Earlier text: The Giving of the LawA PRAYER is in my thoughts to-night
I hardly dare to say—
“Lord, put my wishes all to flight,
Nor let me have my way!” I dare not say it, Lord, for fear
My heart I may mistake;
So many earthly things are dear
Perhaps, for earth’s own sake. Nor can I think that thou art glad
In life despoiled of bloom,
Since for all joy the worlds have had
Thyself hast opened room. And yet the poison plant, so fair,
So like the wholesome grows,
To pluck my flowers I will not dare,
But trust His hand who knows. And this indeed is life’s best thing:
To take sweet gifts from Thee.
If thou some dark, sealed bud shouldst bring
It must hold light for me. In sadness I withheld my prayer,
Hid under trembling fear;
In praise it blossoms, unaware,
Because the sun is near. My heart thou wilt not crush or chill,
“Lead into thine my way!
Though all my wishes breathe thy will!”
This prayer to-night I say.
—Lucy Larcom. MERCIES, though apparently delayed, come at the appointed time. How is it that thoughts rise in my mind about the promise proving abortive? or how can I conclude that the delays of Providence are ill-timed and unkind? Yet God, notwithstanding all the risings of unbelief in my breast, is punctual to a day. Hence says Moses, that God brought forth the children of Israel in the “self-same day” that he had promised, and that their sojourning in the land of Egypt was completely expired. But what a groaning time did the poor Israelites undergo! Their service was with rigor, their bondage was bitter, their oppression unsupportable, and the cruelty of their foes had arrived at that infernal pitch as to plunge their helpless males into the river. At length, in this melancholy time, Moses was born; but this sad season was spun out till he was forty years old before he hinted to his brethren that he it was that should deliver them. Yet this faint dawn of relief immediately disappears. Moses is no more to be seen or heard of in all the land of Egypt, and the night of sore affliction is protracted for another forty years. Now, what cogitations of heart, may I suppose, struggled all this time in the breasts of Jacob’s sons, in the breast of Moses? Well he knew in what deplorable circumstances he had left his brethren, and he knew not how their bondage might be increased in his absence; yet, in the account of their glorious deliverance, he confesses that God was a God of truth, and that, however he seemed to delay, still his suffering people were brought forth from the iron furnace at the appointed time, and not a day later than the promise. Have I, then, any reason to complain of days and months of delay? No. God has appointed a set time, and at the set time will remember me; and it well becomes me, though the time should seem long in my view, to wait with patience for it. God has in all ages so dealt with his people for the exercise of their graces; and these trials, like the instruments of the husbandman, breaking up the fallow-ground of their heart, make them bring forth a plenteous crop of precious fruits, whence accrues an increase of glory to God, and unspeakable joy to their own souls, through the ages of eternity. And is not this more than all that can rise from the present and speedy performance of the promised blessing? Then sit still, my soul, and calmly wait the end, wondering more that justly-deserved judgments are not immediately executed against thee than that expected blessings are for a while withheld.—Solitude Sweetened. Reading and Meditation for Gaining Knowledge
NEVER relax in adding to your stock of useful knowledge, both by reading and meditation. If you read without meditation, you preach only the thoughts of others; if you meditate without reading, you will gain few ideas. Conversion of Count Gasparin.
ADOLPH MONOD, one of the most gifted and faithful evangelical ministers of the present century, preached Christ crucified and his free grace, to his church in Lyons, France. One Sunday, preaching from the text, “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life,” he spoke of the person of Christ as the true God-man. He announced at the same time that the next Sabbath he should show how men could be saved through faith in this God-man. But the authorities of this church were full of Catholic and other errors, and opposed to a doctrine so truly evangelical. Hence, they informed Monod that if he did not omit the sermon he had announced, they would have him arrested, and brought before the prefect, and dismissed from his office. Monod, notwithstanding, preached his sermon, and the authorities made their complaint. The prefect demanded the two sermons of the accused, and Monod sent them to him. The prefect was a Catholic Count—Count de Gasparin. He came home at evening to his wife, and found the sermons. He never liked sermons, especially evangelical sermons. But he was a man who discharged faithfully the duties of his office. It was necessary that the sermons should be read. He came to his wife with the manuscripts in his hand, complaining that he would have to give up the whole evening to this irksome and protracted labor. She offered, as her husband's worthy help-meet, to read the sermons with him, so that the task might seem to him less tedious. They began. They read the first. With every page they grew more interested. They forgot that it was evening and night. That which was at first an official duty became a service of the heart. They finished the first, and eagerly grasped the second. And what was the result? As a magistrate—as a prefect—Gasparin was forced to deprive Monod of his place, because all the authorities demanded it. But he and his wife became evangelical Christians; yes, living, joyful, and happy believers in Christ. They found that night the pearl of great price, and it has remained in the family. Their son, Count Agenor de Gasparin, has long been the head and pillar of the evangelical party in France.—Sel. “HAVE you anything like this in the old country?” asked a young American of me one day, in the wonderful city of Chicago, as he pointed to a handsome warehouse, built of stone. “This, sir, is fire-proof; it cannot be burned. There is not a bit of timber about it which is not covered with zinc, and if every other building around here were destroyed, this would be safe.” His eye sparkled as he told me of the various means used to make it resist the power of fire, and he firmly believed what he said was true. But Chicago was ashes. Many of its boasted fire-proof buildings have perished, and persons who took refuge from the flames in them were burned to death. Reader! have you made any provision against the awful calamity that very soon shall sweep over this guilty world? Are you trusting your soul’s salvation to anything, or any one, except Christ and the great salvation which he accomplished for sinners on Calvary’s cross? Human devices for salvation may look well now, and promise great things in the future, but when “the day cometh that shall burn as an oven” (Mal. 4:1), when God’s “hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies” (Isa. 28:17), they shall all fail, and those who have trusted in them shall perish. Nothing shall stand the searching fire of God’s judgment in that day but the refuge which God himself has provided, as a shelter in the coming day of wrath. Fellow-sinner, once I trembled much, and my heart quaked for fear, when I remembered that the time was fast approaching that I must stand before my God. I discovered that I was a poor, lost sinner. My guilt and sins could not be denied. The wages of sin is death, and I was condemned and sorrowful; but I heard of the death of the Lord Jesus for sinners; I heard that he had said, “Whosoever believeth in me shall not perish;” I believed it was true; I cast myself, just as I was, upon his finished work, and I had the peace of those who know their sins are forgiven. I saw the tempest rising—the storm gathering; I trembled and was sad, until I heard that Jesus was a “hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest” (Isa. 32:2), and then I fled to him for refuge and was safe.—Message of Peace. "I Can't Make You Mind": A Mother's Lost Authority
“I CAN’T MAKE YOU MIND.”—Such were the words that fell from the lips of a mother, after having made several fruitless attempts to secure obedience from her little child! And yet that mother wonders what can be the reason her child will not mind. Does she not know that the very utterance of those words before her child is a virtual surrender of parental authority? GOD LOVES YOU.—Let this thought equalize all states. Let him do with us as with the waves of the sea, and whether he takes us to his bosom, or casts us upon the sand, that is, leaves us to our own barrenness, all is well.—Guyon. Showing Only One Side to the World
If you are a wise man you treat the world very much as the moon treats it—show it only one side of yourself, seldom show too much of yourself at a time, and be calm, cool and polished; but look at every side of the world. The Cause Is Onward.
By James White
We have reached an exceedingly interesting period, one that will be especially noted in the history of the cause of Bible truth. Never has the way opened before our people as it is opening now. And there has not been a time since the commencement of the work that has held out so many encouragements to labor earnestly in the Lord’s cause as the present. And it also is a time of great spiritual darkness, when discouragements and unbelief press the soul as never before. Satan seems determined to hinder the great work in some way, and leaves no means untried to accomplish his designs. He knows “that he hath but a short time,” that the period to rescue souls from his hands is very brief; hence his efforts to lead those who should be decided, strong, and active, to uncertainty, indecision, and, consequently, to delays. He thus holds the stewards of the Lord from giving of their means necessary to push forward the cause, and delays the servants of God in different ways from striking out at once into the great harvest field. This gives him time to advance his delusions, and fasten precious souls in his snares. The times demand united, determined, vigorous effort. The cause has been advanced from the very first by sacrifices on the part of its friends and supporters, and such sacrifices must be continued to the close of the work. There have been those among our preachers from the first who seemed to lose the spirit of labor in the message God has given us, and who have been inclined to reach for something new, or to seize upon some point to produce a sensation for a time. Each overaction, and consequent reaction, injures any good cause. These are not the men to be relied upon to lift when the car of truth moves heavily. You do not know where to find such men in an important religious crisis, unless it is invariably on the wrong side. And the influence of such is always calculated to cast doubt and perplexity into the minds of the real friends and supporters of the cause, and to lead them to withhold their means from its support. Our views of the two-horned beast of Rev. 13, and of the formation of the image, have been before the world for about twenty years. They are as clear and satisfactory as any views can be of unfulfilled prophecy. In connection with the action of the two-horned beast, those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus have a work of great magnitude and vast importance to do. A most solemn warning, upon which the eternal destiny of the world hangs, must be given. This message embraces a large field of fundamental truth to be thoroughly investigated, and intelligently set before the people. And this immense work must be crowded into a brief space of time. It is true that the prophecy of the two-horned beast suggests great changes, and such as the people are slow to believe will ever take place under a government like ours. And it is also true that the third warning message of Rev. 14 suggests a work of vast magnitude, which would require a millennium to accomplish with the present movements of existing agencies. And it is also very evident that there must be a better concentrated effort of all our forces in proclaiming the message God has given us, which, with his blessing, will increase the agencies very rapidly, in order to accomplish the work in our time. Too much time has been spent by our stronger men in the minute and almost endless reviews of, and discussions with, opponents who are more anxious for the mastery than to arrive at truth. It has been a poor policy to thus draw out the opposition and educate a host of wily opponents to bring their strength to bear upon our weaker ministers and young disciples. God has given us a message to proclaim in the ears of the people; and when we go forth unitedly to proclaim it, and leave the opposition more to his goodness and power to overrule, instead of meeting it too much in our own strength, we shall be filling our mission much better, and we shall see the work prospering in our hands. The part which Satan has to act in the fulfillment of the prophecy, as manifested in spiritualism and the movements of the religious bodies toward a Sunday law, are far in advance of the message. We watch with a degree of interest the movements of the Religious Amendment party; but we confess far greater solicitude for what our people are doing to fulfill our part of the prophecy than what was done at the Pittsburg Convention. There are plans to be laid, and work to be done by a united, straight forward effort, and we suggest that while we as a people have on hand all the work we can well attend to, there will be no failure on the part of Satan, and those who are to be our determined opponents in the last, closing struggle to fulfill their part of the prophecy. Young men and young women, by hundreds, should now be under the most direct and advantageous instruction in our school, some in the common branches, some in the languages, and all in those fundamental doctrines of the Bible especially applicable to this time. And broader plans should be laid, and cheerfully carried out, for the extension of the work everywhere. Bro. Matteson has given himself to the work of teaching the truth of God to the Danes, and others are helping him to proclaim it to that people. The Danish monthly should visit thousands of families in our country, and hundreds of copies should find their way to old Denmark. Bro. Carlstedt and Lee are doing what they can for their countrymen, the Swedes, and it should be a pleasure for our people to raise the small sum of $2500 to sustain the Swedish monthly one year, and publish a thousand or more pages of tracts and pamphlets in that language. And then the cause on the Pacific will soon demand the establishment of a weekly paper devoted to the interests of the cause on this coast. Bro. and sister Van Horn are already in the Walla Walla Valley with their sixty-foot cotton church. And their fellow-laborer, Bro. Canright, with renewed strength and consecration, with the sword of the Lord and of Gideon, has already done good battle here in California. Bro. Loughborough is in the hearts of all our people on this coast, and, after twenty years of hard and unremitting labors in the message, retains his youthful vigor wonderfully, to which he has added the ripe judgment of the experience of his past efficient labors, which make his labors here indispensable. But the disadvantages of laboring so very far from our only printing house cannot be fully described, or fully realized by our people east of the Plains. It requires from three to five weeks to communicate with our people here through the Battle Creek press. It has required faith in the message, and in the faithfulness of its friends to enter upon the several enterprises in the past, necessary to the advancement of the work, and, as our faith remains firm in both the message and in its true friends, we venture still. The evidences which sustain our position are satisfactory. More evidence would not make our people stronger. What is wanting to make these proofs a living reality is that divine assurance from the Spirit of God that well-directed action is sure to bring. Bro. Matteson ventured all upon the message, and God has greatly blessed his labors. Bro. Lee stood the severe trials of his lot, ventured all, and God has greatly blessed him in the work. Where are the men who will take hold of the work for the French and the German people in the same spirit of consecration and confidence? And our American laborers, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, will meet with the same success, and share equally the great blessing of the Lord, by venturing all upon the message. It will be of no use for men to labor in any branch of the work unless they so fully cast themselves upon the Lord, and risk all upon the final triumph of the message, that the Lord will go with them. It is time that all the servants of the Lord settle down upon the fundamental facts of the message, and so labor as to be able to show as the fruits of their efforts many precious souls rescued from the darkness of the delusive errors of our time. There are those, thank God, who have the solemn burden of the work constantly upon them. They desire the closest union with, and the fullest cooperation of, all their brethren. And although their spirits may have been repeatedly wounded because of a want of this, God will sustain them, and make them strong to bear their double burden if they go forward trusting in him. The cause is onward. If those who should bear responsibilities fail to come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty, God will lay them aside, and will raise up those who will be true. Not a few of our more wealthy brethren are drawing back. Some of them are doing nothing in the various enterprises to advance the cause. We shall still have to look to the poorer brethren to sustain the work with their means. If necessary to the advancement of the cause, God will raise up the wealthy and put it into their hearts to give of their abundance. The work is the Lord’s. He will advance it gloriously, and will greatly bless, and finally reward all those who are faithful and true. J. W. The Time of Reward Is not Until the Resurrection.
By John Nevins Andrews
Job, the ancient patriarch, had very distinct views respecting the state of the man in death, and the hope of man in the resurrection. Thus he says: “So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep. Oh! that thou wouldest hide me in the grave [sheol], that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me! If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.” Job 14:12–15. The dead are asleep and are not to awaken till the heavens shall depart as a scroll when it is rolled together. Then the Lord shall call, and Job will answer, and his appointed time having come, he shall be changed to immortality as set forth by Paul in 1 Cor. 15:51–54. Job was to wait for this change till his appointed time should come. And thus he speaks of this act of waiting: “If I wait, the grave [sheol] is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.” Job 17:13. And now he sets forth his hope. “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.” Job 19:25–27. Till the time when his Redeemer should stand upon the earth, Job expected to sleep in the dust; and though in the meantime his body should be dissolved, he expected then to awake at the voice of Christ, and in his own flesh, and with his own eyes, to see the God of Heaven. The psalmist speaks thus of death: “For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave [Heb. sheol, the place of the dead] who shall give thee thanks?” Ps. 6:5. Whatever may be understood to constitute death, there is in that state no remembrance of God. And wherever is sheol or hades, for these are the Old and New Testament names of one place, there is in it no one who praises God. He further tells us that “the dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence.” Ps. 115:17. His former statement, that in death there is no remembrance of God, sufficiently explains the present declaration that the dead praise not the Lord. But he speaks again respecting man’s state in death: “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.” Ps. 146:3, 4. This is very strong language, but it was inspired by the Spirit of God. But has not David been in Heaven ever since his death? And do not all there praise God? The New Testament will answer these questions. Peter testifies that David in his time which was 1000 years after his death, had not ascended into Heaven. “For David is not ascended into the heavens.” Acts 2:34. And Paul tells us what happened to him at his death. “For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption.” Acts 13:36. Now let us hear him state his hope respecting himself. “I shall be satisfied when I awake, with thy likeness.” Ps. 17:15. David’s hope was therefore precisely that of Job. He expected to sleep the sleep of death. But he also expected to awaken from that sleep at the resurrection of the just. Solomon bears the same testimony with David his father. He says: “For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not anything, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, have perished; neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun.” Eccl. 9:5, 6. It would be difficult to state the case in stronger language than this. Death in the language of the psalmist is a state in which the thoughts have perished; in the words of Solomon, the dead know not anything; and their love, and their hatred, and their envy have perished. And when these are gone what remains? So much for his view of death. Now hear him respecting sheol the place of the dead. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might: for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave [sheol] whither thou goest.” Eccl. 9:10. Isaiah thus records the language of Hezekiah: “For the grave [sheol] cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth.” Isa. 38:18, 19. This is an explicit statement of the reality of death. Isaiah’s doctrine of the resurrection does also imply the reality of the sleep of death. “Thy dead men shall live; together with my dead body shall they arise. 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. And the same thing is implied in the words of Daniel: “Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall AWAKE.” Dan. 12:2. Our Lord plainly fixes the time of the reward and of punishment at the Judgment and not before it. Thus he says: “For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and THEN he shall REWARD EVERY MAN according to his works.” Matt. 16:27. Is it consistent with this text to assert that every righteous man enters glory at death, and that every wicked man when he dies enters the fire of hell? Christ states the time of recompense thus: “But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind; and thou shalt be blessed: for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.” Luke 14:13, 14. But if they enter the presence of God where there is fullness of joy (Ps. 16:11) at the moment of death, do they not receive an infinite reward long before the resurrection? Take our Lord’s account of the final Judgment in Matt. 25 as a further statement of the time when men shall enter upon their recompense. If the common view respecting man’s condition in death is correct, then the greater part of those on his right hand were summoned from the blessedness of Heaven to be present at the Judgment and receive sentence, and the greater part of those at the left hand were taken from the fire of hell for the same purpose. Yet the language of both the righteous and the wicked is inconsistent with the idea that they had been, the one in glory, and the other in the fire, for ages before this. But the great fact, most important of all in this scripture, is that it clearly indicates that both parties are judged before they are rewarded. And it is hard to state a greater absurdity than the doctrine that these persons who stand respectively at Christ’s right hand and his left are summoned from Heaven and from hell to hear the sentence of the Judge. Our Lord’s explanation of the parable of the wheat and tares is very decisive as to the time when the saints shall enter glory, and when the wicked shall be cast into the fire. He says: “As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” Matt. 13:40–43. This text fixes the time when the righteous shall shine in the kingdom of God, and the time also when the wicked shall be cast into the fire of hell. This is at the end of the world, and after they have each been judged, and is not at the death of each individual. Christ plainly teaches that hypocrites will not be undeceived with respect to themselves till the great day of final account. “Many will say to me IN THAT DAY, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” Matt. 7:21, 22. These persons come up to the Judgment self-deceived. But how could this be if they entered perdition at death? He states the same fact on another occasion, and there can be no mistake that he speaks concerning those who were alive when he was upon the earth, and that they come up in the Judgment expecting salvation, a plain proof that they149have not been in hell-fire during the past 1800 years. Thus he says: “When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are; then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.” Luke 13:25–27. Can any one explain these words so that they will harmonize with the doctrine that these persons had been wailing with the damned for ages before they were resurrected from the dead and summoned to the Judgment? The language plainly implies that they were self-deceived till they were told their true condition by the Judge himself. If death is a state of sleep in which men have no thought and no knowledge, as the sacred writers expressly affirm, then we can well understand how men who are self-deceived during the present life may come up in the resurrection still self-deceived. But if they spend the period between death and the resurrection in the fire of hell, how can they come up in the Judgment expecting that they are to be admitted to the kingdom of God? J. N. A. The Third Angel’s Message. Rev. 14:9.
By Uriah Smith
The worship of the beast and his image, and the reception of his mark, must be something that involves the greatest offense that can be committed against God, to call down so severe a denunciation of wrath against it. This is a work which takes place in the last days; and as God has given us in his word most abundant evidence to show when we are in the last days, so that no one need to be overtaken by the day of the Lord as by a thief, so likewise it must be that he has given us the means whereby we may determine what this great latter-day sin is which he has so strongly condemned, that we may avoid the fearful penalty so sure to follow its commission. God does not so trifle with human hopes and human destinies as to denounce a most fearful doom against a certain sin, and then place it out of our power to understand what that sin is, so that we have no means of guarding against it. That we are now living in the last days, the volumes both of revelation and nature bear ample and harmonious testimony. Abundant evidence has been presented to show that the time has now come for the proclamation of the third message of Rev. 14 to be given, and for men to understand the terms which it uses, and the warning it gives. We therefore now call attention to the very important inquiry, What constitutes the mark of the beast? The figure of a mark is borrowed from an ancient custom. Says Bp. Newton (Dissert. on proph., Dove’s 1 vol., London ed. p. 546):— “It was customary among the ancients for servants to receive the mark of their master, and soldiers of their general, and those who were devoted to any particular deity, of the particular deity to whom they were devoted. These marks were usually impressed on their right hand, or on their foreheads, and consisted of some hieroglyphic character, or of the name expressed in vulgar letters, or of the name disguised in numerical letters, according to the fancy of the imposer.”
Prideaux says that Ptolemy Philopater ordered all the Jews who applied to be enrolled as citizens of Alexandria to have the form of an ivy leaf (the badge of his god, Bacchus) impressed upon them with a hot iron, under pain of death. (Connection B. C. 216.) The word used for mark in this prophecy is χαραγμα (charagma), and is defined to mean, “a graving, sculpture, a mark cut in or stamped.” The mark, as literally used, signified that the person receiving it was the servant of, acknowledged the authority of, or professed allegiance to, the person whose mark he bore. So the mark of the beast, or the papacy, must be some act or profession by which the authority of that power is acknowledged. What is it? It would be naturally looked for in some of the special characteristics of the papal power. Daniel, describing that power under the symbol of a little horn, speaks of it as waging a special warfare against God, wearing out the saints of the Most High, and thinking to change times and laws. The prophet expressly specifies on this point: “He shall think to change times and laws.” These laws must certainly be the laws of the Most High. To apply it to human laws, and make the prophecy read, “And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change human laws,” would be doing evident violence to the language of the prophet. But to apply it to the laws of God, and let it read, “And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and shall think to change the times and laws of the Most High”—then all is consistent and forcible. The septuagint reads, νόμος (nomos), in the singular, “the law,” which more directly suggests the law of God. So far as human laws are concerned, the papacy has been able to do more than merely “think” to change them. It has been able to change them at pleasure. It has annulled the decrees of kings and emperors, and absolved subjects from allegiance to their rightful sovereigns. It has thrust its long arm into the affairs of nations, and brought rulers to its feet in the most abject humility. But the prophet beholds greater acts of presumption than these. He sees it endeavor to do what it was not able to do, but could only think to do; he sees it attempt an act which no man, nor any combination of men, can ever accomplish; and that is, to change the laws of the Most High. Bear this in mind while we look at the testimony of another sacred writer on this very point. Paul speaks of the same power in 2 Thess. 2, and he describes it, in the person of the pope, as the man of sin, and as sitting as God in the temple of God (that is, the church), and as exalting himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped. According to this, the pope sets himself up as the one for all the church to look to for authority, in the place of God. And now we ask the reader to ponder carefully the question how he can exalt himself above God. Search through the whole range of human devices; go to the extent of human effort; by what plan, by what move, by what claim, could this usurper exalt himself above God? He might institute any number of ceremonies, he might prescribe any form of worship, he might exhibit any degree of power; but so long as God had requirements which the people felt bound to regard in preference to his own, so long he would not be above God. He might enact a law and teach the people that they were under as great obligations to that as to the law of God. Then he would only make himself equal with God. But he is to do more than this; he is to attempt to raise himself above Him. Then he must promulgate a law which conflicts with the law of God, and demand obedience to his own in preference to God’s. There is no other possible way in which he could place himself in the position assigned in the prophecy. But this is simply to change the law of God; and if he can cause this change to be adopted by the people in place of the original enactment, then he, the law-changer, is above God, the law-maker. And this is the very work that Daniel said he should think to do. Such a work as this, then, the papacy must accomplish according to the prophecy; and the prophecy cannot fail. And when this is done, what do the people of the world have? They have two laws demanding from them obedience: one, the law of God as originally enacted by him, an embodiment of his will and expressing his claims upon his creatures, the other, a revised edition of that law, emanating from the papal power and expressing its will. And how is it to be determined which of these powers the people honor and worship? It is determined by the law which they keep. If they keep the law of God as given by him, they worship and obey God. If they keep the law as changed by the papacy, they worship that power. But, further, the prophecy does not say that the little horn should set aside the law of God and give one entirely different. This would not be to change the law, but simply to give a new one. He was only to attempt a change, so that the law as it comes from God, and the law as it comes from the hands of the papacy, are precisely alike, excepting the change which the papacy has made therein. They have many points in common. But none of the precepts which they contain in common can distinguish a person as the worshiper of either power in preference to the other. If God’s law says, “Thou shalt not kill,” and the law as given by the papacy says the same, no one can tell by a person’s observance of that precept whether he designs to obey God rather than the pope, or the pope rather than God. But when a precept that has been changed is the subject of action, then whoever observes that precept as originally given by God is thereby distinguished as a worshiper of God; and he who keeps it as changed, is thereby marked as a follower of the power that made the change. In no other way can the two classes of worshipers be distinguished. From this conclusion no candid mind can dissent; but in this conclusion we have a general answer to the question before us, “What constitutes the mark of the beast?” THE MARK OF THE BEAST IS THE CHANGE HE HAS MADE IN THE LAW OF GOD.