WHEN our Lord was upon the earth his heart was often saddened by the refusal of the people to accept his teachings, even when they were set forth in the use of unanswerable logic. Though patient in the iteration and re-iteration of truth, he at times turned away from those whose hearts were hard as steel, and whose spiritual eyes were as destitute of sight as were the seared and filmed orbs of Bartimeus the beggar, to mourn the blindness of an age where light seemed to have lost its power to illuminate the soul.
"Walk [said he] while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you." "While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light." This exhortation, however, was fruitless in moving his hearers to obedience, and the record which follows shows that, having exhausted the resources of his power in the vain effort to draw the people to himself as the light of the world, he withdrew and hid away from them. This he did, doubtless, not from any feeling of animosity because of the rejection of himself or his word, but because his continued presence would have resulted in harm rather than good, since—having developed an unwillingness to obey—an increase of evidence would have simply served to enlarge their accountability.
On another occasion, as his eye rested on the city of cities, he uttered these mournful words, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not." Matt. 23:37. His heart was burdened almost to breaking with a sense of his inability to save those whose salvation had been the great desire of his life. He knew that in him alone were the possibilities of pardon and life. He also knew that those men had refused to receive him, not because of any want of evidence of his divinity, but because they loved darkness rather than light, even where the latter was so clear that it equaled in its strength the full blaze of the midday sun. He was aware that they had cast him out deliberately, and under circumstances which made their condemnation certain.
He said to them, "Did ye never read in the Scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner; this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?" Matt. 21:42. From this it is manifest that he well understood the fact that the leaders of the people had set him at naught, but that God had made him, notwithstanding this fact, the foundation of every well-grounded hope of salvation. Eighteen hundred years have since passed, and how completely has the order of things been reversed. Where God is, there is always assured triumph.
The priesthood—those who ought to have been the God-directed builders of the spiritual temple—failed to recognize the corner-stone which the Lord had provided for that most glorious edifice which has since become the stupendous structure of the Christian church, and they were left to themselves, while the chosen instrument of God has filled the precise position which he designed he should fill in the only plan of salvation which has been offered to man.
From this we may learn two lessons. The first is, that it is a fatal thing to reject truth. The second is, that even when truth is rejected, the declaration of the apostle is verified; namely, that we can do nothing against it, and that its ultimate success is certain.307
We read that God has sown the light for the righteous; this being the case, he who fails to gather its rays, in order that he may thereby illuminate the pathway of life which he is treading, is neglecting to avail himself of God's appointed means for his salvation. The consequence of such an action must uniformly be ruinous.
If we are ever saved, it will be because God will save us in the use of those instrumentalities which he has provided.
If we are ever lost, it will be because we have failed to carry out the instructions given in the sacred record.
As in the State it is vain for an individual to plead his ignorance of the statute law in extenuation of his offense, so in the judgment of the great day it will be useless for us to urge, either that we were not acquainted with God's requirements, or that we were enabled to see light in his light.
Our opportunities for knowing what is the will of the Lord are ample, and if we do not avail ourselves of them, the fault will be our own. We speak, of course, of the great fundamental principles of the gospel. Said Christ, "If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." John 7:17.
Here, then, we learn that divine aid is promised to every honest-hearted individual who is really anxious to discover the path of light.
But divine aid means success.
The only thing, therefore, necessary to its realization, is a sincere desire to know the will of God.
But says one, "How shall we be able to understand our own hearts, so as to know whether we are actuated by motives which, in this matter, are every way right?" I answer that the test, according to the scripture quoted, is very simple. The only thing to be determined is, whether we are really desirous of doing the will of the Lord; or whether our motive is, after all, simply that an anxiety to be saved. In other words, are we doing the will of God because we love to do that will? or are we striving to do it merely to obtain the reward which we hope will follow?
In deciding this point, there is one test which can always be relied upon with confidence.
If we love to carry out the purposes of him who has a right to our services, we shall ever seek to know just what he would have us do in all particulars. Our eyes will never be closed to light, let it shine upon a duty however unpleasant; and we shall never hesitate to follow out a line of thought or listen to an array of argument, for fear that it may throw upon us a responsibility which we do not like to incur. Let it cost what it may, we shall not only be ready to receive instruction, but we shall also pray for it in reference to everything which God has revealed in his word, however humiliating to our feelings and disastrous to our temporal interests that instruction may prove to be.
In the Saviour's prayer for the church we find these words, "Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth." John 17:17. Here we learn that sanctification comes through knowledge. As therefore sanctification, or purification, is the very thing which God desires for us, and which we should desire for ourselves, we ought to reach out after it as the tendrils of the earth-plant reach out after the shrub or the tree as a means wherewith to lift itself toward heaven and light.
By looking through the history of the ages, we see that the providence of the Lord has been in harmony with the text quoted, and that whenever men have been "purified and made white," it has been in connection with their obedience to some important truth. The observance of this truth has usually brought with it the necessity of a sacrifice, either of feeling or property, and that sacrifice has in turn brought the individual making it nearer to God.
Reader, are you ready for the ordeal?
Do you value the favor of Heaven above the treasures of the earth?
Will you exchange the approbation of man for that of God?
Are you ready to search his word to see if there is not some light there which you have not yet received?
If so, you are very near, if not within, the kingdom of heaven.
Before we part company, let us prove your sincerity or demonstrate your lack.
Is it probable, in view of the differences of opinion existing among different sects, that you have all the truth and no error?
We fear not.
It would be strange indeed if such should be the case; yea, more; it would be remarkable if your errors were not numerous, and your lack of light very considerable.
With your permission, therefore, we will select from many which might be taken a single unpopular truth, and call your attention to it through this article. It shall be what we have alluded to in the heading of this article as the rejected ordinance.
Do not suppose that it is baptism, and that, as immersionists, we shall claim that the churches generally have rejected the proper mode of baptism.
No; we allude to an ordinance more unpopular than that which Anabaptists love, and one which we believe they have set at naught more fully than Pedobaptists have the one which relates to the plunging of the body in water.
The one to which we have reference is the sacrament of feet-washing.
It is brought to view very fully in the thirteenth chapter of John. From the record we learn that on the memorable evening when the Lord instituted the supper which commemorates his death, "he riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself;" and that "after that he poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded." John 13:4, 5.
We also read that he said to them, "If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet." John 13:14. Here is a plain intimation that the rite there instituted was not to cease with its origination. But somehow—for what reason we cannot tell—there has disappeared from the church almost altogether everything which answers to the transaction which took place at the time in question.
It is true that in the Romish church we have a trace of it in the practice of the pope in washing once in each year the feet of twelve beggars. The perversion of the ordinance, however, as here perpetuated, is so complete as to make it almost unrecognizable. The only lesson which we can draw from it is that the Church of Rome, as a whole, acknowledge that Christ's work was exemplary, and therefore to be followed in after ages. This concession is important in settling the general principle of the perpetuity, in some sense, of the ordinance, as by that means we have the testimony of the majority of the Christian world to the effect that the language of Christ implies the continued celebration of the event in which he is represented as having washed the apostles' feet.
As already remarked, the great mass of the Protestant world have nothing which in any way commemorates the wonderful humiliation of the Master which we are considering.
It is true that there are a few denominations that constitute exceptions to the rule; but they are so few as to be regarded merely as exceptions. This fact, however, does not affect the settlement of the question at issue, since it was to the word of God, and not to the practice of men, that we were to go for light. Let us therefore approach the subject in a spirit of candor and of prayer.
To begin with, it will be well to inquire into the reasons which are assigned for the general discontinuance of the practice under consideration.
The only one with which we are acquainted is based upon the supposition that, what Christ did was not designed to be regarded as the institution of a religious ordinance, but was simply an exercise of the rite of hospitality. In other words, that he only did that which it was common among the Jews for the host to do to his guest when visiting him at his own home.
Having stated the argument of those who object to the idea that Christ designed to originate by the transaction in question a new rite which was to be celebrated by his followers in succeeding ages, we now proceed to an examination of the reasons set forth from which such a conclusion has been reached.
The first suggestion which we offer is, that were we to concede that the premise taken is correct, i. e., that what the Lord did, conformed in every particular to a custom then existing, such a concession would not preclude the possibility of his having had an ulterior design in the whole matter.
Were this true, it would not be the only time when he had availed himself of an existing practice for the purpose of building upon it an institution whose object was entirely different in its nature from that with which it had formerly been associated.
Take, for example, the ordinance of baptism; all must admit that its design in the Christian dispensation differs materially from that which John had in view when he administered it upon the banks of the Jordan; or, going still further back, from that of the immersion of proselytes to Judaism as it was practiced ages before either John or Christ made their appearance in the world.
So, too, in the matter of circumcision; it by no means invalidated the argument for the perpetuity and design of that rite as a religious institution, when it was conceded that it had been practiced by the heathen nations before the days of Abraham. God took the one and Christ the other, and for wise purposes transformed them into religious ceremonies which were to be perpetuated. They were well adapted to inculcate the moral which it was designed to teach when resorted to under the sanction of God, and it was therefore unimportant whether or not they ever had been used for another purpose.
But if this be true, then it is merely begging the question to say that, because feet-washing was resorted to in the days of Christ by others than himself, therefore he must, in hand, have employed it for no other purpose than that which it was resorted to by others.
As in the case of baptism and circumcision, so in this case, it is possible that he might have seized upon it as being precisely adapted from the religious stand-point to inculcate just the grace which he was anxious to develop among those of his followers who should come after him.
W. H. Littlejohn.
(To be continued.)
Continuing in Well Doing.
By C. B. Reynolds
It is only by overcoming, by patiently continuing in well doing, that we can ever attain to the joys of immortality and eternal life. The prize can only be gained by doing all we can, always. It needs all the grace we have and all we can obtain.
Those efforts and services which are capricious and irregular, or which prompt us only to make partial sacrifices for the cause of God and truth, afford at best but very slight evidences of our sincerity. Called from the darkness and perplexing labyrinths of modern, miscalled orthodoxy, to the glorious light and harmony of God's truth, the love and gratitude of our hearts should be as his mercies,—not fitful and capricious, but steadfast and continual. Our love and gratitude to God should glow with a steady and uniform fervor that no trials or discouragements should dampen or diminish. Our faith in God, the conviction that he is our loving Father and that his word is truth, should give us such reliance on the promised help that no duties, however difficult or arduous, should deter or dismay us.
The sincere child of God, awakened to a true sense of the immense debt of gratitude which he owes, alike to an ever loving Heavenly Father, and to Jesus, the Redeemer who died to obtain for us the glorious joys of immortality, will not measure his obedience or the amount of his self-sacrifice by the nice calculations of cold and selfish policy. His performance of duty will result from the promptings of a truly grateful heart. His vows of obedience will embrace every sacrifice to which devotion to the cause of his blessed Lord may call him, and will extend to every act of duty by which present truth may be advanced. He will be actuated by the hope of gaining the glorious plaudit, "Well and faithfully done."
There is a class of people who are apt to be spasmodically zealous. Under favorable surroundings, they suddenly flash and blaze only to flicker out, bring gloom and discouragement, and do actual injury to the cause. It is not the fitful, uncertain burst of enthusiasm, but the steady, continual, burning zeal that is needed. Let not our performance of duty be the fruit of merely a sudden and transitory glow of feeling; rather let our vows and acts of allegiance be founded on a deep and serious conviction of the weighty obligations we are under, of the exalted and ennobling nature of the service, of its brilliant and glorious reward, and let these be our incentives to patiently continue in well doing, "seeking for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life."
When disposed to murmur at the severity of the sacrifice to which God calls us, at the extent and difficulty of his service, to imagine our burdens greater than we can bear, and that the demands are beyond our capabilities, let us look to Jesus and be lightened; let us contemplate the number and poignancy of his sufferings. He endured the cross and despised the shame; and shall we not blush that for one moment we have indulged in ungrateful murmurs? Rather let us deplore the utter inadequacy of our most zealous service to repay the debt we owe, and, realizing its insufficiency and unworthiness, offer to our gracious Redeemer the best tribute we can render—a zealous and uniform obedience. And that we may do this, let us make the most diligent use of every means of grace.
To work out our salvation is indeed the momentous business that should occupy us; it should call forth our greatest care and exertions. Heaven can never be obtained by spasmodically grasping upward with one hand, while the other digs vigorously in the earth, and we are engrossed in scraping together and hoarding up the perishing things of this world. There is no half-way heaven, to reward half-hearted service.
It is only by patient continuance in well doing that the glorious prize of immortality can be secured. Consider how potent the sway which sin maintains over the enslaved affections; consider how deep is the unhallowed taint of iniquity which is to be washed away; consider how strong the chain of corrupt passion from whose ignoble thralldom we must be delivered; consider how extensive, how important, how continuous the duties we must discharge; consider how many painful sacrifices must be made, how many obstacles triumphantly surmounted, ere we can be fitted to receive the priceless boon of immortality.
Dare we, then, indulge the vain, the presumptuous expectation that we can overcome—that we can discharge these momentous duties—by feeble and occasional efforts? Having admitted and received the truth, we can fall back in idle serenity, content to simply refrain from violating the Sabbath, to attend to family worship and church services, and so think all our duty done, our salvation fully secured? Fatal delusion! To resist the spirit of a corrupt world, the seducing pleasures and allurements that from a thousand quarters assail us; to stand against the subtle wiles of Satan and all his insinuating solicitations, and cheerfully go forth, at all times recommending the truth, both by precept and example; to let our light so shine that others shall see our good works, and so be led to glorify our Father in heaven;—to do these things requires the most vigorous, persevering effort, the most constant endeavor, the most earnest prayer, the most vigilant watchfulness, failing which, we shall assuredly fail of immortality.
Yet, praise his holy name, the grace of God is all-sufficient for the most difficult and dangerous trials. His strength will be gloriously perfected in the weakness of the most humble of his children. "Fear thou not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed; for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." Isa. 41:10. He imposes no restrictions or duties without giving all needed aid. He calls us to the battle, but himself supplies the armor, and imparts strength for the encounter. He has promised that as our day, so shall our strength be.
How is it with us? Are we doing all we can? Are we in earnest? Do we realize the times in which we live? Are we seeking to learn what God would have us do, and striving to accomplish it? Soon, very soon, Jesus will leave the sanctuary and will say, "Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice." Are we making sacrifices for Jesus? Can it be said to us, "Well and faithfully done"? Are we doing well? If so, wherein? Which of our acts deserves this encomium? Are we as much in earnest in advancing the proclamation of the last message of mercy, in seeking immortality and eternal life, as we are in seeking the things of this world?
May the Lord revive his work; may we be up and doing while it is yet day; "for the night cometh, when no man can work." Remember it is by "patient continuance in well doing" that we must "seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life." God help us to strive for this blessing, and through Jesus obtain it. C. B. Reynolds.
Liberty and Duty
LIBERTY is a great word; but so is duty. We must not forget, or allow others to forget, how much of life's happiness, sweetness and usefulness is secured by bending to our duties, and being like Him who came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.
Battle Creek Camp-Meeting.
THE following report of the first week of the Battle Creek, Mich., camp-meeting was prepared for the secular papers of that city October 8 :-
The great National Camp-meeting of Seventh-day Adventists has been holding in this city for the past week. It is the largest gathering of the observers of the ancient Sabbath of Jehovah ever assembled in the United States, and probably the largest in the world for ages. Local camp-meetings are not apt to excite much interest outside of their own locality, but this, being a national affair, at least so far as the denomination is concerned, and being in many respects different from ordinary camp-meetings, may be of interest to your readers. The Conferences of all the northern States, from Maine to California, are represented by delegates, as well as the missions in the southern States, and it has been considered of sufficient importance to call home a delegation of missionaries from Europe.
Elder James White and wife, among the earliest pioneers of the cause and prominently connected with all the institutions of these Adventists, are here from their temporary retreat in the mountains of Colorado; Elder J. N. Loughborough and wife, from California, on their way to England; Elder J. N. Andrews and daughter, of Switzerland, and Elder D. T. Bourdeau and wife, of France, who represent the European Mission; Elder S. N. Haskell, of Massachusetts, and Elder D. M. Canright, of Michigan, members of the General Conference Committee; Elder U. Smith, managing editor of the Review and Herald, their denominational paper, and professor of Biblical Literature in Battle Creek College; Elder Nathan Wardner, of the Seventh-day Baptists, formerly missionary to China, and others. Upwards of fifty leading ministers of the denomination are in attendance, besides any number of lesser lights.
Their religious meetings are devotional, and a high standard of religion and morality are held up before the people. Two hundred responded to Mrs. White's appeal to seek salvation, at the close of one of her discourses.
The meetings are not all of a devotional character. There are several important institutions under the auspices of the denomination, and the several organizations hold their annual business meetings in connection with the camp-meeting. About three thousand believers are present. There are one hundred and fifty dwelling tents on the ground, most of them quite commodious, besides the mammoth pavilion, eighty by one hundred and twenty-five feet, and five smaller ones used for dining and provision stands, prayer, conference, and committee meetings, etc. A marked feature of the meeting is the neatness and order of the grounds, which are regularly laid out in streets, both streets and tents being numbered, and well lighted at night. As a rule, the people discard the use of tobacco in every form, and the absence of all traces of its use is very notable in their camp.
On Saturday morning, the day observed by this people as Sabbath, the whole camp resolved itself into a mammoth Sabbath-school, under the direction of Prof. G. H. Bell, of Battle Creek College, who stands at the head of the Sabbath-school work in the denomination. The huge pavilion was filled to its utmost extent. All, from gray-headed fathers and mothers in Israel down to little children, entering heartily into the exercises. Appropriate music, rendered by a finely trained choir led by J. E. White, enlivened the exercises.
Mrs. White gave an able address on Christian temperance, Sunday afternoon, before an audience of six thousand.
This people are staunch temperance advocates, going back of the bottle and the wine cup, to the table, and advocate the use of plain, nourishing, unstimulating diet from infancy as the surest safeguard against intemperance in our growing youth. Elder Andrews, in his report of his work in Switzerland, took occasion to make an emphatic protest against the statement that in countries where grape wine is freely used there is little or no drunkenness. The prevalence of intemperance of this kind has moved him to labor against it, with gratifying success, so far as converts to the faith in Europe are concerned.
The General Conference holds its annual meeting at this time also, and the State Conference of Michigan has held several sessions. Take it altogether, it has been a very busy week for both ministers and laity, and they have several days more of hard work laid out, if the weather does not interfere with their plans. Thus far it has been that could be desired for camping purposes.
But who and what are these Seventh-day Adventists? Their name explains the two leading features of their faith. They are believers in the soon coming of Christ and observers of the seventh day Sabbath. They date their origin at the time of the great Advent movement of 1844. Some now living among them were connected with that, and passed through the bitter disappointment that met them when the time at which they expected their Lord passed and they were still doomed to be pilgrims and strangers upon the earth. This disappointment scattered many of those who had been zealous advocates of the doctrine. The great wonder is that any were left to cling to the Advent faith and name, and take up the heavy cross of derision and persecution that awaited them. But there were a few men and women of stronger hearts and cool heads of the stuff of which martyrs are made,—for what is social ostracism but a species of martyrdom. These turned earnestly to the Scriptures for some clue to the position in which they found themselves. They found an escape from the conclusion to which they had arrived concerning the prophetic periods of Daniel.
But circumstances showed that they were mistaken in the event. Further search revealed that the earth was not the sanctuary to be cleansed at the expiration of the time (Dan. 8:14), but that there was a heavenly sanctuary to which the prophecy referred, and which Paul describes in his epistle to the Hebrews.
That the end of all things is close at hand they fully believe, but as they still hold that the prophetic periods ended in 1844, they have no data by which to set definite time. This is a distinguishing feature between them and other classes of Adventists, who are frequently re-adjusting the prophetic periods to bring their ending in the immediate future. In the meantime, their attention had been called to some other points, as that the idea of innate immortality is unscriptural, and that though all are to be raised from their graves at the second coming of Christ, only those will receive immortality who have merited it through faith in Christ and Christian lives; those who have neglected this to perish for their sins, when sin, its author, and sinners, will alike be blotted out from the universe, and the earth, redeemed from the curse and purified, will be made the seat of Christ's everlasting kingdom, where he will reign with his saints. The ten commandments stand the same examination, and, as a result, the seventh-day Sabbath, as expressed in the fourth precept of the law, began to be observed among them. So direct a track across the creeds of the churches could not fail to sever them most completely from them, and after some years they formed a separate organization, taking the name of Seventh-day Adventists.
Still confident that time was short, and anxious to fulfill the mission which they conceived to be their, of warning the world of its impending doom, they commenced to publish. In this work Elder White and wife labored amid discouragements and trials that would have daunted any ordinary faith, but the ball was put in motion and the large publishing houses, one on the Pacific coast, at Oakland, California, and two here in Battle Creek, testify to the success of their endeavors. The Oakland house publishes a neat eight-page weekly, devoted to an exposition of their faith and religious views generally, called the SIGNS OF THE TIMES. The one at Battle Creek occupies two large and handsome buildings, one of them one hundred and fourteen feet front and sixty-six feet deep, and four stories high. This issues tons of tracts and books annually, amounting at the present to 259,130,951 pages; one weekly paper, four monthlies, and a quarterly. Their aggregate monthly circulation being 40,000 copies. The most of these are in English, but they also publish in French, Danish, Swedish and German. Of the monthlies, one is denominational; one a fine little sheet for youth, and another a health journal, these last being unsectarian.
This brings us to another institution located here under the auspices of the denomination, the Medical and Surgical Sanitarium. This is a really elegant brick building, one hundred and fifty feet long by one hundred and ten deep, fitted for its purpose at an expense of $100,000 with every appliance of the healing art. The property is held by stockholders, but the management of the institution is intrusted to the care of J. H. Kellogg, M. D., a thoroughly educated physician and scientist. Four physicians of experience, two of them ladies, and a number of helpers, complete the Sanitarium staff.
Opposite the Sanitarium, in the center of a park of seven acres, is the College building, also of brick. Elder White is president of the institution, but Prof. S. Brownsberger is the acting head, with six professors and six assistant professors as his assistants. Neither the Sanitarium or College claim to be sectarian. The latter is designed for those of both sexes who desire to take a thorough course of study, classical or otherwise. The Greek and Latin courses are thorough and comprehensive. Educated native teachers have the modern languages in charge. The chief distinction between this and other educational institutions of the kind is its discipline, grievous to young men who have many wild oats to sow, or young maidens to tender thoughts inclined, but highly satisfactory to most of parents.
No tobacco, no intoxicants, no flirtations, are permitted. Those who come for study have ample opportunity—others not invited. The enrollment for the past year was four hundred and seventy-eight. Having outgrown their church in this city, they are erecting a large brick tabernacle, which promises to be the largest in seating capacity, in the State.
Their work is aggressive, and their methods of carrying it on, peculiar to themselves. Their ministry is not settled over churches, but left free to carry their message into new fields. During the summer season while out-of-door services are admissible they go out with pavilion tents, asking nothing of those among whom they locate, except a place for their tent and a hearing. Here they give lectures upon Biblical exegesis, setting forth the peculiar tenets of their faith and their reasons for them, usually gathering more or less of a company to their views. Seventy-five of these tents have been used thus the past season. In the mean time the laity are not idle, but by means of an extensive and systematic tract organization are actively employed in extending the knowledge of their faith to others.
They have seventeen conferences in the United States, besides missions in nearly every State and Territory, north and south, where there is no organized conference. They have missions in Switzerland, Germany, France, Denmark, Italy, and Egypt, the Swiss mission having a press of its own and publishing a paper in the French language, besides tracts etc., in German, French and Italian. This mission was established four years ago.
They have begun to raise $100,000 to establish a mission in England, with a press of its own, the coming year.
As they are by no means a wealthy people, and number only about twenty-five thousand in the United States, it must be evident to all that the success of their work and institutions is the result of close calculation and hard labor somewhere. With the history of the work from its earliest rise, and that of all their institutions, the names of Elder and Mrs. White are closely connected. Their lives and interests seem to be interwoven with it.
Whatever one may think of the belief of this people, their evident zeal and earnestness commend our respect as proof of their sincerity.
Signs of the Times.
By Uriah Smith
So common has this expression become, that men use it almost without thought, and let it pass as without meaning. But if it means anything, it means a great deal. A sign, in the sense here used, is that which foretakens or gives evidence of coming events. A sign of the times, is that which marks any particular time, as showing its relation to times past or future.
In order that we may have signs there must be a prediction of future events, the approach of which is to be from time to time foretold or indicated by other events. But these other events must also be foretold, or they could not be signs. For instance, we might have the most startling phenomena in nature; but they would be without significance respecting what is before us, unless it had been foretold that certain events were to occur, and that their approach should be marked by these abnormal exhibitions. But these signs, being thus foretold, become themselves predictions, and their accomplishment a fulfillment of prophecy.
The signs of the times, therefore, are simply those prophecies which are fulfilling in our own day, which show that the time has come, or is at hand, for the fulfillment of other predictions, which stand in the same chain of events. Signs of the times are themselves prophecies of what is before us, and they are the seal which God sets to what has been declared in the past. They are the solemn voice of God to us, as if he were himself now walking through the land reiterating the declarations of his prophets of old, and proclaiming the truthfulness of his word to all the inhabitants thereof.
Therefore one well-defined, clearly-established, sign of the times, is an event of immense importance. It ought to arrest the attention of all mankind, and be with them, the chief topic of interest. Neglect of this will be no less a subject of censure in this generation, than it was with the Jews, whom Christ rebuked for not discerning the signs of their day. Nor will such neglect result less fatally now than then.
And is there such a sign existing in our day? Every student of prophecy knows that there is not merely one, but a whole array of them, not ambiguous, and indistinct, but clear, prominent, and startling. Yet the mass of mankind shut their eyes to these things; professed Christians ignore them; and all immediately set about the work of trying to account for, and explain away, any unusual occurrence, instead of considering what lessons of instruction they are to draw from it. They would fain persuade themselves that the moral darkness and gloom, which they are constrained to admit is everywhere spreading and deepening, is but the blackness of the transient cloud, which will soon give way to the clear blaze of millennial glory. And thus they blind their eyes to the view as it really is, and wait for that sudden destruction, which the apostle declared should come upon men just when they had yielded themselves to the fast embrace of this fatal delusion.
The signs of these times are events which are laid down in the prophetic word as tokens of the near approach of the great consummation, and the opening of eternal scenes. To forewarn mankind of the coming of this eventful day, the world was to exhibit remarkable phases, and witness remarkable scenes. These may be classified under four general heads:—
Unusual occurrences and phases in the religious and moral world.
Remarkable advancement and discoveries in the literary and scientific world.
Unprecedented activity and threatening movements in the political world; and,
Strange and startling phenomena in the natural world.
That the state of things here indicated does exist in all these divisions, no one will deny, who is ordinarily well-read in reference to passing events. Wherever we may look, there is no lack of occurrences, calculated to excite wonder and elicit comment. Every literary vehicle is loaded with them, every mouth is full of them. Why all do not look upon them in the same light as the student of prophecy, is because they are either ignorant of the fact that these things are pointed out in prophecy as tokens of the coming end, or are unwilling to admit the application of the prophetic declarations to them. The former, however, is largely the prevailing cause; for when a person will candidly compare the words of prophecy with the present state of the world in all its divisions, he can but see such a faithful correspondence between them, as to be convinced that these are verily the things which the prophets have said should come to pass.
No, the masses are not aware of what the prophets have spoken; and hence, although they are struck with wonder at the unusual occurrences and strange events of this time, they fail to see their significance, and realize their importance. But it is not sufficient merely to have attention aroused and wonder excited; for men may wonder at the remarkable works of God, and view with astonishment the stately march of fulfilling prophecy, and, knowing not its significance, may, with wonder and amazement, perish at last.