Review and Herald, Vol. 86, No. 43. (10/28/1909)

Review and Herald

Oct 28, 1909

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 28, 1909

The Open-Flat Bible

The latest achievement in the art of Bible making is the new “open-flat” Bible brought out this year. The special feature of this Bible consists of a patent binding, by the use of which the back of the Bible is preserved perfectly round, and yet, when the Bible is opened, it lies perfectly flat in the hand or on the table. This is secured by fastening the leaves together at the back in such a manner that they are not attached to the outside cover. The advantages are at once apparent. First, the Bible opens perfectly flat; second, the original round back is preserved; third, it is almost impossible for the leaves ever to come loose, for the strain does not come on the outer binding, but on the inner lining.

In addition to the “open-flat” feature, the Bible is printed with black-faced type, and is self-pronouncing.

PRICES

With References and Maps

These Bibles are NOT Furnished With Concordance

Style “A.”—Bering seal, divinity circuit, round corners, red under gold edges, silk headband and marker, grained leather lining, silk sewed, India paper. A very serviceable book. $4.

Style “B.”—Persian morocco, divinity circuit, round corners, red under gold edges, silk headband and marker, leather lined to edge, silk sewed, India paper—compares very favorably with Bibles which cost more. $5.

Style “C.”—Genuine Levant morocco, divinity circuit, round corners, red under gold edges, silk headband and marker, calf-lined to edge, silk sewed, India paper—the perfection in Bible making. The cover has a rich, soft, flexible feeling, which immediately captivates one. $6. Prices include postage or express.

Life and Health

The November number of Life and Health is now ready to mail. It is very attractive in appearance, and is filled with the most practical information on health topics. Many health questions are answered. The following list contains some of the common, yet important, questions answered in the November number:—

1. What is pneumonia?

2. What is food intoxication?

3. Is overeating hereditary?

4. What is the “hookworm disease”?

5. How should grains be cooked?

6. How should pneumonia be treated?

7. Is it ever safe to use “cheap milk”?

8. What is the “Conquest of Malaria”?

9. What effect does worry have upon the digestion?

10. Is a great variety of food at one meal best?

11. Is pure raw milk preferable to Pasteurized milk?

12. What is chronic bronchitis? Can it be cured?

13. What is the new theory regarding constipation?

14. What are the most common carriers of diphtheria?

15. Does not alcohol prepare the bed for tuberculosis?

16. Why do likes and dislikes in food affect digestion?

17. Why is there a present demand for “untrained nurses”?

18. Should an education be gained at the expense of health?

19. What are some of the most common carriers of tuberculosis?

20. What nutritive value do cereals possess above that of flesh?

21. Why is it that reforms in eating are sometimes disappointing?

22. Wherein is “moderate” drinking dangerous, hurtful, and often fatal?

23. Are the causes of ill health in different persons difficult to determine?

24. Why is it that a relish for the food eaten is necessary to good digestion?

25. What is the present greatest neglect in both home and school training?

26. What is the best, most simple, reasonable, and sure cure for biliousness?

27. Is the individual cup indispensable to individual and public health?

28. What special fruit is good for one whose digestion of proteids is deficient?

29. How many State legislatures have passed laws pertaining to tuberculosis?

30. What is the benzoate controversy? Is benzoate as a food preservative injurious?

31. What are some of the causes of nervous children? how should they be treated?

32. What two things are usually the principal causes of lack of vitality and of poor health?

33. What are the things one must do in order to bring about an approximate condition of health?

34. Is frequent coughing, clearing the throat, and blowing the nose hurtful or helpful when suffering with a cold?

35. What kind of dress is most appropriate and desirable for housework? of what is it made? how is it made?

36. What foreign city has made the greatest progress in sanitary conditions during the last five years?

37. What disease results from the use of eating damaged corn? from poor nutrition? bad hygiene? the use of alcohol?

38. Is it good sense for one to eat a certain food simply because it is considered to be generally healthful, whether he likes it or not?

39. What are some of the simple things parents must do for their children in early life, in order to save them from ignorance, life temptations, and ruin?

40. What is the death-rate from tuberculosis among Chinese residents of the United States? What is it in Syria and Turkey? What throughout the United States?

Christian Education

The treasurer of the Iowa Conference writes of Christian Education as follows: “I have examined the magazine, Christian Education, and am very much pleased with it. I had hardly looked for so many good things in the first issue, but it appears to me that it is the magazine for our people, and is entitled to very much of our attention. This magazine should be in every home in the land, especially in the homes of our people.”

Families as Periodical Workers

We are receiving a great many reports similar to the following: “My wife and I have been selling Life and Health since January, 1909, and also sold Signs of the Times in February. In our efforts we have disposed of a number of copies of Liberty, the Protestant Magazine, and the Watchman. We enjoy this work very much, and expect to continue in it.” In the future we expect to be able to count many whole families as regular periodical workers.

Christian Education

EVERY reader of the REVIEW ought to have Christian Education, our educational magazine; for it is especially designed to assist all in the greatest possible development for efficient service in the proclamation of the greatest message ever committed to man. The magazine is new and filled with the essential, fundamental principles forming the basis of true education; none can afford to be without it, especially when it can be secured for such a very low price as compared with other educational journals.

THE WORK —AND— THE WORKERS

By Editor

LIFE SKETCHES.—We still have in stock a very few copies of the “Life Sketches of James White and Ellen G. White.” This book contains much valuable information that can not be secured from any other source, and is very interesting. The young people, especially, should read it, and become familiar with the early lives of these pioneers in this message. We have only eighteen copies left, and we can not promise to fill orders when they are gone. Do not miss the opportunity to secure one of these remaining copies. Price, $1.25.

SPEAKER’S MANUAL.—How few public speakers speak correctly. Either a lack of knowledge or carelessness is responsible for the errors made, and in either case the speaker is placed at a great disadvantage. How often audiences are made to smile at some word mispronounced, and thus the speaker is embarrassed. The little book, “Speaker’s Manual,” is a text-book on pronunciation and enunciation, and is of great value to all who speak the English language, whether minister, teacher, or student. The book contains the correct pronunciation of over two thousand words commonly mispronounced. Pocket size; 127 pages. Cloth, 25 cents; leather, 50 cents.

Editorial

By Editor

SHORTLY after the passing of the time, in 1844, when the early believers in the “blessed hope” expected to see the Lord come, William Miller wrote an address, exhorting to the patience that worketh experience, which in turn worketh the hope that “maketh not ashamed.”

NOR yet had the light come explaining the disappointment, and showing that the cleansing of the sanctuary was the opening of the final phase of Christ’s work in the heavenly sanctuary, and not his second advent. Nor, as yet, had those believers generally begun to throw away their experience in the first and second angels’ messages, and to plunge into the confusion of subsequent time-setting. In his address, adopted by a conference at Low Hampton, N. Y., Dec. 28, 29, 1844, Mr. Miller said:—

We bless God for you, my brethren, that you are all taught of the Lord. Your creed is the Scriptures; your spelling-book is the Bible; your grammar is the Word indicted by the Spirit; your geography respects the promised inheritance of the holy land; your astronomy respects the bright, starry crown of righteousness; your philosophy is the wisdom which cometh down from God; your bond of union is the love and fellowship of the saints; your teacher is the Holy Ghost; and your professor the Lord Jesus Christ; your recitation-room is your closet; your recitations are heard in your prayers, and your songs fill up your vacations. We speak not of rewards, diplomas, and degrees; for these are reserved in heaven for us, when these dusty walls of this tabernacle shall be dissolved, and we are called home into the new heavens and the new earth, to a full fruition of that hope of which we are not ashamed. Ashamed of this hope?—No. Ashamed of looking for this hope?—No. Ashamed of expecting Jesus? Why, what a question is that! . . . We would not yield a hair’s breadth of our expectations for all the honors of Caesar’s household, with all the popular applause of a worldly church. We exhort you, then, by all the love and fellowship of the saints, to hold fast to this hope.

HAD the body of believers heeded this exhortation, and held fast to the foundation of this hope, the sure word of prophecy that fixed forever the beginning of the cleansing of the sanctuary in 1844, they would have walked straight on, with the few who did hold fast, into the glorious light of the third angel’s message which is now soon to close with the coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven. Still,—

“There is a blessed hope, More precious and more bright Than all the joyless mockery The world esteems delight.”

A Monarch’s Restless Night

By W. A. S.

A GERMAN count, who had plotted against Frederic William III of Prussia—even attempting personal violence—was imprisoned in the fortress of Glatz, Upper Silesia. His story, translated from the practical commentaries of Dr. Besser, pastor of Waldenburg, was printed forty years ago in the Boston Christian. The count had no other reading-matter than a Bible, which he was in no mood to open, as he was opposed to religion. But after a long time of solitary confinement he began to read the Book. Gradually it touched his life. The account says:—

On a rough, stormy November night, when the mountain gales howled round the fortress, the rain fell in torrents, and the swollen and foaming Neisse rushed roaring down the valley, Count M— lay sleepless on his cot. The tempest in his breast was as fearful as that without. His whole past life rose before him; he was convicted of his manifold shortcomings and sin; he felt that the source of all his misery lay in his forsaking God. For the first time in his life his heart was soft, and his eyes wet with tears of genuine repentance. He rises from his cot, opens his Bible, and his eye falls on Ps. 50:15: “Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.” This word of God reaches to the depth of his soul; he falls on his knees for the first time since he was a child, and cries to God for mercy; and that compassionate God who turns not away from the first movement of faith toward him, heard the cry of this sufferer in the storm-beaten dungeon of Glatz, and gave him not only spiritual but temporal deliverance.

And this is how the deliverance came, by the providence of God:—

The same night [of the count’s surrender], in his castle at Berlin, King Frederic William III lay sleepless in bed. Severe bodily pains tormented him, and in his utter exhaustion he begged of God to grant him a single hour of refreshing sleep. The favor was granted; and when he woke again, he said to his wife, the gracious Louise, “God has looked upon me very graciously, and I am thankful to him. Who in my kingdom has wronged me most? I will forgive him.”

“The Count of M—,” replied Louise, “who is imprisoned in Glatz.”

“You are right,” said the sick king; “let him be pardoned.”

Day had not dawned over Berlin ere a courier was despatched to Silesia, bearing to the prisoner in Glatz pardon and release.

The incident reminds one of the words in Esther: “On that night could not the king sleep, and he commanded to bring the book of records;” and out of the troublous night came deliverance to the Jews.

W. A. S.

“The Veil” in the Epistle to the Hebrews

By William Warren Prescott

A PYRAMID is a very stable structure when it is built up in the natural way and is allowed to stand upon its base. If, however, an attempt is made to build a pyramid with the apex resting upon the ground, the whole structure is likely to come to grief, and at best can be kept in place only by constant effort.

A parallel to this experience is found when a doctrine or system of belief is made to rest upon a single text, or upon the interpretation given to a single word. If such a system of doctrine is maintained at all, it must be by the most skilful manipulation, but it is only a question of time when it will fall because of its inherent instability.

These thoughts are suggested by the fact that an effort is being made to set aside some of the essential features of the third angel’s message by insisting upon an unwarranted interpretation of a single text. It therefore seems to be an opportune time to examine anew some of the teachings which are being called in question. In this article we shall consider briefly the use made of

the word “veil” in the Epistle to the Hebrews.

The word is used three times—in Heb. 6:19; 9:3; and 10:20. In the first instance there is no qualifying word connected with it; in the second instance a qualifying word is appended; and in the third case an explanation of the meaning of the word is added.

To avoid repetition we will examine these texts in reverse order, using the American Revised Version. We quote: “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the way which he dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having a great priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in fulness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience: and having our body washed with pure water, let us hold fast the confession of our hope that it waver not; for he is faithful that promised.” Heb. 10:19-23.

This epistle is the divine commentary upon the typical sanctuary and its services, and presents therefore the gospel of salvation through Christ. In these verses we are exhorted to draw near to God with assurance, because of the privilege granted to us of entering into the heavenly sanctuary, into the presence of God, by “a new and living way” in the person of Jesus our High Priest, who identified himself with humanity in order that humanity might share with him in the blessings of heaven. This union of divinity with humanity—without which the true gospel of the sanctuary would be impossible—and its purposes have been previously declared in this epistle in these words: “Since then the children are sharers in flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner partook of the same; that through death he might bring to naught him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and might deliver all them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily not to angels doth he give help, but he giveth help to the seed of Abraham. Wherefore it behooved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” Heb. 2:14-17. A wonderful truth is here revealed. In order that the Son of God as high priest might make propitiation for sin, it was necessary for him to become the Son of man, in order that God and man might be reconciled in him. In this way only could fallen humanity, separated from God, be restored to fellowship with God and be admitted to his immediate presence.

In order that the glory of God might be revealed among sinful men and all flesh see it and thus find the salvation of God, it was necessary that divinity should be veiled in humanity. This was the fulfilment of the type in which the glory of God was revealed and yet hidden behind veils and curtains, and so we read: “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt [margin, “tabernacled”] among us (and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth.” John 1:14. Here the ladder which Jacob saw in vision was let down from heaven to earth. Thus in himself Jesus became the “new and living way” to God. Thus was humanity blessed “with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.”

In the typical service, the priest represented the people and pleaded in their behalf by appearing before God for the people. In the true service of the heavenly sanctuary our great High Priest, as the second Adam, the head of the new creation, has so identified himself with humanity that every believer is found in him, and in his very person Christ is the way to God. Thus, by his taking the flesh, paying the penalty for sin, and appearing in the presence of God as the Son of man, Jesus has provided a way of access to God. His flesh, which served as a veil to hide the glory of the Father, became the way of access to the Father, and so there was opened up “a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh.” This is a vital feature of the gospel of the sanctuary.

In the first part of the ninth chapter of this epistle the writer describes the typical sanctuary, with its apartments, and defines the curtain which separated them as “the second veil.” His use of the term in this connection is very significant, as it indicates that in the Epistle to the Hebrews the word veil, by itself, would not be sufficient to designate clearly the hanging which separated the holy from the most holy place. There was a hanging at the entrance of the outer court of the tabernacle, another hanging at the entrance of the holy place, each of which is called a veil in the description of the typical sanctuary. But when the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews wishes to mention the hanging, or veil, which separated the two apartments of the sanctuary, he uses the definite expression “the second veil.” It is therefore unwarrantable to assume that when he uses the word veil in the same epistle without a qualifying word, he necessarily means the second veil.

This brings us to the third instance in this epistle where the word veil is used. Referring to the hope set before us, the writer says: “Which we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast, and entering into that which is within the veil; whither as a forerunner Jesus entered for us, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” The evident meaning of this scripture is that our hope of salvation is based upon the work of Christ in our behalf—that work which is accomplished in the heavenly sanctuary. This work is carried forward in both apartments of the sanctuary, and can not be divided into independent sections. The service in the first apartment is just as essential in its place as the service in the second apartment, and our hope can not be placed upon either apart from the other.

On the face of it, it appears to be a far-fetched and strained interpretation of this passage which insists that reference is here made to the work in either apartment exclusively, and this is emphatically true when such an interpretation is entirely out of harmony with the plain teaching of the whole epistle.

We have already seen that in this epistle the word veil is used in two other places and in both instances with a definite meaning which is clearly indicated. In one instance (chapter 9:3) it refers to the hanging which divided the holy place from the most holy place, and this application of the term is made clear by calling it “the second veil.” In the third instance (chapter 10:20) the word veil is used in an altogether different sense, and is defined as referring to the flesh of Christ. Now it is manifestly a violation of any proper rule of interpretation to maintain that the word veil in this epistle, without any qualifying word, must necessarily, and without any question whatever, mean the same as when the same writer in the same epistle uses the term with the qualifying word “second” applied to it. If “the veil” necessarily means “the second veil” when first used in this epistle, why does the writer add the unnecessary word “second” when he speaks of the veil the next time, if he is referring to the same veil?

It ought to be clear to any candid reader of the Epistle to the Hebrews that when the writer wished to make a distinction between the different veils, or hangings, which closed the entrances to the court, the holy place, and the most holy place of the sanctuary, he used language which would make the distinction perfectly clear. When, therefore, he does not make such distinction clear, it is plain that he is not using the word veil with any specific application. The evident meaning then of the passage under consideration is that the hope of our salvation, “sure and steadfast,” is anchored in the heavenly sanctuary. To give it any other meaning is to read into it our own ideas rather than to draw out the ideas given by Inspiration, and is a wresting of the Scriptures.

Some further claims concerning the interpretation of this passage will be considered in another article.

W. W. P.

Babylon and God's Law

By C. M. S.

God warns his people in the last days in regard to the fall of a power, or that institution, which he calls Babylon. That power is the mother of idolatry, and God has decreed the limit of its duration. Says the prophet: “In one day shall her plagues come, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire; for strong is the Lord God who judged her.” Rev. 18: 8. The execution of that decree closes the career of Babylon.

But in the overthrow of Babylon there is the overthrow of everything that goes to make up Babylon—all the institutions, all the influences, all the men and women who have accepted its principles, all the nations who have forgotten God. In view of this, it means everything to us to know whether we are standing on the side of Babylon or on the side of God. We can know this by knowing what Babylon means and what it stands for. Babylon means confusion. God called it that. It meant that and was called that because it sought to frustrate the ways of God and substitute its own way. Such a course has always brought confusion. It did so in heaven, and it could do no less here. Let us not forget these two characteristics of Babylon: Opposition to God's way, and choosing its own way.

God's law and God's way are one and the same. God's law condemned idolatry. Babylon broke that law, and taught the world to bow down to wood and stone, to images of silver and gold; to worship the trees and winds, and pour out libations to the gods of the sea.

God's law established the Sabbath and commanded its observance. Modern Babylon has taught the world—and is still teaching it—to trample upon that institution and choose another to take its place. God indicated his way in this matter; Babylon chose her own way; and God, in his last warning message to this world, is calling men out of Babylon and back to his appointed way: “I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come forth, my people, out of her, that ye have no fellowship with her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” Rev. 18: 4.

The law of God, then, is the great test to determine what is Babylon, and who are of Babylon; for God condemns her because of her attitude toward his law. “Her sins,” he says, “have reached even unto heaven,” and he plainly declares that “sin is the transgression of the law.” As he condemns her for her opposition to his law, so will he condemn us if we allow ourselves to be deceived into taking that same attitude toward that law. They who obey God's call to come forth from her will be those of whom it is said: “Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus;” and of that same company it is also said: “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” Rev. 22: 14.

This company will not be overwhelmed in the overthrow of Babylon; for they have ranged themselves on the side of God and his law. There are only two classes, the saved and the lost, the followers of Christ and the followers of Babylon, and man's attitude toward the law of God determines to which class he belongs. That is the test by which we prove ourselves loyal or disloyal, God's friends or his enemies. Christ said: “Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” Christ spoke the law of ten commandments.

God has only one truth for the world, only one gospel, only one light, only one way, only one law. It is possible to be considered as keeping the law of God in spirit when we, through ignorance, have broken its letter. Many who have witnessed for God with their lives had broken the letter of the fourth commandment; but the sin of ignorance God passed over. They had never seen the light of that requirement. It is the attitude that God looks upon, the willingness of heart to do what he requires regardless of consequences; but he to whom that light has come has not that cloak to cover his failure. He must stand or fall according to the attitude which he has assumed toward God's law. Babylon falls because she opposed that law. But this is what the psalmist says of those who have not followed in her way: “Blessed are they that are perfect in the way, who walk in the law of Jehovah.” Ps. 119: 1. C. M. S.

God’s Account of Little Things

By F. M. W.

BLESSED indeed is the experience of the one who can trust God in all the little things of life. It is in this childlike simplicity of faith that we come to know God as he is. It is comparatively easy to trust an overruling Providence in the affairs of our friends, it is not so difficult to believe that God will control the great things in our own experience; but it requires a deeper measure of faith and closer contact with the divine to know through faith that Heaven takes account of all the little things in our lives, and that in these we may confidently expect guidance and protection as well as in the greater questions which burden our hearts.

Here and there through the Divine Revelation are little details and touches which reveal to us the tender solicitude of the heavenly Parent. The earth-life of our Lord shows us one who can enter into all the experiences of his children. He fed the hungry multitude; he wept at the grave of Lazarus; he furnished needed wine for the wedding feast; he said to his disciples, when weary, “Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest awhile.” Thus he shows that he takes account of hunger, of sorrow, of life’s conveniences, and of nervous and physical weariness in the experiences of his children.

In the garden of Gethsemane, when surrounded by the infuriated mob that sought his life, he cares for his disciples’ safety: “If ye seek me, let these go their way.” Even while hanging on the cross, suffering the pain of physical and mental anguish, filial love for his mother triumphs over personal pain, and he consigns her to the care of his faithful disciple, thus providing for her temporal needs.

After the resurrection, the same spirit of thoughtfulness is evident. He sends word to his disciples that he has risen, and to Peter a personal message, an evidence of love and compassion to the one who had so basely denied him in his hour of humiliation. And though glorified to-day, and sitting at the hand of heavenly Power, he is the same compassionate, loving Friend to the human family. “For we have not an high priest which can not be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” What an assurance this gives us for heeding the admonition, “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”

This fellowship with human suffering and need was shown in his dealings with Israel of old. “In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.”

A beautiful illustration of how God takes account of little things is seen in the experience of Cornelius, who was praying for light and guidance. He was instructed by an angel: “And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter: he lodgeth with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the seaside; he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to know.” The angel takes account of Peter’s full name, the name of the man with whom Peter lodged, his business, and the location of his house. This shows that God takes all these things into the account in his relationship with his children to-day.

The apostle Paul, writing from his prison-house in Rome, directed Timothy: “The cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments.” Why did this commonplace instruction find its way into the Sacred Writings, which God gave for

the guidance of his church in all ages? Was it not to show that God takes all such little things of life into account? He cared whether the apostle Paul was cold or warm. He cares the same for his children to-day. He looks with sympathy on every thinly-clad, shivering form. He sorrows for the famine-stricken and distressed. All that grieves his creatures awakens a response in his great heart of love.

We may carry to him all the little worries of life, even the matters which are so trivial or personal that we might not feel free to take them to our nearest and dearest friend of earth. God will not scorn us or reproach us, nor will he betray to others our confidence.

This is the sweetness and closeness of communion into which every child of God may enter. The entrance may be made through simple, childlike faith. In this union with the blessed Lord may be found joy and peace, which will never come through cold, formal profession. And when this close relationship is established, it will make of the Christian religion a living reality, and not a mere theory.

The disciple will be held back from wrong-doing, not because he fears God or his judgments, but because he loves him, and would not willingly grieve the great heart of his truest and dearest Friend. Christian living becomes a service of joy because it is a service of love. And even those things which strike against the natural temperament are done willingly because they are done for One whose service is dearer than selfish desire or personal convenience. Let us come so close to God, and bring him so fully into all life’s experiences, that our religion shall become the joy and essence of our very life itself.

F. M. W.

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