especially adapted to the local interests of the cause on the Pacific Coast, and to go out into all the world wherever the English language is read. If the friends inquire, Which of the two papers shall I send to my friends? we unhesitatingly answer, The Signs of the Times. We shall give very much excellent matter that appeared in the REVIEW five, ten, fifteen, and twenty years since, from the pens of those who have since grown more controversial, minute, and tedious. And we shall gather from the REVIEW and from other sources that which will meet the wants of the cause in all new fields, adapted to minds uneducated in the views of our people. 5. Neither the California Conference, nor the friends on this coast, nor the General Conference, are responsible for the support of the Signs of the Times. We alone are responsible. We send it, without money or price, to those who do not object to receiving the paper on such terms. We invite all the friends of the cause everywhere to assist us with their means in its publication. 6. The greatest object of the existence of the Signs is that the friends of the cause may send thousands of copies to their relatives and friends all through the “Pacific Coast States and Territories.” But such circulation is by no means confined to these States and Territories. The Signs is designed to go wherever the English language is read. But we did expect that our friends, particularly those on this coast, would at once respond to our call for names, money or no money. We have 2000 copies of the Signs, numbers one and two, waiting for names. The stated terms upon which the paper is sent, are: (1) Free to all, with an invitation to all who are able to donate toward its support. (2) Send the names and addresses of as many as you please who would read the Signs with interest and profit. (3) Provided that you see them, or write to them, and get their consent to take the paper, pay postage, and read it. This invitation is extended to all branches of the Tract and Missionary Societies in existence. What will the T. and M. Society on this coast do in this matter? There should be fifty canvassers at work by this time. 7. We have been happily disappointed at the more than hearty response from across the Plains. Eld. Butler writes that when he stated upon the Iowa Camp-ground that he had copies of our new paper, published in California, the one hundred copies were gobbled up at once; and that there were $3000 pledged on that camp-ground to establish the press in California, and $300 donated from the State treasury for the support of the Signs of the Times. We forwarded twenty-five copies of the first number to the REVIEW AND HERALD Office. Bro. Smith acknowledges the receipt of them at 2 P. M. By the next morning thirty-one subscribers were obtained right on our old battlefield, in hearing of the groaning of the press of the REVIEW AND HERALD, and a Draft for sixty dollars on its way back to the Office of the Signs of the Times. Men are awake on the other side of the Plains, and are anxious to co-operate in confidence. 8. At present we are much more in need of a large and well-selected list of names than of money. We want to reach honest minds with the light. We want to do it now. Who will help us? We do not ask for long strings of names of ministers indiscriminately gathered up. This is a very doubtful class of men. Neither do we call for lists of first-day Adventists in particular. Those who have more recently become such are more hopeful cases than those who have longer been under the lax influence that attends the heresy that the moral code has been abolished. There are excellent people who will receive the truth in all the churches. And there are thousands out of the churches yet to be reached by our message. Let the missionary workers be active, and let the names come in. In God we trust. The cattle upon a thousand hills are his. If his cause needs it, and those who profess to believe the present truth withhold the needed means, God can convert men and means into the cause to be used to his glory. J. W. Are the Wicked Dead Now Being Punished?
By John Nevins Andrews
This is a question of awful solemnity, and should not be treated as a matter of speculation and idle curiosity. By far the greater part of mankind live in neglect of the great duties of religion, if not in open contempt of its most solemn commands. Such has ever been the fact with our fallen race. This vast throng of sinful men for long ages have been pouring through the gates of death, and its dark portals hide them from our further view. What is the condition of this innumerable multitude of impenitent dead? Where are they? and what now is their real state? To this question, two answers are returned: 1. They are now suffering the torments of the damned. This is the answer of all the so-called orthodox creeds. 2. They are now sleeping in the dust of the earth, awaiting the resurrection to damnation. This answer is believed by many candid Bible students to be the harmonious teaching of the Scriptures on this subject. Which of these two answers is the true and proper one? 1. There is no statement in the Bible relating to the wicked dead in general, where they are in any way represented as in a state or place of torment. Nor is there any instance in the Bible where men are threatened that they shall, if wicked, enter an abode of misery at death. Even the warning of Jesus in Matt. 10:28, which is thought to contain the strongest proof of the soul’s immortality that can be found in all the Bible, says not one word concerning the suffering of the soul in hades, the place of the dead, but relates wholly to what shall be inflicted upon “both soul and body in gehenna” (the Greek word here rendered hell), the place of punishment for the resurrected wicked. There being no general statement in the Bible representing the wicked dead as now in torment, and no instance in which the living wicked are threatened with consignment to the furnace of fire till after the Judgment, we now search out the particular cases which may be thought to teach such fact. There are just two of these cases which may be cited to prove that some of the wicked dead are now in torment; and from these, if at all, the torment of the wicked dead in general must be deduced. These cases are the Sodomites, “set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire”; Jude 7; and the rich man lifting up his eyes in torment; Luke 16:19–31. These are the only cases that can be cited from the Scriptures in proof that the wicked dead are now undergoing the punishment of their sins. 3. The case of the Sodomites first claims our attention. The text reads thus: “Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” Jude 7. The present tense is used throughout the verse. It occurs twice in speaking of the sin of Sodom, and twice with reference to its punishment. This text does not teach that the men of Sodom are now engaged in the sinful acts referred to: why should it be understood to teach that they are now receiving their retribution? Does the apostle mean to say that the Sodomites are now in the flames of eternal fire? The clause, “suffering the vengeance of eternal fire,” is modified by the words, “set forth for an example,” which immediately precede it. In fact, the real meaning of the apostle in what he says of the sufferings of the Sodomites can only be determined by giving this phrase, “set forth for an example,” its proper bearing. To be “set forth for an example” to wicked men, “suffering the vengeance of eternal fire,” one of two things must be true: 1. They must now be in a state of suffering in plain view of the inhabitants of the earth; or, 2. They must be somewhere in the Scriptures set forth in the very act of suffering the vengeance of fire from heaven. If the first of these views be correct, then the Sodomites are indeed now in torment. But that view is not correct; for the very place where Sodom was burned, is now covered by the Dead Sea. That the second view is correct, is manifest from Gen. 19:24–28: “Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven; and he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. But his [Lot’s] wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord. And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.” Here the Sodomites are set forth for an example in the very act of suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Are they to this day in that fire? Peter bears testimony, and it is the more valuable in this case because the chapter containing it is almost an exact parallel to the epistle of Jude. Thus he says: “Turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah INTO ASHES, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly.” 2 Pet. 2:6. Peter thus shows that the fire did its proper office upon the men of Sodom, and that they were not in his day alive in its flames. Their case is an example of what God will do to all the wicked after the resurrection to damnation, when fire shall descend out of heaven upon them, and the whole earth become a lake of fire. Rev. 20; 2 Pet. 3; Mal. 4. The testimony of Jeremiah, which represents the punishment of Sodom as comparatively brief, must complete this evidence: “For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her.” Lam. 4:6. 4. The language of Jude concerning the Sodomites has, therefore, no relation to their condition in death, and cannot be made to furnish evidence that the wicked dead are now in a state of torment. There remains, therefore, the case of a single individual—the rich man—out of which to deduce the doctrine that the wicked dead are now in the lake of fire. This is certainly a fact worthy of note. As we have already examined the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, we omit to notice it again at this time. The testimony of the Bible shows that the wicked dead are asleep in sheol, where they await the resurrection to damnation.21 The following texts show that the resurrection and judgment of the wicked take place before they are punished; a doctrine in the highest degree reasonable, and sustained by many plain testimonies. 1. “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to RESERVE the unjust unto the day of Judgment to be punished.” 2 Pet. 2:9. The day of Judgment must arrive before the retribution of the ungodly. 2. “The heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of Judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” 2 Pet. 3:7. The perdition of ungodly men comes at the Judgment. 3. “The wicked is RESERVED to the day of destruction; they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath.” Job 21:30. The next scripture will explain this. 4. “Marvel not at this; for the hour is coming in the which all that are in their graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth: they that have done good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation.” John 5:28, 29. 5. The wicked are first raised and judged, then afterward cast into the lake of fire. Rev. 20:11–15. 6. Vengeance is taken upon all the ungodly together when the Lord comes with his saints. Jude 14:15. 8. The burning day is the time when the wicked meet their fate. Mal. 4; Ps. 21:9. 9. The wrath of God waits till the day of wrath. Rom. 2:5–9. 10. Tribulation to the ungodly comes in connection with the advent of the Saviour. 2 Thess. 1. 11. The wicked dead are not punished till after the seventh trumpet. Rev. 11:15, 18. 12. The Judge says, “Depart from me, ye cursed,” and then, for the first time, the ungodly enter the furnace of fire. Matt. 25:41.