International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 6, 1884
General Articles.
By Mrs. E. G. White
Science Falsely So Called.
BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
In these days when skepticism and infidelity so often appear in a scientific garb, we need to be guarded on every hand. Through this means our great adversary is deceiving thousands, and leading them captive according to his will. The advantage he takes of the sciences, sciences which pertain to the human mind, is tremendous. Here, serpent-like, he imperceptibly creeps in to corrupt the work of God.
This entering in of Satan through the sciences is well devised. Through the channel of phrenology, psychology, and mesmerism, he comes more directly to the people of this generation, and works with that power which is to characterize his efforts near the close of probation. The minds of thousands have thus been poisoned, and led into infidelity. While it is believed that one human mind so wonderfully affects another, Satan, who is ready to press every advantage, insinuates himself, and works on the right hand and on the left. And while those who are devoted to these sciences, laud them to the heavens because of the great and good works which they affirm are wrought by them, they little know what a power for evil they are cherishing; but it is a power which will yet work with all signs and lying wonders,—with all deceivableness of unrighteousness. Mark the influence of these sciences, dear reader; for the conflict between Christ and Satan is not yet ended.
If Satan were to make an open and bold attack upon Christianity, it would bring the Christian at once to the feet of his mighty Deliverer, who alone could put the adversary to flight. He does not generally do this. He is artful, and knows that the most effectual way for him to accomplish his designs is to come to poor, fallen man in the form of an angel of light. In this disguise he works upon the mind to allure from the safe and right path. He has ever been ambitious to counterfeit the work of Christ, and establish his own power and claims. He leads deceived mortals to account for the works and miracles of Christ upon scientific principles; he makes them appear as the result of human skill and power. In many minds he will thus eventually destroy all true faith in Christ as the Messiah, the Son of God.
Satan worked in a similar manner when through Moses the power of God was manifested in Egypt. He well knew that Moses was chosen of God to break the yoke of bondage from off the children of Israel; and he also knew that in this work Moses was a type of Christ, who was to come to break the reign of sin over the human family, and to deliver those who were captives to its power. He was aware that when Christ should appear, mighty works and miracles would be wrought by him, that the world might know that the Father had sent him. He trembled for his power. He resolved to accomplish a work which should answer a twofold purpose,—(1) To destroy the influence of Moses as the servant of God, by using his agents to counterfeit the true work of God; (2) To exert an influence by his work through the magicians which would reach down through all ages, and in many minds destroy true faith in the mighty miracles to be performed by Christ when he should come to this world.
It was the power of God, and no human influence or power possessed by Moses, that produced those miracles wrought before Pharaoh. Those signs and wonders were designed to convince Pharaoh that the great "I AM" had sent Moses, and that it was the duty of the king to let Israel go that they might serve the living God. Pharaoh called for the magicians to work with their enchantments. They also showed signs and wonders; for they wrought not by their own science alone, but by the power of their god, the devil, who through them ingeniously carried out his deceptive work. Yet even here the power of God was shown to be superior to that of Satan; for the magicians were unable to perform all the miracles which God wrought through Moses. Only a few of them could they do. The magicians' rods did become serpents, but Aaron's rod swallowed them up. And when they sought to produce lice, and could not, they were compelled to acknowledge even to Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God."
Satan was unwilling to have the children of Israel released from bondage that they might serve God. He wrought through the magicians in a manner to harden the heart of the tyrant against the miraculous manifestations of God's power. He also thought to stagger the faith of Moses and Aaron in the divine origin of their mission, and then his instruments would prevail. But after the magicians had failed to produce the plague of lice, they could no more imitate Moses and Aaron. God would not suffer Satanic deception to proceed further. His controlling power cut off the channel through which Satan worked, and even the instruments through whom Satan wrought so wonderfully could not save themselves from the plagues. We read: "The magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils; for the boil was upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians."
When Christ came to earth, Satan renewed his attack. He came to the Saviour in the wilderness in the form of a beautiful young man,—more like a monarch than a fallen angel,—with Scripture in his mouth. Said he, "It is written." He spread the world before Christ in the most attractive light, and intimated to him that he need not endure so much suffering to gain its kingdoms; Satan would yield all his claims if Christ would but worship him.
Satan was dissatisfied in Heaven because he could not be first and highest in command, equal with the Father, exalted above Christ. In the wilderness he hoped to gain advantage through the weakness and suffering of Christ, and obtain from him that homage which he could not win in Heaven. Could he have succeeded, then the plan of salvation would have failed, and mankind would have been plunged in hopeless misery. But Jesus yielded not to the suggestion of the tempter for a moment; on the contrary, he asserted his superior power by bidding him, "Get thee hence." Satan was baffled. He then turned his attention to accomplishing his purpose in another way,—by winning from the human race that honor which was refused him in Heaven, and by Jesus on earth; and here he has been only too successful.
The plan of redemption was not defeated. The dear price has been paid for man's ransom. And now our great adversary seeks to tear away the foundation of the Christian's hope, by turning men's minds into such a channel that they may not be benefited through the great sacrifice offered. He leads them to believe that they can do very well without an atonement; that they need not depend upon a crucified and risen Saviour; that their own merits will entitle them to God's favor. And then he destroys confidence in the Bible, well knowing that if he succeeds here, and faith in the detector which places a mark upon himself is destroyed, there are no bounds to the victories he may gain.
If the tempter can so deceive the human mind as to lead mortals to think that they possess the inherent power to perform great and good works, they cease to rely upon God. They acknowledge not a superior power. They give not God the glory which he claims, and which is due to his great and excellent Majesty. Satan's object is thus accomplished; and he exults that fallen men presumptuously exalt themselves, as he exalted himself in Heaven, and was cast out. He knows that if they take this course, their ruin is just as certain as was his own.
Another means by which Satan seeks to separate the soul from God is to make man believe that prayer is but a useless form. He well knows how needful are meditation and prayer; and by his devices he would divert the mind from these important exercises, that the soul may not lean for help upon the mighty One, and obtain strength to resist his attacks. The prayer of faith is the great strength of the Christian, and will assuredly prevail. This is why Satan insinuates that we have no need of prayer.
Neglect of prayer leads men to rely on their own strength, and opens the door to temptation. In many cases the imagination is captivated by scientific research, and men are flattered through the consciousness of their own powers. The sciences which treat of the human mind are very much exalted. They are good in their place; but they are seized upon by Satan as his powerful agents to deceive and destroy souls. His arts are accepted as from Heaven, and he thus receives the worship which suits him well. The world, which is supposed to be benefited so much by phrenology and animal magnetism, never was so corrupt as now. Through these sciences, virtue is destroyed, and the foundations of Spiritualism are laid. And thousands are conversing with, and receiving instructions from, this demon-god, and are acting according to his teachings, all the while supposing that they are obeying the voice of God through their dead friends.658(Concluded next week.)
A PRAYER.
By Sarah S. Davis Socwell
LORD, save us! O'er our shrinking heads
The murky clouds hang low;
And fiercely from the darkening hills
The stormy tempests blow.
Lord, save us! All the weary day
We've toiled, and now when night
Falls round us, blinding us with gloom,
Oh, save us by thy might.
Too much we've trusted our poor strength,
Too proudly braved the storm;
But now, while whelming floods roll high,
We fly to thy strong arm.
For pride is broken, strength is gone;
Helpless upon the wave,
Our shattered bark lies, tempest-driven,
Waiting for thee to save.
—Sarah S. Davis Socwell.
Reaping What They Have Sown.
By Alonzo T. Jones
For forty years the Third Angel's Message has been being given to the world. For forty years the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus, have been held up before the people. All these years the truth that "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord" has been declared with zeal, with energy, and with power. Opposition from many sources it has had to meet, but chiefly from the ministers of all the different denominations. These have never wearied in telling, by tongue and by pen, in public and in private, that "the Sabbath was a Jewish institution, and is abrogated;" that "the Sabbath, with all the other commandments, was the law of Moses; that these were all ceremonial, and were all abolished," etc., etc. Now, when they try to impress upon their hearers the duty and the importance of keeping Sunday as Sabbath, they are met with the same arguments that they have used against the obligation of the Sabbath of the Lord.
In a paper read before the Ministerial Union of Philadelphia, Sept. 29, 1884, Rev. Arthur T. Pierson, D. D., complains of this in the following words: "The sanctity of the Lord's day is but a remnant, if not a relic of the past; and if this process goes on, within the present century Sabbath sanctification will be among the curiosities of archaeology and palæology! Christians apologize for this, on the ground that the 'Sabbath is a Jewish institution' and is abrogated, making no distinction between the ceremonial and the moral law. . . . Other disciples do away with the consecrated seventh of time as with the consecrated tenth of money, on the ground that all time and property are holy unto the Lord, and so the practical effect is that they consecrate nothing."
This is the sober truth, but the people are not to blame. These very apologies, in these very words, have been put into their mouths by the ministers, by the very ones who now complain against them. Little did these men think all these years that in thus opposing the Sabbath of the Lord they were brandishing a sword that would cut both ways; little did they think that they were hatching cockatrice' eggs that would break out into vipers to sting themselves; little did they think that in loosening the restraints of the law of God, they were thus sowing dragon's teeth; little did they realize that in making these objections, and in appealing to popularity, and worldly interest, against the Sabbath, they were destroying respect for the whole law of God, and implanting a disposition to break any command in so far as it conflicts with these interests.
The word of the Lord says: "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law." James 2:10, 11. The same consideration, or the same disposition that would lead a man to kill, would likewise lead him to commit adultery, or to steal, or to bear false witness, or to break the Sabbath, or to violate any or all of the commandments of God that come in his way. All will agree with that. Now turn it the other way, and it is equally true, whether all agree with it or not. The same consideration or disposition that will lead a man to break the Sabbath, will lead him under like circumstances to break any other of the commandments of God; because it is not out of fear of God nor respect for his law that he keeps so much of it as he does, but because otherwise public opinion would condemn him; but only let public opinion change so that it would wink at, or palliate, or justify what it now condemns, and he is ready to break any commandment that in any way conflicts with his worldly interests. So when the ministers play into the hands of the people, as they are doing, by inveighing against the Sabbath of the Lord, and, by appealing to public opinion or selfish interests, loosen those just and wholesome restraints which are placed upon human nature by the law of God, they are doing more than all else combined to bring to the full those perilous times which the Scriptures portray, when men shall be "lovers of their own selves," "lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof." 2 Tim. 3:1-13. "But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way and from the evil of their doings." Jer. 23:22.
The ministers have taught the people to say: "If everybody else will keep Sabbath, I will." Now, when they call upon these for a stricter observance of Sunday, their teaching comes back to them in the words, "If everybody else will keep Sunday, I will." . . . Satisfy the demand which they themselves created, they are obliged to work up civil enactments under a constitutional amendment by which everybody shall be compelled to keep Sunday. For example: In his report to the Christian Statesman (Sept. 25, 1884), from Newton, Iowa, Rev. M. A. Gault, says:—
"J. B. Carnes raised the practical question why the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad could run large excursion trains on the 'sabbath' from Davenport to Colfax Springs, putting the fare so low as to tempt thousands to violate both the laws of the State and the law of God, by desecrating the sabbath. This railroad has been running excursion trains from Des Moines to Colfax Springs on the sabbath, for some time, and ministers complain that their members go on these excursions. . . . It is not difficult to persuade them that the National Reform movement presents the only effectual means of saving the sabbath. We need a sabbath law that will bind the Government and the corporation, as well as the individual." (By "sabbath" he means Sunday always.)
Again in the same paper is a selection from Rev. Dr. R. W. Clark, in which he says:—
"The Sunday press has been established in defiance of Almighty God. God says, Keep the Sabbath holy. The Sunday newspaper says, Thou shalt not keep it holy. . . . The public mind shall be filled with the current news and the latest transactions in the stock markets; the taste shall be so vitiated with fascinating tales, racy gossip, and scandal in high life and low, that there shall be no desire for things holy and spiritual. . . . The Sunday press says there shall be no rest for even God's people, except what is found in secular and frivolous reading and Sunday recreations. . . . The Puritan sabbath is obsolete. The times are changed, that is a truth; and if the sabbath in America is shattered, they will change more. For God says: 'The nation that will not serve me shall perish, yea that nation shall be wasted.'"
Just so. As long as there are excursion trains on Sunday, the church members will go on excursions. As long as there are Sunday newspapers, the church members will read "fascinating tales, racy gossip, and scandal in high life and low." Those things that should not be read at all, they will read on Sundays. Therefore the Sunday trains must be stopped, and the Sunday papers suppressed. Because they have not enough of the grace of God, nor the love of right, to do right, they insist that the Government shall take away the opportunity to do wrong. Say they: "We will have the 'National Reform movement' take away all opportunity for us to do wrong, then we will all do right." And they will call that serving the Lord!! The devil himself could serve the Lord that way. And he would still be the devil. Then to cap the climax, they will quote that scripture, "The nation that will not serve me shall perish," being always careful to emphasize the word "nation." But we should like to ask: If the nation that will not serve the Lord shall perish, then how about the church members who will not serve him? And, If the church members will not keep Sunday till the nation takes away from them all opportunity to violate it, how can it be expected that the nation will keep Sunday without a like office being performed for it? Oh, "the National Reform movement presents the only effectual means of saving the sabbath." The National Reform movement will effectually guard the nation against all anti-Sunday influences or tendencies. Yes, great is National Reform. It alone can save the sabbath. It alone can save the nation. It alone can save the church. It is the summum bonum, the ultima thule, the ne plus ultra.
Yet the National Reform movement has a more difficult task to accomplish than that of stopping Sunday trains, and suppressing Sunday newspapers; that is, to stop the progress of the Third Angel's Message. That message began in the United States, before the National Reform movement. It has developed a people here called Seventh-day Adventists. They keep with the rest of the commandments of God that one which says, "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work." They are going to remain here as long as this is a nation; they are not going to keep Sunday, and they are going to use every fair means, by voice and pen, in public and in private, by prayer and faithful endeavor, to constrain all others to keep the seventh day, and oppose the keeping of Sunday. And how will the National Reform movement save the Sunday, and the nation, from these anti-Sunday influences? We shall see.
Knowledge of Christ
By Christian Union
A THOROUGH acquaintance with theology is good, but a large and deeper knowledge of Christ is better. Christ is the Christian's exemplar; therefore, he should be studied closely and constantly. With such study there will be commensurate love and increasing growth into his likeness. It is good and necessary to busy our minds with doctrine and other religious matters, but these should not absorb our thoughts and attention to the neglect of personal communion with the Master, which is, after all, the real nurture and refreshment of the soul.—Christian Union.
Obedience Better Than Church Buildings
By Rev. H. M. Grout
KEEPING God's commandments is better and more pleasing to him than building churches. The multiplying of costly church edifices may be a sign of declining faith and love in the heart, it being always easier to give money and provide visible substitutes for heart piety than to walk humbly with God.—Rev. H. M. Grout.
A Moment of Mercy
A MOMENT of time is a moment of mercy.
Coming of the Day of the Lord.
By C. P. Bollman
THE Scriptures plainly teach that the day of the Lord is surely coming. The Saviour said, "If I go" away "I will come again" (John 14 : 3); and the angels bore the same testimony when they said, "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven" (Acts 1 : 11); while the apostle Peter positively states: "But the day of the Lord will come, . . . in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burned up." 2 Pet. 3 : 10.
When that day comes, there will be people living upon the earth just as they are now. For, "as the days of Noe 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 Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." Matt. 24 : 37-39. Nature will give no unmistakable warning of the approaching catastrophe. "While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest . . . shall not cease;" and to these facts the last-day scoffers, spoken of in 2 Pet. 3 : 3, 4, will appeal, when they tauntingly ask, "Where is the promise [sign] of his coming?" They see no indications of the soon-coming end; and, like the antediluvians, they reject the word of the Lord, and so seal their own eternal doom. But their unbelief cannot affect the purpose of God, nor prevent the fulfillment of his word; the Majesty of Heaven has spoken through his Son, who said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away."
In view of the coming of that day, the Saviour has commanded his people to "watch" (Matt. 24 : 42); and exhorts them, saying: "And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares." Luke 21 : 34. Are we heeding that injunction? or are we indifferent to these things? If indifference be our condition, we are surely upon dangerous ground; for the apostle, speaking of those upon whom that day will come as a thief, says, "And they shall not escape." 1 Thess. 5 : 3.
But it may be asked, How may we know when that day is near? does not the Bible say (Matt. 24 : 36), "But of that day and hour knoweth no man"? Yes; but it also says: "Now learn a parable of the fig tree; when his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh; so likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors." Matt. 24 : 32, 33. There is, as any one who will stop for a moment and candidly think, can readily see, a vast difference between knowing the day and hour when an event is to transpire, and knowing simply when it is near. We may plant a seed in the earth, and under certain conditions we may know about when it will spring up; and yet it is impossible for us to tell just when the sprout will first appear above the ground. Or a friend may be slowly dying of an incurable disease; and though we may know when death is near, we cannot tell the day and hour when it will come.
So it is with the coming of the day of the Lord: we may know—yea it is our duty to know when it is near, but the exact time God has not revealed. Not only do the texts already quoted sustain this view, but it is the whole tenor of the Scriptures. The apostle Paul, in 1 Thess. 5 : 4, makes it very clear that when the day of the Lord comes there will be a class of persons who will be expecting it. He says: "But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief." Some have supposed from this language, as also from verses 15 and 17 of chapter 4, that Paul taught the Thessalonians to expect the coming of the Lord in their day; but that this is a mistake, is evident from the first part of chapter 2 of his second epistle; for there he tells them plainly that that day was not then at hand; and that before it came, there would be a great falling away from the true faith, and that the "man of sin" should "be revealed, the son of perdition," which all Protestants agree refers to the papal power, the full establishment of which did not take place till A. D. 538. Hence we conclude that portions, at least, of the apostle's first letter to the Thessalonians were designed more especially for those who should live this side of the great apostasy, and in the generation that could scripturally look for the coming of the Lord.
But the fact that Paul assured the Thessalonians that certain events must take place before the day of the Lord, proves that something can be known about that day; but this fact we have already learned from other scriptures; and he must be blind indeed, who can read the word of God without discovering, not only that the day of the Lord will come, but that when it does come the people of God will not be overtaken as by a thief.
C. P. BOLLMAN.
Poisonous Reading Matter.
By Talmage
IN one column of a paper we see a grand ethical discussion, and in another the droppings of most accursed nastiness. Oh! you cannot by all your religion, in one column, atone for one of your abominations in another! I am rejoiced that some of our papers have addressed those who have proposed to compensate them for bad use of their columns, in the words of Peter to Simon Magus: "Thy money perish with thee!" But I arraign the newspapers that give their columns to corrupt advertising for the nefarious work they are doing. The most polluted plays that ever oozed from the poisonous pen of leprous dramatist have won their deathful power through the medium of newspapers; the evil is stupendous.
The bad newspaper hesitates not to assault Christianity and its disciples. With what exhilaration it puts in capitals, that fill one-fourth of a column, the defalcation of some agent of a benevolent society! There is enough meat in such a carcass of reputation to gorge all the carrion-crows of an iniquitous printing-press. They put upon the back of the church all the inconsistencies of hypocrites—as though a banker were responsible for all the counterfeits upon his institution! They jeer at religion, and lift up their voices until all the caverns of the lost resound with the howl of their derision. They forget that Christianity is the only hope for the world, and that, but for its enlightenment, they would now be like the Hottentots, living in mud hovels.
What would you think of a wretch who, during a great storm, while the ship was being tossed to and fro on the angry waves, should climb up into the light-house and blow out the light? And what do you think of these men, who, while all the Christian and the glorious institutions of the world are being tossed and driven hither and thither, are trying to climb up and put out the only light of a perishing world?
The bad newspaper stops not at publishing the most damaging and unclean story. The only question is: "Will it pay?" And there are scores of men who, day by day, bring into the newspaper offices manuscripts for publication which unite all that is pernicious; and, before the ink is fairly dry, tens of thousands are devouring with avidity the impure issue. Their sensibilities deadened, their sense of right perverted, their purity of thought tarnished, their taste for plain life despoiled—the printing-press, with its iron foot, hath dashed their life out! While I speak, there are many people, with feet on the ottoman, and the gas turned on, looking down on the page, submerged, mind and soul, in the perusal of this God-forsaken periodical literature; and the last Christian mother will have put the hands of the little child under the coverlet for the night, before they will rouse up, as the city clock strikes the hour of midnight, to go death-struck to their prayerless pillows.
One of the proprietors of a great paper in this country gave his advice to a young man then about to start a paper: "If you want to succeed," said he, "make your paper trashy, intensely trashy,—make it all trash!" Brilliant advice to a young man just entering business!
It is very often that, as a paper purifies itself, its circulation decreases, and sometimes when a paper becomes positively religious, it becomes bankrupt, unless some benevolent and Christian men come up to sustain it by contributions of money and means. But few religious newspapers in this country are self-supporting. The reason urged is—the country cannot stand so much religion! Hear it, Christian men and philanthropists!
Many papers that are most rapidly increasing to-day are unscrupulous. The facts are momentous and appalling. And I put young men and women and Christian parents and guardians on the look-out. This stuff cannot be handled without pollution. Away with it from parlor, and shop, and store! There is so much newspaper literature that is pure, and cheap, and elegant, shove back this leprosy from your door.
Mark it well: a man is no better than the newspaper he habitually reads.—Talmage.
Knowing Our Weakness
By Charles Kingsley
Our true knowledge is to know our own ignorance. Our true strength is to know our own weakness. Our true dignity is to confess that we have no dignity, and are nobody and nothing in ourselves, and to cast ourselves down before the dignity of God, under the shadow of whose wings, and in the smile of whose countenance, alone, is any created being safe. Let us cling to our Father in Heaven, as a child, walking in the night, clings to his father's hand.—Charles Kingsley.
Anchored to the Rock.
By F. A. Noble
Readers of Darwin will recall the description he gives of a marine plant which rises from a depth of one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet, and floats on the surface of the water in the midst of the great breakers of the western ocean. The stem of this plant is less than an inch through; yet it grows and thrives and holds its own against the fierce smitings and pressures of breakers which no masses of rock, however hard, could long withstand. What is the secret of this marvelous resistance and endurance? How can this slender plant face the fury of the elements so successfully, and, in spite of storms and tempests, keep its hold, and perpetuate itself from century to century? The answer has leaped to every lip: It reaches down into the still depths, where it fixes its grasp after the fashion of the instinct that has been put into it, to the naked rocks; and no commotion of the upper waters can shake it from its fastenings.
When a man has deep and inner clingings to God, when the roots of his life go down and take hold on God, mere surface agitation and pressures will not overcome him. He may be floated here and there within a given sweep, like a plant bosomed on the sea, and there may be times when it is very rough, and the strain is great, but he will survive it all and preserve his integrity.—Dr. F. A. Noble.