Earlier text: Publishers' PageClipped from Conference Papers
In the Nebraska Reporter Elder A. T. Robinson writes, urging every church to take up the blackboard plan described in the “Letter to Church Elders” in the REVIEW of February 7, adding:— The matter of the raising of this fund was presented in the College View church on a recent Sabbath morning, when ten brethren quickly responded by offering to give the sum of one dollar a day for thirty days. Others pledged fifty cents a day for thirty days; others twenty-five cents, and others smaller sums. Eight hundred and fifty-one dollars was thus provided for in a few minutes. In the North Carolina Messenger Elder T. H. Jeys writes:— “Yet in this thing, ye did not believe the Lord your God.” Deut. 1:32. What was the trouble? The spies had seen some high walls, some tall giants, some difficulties. They had told about these. The people began to doubt; they talked about it. The more they talked, the more discouraged they were. Soon they knew they couldn’t, and were angry at Caleb and Joshua for saying they could. Read Numbers 11 and 12. Why did the Lord cause this record to be written?—“For our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” 1 Cor. 10:11. A few (not many) have been saying to me, “We can’t,” when the raising of the $150,000 fund is discussed. It has not been those who are very poor, but rather those who are not rich in faith. Come, brethren, let us be of a good courage. God is in this work, and it is sure to triumph. Let us not, like ancient Israel, tempt God by our unbelief and hardness of heart. Suppose I should send word to each of my brethren in this conference that sometime during this year every person will be asked to buy a new pair of shoes. How would such a proposition impress you? Would any one be saying “can’t”? We can. We shall. We will. Let all the changes of the potential mode be rung. Eliminate the negatives, and then with voice and pen and hand, with consecrated planning and earnest Christian endeavor, with vigor and vim, let old and young raise the courageous cry. One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Dollar Fund
By Arthur G. Daniells
For Special Work at Home and Abroad Many Hearts Are Being Encouraged
OUR brethren and sisters who are working and giving so cheerfully in behalf of the $150,000 fund would feel well repaid if they could know the joy and encouragement their efforts are giving our brethren who are carrying forward the enterprises to which this large fund is to be devoted. The decision to raise $150,000 was made because of the very pressing need of this amount to help establish institutions on a secure basis in various parts of the world. These institutions are not being established to make a show in the world, nor to satisfy the whims of a class. The printing houses to be helped by a portion of this money are a necessity. They have already given abundant proof that they are great and important factors in our cause. The Review and Herald, Pacific Press, Caribbean Watchman, and Southern Publishing houses are kept busy day and night preparing our books, papers, and tracts for the world. Who can not rejoice in having the privilege of helping these institutions? Then there are our schools in which at least eight hundred of our educated, devoted fellow believers are giving the best service they are capable of rendering to the education of more than eleven thousand of our youth for the service of God. Are these schools needless enterprises? Is the money that is spent in providing them wasted?—By no means, will be the instant and emphatic reply of many a worker in this cause who has obtained his preparation in these schools. A portion of this large fund is to be devoted to the schools. The Huntsville school, the new school in the Maritime Provinces, and the school in Great Britain are among those that are to receive help. Only the brethren charged with the responsibility of providing the buildings, furnishings, and equipment of these institutions can realize their pressing needs, and the gladness experienced by the prospect of receiving financial assistance. Our sanitariums also are to receive help. The Washington, Nashville, and Skodsborg sanitariums are located where they can render most excellent service to our fellow men, and thus to the cause. In these institutions many suffering bodies will obtain relief and health, and many dark, cheerless hearts will find the joy of the Lord. Our medical missionary work is designed to reach, bless, and save a class we could not help in any other way. This has already been abundantly demonstrated. Who would have this great medical missionary work we are carrying on in all parts of the world blotted out? True, this work is beset with difficulties and perplexities, but these we must meet and overcome for the sake of the good this work can be made to accomplish. Dear friends, one and all, it is for these noble and glorious enterprises we are now raising $150,000. You will be glad to see by this week's report that nearly one fifth of the whole amount has now been received at the office. The real effort all along the line has just begun. The whole amount will be raised. A steady, well-arranged movement to raise this sum is on foot, and a steady, and at the present time, a good, strong stream of contributions is flowing in. Now is the time for every conference and every church to do thorough, earnest, and quick work. Every dollar of this fund can easily be provided for before the camp-meeting season begins. This should be done. Let every one bend his energies to this end. The Williamsdale Academy
By Irwin H. Evans
Two thousand dollars from the $150,000 fund was appropriated by the council to the Williamsdale Academy. This academy is located in Nova Scotia, about twelve miles from Oxford Junction. Those managing the work in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick purchased two hundred acres of land on a hillside, with a beautiful stream running in front of the same, on which they have constructed a dormitory, accommodating about thirty students, with a schoolroom. Besides this main building, they have a good dwelling-house and two good barns. The land is best adapted to pasturage and hay. However, with proper fertilizing, it will produce vegetables and grains. There is considerable timber on this land which can be converted into lumber and wood. The Maritime Conference has between two and three hundred members, and this little institution is the only one they have in all the conference, which embraces New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. We believe that the school will be a great blessing to this little conference for the training of workers for the eastern part of Canada. Our people in these provinces are poor, work for small wages, and have but meager means that they can contribute for the building up of this enterprise. However, they have shown a willingness to do what they could, and we believe the Williamsdale Academy will be a great blessing to the work in the Maritime Provinces. We are sure our people will be more than glad that a part of this $150,000 is to go to this needy school enterprise. In a recent letter, Elder Wm. Guthrie, of the Maritime Conference, wrote that the Williamsdale Academy had thirty-one students, and matters at the school were moving on very encouragingly. This school means a door of entrance into service for the young people in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Learning to Pray
By William Covert
I. What request was made on a certain occasion after Jesus had been praying? “And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.” Luke 11:1. Doubtless the disciples had become deeply impressed by the Saviour’s prayer, and were being led into a greater concern about praying than they had formerly experienced. If so, the request they made grew out of an earnest desire to know better how to seek and find God. 2. When a favor is to be sought from the Lord, how may it be obtained? “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek,9and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” Matt. 7:7. Notice that not only asking is necessary, but seeking is enjoined in order to find the object sought. 3. When is the Lord to be sought? “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.” Isa. 55:6. 4. What are the wicked to forsake, and with what encouraging result? “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” Isa. 55:7. 5. How long should prayer be continued? “Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.” Hosea 10:12. 6. What period of time did Daniel devote to one request? “I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled. . . . Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. . . . Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days: for yet the vision is for many days.” Dan. 10:3, 12, 14. 7. How constantly should prayer be made? and with what spirit should it be offered? “Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” 1 Thess. 5:17, 18. 8. What period of preparation did the Saviour spend in communion with the Father before he chose his disciples? “And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles.” Luke 6:12, 13. 9. In what manner does the Spirit of God make intercession for us when we pray? “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which can not be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” Rom. 8:16, 27. 10. What is said of the present service of Christ in the matter of our prayers? “For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.” Heb. 9:24. 11. What part is performed by the heavenly angels when the children of God in our world pray? “And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.” Rev. 8:3. Faith not Feeling
By Ellen G. White
“Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith.” Some conscientious souls, on reading this, immediately begin to criticize their every feeling and emotion. But this is not correct self-examination. It is not the petty feelings and emotions that are to be examined. The life, the character, is to be measured by the only standard of character, God’s holy law. The fruit testifies to the character of the tree. Our works, not our feelings, bear witness of us. The feelings, whether encouraging or discouraging, should not be made the test of the spiritual condition. By God’s Word we are to determine our true standing before him. Many are bewildered on this point. When they are happy and joyous, they think that they are accepted by God. When a change comes, and they feel depressed, they think that God has forsaken them. God does not look with favor upon those self-confident ones who loudly exclaim, “I am sanctified, I am holy, I am sinless.” These are Pharisees, who have no foundation for their assertion. But those who, because of their sense of utter unworthiness, dare scarcely lift up their eyes to heaven, are nearer to God than those who claim so much piety. They are represented by the publican, who, with his head on his breast, prayed, “God be merciful to me a sinner,” and went to his house justified, rather than the self-righteous Pharisee. But God does not desire us to go through life filled with a distrust of him. We owe our Heavenly Father a more generous view of his goodness than is accorded to him by our manifest distrust of his love. We have an evidence of his love—an evidence that amazes angels and is far beyond the comprehension of the wisest of human beings. “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” While we were yet sinners, God gave his Son to die for us. Can we doubt his goodness? Behold Christ. Dwell upon his love and mercy. This will fill the soul with abhorrence for all that is sinful, and will inspire it with an intense desire for the righteousness of Christ. The more clearly we see the Saviour, the more clearly shall we discern our defects of character. Confess your sins to Christ, and with true contrition of soul co-operate with him by putting these sins away. Believe that they are pardoned. The promise is positive, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Be assured that the word of God will not fail. He who has promised is faithful. It is as much your duty to believe that God will fulfil his word and forgive you as it is to confess your sins. Exercise faith in God. How many there are who go through life under a cloud of condemnation! They do not believe God’s word. They have no faith that he will do as he has said. Many who long to see others resting in the pardoning love of Christ do not rest in it for themselves. But how can they possibly lead others to show simple, childlike faith in the Heavenly Father when they measure his love by their feelings? Let us trust God’s word implicitly, remembering that we are his sons and daughters. Let us train ourselves to believe his word. We hurt the heart of Christ by doubting, when he has given such evidence of his love. He laid down his life to save us. He says to us: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Do you believe he will do as he has said? Then, after you have complied with the conditions, carry no longer the burden of your sins. Let it roll upon the Saviour. Trust yourself with him. Has he not promised to give you rest? But to many he is obliged to say sorrowfully, “Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” Many manufacture for themselves burdens which are grievous to bear. Look steadfastly to Jesus. Behold him, full of grace and truth. He will make his goodness pass before you while he hides you in the cleft of the rock. You will be enabled to endure the seeing of him who is invisible, and by beholding you will be transformed. Faith is not feeling. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. There is a form of religion which is nothing more than selfishness. It takes pleasure in worldly enjoyment. It is satisfied with contemplating the religion of Christ, and knows nothing of its saving power. Those who possess this religion regard sin lightly because they do not know Jesus. While in this condition, they estimate duty very lightly. But a faithful performance of duty goes hand in hand with a right estimate of the character of God. There is earnest work to do for the Master. Christ came to preach the gospel to the poor, and he sent his disciples forth to do the same work he came to do. So he sends forth his workers today. Sheaves are to be gathered for him from the highways and hedges. The tremendous issues of eternity demand of us something besides an imaginary religion, a religion of words and forms, where the truth is kept in the outer court, to be admired as we admire a beautiful flower; they demand something more than a religion of feeling, which distrusts God when trials and difficulties come. Holiness does not consist in profession, but in lifting the cross, doing the will of God. Saying, “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?” will not secure for us an entrance into the kingdom of heaven. “He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected.” A Song of the Sinking Sun
By Arthur W. Spalding
In shadow and in brightness God's doomed fair world doth lie:
The low-dipped sun sinks swiftly upon the boding eye;
The swales and the hills catch glory, the hollows and dales are dim,
And thicker the shadows cluster, awesome, menacing, grim.
But yet for your courage, comrades, remember, amid the fens,
The sunlight bathes the hilltops, though purple are the glens. O, but the night is gathering! Ominous fades day's light;
Chill is the steel that the heavens, dark'ning, bare to the sight.
The wail of the hoarse night-chorus—hounds of the nether world—
Up from the shattered canyons flat on the ear is hurled.
Yet, if the night grows darkly, and sight in the chasms fails,
The sunlight rests on the hilltops, though blackness hides the vales. Over and over the message strikes with the sun’s swift beams;
Courage, and let your vision rest where the glory streams!
God plans a hastened sunrise; fear not the falling night;
On with the work in patience, trust to the lingering light.
And, when the lowlands fail you, look where the headland leaps;
For the sunlight touches the hilltops, though lost in night are the deeps. GEO. O. STATES
By GEO. O. STATES
Lessons from Past Experiences —No. 12
From the rise of this message to the present there have been different ones who have started out with some new doctrine which they have tried to tack on and make the all-important thing. At various times something new has been brought out, and efforts have been made to make it the leading element, until it overshadowed the message, with those who took up with it. Our work in this respect has been no exception to all other reform. It was so in the time of Luther; efforts were then made to palm off a counterfeit in place of the genuine work. Different ones have claimed that God was speaking to them through dreams and visions, and that they were to take the place of the one through whom God has been speaking from the beginning of our work. While the Bible plainly tells us that in the last days these gifts will be in the church, yet we are told to beware of false prophets. There is no doubt that as we near the coming of the Lord, there will be more of these manifestations, and our only safety is to test everything by the written Word and the spirit of prophecy. Some have arisen who claimed that the Lord had revealed to them the time of the end. In 1863 we were warned on this point: “I saw that God tested his people upon time in 1844, but that no time which has since been set, has borne the special marks of his hand. He has not tested his people upon any particular time since 1844. We have been, and still are, in the patient waiting time.” Again, in 1894: “We are living in a time when order, system, and unity of action are most essential. And the truth must bind us together like strong cords, in order that no distracted efforts may be witnessed among the workers. If disorderly manifestations appear, we must have clear discernment to distinguish the spurious from the genuine. Let no messages be proclaimed until they have borne a careful scrutiny on every jot and tittle. My soul is much burdened, for I know what is before us. Every conceivable deception will be brought to bear upon those who have not a daily, living connection with God. In our work no side issues must be advanced until there has been a thorough examination of the ideas entertained, that it may be ascertained from what source they have originated. If there was ever a time when we should watch and pray in real earnest, it is now.” All who have watched the development of our work since this counsel was given can but see how different doctrines have arisen among us, which, if accepted, would eventually do away with the very pillars of our faith. I have watched these uprisings for many years, and have noticed that those who have gone into them have usually lost their humility and become lifted up and overbearing with those who did not accept their doctrines. Years ago I attended a camp-meeting in which the power of God was manifested, and there were some genuine cases of healing. Some were carried away by their feelings, and thought that any who were sick could be healed. Because the servants of God would not accept all the sick brought to them and pray for their recovery without investigation, they took matters into their own hands, and as a result the work was brought into reproach. This all might have been avoided if they had read and heeded the following counsel sent to us years ago: “I saw that the reason God did not hear the prayers of his servants for the sick among us more fully was that he could not be glorified in so doing while they were violating the laws of health.” All along in our history when God’s people were in danger of taking extreme views and bringing reproach upon the work, he has sent them timely warning. I believe there is counsel enough, if heeded, to take this people through if the servant of the Lord should be taken from us. We are living in a time when we do well to study the written Word and the spirit of prophecy as never before, for there are and will be many uprisings, and we need to be fortified for whatever may come. E. F. COLLIER
By E. F. Collier
It is an old story, this story of Kibroth-hattaavah, but truth never changes. Neither does God change. The principles which the Lord employed in dealing with the forefathers in Israel are the principles he employs to-day. He who fails to see through his long-suffering mercy the eternal justice of the Almighty, “by no means clearing the guilty,” will, through his false conceptions of God, fall an easy prey to the enemy of souls. “Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding-place.” Isa. 28:17. If ever there was a people in olden time, blessed of God, with a high calling, and a glorious prospect before them, it was the seed of Israel, called from Egypt. “He brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was not one feeble person among their tribes. Egypt was glad when they departed: for the fear of them fell upon them. He spread a cloud for a covering; and fire to give light in the night. . . . And he brought forth his people with joy, and10his chosen with gladness: and gave them the lands of the heathen: and they inherited the labor of the people; that they might observe his statutes, and keep his laws.” Ps. 105: 37-39, 43-45. But “they soon forgot his works; they waited not for his counsel: but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert. And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.” Ps. 106: 13-15. One month from the day of their deliverance found them murmuring against the Lord’s appointed servants, and crying out that they might better have died by the hand of the Lord while sitting by the flesh-pots of Egypt, eating bread to the full. About one year was spent in the region of Sinai, during which time that favored people were taught the statutes and judgments of God. The written law was supplied, the tabernacle was built, the ordinance and ceremony of the Levitical priesthood was instituted, and the Lord met with his people Israel. But ere they had departed one week from that hallowed spot, complaints were heard, “and the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting.” Murmuring and dissension breed rapidly, and the quick result was the congregation of Israel in tears, crying for flesh to eat. They lamented a drying away of life as the result of having “nothing at all, beside this manna,” before their eyes. “And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the Most High in the wilderness. And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust. Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people? Therefore the Lord heard this, and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob; and anger also came up against Israel; because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation: (though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven, and had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.” Ps. 78: 17-24. “Man did eat angels’ food;” but “the bread of the mighty” was not sufficient to satisfy their lust, and “he rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea: and he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations.” Ps. 78: 27, 28. “And the people stood up all that day, and all that night, and all the next day, and they gathered the quails. . . . And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord smote the people with a very great plague. And he called the name of that place Kibroth-hattaavah: because there they buried the people that lusted.” Num. 11: 32-34. “Ye shall not eat one day,” the Lord had said, “nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days; but even a whole month, until it come out at your nostrils, and it be loathsome unto you: because that ye have despised the Lord which is among you, and have wept before him, saying, Why came we forth out of Egypt?” A month of despicable lust among God’s people; a multitude of tombs—Kibroth-hattaavah! The pleasures of the appetite were to them of more importance than a hastened journey toward the promised land. Canaan was far away, but the hunger of the stomach was close at hand. Near the close of their forty years’ pilgrimage we find the new generation given over to the same ungodly cravings, and God in his long-suffering still grants their request. “Notwithstanding thou mayest kill and eat flesh in all thy gates, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after. . . . When the Lord thy God shall enlarge thy border, as he hath promised thee, and thou shalt say, I will eat flesh, because thy soul longeth to eat flesh; thou mayest eat flesh, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after.” Deut. 12: 15, 20. But let us compare this permission with the bold gospel appeal of Paul: “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.” Rom. 13: 11-14. The Lord had better things in store for his people. Had they been willing and obedient, they might have eaten the good of the land. “But unto the place which the Lord your God shall chose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come: . . . and there ye shall eat before the Lord your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and your households, wherein the Lord thy God hath blessed thee. Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes. For ye are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which the Lord your God giveth you.” Deut. 12: 5, 7-9. What God permitted to Israel at one time, was not permitted at another time. What God purposed for Israel was the same all the time. Had Israel met the mind of God, fulfilling in themselves his beneficent design, many of the privileges granted through Moses would never have been recorded. “Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. . . . Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” 1 Cor. 10: 1-6, 11, 12. God save us from falling into the errors of ancient Israel, lest we also sleep with many of her most promising sons in Kibroth-hattaavah. Blessed While Keeping Sunday
By L. D. SANTEE
WHEN working among the people, showing the claims of God's law, and the need of yielding an entire obedience, even to the keeping of his holy Sabbath, we are often met with this question, “If Sunday is not the Sabbath, why have I been blessed so often for keeping it?” “God has blessed us,” they say, “for keeping Sunday, and that is proof to us that it must be right.” Let us consider this question carefully. Are they sure that God has blessed them for keeping Sunday? That he has blessed them while keeping it, we do not deny, but that is a very different thing from blessing them for it. Let us consider this excuse a little farther. If Sunday-keeping had been an error (so they reason), God would not have blessed them in it. If such were the rule, it would work in everything else as well as in Sunday-keeping, and the conclusion would be that any one who receives the blessing of God, is free from error. This is the inevitable conclusion from this objection. But will our friends stand to this? Every denomination of Christians believes that all the others are involved in some errors of doctrine or practise, but will any one deny to all the others the blessing of God? Suppose the Methodist should say, God has blessed me for being sprinkled, but if sprinkling for baptism is wrong, God would not have blessed me in it; therefore sprinkling is right. What would the Baptist say to this? Just so of any difference of views or practise between any of the denominations. But further, has God anywhere laid down this rule by which to test what is truth? Has he said, Whatever you have my blessing in, that is truth? All know that he has said nothing of the kind. But he says his “word is truth.” But how can it be explained that so many have enjoyed the blessing of the Lord while in the observance of Sunday? That this has been the case, we freely admit. Multitudes, yes, the great majority of Christendom, have no doubt honestly observed the first day of the week, supposing they were keeping God's commandment thereby, and multitudes are at the present time so observing it.11God does not withhold his blessing from them, for they are honest in purpose, and it is the best light they have. But when light comes, and truth is developed, that light must be followed, and the truth obeyed, or condemnation will follow. Christ teaches that a person is responsible only for the light that he has. Thus he said of the Jews, “If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin.” If a person is honest at heart, desiring to do God's will, and is walking up to the best light that he has, the Lord accepts him according to his good intentions and the amount of light that he enjoys; for it is required of a man according to that he “hath,” and “not according to that he hath not.” 2 Cor. 8:12. Many have been soundly convicted of their duty to observe the Sabbath of the Lord, but it involved a cross and personal inconvenience, and perhaps pecuniary loss, and they were determined not to keep it if any possible excuse could be framed for such a course. Finally, they would grasp some flimsy pretext, and with it stifle their convictions, give up all idea of keeping the Sabbath, and claim that they enjoyed the same peace of mind as before. If they do, it is a false peace, brought them by an evil spirit. We are told to “try the spirits.” 1 John 4:1. By what shall we try them? “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. Then any spirit that gives you peace while you are breaking the law of God, is not in harmony with the Giver of that law. The Spirit and the Word must agree, for the Word was given by the Spirit. 2 Peter 1:21. The world is full of evil spirits, but “By their fruits ye shall know them.” The spirits can be told by their attitude toward sin (“sin is the transgression of the law.” 1 John 3:4). The Spirit of God will “reprove the world of sin.” John 16:7, 8. The spirit of Antichrist will palliate, or justify, sin. Many will have this counterfeit blessing while they are building on the sand. Matt. 7:21-23. The experience of many had led them to believe that they were accepted. How sad, when “the law of liberty” declares them “workers of iniquity.” God says, “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts.” Isa. 55:7. And Jesus said, “If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.” Matt. 19:17. The psalmist says, “Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments.” Ps. 119:6. When any spirit approves of your course while you are doing what you know is wrong, you may be sure that it is not the Spirit of God. His words are found in Isa. 48:18: “O that thou hadst harkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea.” Let me say, in closing, Be afraid of that blessing that allows sin without protest. Be afraid of the enjoyment that is not in harmony with the law of God. Do not be satisfied until you have the witness of the same Spirit that inspired the holy men of old. THE following article by the Rev. W. C. Sherman on the inspiration of the Scriptures, appeared in the Sacramento (Cal.) Star of December 5, and we publish it in the belief that it will be of interest to the generality of our readers:— EDITOR STAR: I have received a letter asking me to give, through the columns of your paper, a few facts with reference to 2 Tim. 3:16, and the Revised Version’s translation thereof. This I do, and leave the readers to form their own conclusions. The only true and justified translation is: “All or every scripture is given by inspiration of God (literally, God breathed), and is profitable for doctrine,” etc. One scholar has said: “This passage stands like an angel with a drawn sword in the path of every mad prophet who would seek to deny the plenary inspiration, infallibility, and supreme authority of God’s word, in order to make room for his ‘criticism.’” This great text has been translated by the revisers: “Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable,” etc. The two are utterly inconsistent and irreconcilable. The revision is wrong. It was riddled by many bullets from the best scholars on earth when it appeared as an old perversion of the text long ago rejected, and the Geneva and King James versions of it were held to be the true renderings. Dr. S. P. Tregelles, that crowned scholar, the latchet of whose shoes few, if any, of our present-day scholars are worthy to unloose, says concerning the futile attempts to set aside the received rendering of this verse: “In the year 1839 I called it much misspent labor and false criticism, and so I advisedly call it still.” But the revisers themselves have condemned and repudiated their own translation. They have not been bold enough to follow it in other texts where the form and the construction are identical with those of 2 Tim. 3:16. Lawyers call this “confession and avoidance.” I can give at least eight cases of this kind, and, so far as I can recall, this is the only passage in which they have deliberately violated all laws of Greek grammar and syntax. The defense made at the time, that “it is difficult to tell whether the adjective ‘inspired’ belongs to the subject or the ‘predicate,’ that is, comes before the verb ‘is’ or after it,” is a weak one. The position of the adjective, and the construction, settle this. There is not a solitary instance in any classic author or in the New Testament, where two adjectives, as “inspired and profitable,” connected by a conjunction, as these are, and either both belonging to the subject or both belonging to the predicate, are violently sundered, and the conjunction manipulated into a senseless “also.” So says a great American scholar, and so declared the greatest English scholar. Again: native-born Greeks who understood their own tongue and how to translate it are against the revisers. Clement, of Alexandria, says: “The apostle calls the Scriptures inspired of God.” Origen, a critic: “Every scripture is theopneustic and is profitable.” Gregory of Nyassa: “Every scripture is, by Paul, said to be inspired of God.” Chrysostom: “Every scripture is, by the apostle, said to be inspired of God.” So also Theodoret, Basil, Cyril. As another has said: “When Greek fathers unite to translate their own language for us, modesty would require us to sit at their feet.” Again: many years ago Bishop Middleton challenged the production of a solitary instance, in the compass of the whole Greek language, where the division of the two adjectives standing and connected as these two in 2 Tim. 3:16, could be found and justified. Dr. John Pye Smith sought to do this and dismally failed, as Dr. S. P. Tregelles showed, and that challenge still stands unanswered. Yet in the face of this, our revisers do this very thing. Again: the rendering is made in violation of the “rules” agreed upon by the committee of revision. The rule was “to make no new translation except where necessity required it.” Now, if the two translations of this 2 Tim. 3:16, as found in the margin and the text, are equivalent, then no “necessity” required a new translation. If they are not equivalent, then fidelity to the text demanded the new rendering, but the old should have no place in the margin. Yet they placed it there. Bishops Moberly and Wordsworth and Archbishop Trench, of this committee, have expressly disclaimed any responsibility for the revisers’ rendering of 2 Tim. 3:16. The Bishop of St. Andrews openly condemned it, and so have others of the committee. Such a scholar as Dean Burgon called it “the most astonishing as well as calamitous literary blunder of the age,” and Dr. Scrivener, a prince among critics, said: “It is a blunder such as makes itself hopelessly condemned.” In the face of such facts, we may be pardoned for still believing that “every scripture is God-breathed and profitable.” “Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of.” “Yea, let God be true,” etc. Isa. 2:22; Rom. 3:4.