Review and Herald, Vol. 54, No. 1. (6/26/1879)

Review and Herald

Jun 26, 1879

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 26, 1879

THE RESURRECTION.

By C. W. Stone

BY C. W. STONE.

The hope of the true people of God in all Bible times was in the resurrection of the dead; but a different religion has crept in and usurped the place of truth, until to-day men have lost sight of the resurrection of the dead, and have placed their hope in death itself; and they sing,— “Death is the gate to endless joy,” while they preach that all the good go to Heaven, and all the wicked go into the place of endless torment, at death. People should not close their eyes to the fact that only about three hundred years have passed since our forefathers were all Roman Catholics, and Protestantism was yet unheard of; and it is not surprising that Protestantism should have brought with it from the parent church doctrines taught by the papacy, and resting solely on the dictum of the Catholic church, some of which even in the lapse of three hundred years have not been purified or displaced by the progressive light of truth. Among such false theories is that of the immortality of the soul, that which teaches that men go to Heaven or into hell fire at death, and that dismal doctrine of endless misery.

If it be true that the righteous go to their reward at death, it is logical and sensible to conclude that there is no resurrection. What the sense of a resurrection, what the use of it can be, if the real man has been in Heaven for years, enjoying the bliss of the redeemed, is something that the wise men have not yet been able to show. They say that the body is but a clog, which is cast off at death, leaving the soul unfettered to fly to the realms of unbounded joy. In the name of all reason, why should that body, that clog, ever be raised out of the dust, and the soul be brought back from Heaven and thrust into it? If the soul can exist in the fullest exercise of all its powers without the body, what is the use of the resurrection? If that theory be true, then the resurrection is not a Bible doctrine. The two are not in harmony; and God is not the author of discord. Many men are seeing this; and while some of them are examining the whole question by the Bible, others, taking it for granted that they have an immortal soul in them, say little about the resurrection, or repudiate it entirely .

They take it for granted that they shall go to their reward at death. Mother says so, grandmother said so, and the minister says so; therefore it is so.

We will take neither view for granted, but will go to the Bible to see what it says of the resurrection. We go back to the time of Moses, and we find that the Lord taught him that there should be a resurrection. The Saviour says so in his answer to the Sadducees. Luke 20:37. They came to Jesus with a question, hoping to ensnare him thereby, and thus more firmly to establish their theory. Knowing that these men were ever ready to appeal to Moses, in whose writings they pretended, at least, to have implicit confidence, the Saviour met them with proof from Moses himself. In his reply he said, “Now that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush” (Luke 20:37); and his answer was so conclusive a proof that Moses taught the resurrection, that it put the Sadducees to silence. Matt. 22:34.

The hope of Job, that man who “was perfect and upright,” was in the resurrection of the dead. He had no idea of going to Heaven at death, but expected to sleep unconsciously in the dust, until Christ comes to raise the dead. He says, in chapter 14, “Man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?” “Gone to Heaven,” says our friend of the other school. Well, that is his answer; but please allow Job to tell us how that is. He proceeds thus: “As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and dryeth up, so man lieth down, and riseth not; till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.” Job represents the dead as having gone down into decay, to remain there for a time in the sleep of death. He is very explicit. In the next verse he tells where he expected to go at death, “Oh, that thou wouldst hide me in the grave,”—he had no thought of going directly to Heaven,—“that thou wouldst keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldst appoint me a set time, and remember me!” Job desired that God should remember him, for if he were forgotten he would never live again. The Lord would not be likely to forget Job if he were taken right into the presence of God at death.

At this point Job asks the direct question, “If a man die, shall he live again?” That is what we want to know, so let us hear Job’s answer: “All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.” He had desired the Lord to appoint him a set time, and now he says that all that time he will wait. Where will you wait, Job? In Heaven? in some theologian’s “half-way house,” or “ante-chamber to Heaven”? in the grave? O tell me where, Job, for death is a cruel foe. No one loves his approach, and we would fain know where he will leave us. Where will you rest, Job? Here comes his answer, calm, firm, and sad: “If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness. I have said to corruption, Thou art my father; to the worm, Thou art my mother and my sister.” Job 17:13, 14. In verse 16 he speaks of resting in the dust. The waiting place of Job is in the dust, in the grave. Now we see the infinite importance of the resurrection. Shall the dead live again? We return to chapter 14, and read Job’s answer: “All the days of my appointed time will I wait [in the grave], till my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee.”

Job looked forward through the grave to the time when he should hear the voice of God, and answer him; and his faith was in perfect accord with the testimony of Jesus in John 5:28, 29: “For the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth.” Yes, the voice of the Son of God shall pierce the gates of the tomb, the dead shall hear, “and they that hear shall live.” John 5:25. Job will answer that call, and then he will wait no longer in the grave, but come forth alive and immortal.

He gives this remarkable testimony in chap. 19:23–27: “Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!” It must be that Job has something very important to say. What is it? “For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God; whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.” This tells the whole story. Job was to die, go into the grave, wait there, be consumed by worms, hear the voice of the Redeemer at the resurrection day, answer the call, and come forth clad in flesh to see God.

How any one can read these plain, simple statements of this inspired writer, and then believe that the real man goes off to Heaven at death, a formless, fleshless, intangible, immaterial being, to float around “without body or parts,” as the creeds describe a spirit, is more than I can tell, unless he first confess that he don’t believe Job knew anything about it. But the moment he does that, he may just as well say the same of all the other Bible writers, and of Christ himself, for they all agree with Job. They all point forward to the resurrection as the time of reward, the time when God’s people will be taken home.

Just as conclusively as Job teaches that the righteous reach their reward by a resurrection from the dead, he teaches that the wicked are brought from the grave by a resurrection, to be punished. Speaking of the wicked in chapter 21, he says, “For ye say, Where is the house of the prince! and where are the dwelling-places of the wicked?” Verse 28. That is a direct question. Where are the wicked? Where do they dwell? “Have ye not asked them that go by the way? and do ye not know their tokens, that the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction? They shall be brought forth to the day of wrath.” The first part of this answer is very significant, and the latter part very pointed. “Have ye not asked them that go by the way?” that is, Have you not asked them that pass by the sepulchres, them that go by the graveyards? “Do ye not know their tokens?” that is, Do you not see the tombstones? Do you not know that they are the tokens of the dead? that they stand there as silent witnesses, by their presence saying, “Here they lie”! And then he says, having shown where the wicked rest, “They shall be brought forth to the day of wrath.” That is a plain declaration that there shall be a resurrection of the wicked, and that they await the resurrection day for their punishment. He repeats the fact that they all go into the grave and molder back to dust, in verses 32, 33, which read thus: “Yet shall he be brought to the grave, and shall remain in the tomb. The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him, and every man shall draw after him, as there are innumerable before him.” All men, good or bad, go into the grave and remain there till brought forth by a resurrection. Thus we find that Job makes the resurrection, not death, “the gate to endless joy,” to one class, and the morning of the day of wrath to the other. Pray tell me how the doctrine that sends men to Heaven or to hell at death can be true, while the inspired writer teaches that they must wait in the grave till the resurrection.

Job’s view is reasonable. But the moment one wanders away from the truth, he finds himself surrounded by difficulties, and things unreasonable come up and ask to be accredited. As the patient who is daily growing worse under his treatment swallows the nauseating dose the doctor mixes because he is assured that it will do him good,—a dose which he could not swallow were he well, and which if swallowed would make him sick,—so the individual who is off the track of truth learns to swallow the greatest absurdities, many times because the minister says “it will do him good,” and sometimes because he acquires a taste for them.

Had men never heard any but the Bible doctrine of the state of the dead and the resurrection, it would require a great stretch of the imagination to believe, when we see a man lie down upon his bed and die, that the real man does not still lie there in sight, only dead, but is gone off somewhere in the form—no, it has no form—gone off as an immaterial spirit, formless, armless, headless, without feet, without brains, unsubstantial, immaterial, consisting of nothing. And yet this nondescript immateriality, we are asked to believe, is our real mother, father, child, friend, the veritable one we loved, and with whom we talked, gone to his reward. The morbid thoughts of a dreamer could hardly be more imaginary. Awake! “Gird up the loins of your mind,” and no longer dream that you believe such mythological absurdities, and go with me a little further while we search for what the Lord has revealed through the prophets.

The inspired men of the Bible did not think of their dead friends as having gone off in such a manner, nor as having gone to Heaven in any form; but they saw them put into the grave, thought of them as in the grave, and looked forward to the resurrection as the time when they would be delivered from the grave, made to live again, and then taken in one grand company to their reward.

We have seen that such are the teachings of Job, such were his expectations with regard to himself. We next inquire of David’s belief. Did he believe in the resurrection? Let the reader remember that our proposition is this: The hope of the inspired writers of the Bible was in the resurrection. If this is established, then the doctrine that men go to Heaven at death is a mistake.

David expected that when he should die he would go down into the grave. He was once very sick, and came near dying; but the Lord spared his life in answer to prayer. Speaking of this, David says, “O Lord, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave; thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.” Ps. 30:3. If the Lord had not interposed, David knew that he would have gone down into the grave, into the pit, even David himself, for he says it of himself, even of his soul. In verse 9 he says, “What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee?” No, the dust cannot praise God; and David expected to go down into the pit and return to dust when he should die. He had no idea that the Lord was mistaken when he said, “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” Gen. 3:19. David certainly believed he should go down into the dust. Said he, “What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? Shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave?” Ps. 89:48. No, man cannot ward off death; and as surely as death comes, just so surely his soul will go down into the grave. All cold, and silent, and thoughtless must he wait there. He says, “The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence.” Ps. 115:17. And speaking of man he says, “His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth”—he, the real man, returneth to his earth, just as the Lord told Adam he should return to dust; “in that very day his thoughts perish.” Ps. 146:4. He does no more thinking after death. We can understand this when we know that a man returns to dust at that time; but how he could go right to Heaven, and still do no thinking, is a mystery.

Now that we have seen what David expected in relation to himself, let us see what really did happen to him. The record is brief and pointed. “So David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David.” 1 Kings 2:10. That is just what David expected. But he did not believe he should always stay there. He believed in the resurrection; and looking forward to that event he saw that ray of light which cheers even the dark, damp realm of the dead; and

in the calm enjoyment of this blessed hope he said, “I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.” Ps. 17:15. When will the dead awake? At the resurrection. “Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.” Isa. 26:19. When shall the saints of God whom David addresses be fashioned in the likeness of the Lord? When the Lord comes to raise the dead. Says Paul, “From whence [Heaven] we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.” At the coming of Christ, the righteous dead will awake and arise, and with the righteous living, who shall be changed to immortality at that moment, they shall bear the likeness of the glorious Redeemer. That is the event to which David looked forward when he said, “I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.”

We have seen that David was buried in the grave. Is he in the grave now? Yes; and Peter, while speaking under the influence of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, said so. David “is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.” Acts 2:29. And then he added, as though he would leave no possible chance for doubt upon the subject, “For David is not ascended into the heavens.” Verse 34. No, he is in his sepulchre, waiting for the resurrection; and that is just where he expected to be. He has not gone to Heaven yet. How, then, can men in the nineteenth century expect to go to Heaven before the resurrection?

(To be continued.)

PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE.

“What saith the past to thee? Weep! Truth is departed; Beauty hath died like the dream of a sleep, Love is faint-hearted; Trifles of sense, the profoundly unreal, Soar from our spirits God's holy ideal; So as a funeral bell, slowly and deep, So tolls the past to thee! Weep!

How speaks the present hour? Act! Walk, upward glancing; So shall thy footsteps in glory be traced, Slow, but advancing. Scorn not the smallness of daily endeavor, Let the great meaning ennoble it ever; Droop not o'er efforts expended in vain, Work as believing that labor is gain.

What doth the future say? Hope! Turn thy face sunward! Look where light fringes the far rising slope, Day cometh onward. Watch! Though so long be the twilight delaying, Let the first sunbeam arise on thee praying; Fear not; for greater is God by thy side, Than armies of Satan against thee allied.

—Home Journal.

AN ALARM SOUNDED.

We find the following in Messiah's Herald:—

We have received from a friend in the West a copy of the Wisconsin State Journal of April 8. It contains a sermon preached at Oregon, Wis., March 30, 1879, by Rev. Matthew A. Fox. We do not know his denominational standing, but suppose him to be a Congregationalist. Basing his remarks on Isaiah's prediction of the treatment of Messiah (Isa. 53:3), “He is despised and rejected of men,” etc., he proceeds to speak of Strauss, Renan, Ingersoll, and other modern opponents of Christianity, and in a way to show that he is not looking for a golden millennial age soon to be introduced through the preaching of the gospel. He says of

THE RISING STORM:

“As a minister of Christ, thankful for the privilege of being his witness, and charged in his providence with the ministration of the gospel in this place, I deem it my duty to sound an alarm, and warn the people of what they may expect. Let no one be deceived; the strong delusion of the latter days will prevail to an extent little thought of. The belief of the lie of those days will wonderfully obtain ascendancy. The ‘unclean spirits like frogs,’ going out to the whole world (Rev. 16:13) will arouse to a conflict, which will force the conviction of an antagonism involving strategy and skill, and power and intensity, beyond the conception of the many, vainly dreaming of progress and advancement to a golden age, who will find instead the blackest and thickest storm. It is quite possible that in the views I present I may be regarded as a visionary enthusiast, proclaiming what some have caricatured as ‘the gospel of despair;’ be it so—we cannot put darkness for light, nor mistake bitter for sweet: there may be a few, however, who will give my words a passing consideration, and if these few live a very few years, when they shall be in the midst of the storm, my words will have weight.

“Bitter opposition to Christ and to Christ's people is becoming so intense, so clamorous, and so bold, that we are compelled to recognize it; we do not intend, however, to engage in discussions with these scorners; we think the very best refutation of their principles is the practical working of those principles; ‘the tree is known by its fruit.’ In the columns of the leading papers, in public lectures—in the obtruded volume, are violent and bitter attacks upon the Bible, upon the church and its ministry, which convince us that we are now in the intense wickedness that Revelation has assured us shall mark the latter day (Matt. 24:12; Luke 17:26); and to this fact we would fain arouse attention, and to the duty to which Christ's witnesses are immediately called.”

DANGER AND SAFETY.

After showing what the tendency and aims of infidelity are, Mr. Fox justly continues:—

“Despoil man of all religious emotions, and what is he? Take away from social life the principles, the Bible principles, that are the safeguard and the bond of home, and what becomes of the sacredness of the family and the tender reciprocities of affection? Blot out the Lord's day, crush the Bible, turn your churches into lyceums, and let the ministry of the gospel be succeeded by wandering lecturers, blatant reformers, and shallow, frothy and disgusting necromancers, and the world would speedily become a realm of the bottomless pit.

“There is an aspect of the matter, however, that is very solemn. It is that of man contending with his Maker. There will come an end to this. God will vindicate his cause sooner or later. He will crush out all opposition. ‘Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker; let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth.’ We have wept beside the open grave; we have followed in thought our loved ones as borne by angels to the realms of bliss; we have been comforted in the hope of the resurrection, and have looked forward to restored companionship in the kingdom of our God. Shall we write upon the grave-stone, ‘Death, an eternal sleep’? shall I suffer infidelity to rob me of all that is sweet and tender and precious in Christian faith and hope? or shall I cling in all the warmth of my soul's affections to Him who is the resurrection and the life? My heart, my judgment, my sympathies cry out,

‘Jesus, Saviour of my soul, Let me to thy bosom fly,’ etc.

We hold forth the word of our testimony: ‘Christ, the incarnate God; Christ our suffering and accepted substitute; receive him, and you must be saved; reject him, and you must be lost.’

SOME CORPORATION INIQUITIES.

Is it any wonder that so many complaints are made against corporate bodies, when so much iniquity is perpetrated by them? Only a few years ago the president of a great railway corporation secured a large amount of its stock, which he bought “on margin.” Then he watered it 50 per cent, giving one share of stock for every two held. As he held millions of the old stock, he gave himself—or rather forced the company to give him—millions of the new, which he turned into the market and sold, putting the money into his own pocket, and with that money bought a railway which was a necessity to the corporation! Meantime the new stock is a debt of the corporation, who are obliged to pay interest on it the same as on the original stock.

Take another case: “An ocean telegraph company's stock was quoted at 70. A New York trustee with some others quietly bought it up; in fact, the New York trustee offered to buy at 70, and prominently large stockholders ostentatiously reported that they thought best to sell. So the smaller stockholders followed suit and sold. And then one fine morning it was discovered that the large stockholders who had ostensibly sold their stock, with the trustee alluded to, were really a ring for securing the whole control; and it was also discovered that a large surplus had been allowed to accumulate for some years with the knowledge of a very few who were in the ring, and who as soon as they got the stock at 70, declared an enormous dividend, which enabled them to get their stock for a song.

In the construction of the elevated railways of this city a Credit Mobilier was organized, the companies paying enormously for the construction of the road in order that a certain ring—and not the stockholders—might make fortunes. And the last step in the same direction has just been taken. A new company, styled the “Manhattan Company,” has taken possession of the New York and Metropolitan Elevated Railroads—the arrangement for such transfer having been confirmed by the stockholders of both companies on Saturday of last week. The Manhattan Company guarantees 10 per cent dividends on the old stock. Each holder of old stock receives in its stead one share in guaranteed stock in the old roads and one share in the Manhattan. The two roads will be run under one management. What does this mean? Why, just this, that the roads could pay greater dividends than 10 per cent, so a ring is formed for running the road on a guarantee dividend of 10 per cent to the stockholders, the excess between what the road really does earn above the per cent—and which must be a princely fortune—being devoted to enrich the members of this “Manhattan” Ring! How much higher in the scale of morality such proceedings are than the doings of the late lamented Tweed Ring, the reader can judge for himself. For ourselves, such proceedings are none the less dishonorable and dishonest that they are set on foot by those wearing the garment of eminent respectability, and even claiming the Christian name.

In view of these and other like doings on the part of corporations, it is clear that wholesome legislation is needed to protect the rights of stockholders and prevent the aggrandizement of the favored and rapacious few. In England such proceedings as the watering of stock, the doings of construction mobiliers, and other abuses common to this country are not allowed; why should they be permitted here? We need wholesome legislation which shall make these abuses the crimes in our criminal code that they are in the code of morals. Then the bona-fide stockholder will be protected in his rights, he will not be robbed right and left under forms of law; and if these malpractices are not at once suppressed, those indulging in them will at least become amenable to law, and we may reasonably expect they will receive the just punishment which they so richly deserve.—Christian at Work.

INTERESTING COMMENTS ON GENESIS.

The following comments are from Prof. Bush and others; and I send them, thinking they may be of interest to the readers of the REVIEW. M. E. CORNELL.

The subjoined, on Gen. 6:3, is from Prof. Bush:

“The Lord said,” i. e., to himself, purposed, resolved,—‘My Spirit shall not always strive with man.’ Heb., shall not judge, i. e., contend in judgment, as the word signifies, Eccl. 6:10. As if he should say, ‘My Spirit shall not perpetually keep up the process of judgment, rebuke, conviction, and condemnation.’ The Gr. translates it, ‘My Spirit shall not continue in these men.’ Chal., ‘This evil generation shall not continue before me forever, because they are flesh, and their works most wicked; and an end shall be given unto them, an hundred and twenty years, if perhaps they may be converted.’

“The language plainly implies that ample time and opportunity had been already afforded for this purpose; ‘the longsuffering of God has waited,’ but all to no effect, and now an end is determined to the divine forbearance. Still, as the justice of Heaven is reluctant to take its course, it shall not be immediately executed; a limited respite is granted, which, once expired, no further indulgence is shown.”

“There is a time, and Justice marks the date, For long-forbearing clemency to wait; That hour elapsed, th’ incurable revolt Is punished, and down comes the thunderbolt.” —Cowper.

“For that he also is flesh.” Chal., “for that they are flesh, and their works evil.” Had the sons of God kept themselves separate, and preserved their purity, God would have spared the world for their sakes, but they mingled together, and became in effect one people. God therefore, seeing they had become virtually one, called them all by one name, and that is man (Adam), without distinction; and in giving the reason why his Spirit should not always strive with man, special reference is had to their having become degenerate. It was “for that he also,” or these also, were flesh; even his own professing people, those who had been denominated and deemed the “sons of God,” even they too had become fleshly, corrupt, profligate. The original is peculiarly emphatic, as if such a result would not have been to be wondered at in regard to the Cainites, but that it was a matter of astonishment and regret that the pious stock of Seth should have thus grievously apostatized; but seeing that they had in fact joined themselves to the opposite party and become the promoters of the general iniquity, they must expect nothing else than to share in the bitter consequences. Men are worse than others, just in proportion as they ought to be better, and are dealt with accordingly.”

“There were giants in the earth.”—Gen. 6:4.

Jacobus says:—“The nephilim, rendered ‘giants,’ are literally the fallen, or those who fall upon or violently assault others.” Haremic understands the term to mean fallen ones—apostates.

Prof. Bush: “A term descriptive probably not so much of great strength and stature as of great cruelty, rapine, and violence; though the first, as a secondary sense, may still be included. Heb., nephilim, fallers, i. e., apostates fallen from God and the true religion, and by violence and cruelty falling upon their fellow-men, injuring their persons, and invading their rights; usurpers, oppressors, tyrants, monsters of wickedness, and lust. . . .”

“By the Greeks, this class of men are termed Giantes, from two words signifying to be born of the earth; a term from which we learn both the origin and the import of the English word ‘giant.’ The giants of the ancient mythology are fabled to have sprung from the earth; from some broken traditions respecting these antediluvian apostates, who, in the sense of being earthly, sensual, vile, despising heavenly things, might be justly denominated, ‘earth born.’

There are more frequent allusions to them in the original Scriptures than are obvious in our translation or any other. Thus, Prov. 9:18, speaking of the young man enticed into the abodes of the adulterous woman, ‘He knoweth not that the dead (Heb., the giants, the rephaim) are there;’ i. e., he does not consider that it was by this sin that the renowned rebels before the flood perished, and that he is in danger of meeting the same fate. Prov. 21:16. ‘The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead (Heb., of the giants);’ i. e., shall be in imminent peril of being joined to that wretched society.

Job 26:5: ‘Dead things (Heb., the giants, rephaim) are formed from under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof.’ This conveys no intelligible meaning. It is probably more correctly rendered in the Lat. Vulgate, ‘The giants groan (Heb., shake, or tremble) under the waters with the inhabitants thereof.’ The clue to this is to be found in the fact that it was this class of men who were buried in the waters of the deluge.”

Dr. Adam Clarke says: “Nephilim from naphal, ‘he fell.’ Those who had apostatized or fallen from the true religion. The Septuagint translates the original word by γηγενεῖς, which literally signifies earth born, and which we, following them, term giants, without having any reference to the meaning of the word which we generally conceive to signify persons of enormous stature. But the word when properly understood makes a very just distinction between the sons of men and the sons of God; those were the nephilim, the fallen earth born men, with the animal and devilish mind. These were the sons of God born from above.”

OUR RESPONSIBILITIES.

By Jos. Clarke

To understand properly what our responsibilities are, we must have a correct view of our moral, social, and political obligations. Moral includes, essentially, the claims of God upon us; social embraces the claims of society; while political refers to the claims of the government under which we live. These three authorities are all to be recognized in their proper spheres.

However, there is a power which, being in itself a self-constituted, mutinous, rebellious, piratical power, must be recognized as such; not because it has in itself any right to exist, but because it does by permission exist for a limited time. To ignore this power would be fatal, because it is an open enemy to the other three,—the moral, social, and political. This power is the satanic: Satan is its head.

To properly understand our responsibilities, then, we should examine closely the nature and proper relations of each of the above mentioned powers,—the moral, social, and political; not forgetting the hostile satanic power against which we have to contend. A proper view of our responsibilities obliges us to recognize only such authority as is backed by proper claims upon us. Sometimes these powers conflict in their instructions and laws; and hence we must view each from a correct standpoint. Thus, if we have a political bias, we shall be forever testing the moral and social by that; and by giving too much weight to this, we shall be in danger of relying upon the political power, to the neglect of the moral, which should be placed first of all. And if we view everything from the standpoint of mere social life, and look only upon the claims of society, and friends around us, our extent of vision will be far too narrow, and our mistakes many and fatal.

Moral law should hold the first place everywhere; and by this all other laws should be tested; and no law, social or political, should be considered valid unless based upon moral law. Such a decision, carried out, would enhance human happiness, and tend to a proper development of character.

But the great difficulty lies in the fact that a rebellious power has arisen, at war with moral law, and, by infusing its poison, has tainted the social and political powers to such an extent that they do not fully recognize the moral power. Being thus blinded, moral distinctions are often lost sight of in the desire for present convenience, and what is deemed utility, or the good of the whole. The power which has done and is doing all this mischief is the satanic power, and must be viewed as wholly independent of the first three,—the moral, social, and political.

There are many reasons why we must view the satanic power as an isolated and exceptional one. The second and third are necessary and good in themselves, when regulated by moral power; and they are evil only when, by the instigation of the satanic power, they enact laws and customs which conflict with

moral law; and we see, too, that the moral, social, and political powers might all of them exist harmoniously together, were it not for the fact that the satanic power is constantly fomenting discord.

One great reason why we should view the satanic power as an isolated one, is that Satan himself, the head of this power, is continually at work to deceive the people by making them believe that evil is a necessary element in the constitution of God’s government, and that happiness and good are the result of his (Satan’s) work; and consequently that evil and good must somehow or other combine and work in harmony; and that he, the “father of lies,” is in fact as much in his place and duty as any other power, a necessary appendage to the court of the universe: when at the same time he is a blot, a curse, a sore plague, an enemy to all happiness and to all good.

Having now arrived at this only legitimate conclusion, that the empire of Satan is limited, is isolated; that it is evil, and only evil; that it is a deadly enemy to man in all his interests; that his work is unnecessary and immoral; that it is debasing in every respect; and that his influence is constantly used to promote rebellion, and to cause the social and political powers to be at enmity with the moral power; I say, when we come to this conclusion, deliberately and understandingly, we are far on the way to see what our responsibilities are. Please read the work, “Origin and Destiny of Satan, and Ministration of Angels,” published at the REVIEW Office.

To see our grave and important responsibilities at the present time, it is also necessary to understand the prophecies of the Old and New Testaments, and to drink deeply of the Spirit which actuated those holy men, who were inspired of God to write out those precious words of truth for the last generation of our race, which would be so highly privileged as to be enlightened on these subjects once so dark and mysterious. But we are here. The court of Heaven is in session. Reader, you and I have each a case in that court. Shall we not give it prayerful and solemn attention? Read “Our Faith and Hope,” also “Spirit of Prophecy.”

In order further to realize the responsibilities resting upon us, we need to acquaint ourselves, as far as in our power, with the Bible, its history, its doctrines, and its spirit, and prayerfully and diligently seek aid from God in all our investigations. A general knowledge of profane history will give interest in this work, and stimulate inquiry. We need constantly to consider the work of God, and the work of the enemy, and to carefully discriminate; for Satan’s power has arisen, by trying to combine evil with good. There is a great difference between good and evil—“a great gulf fixed;” but Satan has succeeded in blinding the multitudes, until evil is called good, and good is called evil; virtue is branded vice, and vice is called virtue; darkness is called light, and light is called darkness; and thus, things are turned upside down, and the moral sense of our race is perverted, because of error and sin. Error leads on to or excuses sin, and sin again strengthens the error from which it sprang, and thus, by mutual attraction and affinity, a strong web is woven, which holds its victims securely in its grasp.

Mohammed was not more deceived than are men now, in upholding milder forms of error, but from their plausibility all the more fatal; our fathers did thus and so, and if they did so, and were still good men, why may not their sons do the same and be saved?

Error perverts the judgments of men, and bends the will. The papist becomes a sincere worshiper of the pope, and calls him infallible, when he knows it is not in man to be perfect in judgment. The Protestant condemns popery, yet upholds its strongest props; the Protestant honors the reforms of the sixteenth century, yet opposes the reforms of the nineteenth century. A film is upon all eyes, and all hearts are hardened by error.

To remove this blindness of mind, and this hardness of heart, is the work of all who would realize their responsibilities. Light is shining brilliantly upon the path of the righteous, and the pages of prophecy are all aglow with life. Reader, can you neglect so interesting and profitable employment as reading upon prophecy, such works as “Matthew Twenty-Four,” “Signs of the Times,” “Sanctuary and Twenty-three Hundred Days,” “Thoughts on Revelation,” and “Thoughts on Daniel”?

Again, to realize our great responsibilities, we need to draw near the Lord in earnest prayer and praise, and to live near to him from day to day. We should now seek and strive for a condition in the Christian life far in advance of the piety of the present age; an age which accepts the profession and the gloss, but is content with bombast and shams. We must maintain a humble walk with God, and like Enoch have the testimony that we please God. We have been on the enemy’s ground as long as we have been careless and lukewarm. Let us arise and see things as they are. Satan’s wish is to have the care of our eyes. He prepares an ointment which he applies; but instead of that we need the true eye-salve, the enlightening influence of God’s Spirit, and we need the white raiment, and the fine gold.

Perhaps you have talents; haste to put them to proper use. Have you wealth, haste to put it into the work. Give by the tens, or hundreds, or thousands. Do not think it hard to give according to your ability. Ought a Wesley to be content with being a teacher in a primary school, when he is fit to preach to an emperor? Or should a Washington serve as corporal in the ranks, when he is fit for a commander? No more should a rich man be content to give the gifts of a poor man. Look at the gifts of Barzillai to an army; or the great gifts of David and his lords to the temple, while it was yet upon paper; or of Moses who gave his lifetime, without even an item of salary, or a sinecure for his sons. Gifts! how they came in to the Bible society on its formation. And see the amounts: $5,000 from one; from another $10,000; from another $20,000, and so on.

And shall we not give our hearts, our souls, unreservedly to the work of the Lord? Shall we let the golden opportunity slip? Shall the man of mind and ability stand still while the Master calls for reapers? Shall the rich man throw his silver and gold into the streets, which might have been sent on to the bank of Heaven? Jos. Clarke.

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