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Signs of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 45.

The Bible the True Test

Signs of the Times

Nov 26, 1885

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 26, 1885

The Bible the True Test.

By Ellen G. White

BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
"The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple."
It is of consequence to every one to know what the Bible teaches. Like the noble Bereans, we should search the Scriptures carefully, prayerfully, to become acquainted with the utterances of God. We should inquire, not what the minister, the church, or some personal friend may say, but what the Lord says. "To the law and to the testimony. If they [ministers, churches, or friends] speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."
While searching for the truth as for hid treasures, light from the written word breaks into the mind. The benumbed and dormant faculties are awakened to new life and energy, the limited capacities are expanded to comprehend the truth, and earnest efforts are put forth to bring others into the light. Then why is it that there is such blindness in regard to the Scriptures? Why are ideas entertained, and sometimes taught to others, that are so vague and inconsistent? It is because the heart is not in harmony with the revealed word; the conscience has been so long depraved by practices condemned by that word, that the mental and moral powers are incapable of discerning spiritual things.
A great responsibility rests upon those who minister in word and doctrine. They should deal kindly, yet faithfully with souls. If they speak as the ambassadors of God, they will echo the teachings of the prophets and the apostles, and, above all, of Christ himself. Not only in the desk, but out of it also, they should seek to lead their hearers to search the Scriptures, and to impress upon them the necessity of understanding the word for themselves.
Let no man think that it is only the minister who is able to understand the Scriptures. Every man may have an intelligent knowledge of God's word; and he who does not make it his life-work to understand it is in danger of making shipwreck of faith. He must study it, comparing scripture with scripture. Such study strengthens and enlarges the mind. By it, under the guidance of the Spirit of God, truths which have been hidden for ages, buried under the rubbish of superstition and error, have been dug out, and brought to the light of day.
Many do not want to know the truth, because it condemns their practices. The words of Christ are applicable to them: "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." They do not have moral courage to obey the truth when it calls upon them to leave the customs and practices of the world. They have decided that they will not follow the teachings of the Bible if it requires a separation from the world. When obedience to God requires them to become peculiar in faith and practice, and to take their position with a people who are distinct from the world, they think the cross is too heavy for them to lift. They listen to the truth, and are convicted that it is the truth; but the world has a large place in their affections, and they go away and forget the word spoken.
Those who are seeking salvation must undertake the work understandingly. God's word is our text-book. It tells us what sin is, and points out the remedy. When the lawyer inquired, "Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" Christ referred him to the law. "What is written in the law?" he asked; "how readest thou?" The apostle tells us: "Sin is the transgression of the law." Conviction of sin is the first step in conversion; and the law of God is the instrument to convict the sinner. It is this holy law that discovers the deformity of character, that reveals the plague-spot of sin.
And when man is convicted of sin, when he realizes his lost and undone condition, Jesus reveals himself as a sin-pardoning Saviour. Through him the sinner may obtain forgiveness, though he has failed so decidedly in his duty to render obedience to God. But salvation is never gained by abolishing the law, or lessening its sacred claims.
"If I had not come and spoken unto them," said Christ of those who rejected his gospel, "they had not had sin; but now they have no cloak for their sin." There is no condemnation where light is not given. But Jesus came as the light of the world. He taught men the true aim in life, the purposes and principles that underlie right living. The acquisition of property is not the great end of our being. We have individually a work to do to place ourselves in right relations to God, to bless others, and to win souls to Christ. There is true nobleness and dignity in this service. Riches are not enduring; they are often swept away in a moment. But the treasure in Heaven, which the God-fearing worker is garnering up, will endure to all eternity. It will be to its possessor riches and joy in the future life, when wealth, and fame, and worldly honors have perished.
Just before his crucifixion, Jesus prayed for his disciples: "Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth." But those who love the truth, and will cling to their Bibles, will have trials and persecutions to meet. In all ages the defenders of the faith have realized the truth of the apostle's words: "All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." But there have ever been some who have stood unmoved in their adherence to principle, and have refused to yield their faith to save their lives. The early Reformers were of this number. When urged to accept tradition and the commandments of men in place of the word of God, these men, firmly grasping their Bibles, replied, "Here is the foundation of our faith. Show us from the Bible that we are in error, and we will willingly renounce our doctrines." But their enemies knew that if the Bible were to decide the matter, they would be condemned; for they had not a plain "Thus saith the Lord" for the doctrines they held. They therefore refused to bring their views to the test of God's word, and tried to wrench the Scriptures from the hands of the defenders of the faith.
There are many ministers who are now pursuing a course similar to that of the papists. When the truth is presented to them, and they know that they cannot prove their doctrines by the Bible, they advise their congregations to have nothing to do with these new doctrines; the best way is to take no notice of them. And they take this course because they know that the Bible condemns their doctrines and their practices.
Jesus met with just such teachers in his day. The Pharisees claimed to be teaching the word of God to the people; but instead they taught their own sentiments and the commandments of men. Jesus said to those who would catch him in his words: "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God." From the great Teacher a steady light was reflected to the world; but the prejudice of the chief priests and rulers was excited against him. They saw the light; the evidence from the Old Testament Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ was overwhelming. But they exerted their influence to turn the people away from hearing the truth; and many who believed the teachings of Christ had not the courage, in the face of prejudiced, frowning, self-righteous priests to acknowledge their faith in the despised Nazarene.
Says the psalmist: "The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple." When light from the word of God shines into the soul, a man ceases to be sensitive to reproach, neglect, or contempt. He will not be ambitious for worldly rank or honor, but will become a meek and quiet learner in the school of Christ. Those who are sanctified through the truth will have courage to stand on the side of truth and right, no matter who may scoff or how bitter the opposition they may have to meet. Nor will those who thus serve God lose their reward. "They shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him."

Behold, I Come Quickly

"Behold I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be." Rev. 22:12.

LET NO MAN TAKE THY CROWN.

By Mary M. Buckland

BY MARY M. BUCKLAND.
THE Master has said, "I come quickly; So watch, and hold fast till I come; And then, as reward, I will give thee A crown of bright glory, and home,— A home in those beautiful mansions Where sorrow and sin are unknown." So now we must watch and be faithful, Lest some one take from us our crown.
There are snares and temptations around us, And dangers on every hand; And we must have help from the Master If we through these perils would stand. We must be on our guard every moment; Our armor must not be laid down; And we must each moment be watching, Lest some one take from us our crown.
Soon the long night of watching and waiting, The dark, dreary night, will be o'er; The Master will come in the morning, And we shall know sorrow no more. So now we will ever be faithful, Our armor we'll never lay down; For we must be watching each moment, Lest some one take from us our crown.

The Relation of England's Opium Policy to Christian Missions in China.

By James Brand

(Continued.)
BEFORE proceeding to any moral considerations, let us briefly examine some of the effects of this traffic upon the three parties—India, China, and England—immediately concerned.
First, financially. It can hardly be doubted, that, although the opium trade has secured to British India an immense revenue, it is, after all, proving to be what Dr. S. Wells Williams said, “a financial blunder.” It has been a policy by which England has pulled down with one hand what she was building up with the other. The immense cultivation of opium in India has monopolized the best part of the country, supplanting the production of food crops to such an extent that impoverishment and famine are the result. Vast areas of the richest land in India are thus devoted, not to the production of food, but to the production of Government revenue.
According to the report of G. Smith, LL.D., on East India finance, in the year 1871, thousands of people perished from starvation in consequence of so much land in Malwa being devoted to the poppy. He further states that prior to the introduction of British rule in Arracan, the people were hard-working, sober, and simple-minded; but one of the first measures of the Bengal Board of Revenue was to organize efforts to introduce the use of the drug, and to create a taste for it among the rising generation. The plan, to use his own words, “was to open a shop with a few cakes of opium and to invite the young men, and distribute it gratuitously. Then, when the taste was established, to sell the opium at a low rate, and finally, as it spread through the neighborhood, the price was raised and large profits ensued.”
This infamous practice is bearing its fruits. Mr. Hind, assistant commissioner for the English Government, says he saw “a fine, healthy generation of strong men succeeded by a rising generation of opium smokers, who indulged to such an extent that their mental and physical powers were alike wasted. Then followed a fearful increase of gambling and dakoity.” England herself has seen the need of checking the consumption of opium among her Indian subjects, as a mere financial measure.
The same material ruin is of course going on in China; for China is now not only the consumer of 7,000 tons of British opium annually, but also the producer of at least an equal amount. The result is an immense perversion of Chinese territory to poppy cultivation, as well as an immense drain of money from the country, a decrease of food crops, and an impoverishment of the soil. Thus China grows financially poorer as the process goes on. Even England herself does not escape the effects of the great “financial blunder.” British merchants and manufacturers long ago discovered that the opium trade, in whatever form, would inevitably undermine the general commerce of Great Britain with China. Such is indeed the fact, and hence we have a new application of Pharaoh's dream—the ill-favored and lean kine eating up the well-favored and fat kine, and the thin and blasted ears devouring the rank and full ears. English trade with China is feeling the natural reaction of a selfish disregard of the golden rule.
Second. The physical effects of the opium habit upon the consumers are too well known to require more than a few words. The testimony of medical men is unanimous as to its destructive influence upon the human frame. The following sentiment may be taken as expressing the view of medical men in England: “However valuable opium may be when employed as an article of medicine, it is impossible for any one who is acquainted with the subject to doubt that the habitual use of it produces the most pernicious consequences, destroying the healthy action of the digestive organs, weakening the powers of the mind as well as those of the body, and rendering the individual who indulges in it a worse than useless member of society. I cannot but regard those who promote the use of opium as an article of luxury as inflicting the most serious injury upon the human race.”
It is also conceded that the habitual use of opium affects the population by producing sterility. The Chinese claim that about one-half of regular opium smokers are childless, and that the family of the smoker will be extinct in the third generation. Physicians—like Dr. H. H. Kane, of New York, who has made the subject a special study—confirm the statement that sterility is the result.
Mr. C. A. Bruce, English superintendent of tea plantations in Assam, implored the British Government to prevent the cultivation of opium in that territory, and adds: “If something is not done, the immigrants from the plains will soon be infected by the opium mania, that dreadful plague which has depopulated this beautiful country.”
Third. The moral effect of the opium habit, of course, transcends all others in importance, and the testimony against it is unanimous, conclusive, and overwhelming. Sir Thomas Wade, whose long residence in China, whose attainments in the language, and whose official position at Pekin, entitle him to confidence, says: “It is to me vain to think otherwise of the use of the drug in China than as of a habit many times more pernicious, nationally speaking, than the gin and whisky drinking which we deplore at home. It takes possession more insidiously and keeps its hold as tenaciously. I know of no case of radical cure. It has issued in every case within my knowledge, in a steady descent, moral and physical, of the smoker, and is so far a greater mischief than drink.” Dr. Williams, with a still wider range of experience, confirms this testimony.
An opium eater recently came under the writer’s own observation, and the confession was, that as soon as the effect had passed away, and reaction had begun, every fiber of her system cried for more, and there was no crime she would not commit, if necessary, to secure it.
An anti-opium society composed of Chinamen at Canton, in a paper to the anti-opium society of England, in a peculiarly anti-climactic statement, thus summarizes the effects of the drug: “It squanders wealth, interrupts industry, destroys life, cramps talent, disorganizes government, enfeebles the army, loosens the bonds of society, corrupts the morals of the people, and is an evil beyond description.” “Hence,” say they, “it is unworthy England's character, a breach of international friendship, an obstruction to missionary work, and contrary to the Bible.” And then, with a stinging irony which the House of Lords ought to feel, these heathen remind their English brethren that the New Testament says: “Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them.” “Is it possible,” they add, “that the instruction of the Saviour has never reached the ear of your honored country?”
The question now forces itself upon us, What is the morality of England's opium policy? what are England's grounds of defense? We must discriminate between the Christian sentiment of the English people and the commercial sentiment of the English Government. England is a complex body, foremost in noble philanthropies and Christian missions, foremost also in the passion for power and in the greed of gain. Christian England could never have done what political and commercial England has.
The first grand plea is generally on the ground of necessity. How else can we secure $40,000,000 a year to keep the Government of India in running order? Abolish the trade, and the deficit must be met. India cannot be educated; a government of justice cannot be maintained; cheap postage and railroads and telegraph lines cannot be introduced; a sufficient police force cannot be kept up! Very likely, but what a confession! To maintain a British Government in India, the Government of China must be bullied and crippled, and its possessions wrenched away by force of arms. To administer justice in India, injustice must be forced upon China at the mouth of English cannon. To support a police force and a standing army of 200,000 men; to sustain cheap postage and ten thousand miles of railroad and twenty thousand miles of telegraph line in India; $670,000,000 in twenty years must be taken out of China, against the continued protest of her Government, for a drug which produces only impoverishment and moral death. To educate, yes, possibly to Christianize, 200,000,000 in British India, 300,000,000 of people must be debauched and damned in China! That is the logic of the whole matter.
When the emperor was urged to legalize the traffic, he said: “It is true I cannot prevent the introduction of the flowing poison; gain-seeking and corrupt men will, for profit and sensuality, defeat my wishes; but nothing will induce me to derive a revenue from the vice and misery of my people.”
Compare the English standard of morals in this matter with the remarkable letter of Li Hung Chang, addressed, in 1881, to the Anglo-Oriental Society for the suppression of the opium trade. He says: “The sense of injury which China has so long borne with reference to opium, finds some relief in the sympathy which a society like yours, existing in England, bespeaks. Opium is a subject in the discussion of which England and China can never meet on common ground. China views the whole question from a moral standpoint; England, from a fiscal. I may take the opportunity to assert here, once for all, that the single aim of my Government in taxing opium will be in the future, as it has been in the past, to repress the traffic, never to gain a revenue from such a source. Having failed to kill a serpent, who would be so rash as to nurse it in his bosom?”
Another ground of justification claimed by the English has always been the alleged insincerity of the Chinese in opposing the traffic. Chinese officers connived at the trade and partook of the profits. The smuggling and piracy was largely carried on through the treachery of Chinese lower officials, and this, said Lushington in Parliament, acquitted the smugglers. But surely the treachery of these bribed and corrupted Chinamen no more proves the Government insincere in its opposition to opium, than does the secret violation of the Maine law by the connivance of a few policemen with rumsellers prove the insincerity of the legislation of that State.
But beyond all this, when 20,000 chests of English opium, worth ten million dollars, which might have been appropriated to Government use, had been captured, and when Lin referred to the emperor for orders as to the disposition of it, his majesty commanded the whole to be destroyed in the presence of the civil and military officers, the inhabitants of the coast, and the foreigners, “that they may know and tremble thereat.” A sublime spectacle indeed, and a “solitary instance in the history of the world,” says Dr. Williams, “of a pagan monarch preferring to destroy what would injure his subjects, rather than to fill his own pockets with its sale.”
Other defensive arguments have been urged which only show the imbecility of really able men when defending a bad cause. Take the following: “The opium traffic is not yet proved to be worse than the liquor traffic at home.” Or this: “The habit of opium smoking was begun in China before England imported the drug.” That is, Adam sinned before Judas, therefore Judas is excusable.—James Brand, D. D., in Bibliotheca Sacra.
(Concluded next week.)

Needs Regulating.

By G. D. Ballou

Suppose you and I sat together just as the sun was sinking in the western horizon. You inquire the hour. Taking out my watch, I reply that "my watch says it is ten o'clock." Your quick response is, "Well, your watch needs regulating." And why do you say so? Because God's great time-keeper, the sun, plainly says that it cannot be far from five o'clock.
Often we hear people say, after the solemn conviction that they are not observing God's appointed rest-day has been forced upon their minds and hearts by the word of God, "Well, my conscience says the day I have always kept is just as good, and, besides, my feelings will not let me change. I am afraid I should not be happy if I should change, and do different from what my fathers have done and all my neighbors are doing." God's word says plainly that the seventh day is the Sabbath, but your feelings and conscience say that the first day is the Sabbath. God commands a special time for worship; your conscience says another day will do just as well.
Now, my friend, your conscience and feeling need regulating. The only true conscience regulator is the word of God. If you will conform your course of conduct to its teachings, your feelings and your conscience will soon become corrected, so that they will speak as loudly for God's truth as they now clamor against it.
Conscience and feeling are like a watch: they must be kept corrected by the Bible, or they will speak contrary to the truth, and greatly mislead us. Exercise of the will does much to correct our moral judgment. Men must make up their minds to obey God's will as revealed in his word, or their efforts to serve him will be very weak and childish.
Perhaps you have felt sorry that you ever heard the Bible truth on the Sabbath question. What would you think of a laborer, who, after returning from his dusty work and washing his face, should look into the glass, and, discovering a black spot that was not yet removed, should remark with gravity and earnestness that he was sorry that he looked into the glass?
That heart must be in a sad condition that is sorry when God sends additional light to correct our faults and make the pathway to the kingdom more plain. Were the apostles and Martin Luther and other reformers ever filled with such wicked regrets? You know they were not. No more will the true child of God indulge them in this generation. The heart that cherishes such feelings is not reconciled to God. It needs regulating by the pure principles of God's word and the influence of the Holy Spirit.
Charity, true love for God, "rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth." 1 Cor. 13:6.
G. D. BALLOU. Salmon River, N. Y.

Viewed from Different Standpoints.

By R. F. Cottrell

COULD we take our stand on the right side of the law of God, it would appear all beautiful and glorious. It would be seen not only as "holy and just," but as being "good." It is our best friend, the protector of our rights. It glorifies God, our heavenly Father, and guards us in all the inalienable rights which he has graciously given us. It forbids every one from trespassing upon our rights in respect to life, chastity, property, or character; and it is "spiritual" too, for it forbids even the desire for anything which of right does not belong to us. To him who loves its holy precepts, and is striving by grace to keep them, it is indeed the "royal law," the "law of liberty." He can truly say, "I will walk at liberty; for I seek thy precepts."
But viewed from the standpoint of the transgressor who will not forsake his sins, but esteems sinful pleasures above the favor of God and the riches of Christ, the law of God is a "yoke of bondage." He views it as laying restraint upon his liberties, as tending to deprive him of his pleasures. He hates it, because it condemns the sins which he loves. "The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."
It is with the law as it is with other things: Much depends on the side from which we view it. And I venture the assertion that no one undertakes to prove from the Bible that the ten commandments have been abolished, except for the reason that he is violating some one of them, and desires still to do so. To the hesitating and doubtful I would say, "Pull up your doubts by the roots, and you will find a little seed at the bottom, and that seed is sin."
R. F. COTTRELL.

Intolerance of "Free-Thinkers."

IF ever a convention of free-thinkers should meet, and have time to do nothing else, they would not fail to incorporate in their proceedings a resolution calling upon the people to throw off the "shackles of the creeds," the restraints and obligations of religion, and join the party of liberty and universal tolerance.
How tolerant they really are when one of their own number dares to differ with them is shown in the following from the Tribune:—
"Léo Taxil, who has been one of the chief organizers of atheistic societies in France, the author of many anti-christian text-books and the champion of the anti-clerical movement, recently published a recantation. His followers were furious, and summoned him to appear for judgment before the Free Thought Societies. His recantation was denounced as an infamy and a crime; the hall rang with cries of 'traitor!' and 'coward!' and he was expelled by a unanimous vote, leaving the platform amid tumultuous uproar and displays of passionate resentment. The free-thinkers denied him the privilege of thinking soberly on religious questions, and revising his opinions when he found himself to be in the wrong."
There are no greater bigots in the world than these pretended free-thinkers. That any one should differ from them and think for themselves excites their rage.—Independent.

Quick Work.

The Los Angeles Herald of October 25 says: The most remarkable case of bridge building in all history occurred in the rebuilding of the great Yuma bridge across the Colorado. The bridge was destroyed by fire a week ago, and was last night reconstructed and trains passed at 7 o'clock. The materials for the new bridge were scattered, some at Sacramento, Oakland, Los Angeles, and Wilmington, but were gathered and sent forward at distances varying from 250 to 750 miles, and the bridge built within a week. Arthur Brown, superintendent of bridges of the Southern Pacific Railroad, is entitled to the credit of this unparalleled work.

Elisha’s Sickness and Faith

By H. Clay Trumbull

"NOW ELISHA was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died." Was it because of Elisha's lack of faith, that he was sick unto death? His course with Naaman seemed to show a fair understanding of the place and power of faith in the treatment of disease; how happens it, then, that he yielded to disease in his own case, and fell sick of a sickness whereof he died? Elisha's faith rested the question of the cure or of the continuance of sickness with the Lord. Only faith that is exercised in that way is true faith. Continued sickness is often for the glory of God, and for the good of the child of God. When it is so, the child of God is willing to continue in sickness, without being cured. Faith-sicknesses are quite as marked an illustration of the power of faith as are "faith-cures." Elisha fell sick of a sickness whereof he died—in faith.—H. Clay Trumbull.

Still We Grow.

By Editor

UNDER the above heading the Cincinnati Spokesman gives a few statistics which show the recent growth of the United States. We believe it has been proved to a demonstration that the two-horned beast of Rev. 13:11-18 represents the United States Government. It is there spoken of as "coming up," and no one can dispute the statement that in this particular it fully meets the demands of the prophecy. It is common to compare the present condition of the country with its condition one hundred years ago; but the following figures show that its growth at present is more rapid than ever before, and that it now presents a striking contrast with twenty-five years ago:—
Twenty-five years ago we were 30,000,000 of people; now, we are nearly 60,000,000. Then, we had 141 cities and towns of over 8,000 inhabitants; now, we have 286 of such cities and towns. Then, the total population of our cities was 5,000,000; now, it is about 12,000,000.
Our coal mines then produced 14,000,000 tons; now 85,000,000 tons, or six times as much.
The iron product amounted to 900,000 tons of ore; to-day it foots up over 8,000,000 a year—almost a nine-fold increase.
In 1860 our metal industries employed about 53,000 hands, consumed $100,000,000 worth of material, and turned out about $180,000,000 in annual products. To-day these industries employ 300,000 hands, consume $380,000,000 worth of material, and their annual product amounts to $660,000,000 a year.
In 1860 the wood industries employed 130,000 persons; to-day they employ 340,000, while the value of their annual product has trebled.
The woolen industry employed 600 persons then, and now employs 160,000; while our home mills, which produced goods of the value of $80,000,000 in 1860, now turn out an annual product worth $270,000,000.
Then there is cotton. In 1860 we imported 220,000,000 yards of cotton goods; in 1881 we only imported 70,000,000 yards.
In the meantime the number of hands employed in American cotton mills has increased to 200,000, and we export over 150,000,000 yards of cotton goods a year, instead of importing 227,000,000 yards as we used to do.
In the meantime we have nearly five times as many miles of railway, and double the number of farms, yielding more than double the number of bushels of cereals.
In 1860 we had 22,000,000 sheep; to-day we have over 40,000,000 of them; and whereas we then produced in this country 60,000,000 pounds of wool; now, we produce 240,000,000 pounds.
Finally the total of our exports has doubled. In 1860 it stood at $400,000,000, and now it stands at about $900,000,000.

Chatter Is Not Always Conversation

CHATTER is not always conversation.

The Theater as a School of Morals

THAT the theater is a school of morals cannot be denied. What kind of morals are therein taught is also well known. Once in a while, however, we get a confession on that point from an unexpected witness. The London correspondent of the Boston Herald, after recounting a disgraceful quarrel between two of the English gentry over Mrs. Langtry, remarks: "But this new scandal may help the Lily's theatrical interests, which have of late begun to languish."—Watchman.
THE late Dr. Holland characterized card-playing as "the resort of the starved in soul and intellect, which has never in any way linked to itself tender, elevating, or beautiful associations."
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