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Review and Herald, Vol. 91, No. 25.

The Work and the Workers

Review and Herald

Jun 18, 1914

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Jun 18, 1914

The Work and the Workers

Start earning your scholarship with the easy-selling July Life and Health.
Three editions of the June Protestant (60,000) exhausted by June 10. Fourth edition now ready. Selling fast!
Pastor R. A. Underwood, president of the Central Union Conference, writes: “The journal Life and Health, true to its name, should be in every home.”
A California physician writes: “Inclosed you will find $6.00 for 10 copies of Life and Health to my address, for one year.” Many other physicians keep copies on their office tables.
A dear old lady in Illinois, 63 years of age, writes: “I inclose money for 25 more of Life and Health. Hope to send larger order soon. Sold the other 25 in three days. I am 63 years old, and can’t get around as quickly as I used to.”
Mrs. R. L. F., Michigan, writes: “Your magazine Life and Health is the only Seventh-day Adventist publication my husband (who is an infidel) will read. He is a better health reformer than most Adventists, and has excellent health.”
“A Methodist minister came into our treatment rooms yesterday,” writes a Michigan physician, “and offered us 25 cents for a Life and Health that was on the table in the reception room. We shall try to sell as many as we can to those taking treatment.”
Pastor G. E. Langdon, president of the Northern Illinois Conference, writes: “Robbie Woodward, of Chicago, aged 15 years, deprived of both speech and hearing by scarlet fever, sells 10 copies of Life and Health each day, besides doing many odd jobs. He gives half his earnings to his widowed mother.”
The great July or “Rome and Mexico,” “Washington Military Mass,” and “Kingdom of Antichrist” number of the Protestant Magazine is now ready. The first large edition will soon be exhausted. Order early. Inside facts in two articles showing Rome’s hand in Mexican affairs. Send $2.00 for 50 copies, or $40.00 for 1,000. A good seller!
A lady agent in Columbus, Ohio, writes: “Dear Brother Bourdeau: I am sending in 41 yearly subscriptions to Life and Health. Am doing this to help pay for our new church school building and salary of our teacher. Two of us worked up this order.” A hint to other churches struggling with church school or other financial problems. A profit of 40 cents on each $1.00 subscription.
Brother J. H. Parsons, of Denver, Colo., writes that on June 1, from 5:30 to 11:30 P. M., he and another brother sold 347 of the 500 Protestant Magazines he had ordered. He writes: “Brother Yale and I have given away $20.00 worth of the Protestant altogether. The same brother who helped me last night is going to try the — tonight. As a special concession to the Protestant, they are going to suspend the society, take a recess at 9:30 and let our brother come in for the express purpose of selling the magazine. This is very unusual, and will show you how strongly people feel here.”

THE ANNUAL ASSASSINATION OF INFANTS

By Leonard Keene Hirshberg, A.B., M.A., M.D.

LEONARD KEENE HIRSHBERG, A.B., M.A., M.D.
THOSE INFANT GRAVES
THOSE INFANT GRAVES
LAST year in the small area of the United States where diseases are accurately reported and fatalities are always recorded, in every hundred thou-
to be absolutely free from all deleterious parasites. Mother love causes as many deaths among babies as mother negligence. Grandmothers, always defending themselves behind the fact that they have
JULY 1914 10 CENTS A COPY—ONE DOLLAR A YEAR WASHINGTON, D.C.
JULY 1914 10 CENTS A COPY—ONE DOLLAR A YEAR WASHINGTON, D.C.
Of every fifty babies born in July, 1912, thirty-eight were living in July, 1913; thirty-five are living in July, 1914. For every fifty children born in July, 1912, there were twelve graves in July, 1913; fifteen graves in July, 1914. In nearly every instance, these babies, with proper care, might have lived.

What Is Your Baby Worth?

The bitter experience of following the little white casket to the cemetery need not be repeated if proper attention is given to baby's food, its clothing, and its surroundings. The July Life and Health contains 25 special articles and other features bearing upon “Care of the Children.” See also “Obesity; Its Cause and Cure,” “What to Do First,” “Questions and Answers,” “Healthful Cookery,” “Mike and Robe’s Dialogue on Typhoid Germs” (a two-page cartoon), etc. Over 20,000 copies ordered before June 3, delivery day. Send $2.00 for 50 copies today. Agents are ordering daily in lots of 500 to 1,000 copies.

Ministers to Teach Health Reform

By Ellen G. White

Early Counsels on Medical Work — No. 12

Ministers to Teach Health Reform

MRS. E. G. WHITE
Our ministers should become intelligent on health reform. They need to become acquainted with physiology and hygiene; they should understand the laws that govern physical life, and their bearing upon the health of mind and soul. Thousands upon thousands know little of the wonderful body God has given them or of the care it should receive, and they consider it of more importance to study subjects of far less consequence. The ministers have a work to do here. When they take a right position on this subject, much will be gained. In their own lives and homes they should obey the laws of life, practicing right principles and living healthfully. Then they will be able to speak correctly on this subject, leading the people higher and still higher in the work of reform. Living in the light themselves, they can bear a message of great value to those who are in need of just such a testimony.
There are precious blessings and a rich experience to be gained if ministers will combine the presentation of the health question with all their labors in the churches. The people must have the light on health reform. This work has been neglected, and many are ready to die because they need the light which they ought to have and must have before they will give up selfish indulgences.
The presidents of our conferences need to realize that it is high time they were placing themselves on the right side of this question. Ministers and teachers are to give to others the light they have received. Their work in every line is needed. God will help them; he will strengthen his servants who stand firmly, and will not be swayed from truth and righteousness in order to accommodate self-indulgence.
The work of educating in medical missionary lines is an advance step of great importance in awakening man to his moral responsibilities. Had the ministers taken hold of this work in its various departments in accordance with the light which God has given, there would have been a most decided reformation in eating, drinking, and dressing. But some have stood directly in the way of the advance of health reform. They have held the people back by their indifferent or condemnatory remarks, or by pleasantries and jokes. They themselves and a large number of others have been sufferers unto death, but all have not yet learned wisdom.
It has been only by the most aggressive warfare that any advancement has been made. The people have been unwilling to deny self, unwilling to yield the mind and will to the will of God; and in their own sufferings, and in their influence on others, they have realized the sure result of such a course.
The church is making history. Every day is a battle and a march. On every side we are beset by invisible foes, and we either conquer through the grace given us by God or we are conquered. I urge that those who are taking a neutral position in regard to health reform be converted. This light is precious, and the Lord gives me the message to urge that all who bear responsibilities in any line in the work of God take heed that truth is in the ascendancy in the heart and life. Only thus can any meet the temptations they are sure to encounter in the world.
Why do some of our ministering brethren manifest so little interest in health reform? It is because instruction on temperance in all things is opposed to their practice of self-indulgence. In some places this has been the great stumblingblock in the way of our bringing the people to investigate and practice and teach health reform. No man should be set apart as a teacher of the people while his own teaching or example contradicts the testimony God has given his servants to bear in regard to diet, for this will bring confusion. His disregard of health reform unfits him to stand as the Lord’s messenger.
The light that the Lord has given on this subject in his Word is plain, and men will be tested and tried in many ways to see if they will heed it. Every church, every family, needs to be instructed in regard to Christian temperance. All should know how to eat and drink in order to preserve health. We are amid the closing scenes of this world’s history; and there should be harmonious action in the ranks of Sabbath keepers. Those who stand aloof from the great work of instructing the people upon this question, do not follow where the Great Physician leads the way. “If any man will come after me,” Christ said, “let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” Matt. 16: 24.
The Lord has presented before me that many, many will be rescued from physical, mental, and moral degeneracy through the practical influence of health reform. Health talks will be given; publications will be multiplied. The principlesof health reform will be received with favor; and many will be enlightened. The influences that are associated with health reform will commend it to the judgment of all who want light; and they will advance step by step to receive the special truths for this time. Thus truth and righteousness will meet together.
Life is a holy trust, which God alone can enable us to keep, and to use to his glory. But he who formed the wonderful structure of the body will take special care to keep it in order if men do not work at cross-purposes with him. Every talent intrusted to us he will help us to improve and use in accordance with the will of the Giver. Days, months, and years are added to our existence that we may improve our opportunities and advantages for working out our individual salvation, and by our unselfish life promoting the well-being of others. Thus may we build up the kingdom of Christ, and make manifest the glory of God.
The gospel and the medical missionary work are to advance together. The gospel is to be bound up with the principles of true health reform. Christianity is to be brought into the practical life. Earnest, thorough reformatory work is to be done. True Bible religion is an outflowing of the love of God for fallen man. God’s people are to advance in straightforward lines to impress the hearts of those who are seeking for truth, who desire to act their part aright in this intensely earnest age. We are to present the principles of health reform before the people, doing all in our power to lead men and women to see the necessity of these principles, and to practice them.

The Whisper of the Twilight

By Worthie Harris Holden

WORTHIE HARRIS HOLDEN
SWEET the quiet calm of evening When the spirit seeks repose, And a gentle hush is weaving Holy thoughts at daylight's close.
’Mid the crowded morning duties Urged by noontide’s hurried feet, Oft we miss the sunny beauties And the floral odors sweet.
As the twilight low descending Steals the fret from every brow, Swift the wings of night are lending Upward flight to praises now.
God benign bestowed the sunlight, Gave its work of rainbow hue; But the whisper of the twilight Is his tranquil, blest adieu
To the labors and the wrestling, To the hurried, anxious strides; Then my wearied spirit nestling ’Neath the wing of peace abides.
Portland, Oregon.

FRANCIS MONROE BURG

By Francis Monroe Burg

Moses and Christ—No. 3

FRANCIS MONROE BURG

“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a soul shall sin through ignorance against any of the commandments of the Lord concerning things which ought not to be done, and shall do against any of them: . . . let him bring for his sin, which he hath sinned, a young bullock without blemish unto the Lord for a sin offering.” Lev. 4: 1-3.
“If any soul shall sin . . . against any of the commandments of the Lord.” This language contains a thought of the utmost importance, involving the leading question under consideration in these papers; namely, the relation between Moses and Christ in the working out of God’s plan for man’s salvation. Sin is defined in the Scriptures as “the transgression of the law.” See 1 John 3: 4. Paul said, “By the law is the knowledge of sin.” Rom. 3: 20. Again he says, “I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.” Rom. 7: 7. This thought is of the most vital importance in connection with the matter of human salvation. The guilt which man incurred by his transgression of the law, demanded the sacrifice and death of the beloved Son of God for its expiation. Nothing short of this great price could pay the debt.
It follows, in the nature of the case, that man must be led to sense his guilt and to sincerely repent if the benefit provided in the sacrifice in his behalf is to be realized by him. It needs no argument to convince the reader that the Spirit, through the law which has been broken, will bring a sense of guilt and a conviction to the sinner that will lead him to a confession of his sin and to accept the salvation which is offered through Christ. The apostle states this primary object of the law in working out man’s salvation in the following language: “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” Rom. 3: 19.
When a sinner feels the weight of condemnation and his heart is broken with conviction till he cries out, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” he is where he will appreciate the great deliverance purchased for him through Christ. Just as surely as his faith grasps the salvation offered freely to him, an everlasting song of gratitude and praise to God for his salvation is awakened in his heart.
This was David’s experience. His testimony is given in the following familiar language: “I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God.” Ps. 40: 1-3.
He said further: “I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations. For I have said, Mercy shall be built up forever: thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens.” Ps. 89: 1, 2.
David and all the redeemed will spend the ages to come in praising God for the mercy shown them in purchasing their redemption. The apostle expresses this thought as follows:—
“But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace are ye saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” Eph. 2: 4-7.
The law in written form, to make sin abound (Rom. 5: 20), came through Moses. The grace that brings salvation came by Jesus Christ. See John 1: 17.
What man of all the Bible record has ever been so honored as was Moses when he was called up into the mount that trembled to its foundations because of the presence of Jehovah? There he received the “lively oracles to give unto us.” This is the testimony that Stephen bore concerning Moses when making his defense: “This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me, him shall ye hear. This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us.” Acts 7: 37, 38.
So in the great typical system connected with the sanctuary the law of God was present, enshrined in the ark; and was to Israel, as it is designed to be now, the great sin detector. This is clearly seen from Lev. 4: 1-3, already cited.
When the sinner was awakened to the consciousness that he was guilty, having broken any of the commandments of God, he was to bring his offering for the sin committed. This bullock or lamb, as the case might be, was a type of Christ, the “Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” The sinner was to slay the victim with his own hand, in this way acknowledging that his sin had demanded the death of Christ; and as then in the type, so now, confession of sin is necessary for the pardon of the offender. See 1 John 1: 9.
Much more could be written concerning the various phases of the typical system; but others have often covered this ground, and this is not the primary object of this short series of articles.
It must appear that there is a direct relationship between the offices performed by Moses in connection with the working out of God’s plan to save men, as it has thus far been presented, and the fact, as noted in the beginning of these articles, that Moses’ name appears in connection with that everlasting song which the saved will sing when the plan of redemption shall have finished its work.
The next article will conclude this series, and will be based on the third chapter of Second Corinthians.

The Secret of the Power of Christian Science

By G. D. Ballou

G. D. BALLOU
There exists in every normal mind a desire to know the hidden things of life. Curiosity concerning mystical, occult things is a prevailing trait in almost every character. All will not admit this by word of mouth, but they are almost sure to confess it by actions when occasion presents the opportunity.
The Creator provided for the full exercise of this feature of the human mind in the works of his hands. From the tiniest atom to the giant suns and worlds, all creation is veiled in impenetrable mystery. “There is an infinite field of inquiry in every individual part of creation and in every component element of each part. The microscope opens the door just far enough into the infinite minutiae to set the searcher wondering, and wakens hungry cravings for a knowledge of what is hidden within. And the telescope enlarges the outsideview of our surroundings until we are utterly lost in astonishment at the overwhelming floods of thought that sweep in upon us like the resistless waves of an infinite ocean. Infinity bounds us on every side, and within the confines of this infinity are boundless fields for human research.”
Just to notice two very practical items in this field, suppose you study for thirty days the question of how the Creator can take sun energy, air, water, and earth, and with them produce plant life, grains, fruits, and vegetables, besides all the poisonous herbs; and all growing side by side. How are the different flavors of the fruits and grains developed by the same natural processes? How can our Creator develop and perfect the apricot, plum, prune, and nectarine from the same peach root?—a fact of immense commercial value to the nurseryman. The writer has seen, and so have others, these fruits all budded in and growing on the same tree.
Study these items in nature for thirty days, and then take another thirty-day course studying how the same Creator takes these food substances and transforms them into flesh and blood, and tell, if you can, the secrets of that power that changes wheat and fruits and vegetables into this wonderful human mechanism. When you have this matter all cleared up satisfactorily, then inquire, How does God produce feelings, emotions, and thoughts from these food substances? and how does he use water to aid in keeping both body and mind in perfect running order?
These and kindred topics are sufficient to keep mankind busy for a lifetime here and for an eternal lifetime hereafter. It is love for the study of God and his works that constitutes the spiritual element in us. This spiritual nature was given man to lead him out into the study of these things, that through them he might be brought to a knowledge of the eternal power and divine nature of the Creator. See Rom. 1:20. Men must study these lines of infinite thought if they would be kept from false systems of religion which are based on a false appeal to this same spiritual nature.
But the world has forgotten God and his work to such an extent that a special call is made in the judgment hour for men to “worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of water.” Rev. 14:6, 7.
In this time of the judgment the world is gone mad after artificial mysteries. Fiction, mysticism, occultism, hypnotism, everything strange and wonderful, except the deep things of God, is being exploited to catch those souls that are in a sense spiritually hungry. If men were busy studying the infinite things of God, they would have no appetite for the artificial things. Take the student who is delving into the study of electricity: he has no taste for novel reading, and very little use for the juggler and the faker. The human mysticisms do not attract him.
Systems of religion that are built on an appeal to the marvelous and mystical become attractive because men and women have forgotten the things of God. Occultism and mysticism have no need of compulsion, they furnish the most attractive elements in any new system because they have in them a perversion of the true appeal to man’s spiritual nature. They constitute a force in themselves, and to one who knows little or nothing of the study of the infinite works of God their appeal is almost irresistible.
It does not matter how vague and uncertain or how far from the facts of everyday experience any new creed may be; if it is strange, mystifying, and marvelous, it takes men’s minds away from their former adverse moods. The doubt and fear and remorse being removed, there is a wonderful field opened to confidence; and when this element prevails, rest and peace are sure to follow. It does not matter what is the basis of the confidence, the mind is liberated, at least temporarily. The adverse moods sap the vital energies, really use up nerve force, so that the bodily functions are interfered with and diseases result. Sometimes the shock of the agony of disappointment prostrates the individual to death’s door. Remove the sorrow, restore the confidence, and the symptoms will promptly disappear. A long list of diseases due to mental causes are eradicated when the mind comes to a state of rest. A very large proportion of human ailments in the ultimate analysis may be traced to mental causes. Worry and anxiety put a tension on the nervous system which restrains the breathing, lessens the appetite for food and water, robs the subject of sleep, and thus interferes with every function of nutrition, depuration, and circulation. Agony of mind affects the heart action directly. These are just hints that lead to a host of facts about which we know little or nothing. The cause of the worry may have been imaginary, but the diseases resulting are just as real as those due to physical causes. Anything which will remove the worry and anxiety will restore the health, if the damage is not too serious.
We set out to compare the workings of the system of Christian Science, so called, with the facts we have just set forth. This cult, first of all, professes to possess the same healing power exercised by Jesus of Nazareth, or rather, its advocates would like the world to understand that Jesus used the same power as is now being used through Christian Science. Compare their long-drawn-out system of mental diversion for relief of the distressed, with the direct, instantaneous method used by Jesus. He spoke, and it was done. His word of command had in it the control of everything in nature. He spoke as one having authority, and all nature obeyed him. O, the vain assumptions of misguided humanity! If this generation only knew the laws concerning mental causes and remedies, they would not gap and wonder and go astray after whimsical follies as they do just because there is something in them that they do not understand.
The merest novice who has not read half the Gospel accounts will agree with us that it is belittling the work of Christ and pouring contempt on the doctrine of divine healing to liken the work of these professed scientists to his manifestations of creative power. Not a miracle he wrought but bears the stamp of creative energy. Where are the cases of leprosy they have healed? Where are the maimed they have made whole? Recite one case where the bread and fish have been multiplied in the hands of the science practitioner to feed the hungry. Rather, look in their coffers and see the money gathered through the influence of their presumptuous claims. Do you say, “But this work in our day is progressive; they will soon be able to perform these greater works”? Do not be deceived; no one who denies the workings of creative energy and substitutes an evolutionary process in its stead will ever be endowed with creative power. Christ’s work began with creating wine from water.
But they do through mental diversion change the mental moods from adverse to favorable conditions, and some rally from illness due to mental causes, and get well. The notion prevails in nearly every human mind that whatever is accomplished for the sick without visible means must be done by some miraculous, divine power. The human mind, through hate, fear, doubt, unbelief, worry, anxiety, remorse, and despair, wastes, yes, verily destroys, so much energy in many cases that there is not enough left to keep the physical functions in healthy operation, and disease follows. Sometimes the agony of fear or sorrow or some disappointment smites the physical being down to death. If the individual does not quite succumb, confidence and courage and hope and joyful expectation may almost as suddenly restore the individual to normal conditions.
Christian Science from the start to the finish is a system of denial. It denies the evidence of the senses, the reality of physical things, the conclusions of reason. It denies everything but what Mrs. Eddy has taught. It teaches that life is not dependent on our behavior here toward natural law, for natural law is but a myth; that all suffering, pain, and sickness are but errors of mortal mind. Christ cast out the devils. But Mrs. Eddy denies their existence, and yet she had to create an ethereal demon on whom she could lay the blame for all the failures of her system. She called the name of this demon “Malicious Animal Magnetism.” She found this devil fully as hard to manage as Satan himself, whom she had already relegated to the shades. And there is no God but the great pantheistic “All Soul” that the heathen nations of Asia invented long ages ago, of whom they say you and I and everything are but parts and parcels. In this philosophy everything is shadowy and ethereal.
So we have before our minds a systemof religion, apart from everything that has a semblance of reason, which consists of the most mystical negations and abstractions ever foisted on mankind; which explains the Bible until it means all the way from nothing up to just the opposite of what it says, and yet can enable its devotees to say truly, Therefore having by denial freed myself from all sense of sin and all sense of responsibility for it, I have peace with myself through Christian Science.
It is this false appeal to the spiritual nature through mysticism and occultism that removes the adverse mental causes, and makes this the most dangerous counterfeit ever passed upon mankind. A counterfeit does not have to be all base metal. A piece of metal stamped to look like a twenty-dollar gold piece might contain ten dollars’ worth of gold and still be a counterfeit, because it is not what it purports on its face to be. Lack of knowledge concerning mental causes and mental remedies makes it possible to pass this dangerous counterfeit. The results obtained through the mental rest secured bring in the enchantment of ancient times, and thousands are becoming mad devotees of this occult, mystical philosophy.
There is nothing in all nature outside the study of God’s works that will so soon change the mental moods as curiosity, wonder, and astonishment. The world does not sense this truth. The inspirer of Christian Science literature has caught the world napping.
Very few can promptly grasp an appreciation of the facts we have set forth. The human mind has not been thinking along these lines, and is not prepared for these sleight-of-mind performances. It is the perverted spiritual faculties to which the appeal has been made; so it is not difficult to make such natures think they are dealing with divine things; and this is where the sleight-of-mind performance comes in. It is not a question of honesty or sincerity on the part of the recipient; it is simply a question of being controlled by the mysticisms of which Mrs. Eddy has become the inspired prophet and chief apostle. There is an inspiration in them, but how can it be from above?
Those who are in love with the study of the works of God in nature will have their minds so filled with a sense of the divine nature that the vaporings of Christian Science leaders will seem cheap and vapid. Those who have never seen the divine nature of God through the study of his works, and those who have received a false impression of God through some of the doctrines of the old creeds, will be the most likely to fall victims to this new form of ancient-modern heathen occultism. The cure for this spiritual malady lies in returning to the study of the things of God as outlined in the first paragraphs of this article.
A fearful doom awaits those who will not learn of God through his works. Read Ps. 28:5: “Because they regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them, and not build them up.” A picture is drawn, in Isa. 5:11, of the doom of those who revel in the works of men’s hands but do not regard the works of the Lord. Those who take pleasure in human fantasies and mysticisms will fare no better. There is a day of revelation coming, but too late for many.
There is a reason for the falling away from sound doctrine. It lies in the perversion of the spiritual nature from the study of things of God to the study of artificial mysteries.
Let us not blame nor censure, but by example and precept teach and exhort and appeal with “the spirit of . . . power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” 2 Tim. 1:7.

God’s Judgments; Their Object and Purpose

By L. H. Proctor

L. H. PROCTOR
“With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. . . . Lord, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them.” Isa. 26:9-16.
THE Bible and the spirit of prophecy show conclusively that in the last days there will be a great increase of calamities, or judgments, in the earth as signs of Christ’s soon coming. These judgments will turn one class of people to the Lord and salvation. They also are signs of the end. They follow the signs in sun, moon, and stars as recorded in Luke 21:25, 26. Here Christ says there will be such terrible signs in the earth and in the sea that men’s hearts will fail them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth. The stars fell in 1833. Since that time there has been a great increase of storms, floods, tidal waves, fires, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, etc.
“Acquire what you may, preserve it with all the jealous care you are capable of exercising, and yet the mandate may go forth from the Lord, and in a few hours a fire which no skill can quench, may destroy the accumulations of your entire life, and lay them in a mass of smoldering ruins. . . . He has made a beginning, but not an end. . . . Storms, earthquakes, whirlwinds, fire, and the sword will spread desolation everywhere, until men’s hearts shall fail them for fear, and for looking after those things which shall come upon the earth. You know not how small a space is between you and eternity.”—“Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. IV, pages 52, 53.
I quote again, from Volume V, page 136: “Already the judgments of God are abroad in the land, as seen in storms, in floods, in tempests, in earthquakes, in peril by land and by sea. The great I AM is speaking to those who make void his law. When God’s wrath is poured out upon the earth, who will then be able to stand?”
Again we read: “The great conflagrations and the disasters by sea and land that have visited our country were the special providences of God, a warning of what is about to come upon the world. God will show man that he can kindle upon his idols a fire that no man can quench. The great general conflagration is just ahead, when all this wasted labor of life will be swept away in a night and day.”
“The time is near when our large cities will be visited with the judgments of God. In a little while, these cities will be terribly shaken. No matter how large or how strong their buildings, no matter how many safeguards against fire may be provided, let God touch these buildings, and in a few minutes or a few hours they are in ruins. The ungodly cities of our world are to be swept away by the besom of destruction. In the calamities that are now befalling immense buildings and large portions of cities, God is showing us what will come on the whole world.”—Id., Vol. VII, page 83.
“I was shown that a terrible condition of things exists in our world. The angel of mercy is folding her wings, ready to depart. Already the Lord’s restraining power is being withdrawn from the earth. . . . The law of God is made void. We see and hear of confusion and perplexity, want and famine, earthquakes and floods; terrible outrages will be committed by men. . . . The wrath of God is upon the inhabitants of the world, who are fast becoming as corrupt as were the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. Already fire and flood are destroying thousands of lives.”—Id., Vol. VIII, page 49.
“As I hear of the terrible calamities that from week to week are taking place, I ask myself, What do these things mean? The most awful disasters are following one another in quick succession. How frequently we hear of earthquakes and tornadoes, of destruction by fire and flood, with great loss of life and property! . . . They are one of the means by which he seeks to arouse men and women to a sense of their danger. . . . But there are many, many in our churches who know little of the real meaning of the truth for this time. I appeal to them not to disregard the fulfilling of the signs of the times, which show so plainly that the end is near. . . . Let no one say in his heart or by his works, my Lord delayeth his coming.”—Id., page 252.
In the “Spirit of Prophecy,” Vol. I, pages 85, 82, these statements are found: “In the day of the Lord, just before the coming of Christ, God will send lightnings from heaven in his wrath, which will unite with fire in the earth. The mountains will burn like a furnace, and will pour forth terrible streams of lava, destroying gardens and fields, villages and cities.” “These wonderful exhibitions will be more numerous and terrible just before the second coming of Christ and the end of the world, as signs of its speedy destruction.”
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