International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Nov 4, 1886
General Articles.
By Mrs. E. G. White
Daniel an Example of Faithfulness.
BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
WHEN Darius set over the provinces of his kingdom a hundred and twenty princes, and over these, three presidents, to whom the princes were to give account, we read that “Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit was found in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm.” But evil angels, fearing the influence of this good man over the king and in the affairs of the kingdom, stirred up the presidents and princes to envy. These wicked men watched Daniel closely, that they might find some fault in him which they could report to the king; but they failed. “He was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him.”
Then Satan sought to make Daniel’s faithfulness to God the cause of his destruction. The presidents and princes came tumultuously together unto the king, and said, “All the presidents of the kingdom, the governors and the princes, the counselors and the captains, have consulted together to establish a royal statute, and to make a firm decree, that whosoever shall ask a petition of any God or man for thirty days, save of thee, O king, he shall be cast into the den of lions.” The king’s pride was flattered. He was ignorant of the mischief purposed against Daniel, and he granted their request. The decree was signed, and became one of the unalterable laws of the Medes and Persians.
These envious men did not believe that Daniel would be untrue to his God, or that he would falter in his firm adherence to principle; and they were not mistaken in their estimate of his character. Daniel knew the value of communion with God. With full knowledge of the king’s decree, he still bowed in prayer three times a day, “his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem.” He did not seek to conceal his act, although he knew full well the consequences of his fidelity to God. He saw the dangers that beset his path; but his steps faltered not. Before those who were plotting his ruin, he would not allow even the appearance that his connection with Heaven was severed.
In all cases where the king had a right to command, Daniel would obey. He was willing to obey so far as he could do so consistently with truth and righteousness; but kings and decrees could not make him swerve from his allegiance to the King of kings. He knew that no man, not even his king, had a right to come between his conscience and his God, and interfere with the worship due to his Maker.
Daniel was true, noble, and generous. While he was anxious to be at peace with all men, he would not permit any power to turn him aside from the path of duty. He had an opportunity to testify in favor of the true God, and to present the reasons why he alone should receive worship, and the duty of rendering him praise and homage; and nobly did he improve it. Had he respected the king’s decree in this instance, he would have dishonored God. He was surrounded by proud idolaters; but he was a faithful witness for the truth. His dauntless adherence to a right course of action, was as a bright light amid the moral darkness of that heathen court.
On account of his praying to God, Daniel was cast into the lion’s den. Envious and wicked men thus far accomplished their purpose. But Daniel continued to pray, even among the lions. Did God forget his faithful servant, and suffer him to be destroyed? Oh, no; Jesus, the mighty Commander of the hosts of Heaven, sent his angels to close the mouths of those hungry lions, that they should not hurt the praying man of God; and all was peace in that terrible den. The king witnessed the miraculous preservation of Daniel, and brought him out with honors; while those who had plotted his destruction were utterly destroyed, with their wives and children, in the terrible manner in which they had planned to destroy Daniel.
Through the moral courage of this one man who chose, even in the face of death, to take a right course rather than a politic one, Satan was defeated, and God honored. For the deliverance of Daniel from the power of the lions was a striking evidence that the Being whom he worshiped was the true and living God. And the king wrote unto “all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth:” “I make a decree, That in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel; for he is the living God, and steadfast forever, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and his dominion shall be even unto the end.”
Daniel was sorely tried; but he overcame because he was of a humble and prayerful spirit. Although he was surrounded with distrust and suspicion, and his enemies laid a snare for his life, yet he maintained a serene and cheerful trust in God, never once deviating from principle. Although Daniel was a man of like passions with ourselves, the pen of inspiration presents him as a faultless character. His life is given us as a bright example of what man may become, even in this life, if he will make God his strength, and wisely improve the privileges and opportunities within his reach.
Daniel was a moral and intellectual giant; yet he did not reach this pre-eminence all at once and without effort. He was continually seeking for greater knowledge, for higher attainments. Other young men had the same advantages; but they did not, like him, bend all their energies to seek wisdom,—the knowledge of God as revealed in his word and in his works. Daniel was but a youth when he was brought into a heathen court in service to the king of Babylon; and because of his extreme youth when he was exposed to all the temptations of an Eastern court, his noble resistance of wrong and his steadfast adherence to the right, throughout his long career, are the more admirable. His example should be a source of strength to the tried and tempted, even at the present day.
Daniel loved, feared, and obeyed God; yet he did not flee away from the world to avoid its corrupting influence. In the providence of God, he was to be in the world, yet not of the world. With all the temptations and fascinations of court life surrounding him, he stood in the integrity of his soul; for he made God his strength; and he was not forsaken of him in his hour of greatest need.
From the history of Daniel we may learn that a strict compliance with the requirements of God will prove a blessing, not only in the future, immortal life, but also in the present life. Through religious principles, men may triumph over the temptations of Satan and the devices of wicked men, even though it costs them a great sacrifice. What if Daniel had made a compromise with those heathen rulers, and had denied his God? What if, on first entering the court, he had yielded to the pressure of temptation, by eating and drinking as was customary among the Babylonians? That one wrong step would probably have led to others, until, his connection with Heaven being severed, he would have been borne away by the power of temptation. But while he clung to God with unwavering, prayerful trust, he could not be forsaken. The divine protection is pledged to those who thus seek it, and God cannot forget his word.
It was through prayer and adherence to right principles that Daniel was enabled to stand firm in the hour of trial and temptation. The prayer of faith is the great strength of the Christian, and will assuredly prevail against the devices of the hosts of darkness. Satan well knows how needful are meditation and prayer to keep Christ’s followers aroused to understand his devices, and resist his temptations; so he tries to lead men to believe that prayer is useless, and but a mere form. If he can divert the mind from these important ex-658ercises, so that the soul will not lean for help on the Mighty One, and obtain divine strength to resist his attacks, he knows full well that he has gained a decided advantage.
We are living in the most solemn period of this world's history, when the last conflict between truth and error is raging; and we need courage and firmness for the right, and a prayerful trust in God no less than Daniel did. The destiny of earth's teeming millions is about to be decided; and our own future well-being, and the salvation of other souls, depend upon the course which we pursue. If we possess the same unwavering integrity that characterized the prophet of old, God will be honored through our course, and souls will be saved to shine as stars in the crown of our rejoicing.
Basel, Switzerland.
FOR ME.
By A. J. Morton
BY A. J. MORTON.
DID Jesus die for me?
For me, a rebel vile?
And shall I cease his name to love,
And to extol that deed above
Which savors not of guile?
Lord, help me pleasing praise to give
While here upon this earth I live.
Did Jesus rise for me?
Rise from the cold, dark tomb?
Yes, yes! Its bands asunder burst
When from the grave he rose, the first
Of those ripe fruits to come.
Oh! may I stand among that throng
To praise him with eternal song.
Does Jesus live for me,
Bright mansions to prepare?
It is his promise comes to mind,
Full many mansions will you find
Where naught is drear or bare.
And not on me alone will fall
The blessings he designs for all.
Will Jesus come for me?
Come in the clouds of heaven?
“And if I go I’ll come again.”
’Tis thus he speaks to me. Ah! then
The tomb which he has riven
Shall yield the treasures it must keep
Till then, in calm, in quiet sleep.
Healdsburg, Cal., Sept. 30, 1886.
The Signs of the Times.
“Behold I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” Rev. 22:12.
VOLUME 12. OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA, FIFTH-DAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1886. NUMBER 42.
The Love of the Truth.
By C. P. Bollman
EVERYBODY should love the truth, for the truth's sake and for the sake of Him who is the fountain of all truth. But all do not so love it; and that for the simple reason that the truth condemns them. The testimony of the Saviour was, that "men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil;" and the same is true to-day. But such is the deceitfulness of sin, that people do not realize that they are clinging to error and rejecting the truth.
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked;" is it therefore any wonder that many are deceived even as to their true motives? Speaking of some who should live in the last days, the apostle said: "Because they receive not the love of the truth . . . God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie." 2 Thess. 2: 10, 11. Not that God desires that any should be lost, for he declares: "I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God;" but all are left free to choose for themselves. Says the Lord: "Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it." But any one may refuse to enter in at that door; God offers salvation to all; but he compels none to be saved; he sends forth his truth, but he compels none to believe it. All are free to choose darkness rather than light; and that the great majority do so choose is plainly taught by the Saviour, who said: "Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."
God has given us his word of which the psalmist says: "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." This word, the apostle Paul tells us, "is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." This being true, we may be sure that anything that leads away from this word is not of God; for "God is not the author of confusion; but of peace."
It will not do to lightly esteem the work of the Spirit; but we may rest assured that there is and can be no conflict between the Spirit of God, and the word which is inspired by that Spirit. The word is "the sword of the Spirit" (Eph. 6: 17); and by it He reproves the "world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." This harmony is also clearly recognized in the Saviour's prayer for his disciples: "Father, . . . sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth." And the apostle Peter exhorts thus: "Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit . . . see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently; being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever." And again he says, "The word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you." "Wherefore, . . . as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby." 1 Peter 1: 22, 23, 25; 2: 1, 2.
It is thus that Christ and the apostles honored the truth; and why not? for, as we have seen, the truth is the word of God, which, in the hands of the Spirit, "is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."
This is the truth that all should love and obey; and not deceive themselves with the idea that they can follow the Spirit while rejecting that which he has spoken. The idea is not that we cannot safely trust and follow the Spirit; but that when we cut loose from that which we know to be the plain testimony of the Spirit, we are only following our own heart, which the Spirit has told us "is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." The trouble is that when we leave the word to follow, as we suppose, the Spirit, it is our own spirit that we follow. Our feelings may be all right, but they are likely to be all wrong; and if they incline us to go contrary to the word of God, we may know that they are wrong. And we may know that any spirit that begets such feelings within us is not the Spirit that inspired holy men to write the word.
Very many persons are deceived in regard to what is truth. Those to whom God shall send "strong delusion" (2 Thess. 2: 10, 11), are deceived; and so were many deceived in the days of Christ, else they would not have rejected him. They no doubt imagined that they loved the truth, indeed they thought that they were very jealous for it; but they were none the less the "betrayers and murderers" of Jesus (Acts 7: 52); and so Peter said to them: "Ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; and killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses." "And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers." Acts 3: 14, 15, 17.
But ignorance did not excuse them; and so the apostle continues: "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord." Verse 19. These texts show that those Jews were deceived, but that that fact did not excuse them; neither will it excuse any one; for people cannot deceive themselves by departing from the truth, or by closing their eyes to it, and then plead that fact in justification. Even in human affairs "he who places himself in a position to be imposed upon must suffer the consequences of his own act." Such people, then, are self-deceived.
But not only do people deceive themselves as to the truth, but they deceive themselves as to their motives. Some, when an unwelcome truth is pressed upon them, "make it," as they say, "a subject of prayer," and then deliberately reject it, claiming that they are led by the Spirit of God! And no matter what the word of God says, they feel that they are right; and so the truth has no power to move them. The fact is, they simply cling to their own ways and "walk after the imagination of their own heart;" and then presumptuously assert that in answer to earnest prayer the Lord has shown them so and so—things that are contrary to his revealed will! Such claims are simply blasphemous. The Lord does not "show" people that they are free to disregard his law. He does not "show" them things which contradict the plain testimony of his word. With God there "is no variableness, neither shadow of turning," and even "if we believe not, yet he abideth faithful; he cannot deny himself." And we may rest assured that unless heartily repented of, every transgression and disobedience will receive a just recompense of reward, in the day when "God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil."
C. P. BOLLMAN.
The Voice of God.
By N. Y. Observer
WHEN the earth trembled in Charleston, there were some that mocked, but when the shock was repeated, and the buildings tottered and fell, their mockery was changed into fear, and the proud and self-sufficient scientist ran for the open square as fast as the ignorant negro, and felt even more keenly that unless God helped them the city was doomed. It is an old and very common experience, that the first persons to turn pale in shipwreck and to call upon God, are those who have boasted of their self-reliance and independence of God in fair weather; and there is no surer evidence of ignorance and cowardice, than an irreverent and flippant treatment of those movements in the material world by which God manifests himself to the creatures whom he has made. The proper attitude of every man, be he learned or ignorant, saint or sinner, in view of an earthquake is that of humility. “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.”
Science, with all its theories and inventions, has never been able to defend mankind from a single earthquake, nor to afford the slightest help during its vibrations; but religion has enabled its adherents to say, “Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.”
It is one thing to assume that a calamity is a wrathful visitation of God upon a particular place or individual, and quite another to believe that the voice of God is to be heard in the tempest and the earthquake, as well as in the murmur of the rivulet, and the zephyr breeze. He who assumes to interpret calamity as God’s wrathful judgment should remember the words of our Lord respecting the victims of a Jewish accident,—“or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you nay, But, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” And he, on the contrary, who, looking over the material world, neither sees, nor hears, nor recognizes God in all these works and wonders, should read and ponder the words of Paul from Mars Hill to the Athenians, respecting God: “In him we live and move and have our being.”
To the true student of nature, all things speak of God, from the dew-drop that sparkles on the flower, to the brightest star in Orion’s gleaming belt; from the hum of the tiniest insect to the fearful roll of the earthquake; and he is not to be envied who hears and sees the phenomena of this curious and wonderful world without a single thought of the Creator and Preserver of all! To him the world is a workshop without a workman; to the devout student it is a temple wherein he may daily and hourly worship a God of wisdom, power, and love.—N. Y. Observer.
Keep Far from Satan’s Wiles
If you wish to escape the wiles of Satan, give him a wide berth. Keep at a great distance from his places of resort. Go not with those who welcome him to their society. Satan can exert but little influence over men, except as he is successful in employing human agency in doing his evil work. There is true philosophy, as well as sound religion, in the words of David in the first psalm, "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful."—Sel.
The True Measure of Life.
THERE are other measures of things valuable than those which tell of bulk or quantity. A handful of gold-dust occupies but little space in comparison with a wagon-load of common earth; yet the wagon-load of common earth is of trivial value when contrasted with the handful of gold. Kind and quality have, therefore, as much to do with the real value of precious things as the mere question of quantity.
The value of life is no exception to this general rule. The depth of the individual life must be counted as well as its length, its intensity as well as its duration, ere we can come to any real appreciation of its true value. . . . In this mode of measuring life, the longest life is not necessarily the longest life. We recognize with sadness the fact that there are human creatures whose lives may almost be described as vegetative. They labor for their daily bread; they eat and drink and sleep; but they are touched by no noble thought, by no wide-reaching sympathy, by no care for the higher interests of life. They are content to live upon the surface, and never seek to dip beneath it. Such living can hardly be called living. Except that it is human, there is little in it that gives it a higher value than the life of an intelligent animal. It has never developed those elements within itself which constitute it a human life; so that, however long the animal part of it lives, one cannot rightly call it a long human life. Slowly recurrent seasons have passed over the man's head; but they have included only a few brief hours devoted to the higher life. The man had hardly begun to live when he died.
The measurement by quality is therefore more important in this matter of human life than the measurement by quantity. Intensity, not attenuation, is the true measure of being. Young's poetical canon is the true one:—
"That life is long which answers life's great end"—
That, and that only; for all other lives, however prolonged they may be in time, have fallen short of their appointed goal. . . . Measured by this standard, the majority of human lives seem brief and vain. The higher life is not cultivated as it ought to be; life is spent in spiritual sloth and intellectual torpor. . . . Briefer and vainer still is the life that is consumed in self-destructive wickedness. . . . Spent in wrath, it is brought to an end as a tale that is told, as yesterday when it is past, as a watch in the night. It seems but a fruitless, feverish episode in the long story of human life.
Not in the increase of knowledge merely, not in any mere mastery of human arts and sciences, is the secret of the deeper and truer life to be found. . . . But where that fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom is the ruling principle in life,—where this is joined to an earnest purpose, a deep enthusiasm, a broad capacity, an unwearying diligence,—there are present the elements whereof true life is made. Where these are present, humanistic culture will be assimilated and wrought over into something higher; it will form part of the rich chord of life wherein all that is true finds somewhere its harmony.
Pain and anguish, sorrow and desire, will also enter into that life, but they too will be transmuted—swallowed up as the full tide of harmony receives into itself the sub-tone of the base and the climbing tenor. No life runs very deep whose channels have not been hollowed out by suffering. It is often in moments of the keenest suffering that the current of life rises to its flood-tide, and our intuition of life and the world becomes most clear.
It is with God to decide how many suns shall rise upon us, how many wanings of the moon we shall see. It is left to ourselves to decide whether we shall live while we live, and whether our days shall be those which the Lord lengthens, or our years those which his wrath shortens. We can choose that course in which the great end of life is attained, or that other course which ends in the dreariness and emptiness of death. . . . Life is a great and worthy gift; we shall misuse it utterly if when we live we do not live, and short indeed will be our lives if at their ending we have nothing to show of worthy accomplishment. For time is not the true measure of life; but that life is a long life which attains life's great end; which has been made rich with pure thoughts, lofty purposes, worthy enthusiasms; and which has been filled with the deeds of Christ.—Sunday School Times.
Ungenerous Criticism.
By William M. Salter
A COMMON fault is that of needlessly criticising others. Almost every day we see those whose infirmities tempt us to make light of them, whose singular looks or awkward habits or careless dress make them the ready objects of satire. There are faults peculiar to different classes of people; and this one of criticism, though quite common to the ignorant and vulgar, is particularly the fault of people of culture—at least, of people of cultivated and refined tastes. They see the incongruities as no others do; they are shocked at the improprieties, and take a satisfaction, and sometimes delight, in pointing them out, talking of them, and laughing over them. This makes up much of what is called the harmless gossip of society; but it surely is not a very noble employment, and, if the reflections must arise in our minds, it were better that they should stay there. I think something of reverence ought to pass over us when we speak of any human being. We may seek to improve, to correct, to refine others, for this is all consistent with respect for them; but I see not how we may make light of them, for this is the opposite of respect. And, surely, I need not speak of scandal and of the devilishness of the delight which some people take in it. Human nature never seems meaner than when so occupied. Scandalous things there are in the world; but why repeat them, why pass them on? Would it not be a good habit not to hear them, save for self-protection and for the protection of others? Yes I ought to add, would it not be a good habit not to believe them, to distrust those that bring them to our notice, and in every case demand a justification for their doing so? Gossip is the occupation of idle minds; scandal is the occupation of ungenerous ones. Hate scandal and scandal-mongers, would, I think, be a good rule of private ethics. Spread the reports of goodness in the world; and, if we have no such reports, let us, in Heaven's name, keep still. We shall at least do one good thing by doing this.—William M. Salter.
The Kingdom of Patience.
If it is a greater thing to rule the spirit than it is to take a city, we have great worlds to conquer which are close by, and we need not sigh for greater. The unseen world we each live in, do our battling in, where we love and hate, hope and despair, conquer and fail, is an immense arena, which the "pigmy size" we wear doth greatly belie. We do not realize the immensity of our being, nor the immensity of the world in which we live, the endless chain of thought, the depths and heights of our spiritual existence even in this present life, until we have learned to know something of the real things; until we know that this visible world is the most unreal world we know anything about.
How sublime to be a kingly ruler of this real self, in this real world, where nobody but God knows all about it. Irritant, anxious, impatient reigning betokens weakness and an undisciplined force. When the endurance, the patience of the soul fail, then the flood-gates are open, and all is lost and the citadel taken; but if patience hath her perfect work, ye are perfect and entire, wanting nothing. Patience hopeth to the end; patience can wait and can see the end, has eyes to see and ears to hear all. It is at leisure. A soul hurried and worried, strung to the highest tension, not only loses its desired end but loses all, for the kingdom is not ahead of you, but is in you, if it is anywhere. Patience, patience is the crying need of to-day.—Advance.
Unblest Offerings.
By Charles H. Watson
WE have no authority from God to expect that everything we offer to him as a sacrifice will be blessed, or that we shall receive his blessing by reason of the offering. We may consecrate a liberal amount of our possessions to the service of God, and yet the offering will remain unblest because it is not in harmony with the good pleasure of God. I am reminded of this truth by a fresh reading of Cain and his offering. He was a farmer, and he took "the fruit of the ground" as "an offering unto the Lord." And the inspired testimony is, the Lord did not have "respect" unto Cain and his offering. In other words, both Cain and his offering were unblest in such a service and sacrifice. What was the reason? Was not Cain's offering good in itself? God created the "fruit of the ground." We have no reason to suppose that it was a poor, decayed lot of fruit. There is no hint that the quality of the fruit was objectionable, nor that the quantity was insufficient. Why, then, was Cain's offering unblest?
Two reasons may be assigned. One is, the offering was not the kind that God required. Cain should have offered an unblemished lamb, which would have typified the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, that would be slain in due time. There was no suitableness in such an offering, and therefore God did not bless it. Another reason is, Cain's heart was not right towards God. He did not have true faith in God, else he would have presented such an offering as Abel did, and looked through it to Christ, as the ground of his acceptance with God.
Now we may believe that there are those in these days whose offerings to God are unblest for similar reasons. Money which is obtained by disreputable and dishonest means and offered to God's cause is unblest. Certainly the giver is not blest. Whatever is obtained by fraud, and is presented as a sacrifice to God, does not receive his blessing. The offering may be very liberal as to quantity, but that does not atone for the lack of its appropriateness and the proper spirit in which it should be given. Even that which is good in itself may be so offered that no blessing will follow its bestowal. If we would be blest ourselves, and see a blessing upon our offerings, we must comply with the divine conditions on which the blessings rest.—C. H. W., in Watchman.
The Devil, the Hardest Master
THE hardest master in the world is the devil. He exacts more of his servants, and rewards them more meanly than any other master. He promises great things, which he keeps always far off in the future, and when by bitter experience the truth is discovered by the deceived soul, he finds himself to be, as another has well said, "as the fish, that at first tastes only the bait, but afterward feels the barbed hook."—Sel.
A New Chance Each Day
By Archdeacon Farrar
Each day, each week, each month, each year is a chance given you by God. A new chance, a new leaf, a new life—this is the golden, unspeakable gift which each new day offers you. —Archdeacon Farrar.
The Best of the Book
By Oliver Wendell Holmes
The best of the book is not the thought which it contains but the thought it suggests, just as the charm of music dwells not in the tones, but in the echoes of our hearts.—Holmes.