Review and Herald, Vol. 83, No. 14. (4/5/1906)

Review and Herald

Apr 5, 1906

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Apr 5, 1906

Statements Concerning the Law of God

“The Old Testament is not contrary to the New; for in both the Old and New Testaments everlasting life is offered to mankind by Christ, who is the only mediator between God and man. Wherefore they are not to be heard who feign that the old Fathers did look only for transitory promises. Although the law given from God by Moses, as touching ceremonies and rites, doth not bind Christians, nor ought the civil precepts thereof, of necessity, to be received in any commonwealth; yet, notwithstanding, no Christian whatsoever is free from the obedience of the commandments which are called moral.” —Protestant Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, Art. 7.

“We believe that the law of God is the eternal and unchangeable rule of His moral government; that it is holy, just, and good; and that the inability which the Scriptures ascribe to fallen men to fulfil its precepts arises entirely from their love of sin; to deliver them from which, and to restore them through a mediator to unfeigned obedience to the holy law, is one great end of the gospel, and of the means of grace connected with the establishment of the visible church.” —Baptist Church Manual, Art. 12, page 55.

“Beware of antinomianism, making void the law, or any part of it, through faith. . . . Let this be your voice, ‘I prize Thy commandments above gold or precious stone. O, what love have I unto Thy law! All the day long is my study of it.’ Beware of antinomian books. They contain many excellent things, and this makes them the more dangerous. O, be warned in time! Do not play with fire; do not put your hand upon the hole of a cockatrice’s den.” —John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, in “Christian Perfection,” pages 44, 45.

Our Publishing Work

The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it. Psalm 68:11.

*See last paragraph on this page for instructions where to order.

THE three boxes of kindergarten material used in connection with teaching the lessons in “Bible Object Lessons and Songs for Little Ones” can now be secured from any of the publishing houses or State tract societies. The price of the three boxes is $1.75, post-paid.

Do not let anything prevent you from following up the interest created by the use of the printed page or by personal visits. Don’t delay. Follow up the work before the interest wanes, or something else takes the attention. The Master expects this of you. It is “his work” committed to your hands.

THE great principles of truth involved in the conflict of the ages through which millions of Christ’s faithful followers have given their lives is clearly portrayed in that excellent work entitled “The Great Controversy,” by Mrs. E. G. White. This thrilling and interesting volume is more than a mere history of the struggles between Christ and Satan during the past two thousand years. It leads its readers to investigate the principles underlying Christ’s government and the lack of principle manifested in the works of Satan. In no other work has this subject been treated so simply, yet so charmingly, and in such a masterly way. Not only are we through it enriched by the lessons of the past, but are carried forward into the future and through the final conflict and the closing scenes of this world’s history, to the time when the kingdoms of this world will have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. This work will help the Christian to more perfectly understand the nature of the warfare in which he is engaged. Prices range from $2.25 to $4.50.

THE announcement of the publication of Liberty has been received with apparent universal approval. Every conference president, minister, worker, and individual replying to our announcement has expressed hearty approval of the publishing of a paper through which the public can be taught the principles of civil and religious liberty. They all agree in their opinion that such a paper is greatly needed at this time, and recognizing this need in a practical way, have sent in their subscriptions and pledged their support in extending its circulation. Subscriptions are coming in on every mail now, and we hope this will continue until our subscription list is sufficiently large to enable us to print an edition large enough to supply copies in bulk to as many as may want to order of each issue for missionary purposes. The prices are as follows: Single annual subscription, including extras, 25 cents, in the United States. Single foreign subscription, 50 cents; single copy of extras alone, according to size; five or more copies per year to different addresses, one order, 15 cents per copy; 10 or more copies per year, to one address, one order, 15 cents per copy; 25 or more copies of any one issue, one order, to one address, 2½ cents per copy.

IN how many new fields was our evangelistic work begun during 1903? See the “Year-book,” page 154, for the answer. You should have a copy. Price, 25 cents.

THOUSANDS of Sunday-schools are now studying lessons on the life of Christ. Some of your neighbors are probably studying these lessons. Have you called their attention to “Desire of Ages,” and shown them what wonderful help it contains for them? A little booklet has been prepared which gives references from each lesson to the pages in “Desire of Ages” which treat the same topic. This booklet is furnished free to those who will use it in this way. Order from Review and Herald, Washington, D. C., or Battle Creek, Mich.

THE April number of Life and Health presents some of the principles taught in “Ministry of Healing” upon the power of the mind over the body. This is an important live topic of the times, and the contents of the April number will do the people much good. Life and Health sells very readily. Some of our workers say it practically sells itself. One fourteen-year-old girl sold 1,200 copies of the March number, making a profit of $30 for her services. Others can do as well. Send in an order for 25 copies—63 cents—and sell them to neighbors for 5 cents a copy. In a work of this kind, one can do good missionary service, and at the same time receive a reasonable remuneration for the time used.

ANY person who will candidly consider the present condition of society, the spirit of selfishness, rivalry, and hatred that is growing among the nations, and the condition of the world in general, can not help longing for the dawn of a better period. “Heralds of the Morning” reveals the dawning of a desirable era to be ushered in by the coming of the Lord. The prophecies being fulfilled in the world to-day and attracting the attention of the public are interestingly considered in this valuable work. The wonderful increase of knowledge, the marvelous development of the last century, the rising tide of crime and evil, the conflict between capital and labor, the increasing anger of the nations and prevalence of the war spirit, the awful struggle to excel in the invention and manufacture of the most destructive weapons the world has ever known, and the increase of storms, floods, and disasters of all kinds, are treated in a convincing manner in connection with the prophecies which foretell the coming of these very things. This work will prove of special interest at the present time to all thinking people. Price, cloth, marbled edges, $1.50.

Orders for any publication mentioned on this page may be sent to any conference tract society or to Review and Herald Publishing Association, Washington, D. C., or Battle Creek, Mich.

Also Pacific Press Publishing Company, Mountain View, Cal.; Portland, Ore.; Kansas City, Mo.; Southern Publishing Association, Nashville, Tenn., and Fort Worth, Tex.

For the Defense of the Gospel

By Editor

Editorial

In this age of intense worldliness and materialism there is constant need of emphasizing the fact that spiritual truth is more valuable than any other possession, and that the ability to perceive and to appropriate revealed truth is more to be desired than the ability to acquire wealth. “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”

God has called us “unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.” It is therefore our privilege to live in constant fellowship with our risen Lord. Although at the right hand of the Father, he does not forget those for whom he gave his life, and he longs to draw us into the closest communion with himself. In the hour of sorrow he will comfort us; in the hour of trial he will strengthen us; in the hour of conflict he will give us the victory. Let nothing rob us of the fellowship of Jesus.

“You know not how soon the crisis may come. It is stealing gradually upon us, as a thief. The sun shines in the heavens, passing over its usual round, and the heavens still declare the glory of God; men are still pursuing their usual course of eating and drinking, planting and building, marrying and giving in marriage; merchants are still engaged in buying and selling; publications are still issuing one upon another; men are jostling one against another, seeking to get the highest place; pleasure lovers are still attending theaters, horse-races, gambling hells, and the highest excitement prevails; yet probation’s hour is fast closing, and every case is about to be eternally decided. There are few who believe with heart and soul that we have a heaven to win and a hell to shun; but these few show their faith by their works. The signs of Christ’s coming are fast fulfilling. Satan sees that he has but a short time in which to work, and he has set his satanic agencies at work to stir the elements of the world, in order that men may be deceived, deluded, and kept occupied and entranced until the day of probation shall be ended, and the door be forever shut.”

For the Defense of the Gospel

The fact that some were unfaithful to their profession of the truth did not cause the apostle Paul to waver or to cease bearing his testimony in behalf of sound doctrine. He knew that he was “set for the defense of the gospel,” and he remained loyal to him who had appointed him to his work. The example of this staunch defender of the truth is an inspiration for all time. While it is true that in a certain sense the gospel needs no defense by any one, yet it is in the divine plan that human agencies shall be used as witnesses for the God of heaven to bear testimony against those who would substitute human philosophy for the truth of the gospel. So it was in the time of the Reformation from popery when Luther and his associates wielded the sword of the Spirit against the corrupters of the message of salvation by faith in Christ. So it should be now when the successors of the Reformers are proving untrue to their inheritance, and are repudiating some of the most fundamental principles of true Protestantism. And the same principle applies in the case of this advent message. It is time for those who love the truths which have separated this people from other denominations, and which constitute the last movement in the earth in behalf of a pure gospel, to stand firmly in defense of these truths even when some who have been companions in arms depart from them. A plain testimony should now be borne in behalf of the original platform of this advent message. The Lord has his servants who are now “set for the defense of the gospel.” Let them speak the truth in love.

An Important Date

Historical Proof Which Establishes the Time for the Commencement of the Twenty-three Hundred Days

It was the correct understanding of the subject of the sanctuary which explained the disappointment of 1844. This did not call for any readjustment of the prophetic periods, or the setting of any later date for the coming of the Lord. Seventh-day Adventists stand upon the original advent platform in their interpretation and application of such leading time prophecies as the “time and times and half a time” (twelve hundred and sixty years) of Dan. 7: 25, the “two thousand and three hundred days” (twenty-three hundred years) of Dan. 8: 14, the “five months” (one hundred and fifty years) of the fifth trumpet (Rev. 9: 10), and the “hour, and a day, and a month, and a year” (three hundred and ninety-one years and fifteen days) of the sixth trumpet. Rev. 9: 15.

It is doubtless true that the period upon which the greatest stress has been laid, both before and since the disappointment of 1844, is that of the twenty-three hundred days or years, and for about three quarters of a century it has been maintained that this period began B. C. 457 and ended in A. D. 1844. The scriptural proof of this position is very simple. The seventy weeks of Dan. 9: 24 began with the going forth of “the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem” (Dan. 9: 25), and the time of this event is stated to be “in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king.” Ezra 7: 7. According to the generally accepted chronology, the seventh of Artaxerxes was B. C. 457, as is noted in the margin of the Authorized Version of the book of Ezra; but, as is the case with almost every important doctrine, some have disputed this date, and have asserted that there was not sufficient proof to establish this important position. We have therefore thought that it might be worth the while to bring forward some historical evidence bearing upon this question, evidence of such a character that it can not be set aside by mere assertion.

As the extract which we shall quote involves some abbreviations and expressions not now in common use in reckoning time, we will interpret some of them, so that all our readers may have as clear an understanding as possible

of the grounds upon which the reckoning is based. The expression, “An. 1, Olymp. 87” means “in the first year of the eighty-seventh Olympiad,” and the expression “An. 4, Olymp. 88” means “in the fourth year of the eighty-eighth Olympiad,” and the expression “An. 1, Olymp. 75” means “in the first year of the seventy-fifth Olympiad,” and the expression “An. 4, Olymp. 83” means “in the fourth year of the eighty-third year of the Olympiad.” The Olympiad was “the period of four years between any two celebrations of the Olympic games,” at Olympia in Elis, one of the States of Greece, the first Olympiad being reckoned from B. C. 776. Wherever the abbreviation “An. J. P.” occurs, it may be interpreted, “The year of the Julian Period.” This was “a chronological period of 7,980 years, combining the solar, lunar, and indiction cycles,” which was given a theoretical starting-point in B. C. 4713. “The Julian Period was proposed by Scaliger, to remove or avoid ambiguities in chronological dates, and was so named because composed of Julian years.” The abbreviation “lib.” should be read “book.” The expression “Anno Urbis Conditæ 273” may be read “in the two hundred and seventy-third year from the founding of the city,” referring to the founding of Rome in B. C. 754. The other abbreviations will doubtless be understood by the average reader.

The quotation to which reference has been made is from Part I, chap. 10, of Sir Isaac Newton’s work on the prophecies of Daniel, and reads as follows:—

The grounds of the chronology here followed [to show that the seventh year of Artaxerxes was B. C. 457] I will now set down as briefly as I can.

The Peloponnesian War began in spring, An. 1, Olymp. 87 (B. C. 432), Diodorus, Eusebius, and all other authors agree. It began two months before Pythodorus ceased to be Archon (Thucyd. I, 2), that is, in April, two months before the end of the Olympic year. Now, the years of this war are most certainly determined by the fifty years distance of its first year from the transit of Xerxes inclusively (Thucyd. I, 2), or forty-eight years exclusively (Eratosth. apud Clem. Alex.); by the sixty-nine years distance of its end, or twenty-seventh year, from the beginning of Alexander’s reign in Greece; by the acting of the Olympic games in its fourth and twelfth years (Thucyd. I. 5); and by three eclipses of the sun and one of the moon, mentioned by Thucydides and Xenophon. Now, Thucydides, an unquestionable witness, tells us that the news of the death of Artaxerxes Longimanus reigned forty years, by the consent of Diodorus, Eusebius, Jerome, Sulpitius, or forty-one, according to Ptol. in Can., Clem. Alexand. (I. 1), Strom., Chron. Alexandr., Abulpharagius, Nicephorus, including therein the reign of his successors, Xerxes and Sogdian, as Abulpharagius informs us. After Artaxerxes, reigned his son, Xerxes, two months, and Sogdian seven months; but their reign is not reckoned apart in summing up the years of the kings, but is included in the forty, or forty-one years’ reign of Artaxerxes; omit these nine months, and the precise reign of Artaxerxes will be thirty-nine years and three months. And, therefore, since his reign ended in the beginning of winter, An. J. P. 4289 (B. C. 425), it began between midsummer and autumn An. J. P. 4250 (B. C. 464).

The same thing I gather also thus: Cambyses began his reign in spring, An. J. P. 4185 (B. C. 529), and reigned eight years, including the five months of Smerdis; and then Darius Hystaspes began in spring, An. J. P. 4193 (B. C. 521), and reigned thirty-six years, by the unanimous consent of all chronologists. The reigns of these two kings are determined by three eclipses of the moon, observed at Babylon, and recorded by Ptolemy, so that it can not be disputed. One was in the seventh year of Cambyses, An. J. P. 4191 (B. C. 523), July 16, at eleven at night; another in the twentieth year of Darius, An. J. P. 4212 (B. C. 502), November 19, at 11:45 at night; a third in the thirty-first year of Darius, An. J. P. 4223 (B. C. 491), April 25, at 11:30 at night. By these eclipses, and the prophecies of Haggai and Zechary compared together, it is manifest that his years began after the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh Jewish month, and before the twenty-fifth day of April, and by consequence about March. Xerxes, therefore, began in spring, An. J. P. 4229 (B. C. 485), for Darius died in the fifth year after the battle of Marathon, as Herodotus (lib. 7) and Plutarch mention; and that battle was in October, An. J. P. 4224 (B. C. 490), ten years before the battle at Salamis. Xerxes, therefore, began within less than a year after October, An. J. P. 4228 (B. C. 486), suppose in the spring following; for he spent his first five years, and something more, in preparations for his expedition against the Greeks; and this expedition was in the time of the Olympic games, An. 1, Olymp. 75, Calliade Athenis Archonte, twenty-eight years after the regifuge and consulship of the first consul, Junius Brutus, Anno Urbis Conditæ 273 (B. C. 481), Fabio and Furio Coss. The passage of Xerxes’ army over the Hellespont began in the end of the fourth year of the seventy-fourth Olympiad, that is, in June, An. J. P. 4234 (B. C. 480), and took up one month; and in autumn, three months after, on the full moon, the sixteenth day of the month of Munychion, was the battle of Salamis, and a little after that an eclipse of the sun, which, by the calculation, fell on October 2. His sixth year, therefore, began a little before June, suppose in spring, An. J. P. 4234 (B. C. 480), and his first year consequently in spring, An. J. P. 4229 (B. C. 485), as above. Now, he reigned almost twenty-one years, by the consent of all writers. Add the seven months of Artabanus, and the sun will be twenty-one years and about four or five months, which end between midsummer and autumn, An. J. P. 4250 (B. C. 464). At this time, therefore, began the reign of his successor, Artaxerxes, as was to be proved.

The same thing is also confirmed by Julius Africanus, who informs us out of former writers that the twentieth year of this Artaxerxes was the one hundred and fifteenth year from the beginning of the reign of Cyrus in Persia, and fell in with An. 4, Olymp. 83. It began, therefore, with the Olympic year soon after the summer solstice, An. J. P. 4269 (B. C. 445). Subduct nineteen years, and his first year will begin at the same time of the year, An. J. P. 4250 (B. C. 464), as above.

Thus by three independent lines of historical proof Sir Isaac Newton shows that Artaxerxes began his reign in B. C. 464, and “the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king” would consequently be B. C. 457. Such an array of historical evidence ought to be sufficient to convince any reasonable student of the prophecies that the twenty-three hundred years of Daniel’s vision began in B. C. 457, and therefore ended in 1844. This is one of the original planks in the second advent platform.

The Ultimate of Pantheism

By William Ambrose Spicer

It is truly said that pantheism is “the religion of human nature.” It is the thread idea running “fine as the lotus fiber” through all false religions. It is the philosophy of self-exaltation, and its ultimate is to put self in the place of God.

Thus Satan’s rebellion in heaven began. “I will be like the Most High,” was Lucifer’s boast. Sin came into our world when man listened to the tempter’s words, “Ye shall be as God.” The papacy was but the development of the religion of self-exaltation by which man sets himself forth as God.

It was against this pantheistic philosophy that the apostles warned the church. Men had changed the truth into a lie. They had put the creature for the Creator. And all in an effort to find out God by searching. The heathen philosophy was an apparently devout effort to find the revelation of God in nature and in man. The apostles spoke of the “vain imaginations” of these philosophers, of their science “falsely so called,” and the gospel was in constant and uncompromising warfare against all these “reasonings,” and “every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God.” 2 Cor. 10:5.

The climax of self-exaltation is reached in the ultimate of the pantheistic teaching. Its teachers often stop short of putting the conclusion into words, as the claims of the system are so bold and daring. Professor Max Muller compliments the Hindu writers thus:—

“What I admire in Indian philosophers is that they never try to deceive us as to their principles and the consequences of their theories.”

That is, they boldly state the logical conclusion of their argument. So it comes that, as one Hindu writer says, if the Vedanta “is the one philosophy which dares to call man God himself, and not merely the son of God, or his servant.” In the Hindu system the “great sentences” are: “Tat twam asi” (Thou art that), and “Brahmasmi” and (I am Brahma). When the student has mastered the philosophy of Hinduism, he can intelligently speak the great sentences.

This pantheistic philosophy in our day has been spreading through Western lands. Men endeavor to find a basis for it in the writings of the very apostles who warned believers against it. We are told by Peter that this had begun even in apostolic days. Followers of the heathen philosophy within the church had wrested the words of the apostle Paul to their own destruction. Even so now the words of inspiration are perverted by pantheistic interpretations and given a meaning exactly contrary to their true sense and teaching. Some years ago Professor Muller, the translator of the Hindu sacred books, wrote:—

We also speak without hesitation of our body as the temple of God, and of the voice of God within us, nay, we repeat with St. Paul that we live, and move, and have our being in God; yet we shrink from adopting the plain and simple language of the Upanishads that the self of God and man is the same. . . . After all, there is some of the Indian leaven left in us, however unwilling we may be to confess it.

That leaven has been working powerfully in recent times, giving to Scripture phrases a mystical turn, and bringing in the very teachings of ancient heathenism as new and wonderful light. And there is less and less of shrinking from the logical conclusion of the pantheistic philosophy.

From the theory of God himself in all things, and that “God and nature are one” (as we saw stated in a health journal not long since), it is not many steps to the “great sentences” of the Hindu system. The Hindu sages conceived the revelation of Brahma closest in man. One was to see God by looking at nature, and at man, but most closely by looking at self. The Bhagavad Gita teaches:—

The man whose mind is endued with this devotion, and looketh on all things alike, beholdeth the Supreme Soul in all things, and all things in the Supreme Soul.

Most of all, he sees this in himself; for if the mind wanders, “he should subdue it, bring it back, and place it on the self.” They assumed to see God by looking at themselves.

It is the idea of the new pantheism. Thus Ralph Waldo Trine, author of “In Tune with the Infinite,” says:—

All is He since He is all. . . . And if all, then each individual, you and I, must be a vital part of that all. . . . Man is God incarnate. Humanity, therefore, can not be very far from being next to godliness. . . . The moment, however, we recognize our divinity, our higher, our God-selves, and the fact that we are the saviors of our fellow men, we become saviors, and stand and move in the midst of a majesty and beauty and power that proclaims us as such.

It is the same philosophy that has worked through millennia of heathenism, served up in beautiful language for Christians, again to cause those who know God to become vain in their imaginations and to plunge into old-time darkness while still talking and speculating concerning the revelation of God, and professing larger and higher views of him.

One Unitarian expositor of the new theology says:—

We do not deny that Jesus was a son of God, and thus divine. . . . Wherever we see goodness, we see the face of God. Thus the narrow and exclusive idea of Jesus’ deity is outgrown. . . . Every noble biography . . . makes us believe in the deity of manhood. . . . Religion is wherever God is. But God is wherever man is. God is in the face and at the heart of man.

Thus the new teaching, like the old, deifies self. In the ancient heathen tradition, the shrine of the goddess at Sais bore the inscription, “No mortal hath yet uncovered my veil.” One daring worshiper at last determined that the deed should be done. He succeeded,— . . . “he lifted the veil of the goddess at Sais, But what did he see?—He saw, wonder of wonders, himself!”

Pantheistic philosophy, and that is the philosophy of all heathenism, is self-worship. Professing to be wisdom, it is but foolishness. Human reason becomes unbalanced with vanity, topples over, and we see puny man trying to take the place of God. The theory flatters men to-day, as of old, with the idea that greatness and divinity lie within, and the powers within are to be awakened and developed. Men are to become christs and saviors.

“Ye shall not surely die,” said the serpent. “Ye shall be as gods.” However variously the new philosophy may speak of death, the logic of the system abolishes it. Dr. Stockwell, who frankly avows the pantheistic nature of the modern view of religion, sums it up as follows:—

We see ourselves amid a measureless, infinite ocean of throbbing, pulsating, thrilling, vital energy. . . . As we look out into the ether (space), we see God. . . . This view leaves no room whatever, in the whole universe, for death or dead matter. Death is dead. It is illusion. There is absolutely nothing but life anywhere. We can not escape it if we would. The only question for us to decide is as to the form of life we shall have.

Just so Hindu philosophy argued thousands of years ago. The same mysticism was abroad in early Christian times. Now old controversies are being revived, and new and old are commingling. The most subtle errors of ancient heathenism are reappearing. Behind it all is one great deceiver, shaping the philosophy to meet all minds, even to deceive if possible the very elect. And through it all runs the thread of self-exaltation. Christian Science is but one form of this religion of human nature; but on the title-page of their text-book is a message which may well stand for the universal philosophy of rebellion and self-exaltation:—

“I, I, I itself, I, The inside and outside, the what and the why, The when and the where, the low and the high, All I, I, I itself, I.”

Just the opposite is the burden of the advent message, “Fear God, and give glory to him.” The issue is joined. The last phases of error are sweeping over the world, leavening Christendom with the spiritualistic and pantheistic ideas that have made heathenism what we find it to-day. To meet Satan’s last move God has developed the third angel’s message, and has committed that message to the Seventh-day Adventist people. Let us hold to it, and publish it in all the earth.

W. A. S.

Some New Testimony in Favor of Sunday

By L. A. S.

The Sunday School Times of March 24 devotes considerable space to the narration of personal experiences furnished by a number of its readers, in proof that Sunday-keeping is according to the will of God. In answer to the question raised by one reader of the Times, whether haying on Sunday is to be considered a work of necessity, a number of other readers furnish indubitable proof (?) to the contrary by a citation of personal experiences coming under their cognizance.

One mentions the case of a Scotch Covenanter living near the Connecticut River. There was a fall flood which raised the river out of its banks. “The corn was cut and ‘stacked,’ but not husked, and farmers day by day moved it back to higher ground until Sunday morning.” Then the Covenanter stopped work and went to church, while the others kept at work, as the river continued

to rise. It rose higher and higher, and Sunday night swept all the corn away. But lo! a day or two later, when the flood subsided, the Covenanter found his field covered with corn which had in some way drifted on to it, so that he harvested a good crop!

An Ohio pastor narrates that at one time “when a boy on my father’s farm, just as the wheat of a neighborhood had been put in shock, it set in to rain, and rained for about a week continuously every day. The shocks were thoroughly saturated with rain. On Sunday following this week of rain the sun shone out bright, and many of our neighbors with their teams worked all day hauling and ricking their grain. Some did not touch theirs until Monday, which was also bright, as were all the following days of the week. When thrashing time came, those who hauled in their grain on the sabbath day found that it had all molded and spoiled in the stacks, because of having been put up in a damp and wet condition. Those who waited until Monday brought settled weather, opened up the shocks and leisurely stacked and thrashed in due time a fair quality of wheat.”

Another cites the following evidence on the subject, which was brought out at a court trial in Kentucky some years ago: A farmer was on trial for breaking the “sabbath,” in having cut his grain on Sunday. The farmer testified that his wheat had become so “straw-fallen” that he believed if he waited longer, he would be unable to save it. He cut about half of it, when he was obliged to stop on account of a heavy fall of rain. “The judge inquired if he cut the remainder. ‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘but not until the Tuesday following, on account of rain.’ ‘So you saved all your crop after all [inquired the judge]?’ ‘No,’ said the farmer; ‘I saved all I cut on Tuesday, but lost all I cut on Sunday.’” This is a verbatim report of the testimony given, showing it to be absolutely correct.

Another instance is furnished by some one in California. He says: “My father, though not an active Christian, would not make hay on Sunday. One year the season was very wet. We cut some grass Monday morning, and in the afternoon it came on to rain, and rained practically all the week. Late Saturday afternoon it cleared, and in the evening we went into the field and opened up the grass, and let it lie that way all day Sunday. Our neighbor across the way worked all day Sunday, and got in all his hay.” The sequel was that those who had waited until Monday had a chance to sell their damaged hay at a fair price, while the man who worked on Sunday had to take out again all the hay he had put in on that day and work it over, because he had put it into the barn when damp.

Still another instance is furnished by a reader living in New Hampshire. It happened when he was a boy. His father had a load of wheat out in the field Sunday morning, and as it looked like rain, he yoked his oxen and went out with his cart to get the wheat. The oxen were young and not well trained, so his wife went with him, taking with her her baby girl. The baby was rolled in a blanket and laid on the grass. Pretty soon the oxen became excited and ran across the field toward the baby, but when one wheel of the cart was on the blanket, and another forward step would have been fatal to the infant, they stopped, and the latter was rescued. The writer adds: “Father never tried working on Sunday after that experience.”

We might raise the query whether it is not quite possible that wheat or hay which is put into the barn when damp would spoil just the same if it was put in on any other day than Sunday; or whether an equal or even greater number of instances might not be cited where Sunday work was done on the farm with no attending loss. But we will let this evidence in behalf of Sunday stand for all it is worth, and will even add further evidence of the same kind. There are other occurrences which belong with these, cited and vouched for by witnesses in behalf of Sunday in earlier times. Some of these were of a miraculous nature. “Among other wonders it was reported that as a husbandman who was about to plow his field on Sunday, cleaned his plow with an iron, the iron stuck fast in his hand, and for two years he carried it about with him, ‘to his exceeding great pain and shame.’” — “Great Controversy, page 575.”

About the close of the twelfth century a zealous advocate of Sunday came to England, bringing with him a roll which had been received direct from heaven, containing the strongest command for Sunday observance. It forbade labor between three o’clock on Saturday afternoon and Monday morning. To confirm its authenticity, persons who labored beyond this designated hour on Saturday were stricken with paralysis (so it was stated). “A miller who attempted [on Sunday] to grind his corn, saw, instead of flour, a torrent of blood come forth, and the mill wheel stood still, notwithstanding the strong rush of water. A woman who placed dough in the oven [on Sunday], found it raw when taken out, though the oven was very hot. Another who had dough prepared for baking at the ninth hour, but determined to set it aside till Monday, found, the next day, that it had been made into loaves and baked by divine power. A man who baked bread after the ninth hour [three o’clock] on Saturday, found, when he broke it the next morning, that blood started therefrom.” — Id., page 576.

We do not think the Sunday sabbath cause is strengthened by any evidence of this character, though it is undoubtedly the best that can be furnished in support of that institution. The Bible rule is, “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Isa. 8:20. Not all the wonderful occurrences in the world can overthrow the evidence of the law and the testimony of Jehovah. Judged by this evidence, the Sunday sabbath is found to rest upon a false foundation. The law and the testimony plainly declare that not the first day, but the seventh day, is the Sabbath. L. A. S.

Continue reading: A Statement of Facts Concerning Our Present Situation—No. 9