Signs of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 45. (11/8/1905)

Signs of the Times

Nov 8, 1905

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Nov 8, 1905

Holiday Suggestions

By Editor

Our Paradise Home

Where will it be? What will it be? When will it be? These are some of the questions concerning which there are many speculative theories.

But our all-wise heavenly Father has not left us in darkness and doubt regarding the future, and our eternal home. He knew that we would be anxious to know something about it, and so He has satisfied our curiosity by giving us, in the Bible, some glimpses of the Goodly Land.

Thinking that we might not be able to find all these interesting things, our good Brother Lane has gleaned out the items and put them into a book, so that we may read them in connected form. He gives us some fine pictures, too.

Price in board cover, 25 cents; cloth, 50 cents.

The House We Live In

Not the house of wood, brick, or stone that we may chance to be living in, but a story about the human body house.

Did you ever stop to think that your body is constructed something like a house? that it has a frame; is partitioned off into rooms or apartments; has walls, windows, halls, a kitchen, eating-room, bath, music-room, heating plant, pumping engine, telephone, servants, etc.?

Mrs. E. W. Farnsworth has discovered a great many interesting comparisons like these, and in telling us about them gives many valuable hints on the physiology of the body, and the best material to use in making it grow up strong, and keeping the various parts in good repair. She also tells us about the cruel thieves and murderers that often break in to steal and destroy, so that we may keep good locks on our doors and windows to protect us.

All the children will want to read this book anyway, and maybe some of the older ones. It contains 200 pages, with pictures on every page. Price in cloth, 75 cents.

Things Foretold

The world is full of sorcerers, mediums, and fortune-tellers of various grades, and they are reaping rich harvests, too, because people are curious to know what the future has in store for them. But far better is it to appeal to the sure Word of prophecy for guidance and counsel, for it sheds the strong light of Heaven on human affairs and clears up the mysteries of the future.

In "Things Foretold" we find the prophetic history of the world told so clearly and simply that even the children can understand. Events are pointed out that have already taken place; others that concern us just now; and still others that clear up the uncertainty of the future.

Besides this important feature, the children will be much interested in the stories of Daniel and his fellow-captives in the land of Babylon, and enjoy the nice pictures which the book contains.

112 pages; 21 chapters. Price 50 cents.

Uncle Ben's Cobblestones

Uncle Ben is a real pleasant old gentleman, and one the children around home all like because he knows how to tell just the very best kind of stories.

In some way Uncle Ben has found out that all the little boys and girls like to hear stories, too, and he would like very much to go around and visit you all, but that would take too long, and some of you would get tired waiting. So in place of a personal visit, Uncle Ben has decided to print his stories in book form so that you may all have them right away.

He tells you about very common things, such as air, water, sunshine, fire, smoke, glass, coal, salt, paper, matches, etc., but he tells so many remarkable things about how they are made, and what they are made of, that you begin to wonder if they are really the things that you have been using every day. Uncle Ben is a good man, too, and so, of course, weaves in little lessons of truth that will help you to grow up and be good and kind, too.

You would give one cent, and more, too, if you had it, wouldn't you, to hear a good story? Well, try Uncle Ben, he gives you more than 200 pages of stories, and about twice that number of pictures for only 75 cents.

Terms of Subscription.

By Editor

Per Year, post-paid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1.50

Six Months, 75 cts. Three Months, 40 cts.

To Foreign Countries, per year, $1.75.

SPECIAL TERMS.

By Editor

1. One new yearly subscription and one renewal, or two new yearly subscriptions, sent at one time, $2.50.

2. Two new yearly subscriptions and one renewal, or three new yearly subscriptions, sent at one time, $3.25.

3. Three new yearly subscriptions and one renewal, or four new yearly subscriptions, sent at one time, $4.00.

Sample copies sent on application.

OUR SPECIAL NUMBERS

By Editor

You have perhaps noticed that this paper is Number Three in a series of four special issues. Their titles are as follows:

No. 1.—PROPHECY AND CHRIST'S COMING. No. 2.—THE SANCTUARY—THE GOSPEL IN TYPE AND ANTITYPE. No. 3.—LAW, GOSPEL, THE SABBATH. No. 4.—THE CHURCH TRIUMPHANT.

Have you read the preceding numbers? If not, we suggest that you ask the person from whom you received this paper to secure them for you, or send direct to the publishers for the set. The price is 20 cents.

If in quantities, the prices are as follows:

1 to 4 sets to one or more addresses Per set $0.20 5 or more sets to single addresses " .15 25 to 500 sets to one address " .10 500 and upward " .09

SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Mountain View, Cal.

CO-OPERATION CORNER

By Editor

ONE of our faithful periodical workers wrote us under date of October 8 as follows:

I would like to make some inquiries in regard to the special numbers of the SIGNS. Do you know of any one who would like to pay for a quantity, and turn them over to others to sell? Perhaps there are those who would like to have a part in putting these sets into the hands of the people, but who lack the time, but who would willingly pay for the papers, and turn them over to some one else to circulate.

This brother is blind and, because of poor health, is only able to work a portion of the day. We answered him, stating our belief that we could secure donations for 250 sets, if he would pay for a like number, making 500 in all. He has accepted our offer, and is now selling the papers.

Are there not many who will gladly assist in paying for the 250 donated papers? The cost will be $25.00. Address SIGNS OF THE TIMES Mountain View, Cal.

Home Worker's List

By Editor

NOTE.—After you have read the descriptions of the foregoing books, we feel sure that you will not only want to read them yourself but will want to sell some of them around home. All such should send for our "Home Worker's List," which gives a full list of this line of books, the commission you make, and how to begin work. Free on application.

THE ETERNAL LAW THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL

By W. A. Spicer

The Law and Jesus Christ

IN the heart of the Dark Continent, where hitherto the white man's feet had never passed, a missionary was asked to give some message from the God of heaven, some words of the Lord Himself. He studied with these men of the wild the words spoken from Sinai by the Lord's own lips, and written upon tables of stone by the finger of God.

The missionary and his hearers sat beside a spring from which the pure, fresh stream of life-giving water had bubbled forth from time undated. It was to the native mind a symbol of eternal purity. They studied the Ten Commandments, one after the other, discussing something of the length and breadth and depth of each.

When the study was completed, the spokesman of the band rose gravely, and said: "These are right words. They are clean words. They are like the waters of this fountain; not as the water down the stream where it has become soiled and dirty, but like the pure, clear water springing up at the fountain head."

This child of nature had caught in his soul a clear gleam of the eternal light of God's righteousness, shining from His holy law. The psalmist said of the same words: "The precepts of Jehovah are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of Jehovah is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of Jehovah is clean, enduring forever." "Thy Word is very pure; Therefore Thy servant loveth it." "Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, And Thy law is truth." (Ps. 19:8, 9; 119:140, 142.)

These inspired words show clearly how a heart touched by the Spirit of God regards the law of Jehovah. That law is the fountain of all morality and the standard of everlasting righteousness, because it is a transcript of its Maker's character—eternal purity, and righteousness, and truth. Throughout Inspiration the attributes describing the character of Jehovah are applied also to His holy law.

What It Means to Disparage the Law

It is a fact that nowadays we may hear, even in religious circles, disparagements of the Ten Commandments. It is to some an out-of-date "Jewish code." But this is only an evidence that the falling away has come and the "mystery of lawlessness" is at work. 2 Thess. 2:7, R. V. The spirit of anti-christ is the "spirit of lawlessness, because whatsoever is opposed to Jesus Christ is necessarily opposed to the law of God. It is the "carnal mind" that "is enmity against God," and is "not subject to the law of God." Rom. 8:7.

Jesus was the eternal Word made flesh, the Word that was with the Father before the world was, "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever." And in His heart was enshrined the law of eternity. As He came into the world as our example and Saviour, He declared, "I delight to do Thy will, O my God; yea, Thy law is within My heart." Ps. 40:8.

Out of the heart "are the issues of life." The life of Jesus—the perfect life—was the living of the law of God—the perfect law. None, therefore, can disparage the law of God without belittling the life of the Saviour of the world.

Christ's Regard of the Law

It is a false idea that in the days of Christ the Pharisees and the Jews were standing by the law of Ten Commandments while Christ was endeavoring to bring in a new way. The very reverse is the truth. They were making void the commandments of God by their tradition, while Christ was standing by the divine commandments. Matthew 15.

God spoke His law on the Mount of Sinai because "He loved the people." Deut. 33:2, 3. And the same love on the Mount of Beatitudes declared: "Verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven; but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." Matt. 5:18, 19.

And when He offered Himself upon the cross to meet the penalty of the broken law in man's behalf, Christ set the seal of eternity upon the everlasting integrity of the law of God. The Author of the law could die, but the law itself could not be set aside. No transgression of it could be overlooked or excused. Sin could be forgiven, but only as the Son of God Himself met the penalty and tasted death for every man. "All His commandments are sure. They stand fast forever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness." Ps. 111:7, 8.

A Witness to the Law's Righteousness

Ever since sin, "the transgression of the law," came into the world, the "everlasting Gospel" has been the witness to the "everlasting righteousness" of the law of God. The last proclamation of the Gospel in this world is described by the Revelator, who beheld a mighty advent movement, symbolized by an angel crying out "the everlasting Gospel" to every nation and tongue, in preparation for the second coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven. Rev. 14:6, 7. He bears the witness of Inspiration to the practical work which the Gospel does for those who receive it. Of those who heed the final warning, He says, "Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Rev. 14:12. The two are one and inseparable. The commandments of God, divine perfection itself, can be kept only by the faith that brings Christ to dwell in the heart with all His fulness of life and power. And wheresoever the faith of Jesus is kept, there also must be enshrined the eternal law of God.

The Eternal Law The Everlasting Gospel By W. A. Spicer

THE MORNING COMETH!

By Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle

BY MRS. L. D. AVERY-STUTTLE

"Ho! watchman, ho! is the day at hand?" I asked of the watchman brave; "Ye who on the walls of Zion stand, Hear ye the strains of the music grand, See ye the pennons of Beulah land Over the ramparts wave?"

Have you heard the news? 'tis a glorious word — The news of a coming King? Come, pilgrim, sing like a wildwood bird And shout till the heights and the depths have heard, Till the far-off isles of the sea are stirred, Let the heaven-born tidings ring.

"The morning cometh!" the watchman spake— The watchman hoar and grim;— "The heavens a mystic beauty take, For the shadows black have begun to break From over the woodland, sea, and lake, And over the mountains dim."

"What means this sound like the rush and flow Of the ocean's surging tide— Like a whirlwind passing to and fro? Is it the tread of a coming foe? What are the tidings, watchman, ho?" And the sentinel replied:

"The sound thou'st heard is the marching tread Of the armies of the sky; The blood in the winepress floweth red, And the earth and sea give up their dead; He comes! He comes, as the seers have said," O glory to God on high!

WHAT MEN HAVE SAID

CHARLES H. SPURGEON, in his "Sermons," page 280, says: "The law of God is a divine law, holy, heavenly, perfect. . . . There is not a command too many; there is not one too few; but it is so incomparable that its perfection is a proof of its divinity. . . . No human law-giver could have given forth such a law as that which we find in the Decalogue."

"Presbyterian Confession of Faith," article 5: "The moral law doth forever bind all, as well justified persons as others, to the obedience thereof; and that not only in regard to the matter contained in it, but also in respect to the authority of God, the Creator, who gave it. Neither doth Christ, in the Gospel, any way dissolve, but much strengthen, this obligation."

John Wesley on Matt. 5:17, says: "It was not the design of Christ to revoke any part of the law. It can not be broken. Every part of it remains in force upon all men in all ages. Neither time, place, nor circumstances, make it liable to change."

THE BIBLE SABBATH

By A. T. Robinson

What Does the Bible Say?

The Foundation

JESUS declares, "The Sabbath was made for man," Mark 2:27.

Two facts are here clearly stated: (1) that the Sabbath was made. (2) For whom it was made.

To learn when, where, how, and by whom the Sabbath was made, we must turn to the record in Gen. 2:1-3, where we learn that the Sabbath was made by three specific acts performed by the Creator.

"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day, from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made."

The first of these three acts, the resting upon the day, was performed upon the first seventh day of time. He blessed and sanctified the seventh day, "because that in it He had rested." The two acts, of blessing and sanctifying the Sabbath, could not pertain to the first seventh day of time, as that day was already past. The blessing and sanctification of the Sabbath must therefore have pertained to the future seventh days, as they should occur at the close of each weekly cycle.

At the Exodus.

Thirty-three days before the giving of the law on Mount Sinai, the children of Israel were tested on the Sabbath question. After He had rained bread from heaven for them, the record states: "There went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep My commandments and My laws? See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath." Ex. 16:27-29. Here, be it carefully noted, the Sabbath is referred to by the Lord as a part of "My commandments and My laws," at least thirty-three days before the giving of the law from Sinai.

The good old patriarch, Abraham, faithfully observed these same commandments and laws. Of him the Lord says, "Because that Abraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws." Gen. 26:5. Thus the Sabbath, as an existing institution, spans the arch from Eden to Mount Sinai, when it was embosomed in the heart of the Decalogue.

No one questions the binding obligation of the Sabbath from Sinai to the Cross. We will therefore consider another great archway spanned by the Edenic Sabbath.

Christ's Regard for the Sabbath

Turning to the New Testament record, we find at the very beginning of His public ministry, the Lord Jesus declares that His mission was not to do away with any part of the law. His own words were:

"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot [the smallest Hebrew letter] or one tittle [the smallest distinguishing corner of a letter] shall in nowise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." Matt. 5:17, 18.

Concerning His public ministry, we read:

"And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and, as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read." Luke 4:16. "And came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the Sabbath days." Luke 4:31.

The Apostles

Passing on to the record of the apostles, citing the chiefest of them as an example, we read:

"And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures." Acts 17:2. "After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth. . . . And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks." "And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the Word of God among them." Acts 18:1, 4, 11.

As late as A.D. 96 we find the "Lord's day" referred to as an existing institution. John says, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day." Rev. 1:10. There is only one day referred to in all the Bible, which the Lord claims as His own day. "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord." Isa. 58:13, 14. Here the Lord calls the Sabbath His holy day. We are not left in doubt as to which day is the Sabbath, for we read, "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." Ex. 20:10. Therefore we know that a day referred to in A.D. 96, as "the Lord's Day," is none other than the Sabbath, which is the seventh day. Here again, we have another arch, from the Cross to the close of the New Testament record, spanned by the Edenic Sabbath.

The Remnant Church and the Sabbath

After an anti-Christian power, as predicted in Dan. 7:25, and other Scriptures, has thought to change the Sabbath from the day which God rested upon, blessed, and sanctified, we behold a world-wide movement, which is also a direct fulfilment of prophecy; calling the attention of God's people to the downtrodden Sabbath of Jehovah. The sun does not set upon those who have responded to this movement, by turning away their feet from the Bible Sabbath. The lonely seer of Patmos, looking through the telescope of prophetic vision, beheld the remnant church, and exclaims, "Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Rev. 14:12. He saw this commandment-keeping people in deadly conflict with the powers of darkness. "And the dragon was wroth with the woman, [the church], and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." Rev. 12:17.

Describing the next scene, after beholding the remnant church, keeping the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus, the prophet exclaims, "And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. . . . And He that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped." Rev. 14:14-16.

Turning to secular history, from the point where the inspired record closed, we find that during the first centuries of the Christian era the Bible Sabbath was observed by Christians; that gradually, as the church departed from the simplicity of the faith, it also departed more and more from the Sabbath, until it was nearly lost sight of. But traces of adherence to the Bible Sabbath are on record, showing that even throughout the Dark Ages that have intervened, God has not left Himself without witnesses for the Sabbath. And now, in these last days, we behold a people, true to the prophetic announcement, proclaiming to earth's remotest bounds, the message of the "everlasting Gospel" for this time. We behold thousands of honest people in every part of the earth, responding to the trumpet call, rallying around the standard, and holding aloft the banner of truth, inscribed with "the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Thus we have the one remaining arch, from the close of New Testament history to the second coming of the Son of Man, spanned by the Sabbath of all the ages.

In the Earth Made New

The Lord has permitted us, through the spirit of prophecy, to get a glimpse of the Sabbath in the future eternal state. Speaking of the earth when it shall have been made new, the prophet of God declares: "For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before Me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass,

that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me, saith the Lord." Isa. 66:22, 23.

The Sabbath of the Lord is an eternal institution, one pier, as we have found, rested in Eden, before the Fall. The other one is placed over in the earth made new. We have found the various arches between Eden lost and Eden restored spanned by the Sabbatical institution. This sacred memorial of Creation will endure forever. As the psalmist states it, "He hath made a memorial for His great creation. . . . The works of His hands are verity and judgment; all His commandments are sure. They stand fast forever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness." Ps. 111:4, 7, 8. "Thy name, O Lord, endureth forever; and Thy memorial, O Lord, throughout all generations." Ps. 135:13.

The following diagram may serve to fix in the mind of the reader the fact that the Sabbath has been an existing institution during all the ages between eternity in the past and eternity in the future.

Continue reading: THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK