Signs of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 18. (5/13/1886)

Signs of the Times

May 13, 1886

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 13, 1886

General Articles.

By Ellen G. White

Israel and the Law.

BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.

THE Lord gave the Israelites evidences of his presence with them, that they might know that he was leading them, and that they might fear his name and obey his voice. Great and radical changes were to be wrought in the lives of these demoralized people, upon whose characters, habits, and appetites, servitude and the idolatrous associations of Egypt had left their mark. God was lifting them to a higher moral level by giving them a knowledge of himself through the manifestations of divine power seen in his dealings with them, and an acquaintance with his will as expressed in the laws given for their government.

Moses, who under the divine direction was leading the children of Israel through to the promised land, understood the character and value of the law of God. He assured the people that no other nation had such wise, righteous, and merciful rules as had been given to the Hebrews. "Behold," he says, "I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people."

Moses called their attention to the "day that thou stoodest before the Lord thy God in Horeb." "And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire; ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice. And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments." And he challenged the Hebrew host: "What nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?"

When Moses was about to relinquish the position that he had so long held as the visible leader of the hosts of Israel, he rehearsed in the hearing of the people the dealings of God with them and the rules and regulations he had given them. He endeavored to impress upon their minds the importance of obeying the law of God, and urged them to make its sacred precepts the rule of their daily life. As children of God, they should be willing to suffer any inconvenience, rather than to break one of his commandments. Such a course would be more pleasing to him than mere professions of loyalty or words of praise.

Obedience to God would preserve harmony between man and man and between man and his Maker, and would cause Israel to be regarded as a wise and understanding people. And in the path of obedience alone was there safety for them either as individuals or as a nation; for nothing but obedience would secure the divine favor, and insure to them happiness and prosperity in the land to which they were going. God had plainly stated this to them. If they did not keep his commandments, he would not—he could not—fulfill the rich promises which were given them on condition of obedience.

Israel was highly honored of God, and the surrounding nations looked upon them with wonder and admiration. Their laws and discipline, when compared with the laws of other nations, seemed, even to their enemies, in every way superior to their own. And Moses, as their visible leader, and lawgiver, appears on the page of history as superior in wisdom and integrity to all the sovereigns and statesmen of earth; yet Moses ever recognizes that he is the servant of God, speaking and acting according to divine direction. He claims no credit for himself, but points the people to God as the source of power and wisdom.

When the law was given to Israel, the Sabbath was made specially prominent. It had been instituted in Eden as a memorial of God's creative work. After he had wrought six days, God rested on the seventh; and he blessed and sanctified that day, setting it apart as a day of rest and worship for mankind. And at Sinai he commanded: "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." "In it thou shalt not do any work." Man was to rest from his labor, and as he should look upon the earth beneath, and the heavens above, his thoughts were to be directed toward Him who brought all these wonderful and beautiful things into existence; and his heart was to be filled with love and reverence to his Maker, as he should behold the tangible proofs of his infinite wisdom and goodness.

The Sabbath was placed in the decalogue as the seal of the living God, pointing out the Lawgiver, and making known his right to rule. It was a sign between God and his people, a test of their loyalty to him. Moses was commanded to say to them from the Lord: "Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep; for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you." And when some of the people went out on the Sabbath to gather manna, the Lord asked, "How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?"

Particular directions were given in regard to the manner of observing the Sabbath. All unnecessary work was strictly forbidden, and the day before the Sabbath was made a day of preparation, that everything might be in readiness for its sacred hours. "This is that which the Lord hath said, To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord. Bake that which ye will bake to-day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning."

The Israelites were not in any case to do their own work on the Sabbath. The divine direction was, "Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest. In earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest." In the busiest seasons of the year, when their fruits and grains were to be secured, they were not to trespass on holy time. They were to remember that their temporal blessings came from the bountiful hand of their Creator, and he could increase or diminish them according to their faithfulness or unfaithfulness in his service.

The Lord places a high estimate upon his Sabbath. Through his prophet he has promised: "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it."

God is merciful. His requirements are reasonable, in accordance with the goodness and benevolence of his character. He claims the Sabbath as his own, and will not let his blessing rest upon those who disregard his holy day; yet the Sabbath institution was designed as a blessing to mankind. Man was not made to fit the Sabbath; the Sabbath was made after his creation, to meet the necessities of his nature. The Sabbath should stand before the people in its moral power, answering its original design—to keep in remembrance the living God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth. But the Sabbath has been treated with great disrespect. Men have dared to detract from its dignity; they have ventured to remove the sanctity placed upon it by the Creator himself.

Temporal affairs must come under divine restrictions. The Sabbath is not to be moulded to meet men's business arrangements, but business affairs are to be arranged to meet God's great standard of righteousness. But the god

of this world has confused the minds of many on this subject. They need to come into the divine presence, and listen to the voice of the great I AM.

With God there is no respect of persons. Those who fear him and work righteousness are precious in his sight; but he requires his people to show their allegiance by strict obedience to all the precepts of the moral law, the Sabbath commandment with the rest. God is jealous of his honor, and let men beware how they remove one jot or tittle of that law that he spoke with his own voice and wrote with his own finger upon tables of stone, and that he has pronounced holy, just, and good.

THE COMING KING.

By Mrs. C. M. Pym

[From a hymn, "Waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ," written by Mrs. C. M. Pym, based on 1 Cor. 1:7.]

"COMING!" Oh, the bliss and gladness bound up in that blessed word. Coming! and our eyes shall see Him—Him our own beloved Lord. Coming! how our hearts leap upward, with a joy no words can say! Coming! so we watch and wonder, hour by hour and day by day.

Coming! then shall his dominion reach from distant sea to sea; From the river to earth's ending shall his glorious kingdom be; Then the foes of Christ be vanquished, truth and righteousness shall reign. Over all the earth triumphant; joy shall follow in his train.

Coming! but to those that scorn him, those that now dispute his right, What shall be their awful portion when he cometh in his might? Fire and sword, and flaming vengeance, showering on them from above. Oh, while yet that time remaineth, seek his face and plead his love.

He is lingering yet a moment, that before it be too late You may find his pardoning mercy ere forever sealed your fate. Coming! yes, it still is "coming," but how soon it may be "come"! Then the shout of "Christ triumphant!" then the glorious "Welcome home!"

The Popes as Peacemakers.

THE evils which for so many years afflicted Christendom cannot but raise the question in every dispassionate mind how far the popes have fulfilled the office assigned them as the "Fathers of Christendom" and the peace-makers of the world. Leaving out of view their adulators on the one side, and their incriminators on the other, let us put to history the question, How many are the years of peace, and how many are the years of war, which have come out of the papal chair, and what proportion does the one bear to the other?

To put, then, a few plain questions touching matters of fact, let us ask, From whom came the crusades which for two centuries continued to waste the treasure and the blood of both Europe and Asia? History answers, From the popes. Monks preached the crusades, monks enlisted soldiers to fight them, and when the host was marshaled and all was ready, monks placed themselves at their head, and led them onward, their track marked by devastation, to the shores of Syria, where their furious fanaticism exploded in scenes of yet greater devastation and horror. In these expeditions, the popes were always the chiefs; the crossed emperors and kings were enlisted under their banner, and put under the command of their legates; at the popes' mandate it was that they went forth to slay and to be slain. In the absence of these princes, the popes took into their hands the government of their kingdoms; the persons and goods of all the crusaders were declared under their protection; in their behalf they caused every process, civil and criminal, to be suspended; they made a lavish distribution of indulgences and dispensations, to keep alive fanatical fervor and sanguinary zeal; they sometimes enjoined as a command, and sometimes as a penance, service in the crusades; their nuncios and legates received the alms and legacies bequeathed for maintaining these wars; and when, after two dismal centuries, they came to an end, it was found that none save the popes were the gainers thereby. While the authority of the Papal See was vastly strengthened, the secular princes were in the same proportion weakened and impoverished; the sway of Rome was confirmed; for the nations, broken and bowed down, suffered a yoke to be riveted upon their necks that could not be broken for ages.

We ask further, From whom came the contest between the miter and the empire—the war of investitures which divided and ravaged Christendom for a full century and a half? History answers, From the pope, Gregory VII. From whom came the Albigensian crusades, which swept in successive tempests of fire and blood across the south of France? History answers, From the pope, Innocent III. Whence came those armies of assassins, which times without number penetrated into the Waldensian Valleys, carrying the torch into dwelling and sanctuary, and inflicting on the unoffending inhabitants barbarties and cruelties of so horrible a nature that they never can be known, because they never dare be told? History answers, From the pope. Who made donations of kingdoms—Naples, Sicily, Aragon, Poland, and others—knowing that those to whom they had gifted them could possess them only by fighting for them? History answers, The popes. Who deposed sovereigns, and sanctioned insurrection and war between them and their subjects? The popes. Who so often tempted the Swiss from their mountains to shed their blood on the plains of Italy? The Bishop of Sion, acting as the legate of the pope. Who was it that, the better to maintain the predominance of their own sway, kept Italy divided, at the cost of almost ceaseless intestine feuds and wars, and the leaving the gates of the country unguarded, or purposely open, for the entrance of foreign hordes? History answers, The popes. Who was it that, having entered into war with France, threw aside the miter for the helmet, and, passing over a bridge on the Tiber, is said to have thrown the keys of St. Peter into the river, seeing they had served him so ill, and called for the sword of St. Paul? Pope Julius II. Who organized the successive campaigns waged against the Hussites, and on two several occasions sent his legate-a-latere to lead the crusaders? History answers, The pope.

We stop at the era of the Reformation. We put no questions to history touching the wars in Germany, the wars in France, the wars in the Low Countries, the wars in Hungary, and in other lands; in which, too, the blood of the scaffold was largely mingled with the blood of the battle field. We restrict our examples to those ages when Rome was not only a power, but the power in Christendom. Kings were then her vassals, and she had only to speak to be obeyed. Why then did she not summon them to her bar, and command them to sheathe their swords? Why did she not bind them in the chain of her excommunications, and compel them to be at peace till she had arbitrated in their quarrels, and so prevent this great effusion of human blood? Here are the pope's exploits on the field of war. Why has history forgotten to chronicle his labors and sacrifices in the blessed work of peace? True, we do find a few outstanding instances of the popes' enjoining peace among Christian princes. We find the Council of Lyons (1245) ordaining a general cessation of arms among the Western sovereigns, with power to prelates to proceed by censures against those who refused to acquiesce; but for what end? Even that the crusade which had been projected might be carried out with greater unanimity and vigor. We find Gregory X. sending his nuncio to compel observance of this decree of the Council on Philip III. of France and the King of Castile, knowing that these two sovereigns were about to decide a certain difference by arms, because he needed their swords to fight his own battles. We find, further, Boniface VIII. enjoining all sovereigns to terminate all wars and differences at home, that they might be in circumstances to prosecute more vigorously the holy wars of the church. These, and a few similar instances, are all that we have on the one side to set over against the long roll of melancholy facts on the other. History's verdict is, that with the ascent of the popes to supremacy, came not peace, but war to the nations of Christendom. The noon of the papal power was illustrated, not by its calm splendors and its tranquil joys, but by tempest, and battle, and destruction.— History of Protestantism.

The Happiness of Christ’s Religion

By Jay

THE religion of Christ is able to make its possessors happy. It sets their roving hearts at rest; it enables them to dispense with the dissipations of the world; it sustains them under the trials of life and raises them above the fears of death. Thus they adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour in all things.—Jay.

Near the Lifeboat or in It

By John Henry Evans

Take you heed. To be near the life-boat is different from being in it.—J. H. Evans.

Orthodoxy not Faith.

By Howard Crosby

ORTHODOXY in opinion is not faith. A debtor may have a perfectly just view of his debts, but his orthodox creed will not help the creditor. There must be an action corresponding to the creed. The devils believe and tremble. They have very correct views of God and his will, but they are nevertheless lost eternally. As there can be no true faith without active service, so, of course, there can be no assurance of faith. The Christian who lazily looks after nothing but his present earthly comfort will never look at fiery furnaces with composure. Nebuchadnezzar's threats will soon make him renounce his Christianity, or what he thought was Christianity. It is in the actual service of the Lord that the heart learns to trust in him, feels how sweet his divine attentions are, and can do all things through God strengthening it. Now, the service of the Lord is the use of the divine means of grace for others. His grace is working in our earth for his great purpose of salvation, and he chooses us to be his co-workers. The field is the human heart—our hearts and the hearts of others. As servants of God we will take hold of this assigned work earnestly.

For ourselves, we will explore the Scriptures with devout research and keep ever near the throne of grace, and by constant communion with holy things become holier ourselves. For others, we will set the example of a righteous life, and be always ready to speak for God and his truth. It is in this way our faith will grow into the proportions of overcoming power that will fear no Nebuchadnezzar or his fiery furnace. Without such service we can express no such growth. Salvation is not from without and by magic. It is by a life that has faith as its motor.

These three young Hebrews were simply acting out their life of faith when they refused to bow to the king's idol. It was no act of obstinacy or rebellion against the king, or whimsical fanaticism, nor was it Israelitish patriotism. It was the natural operation of a godly life. They served the Lord. That was their soul's position. They lived in accordance with that service. And so when they were told to worship an idol, they had no need of hesitation or of time to consider. They say, "We are not careful to answer thee in this matter;" that is, "We have not to make a careful search into pros and cons and find out what we shall do. The thing is perfectly plain. Our whole lives direct us. We shall not worship thine idol, and the burning fiery furnace is no argument." That is the way a soul in the Lord's service will always reply to an invitation to sin, even when a threat accompanies it. Sometimes the threat comes in the form of a loss of position whence comes bread for self and family, but the godly soul is not afraid; it sings right cheerfully:—

"Go, then, earthly fame and treasure; Come, disaster, scorn, and pain; In thy service pain is pleasure, With thy favor loss is gain. I have called thee Abba, Father; I have stayed my heart on thee; Storms may howl and clouds may gather; All must work for good to me."

It is in this spirit of faithful service that the true Christian meets the fiery furnace. It has no terrors for him.

The reason why so many Christians yield is because they do not serve God. They wear Christ's name and serve self and the world. They have no courage because they have no faith.—Howard Crosby, D. D., on Dan. 3: 17.

Helping on the World’s Work

By Norman McLeod

EVERY man can help on the world's work more than he knows of. What we want is the single eye, that we may see what our work is, the humility to accept it, however lowly, the faith to do it for God, the perseverance to go on until death.

Sin and Its Remedy.

By G. D. Ballou

SIN is the transgression of God's law. 1 John 3:4. It is ungrateful, mean, base, rebellious. It is unmerciful, relentless, hard-hearted, stubborn. It is cold, selfish, unreasonable, deceitful, cruel. It brings condemnation, degradation, sorrow, remorse, anguish of spirit, and pain. It destroys self-respect, creates distrust of our fellow-men, and separates us from God. It has taken peace, joy, love, virtue, and goodness away from earth, and brought corruption and every vile, hateful thing in their stead. It has made righteousness a stranger, and justice a wayfarer, on earth. It has involved mankind in the most abject slavery, and robbed him of all the pleasures that would have come as the result of innocence and purity. It blights every fair prospect, and blasts every precious earthly hope. It has filled earth with mourning and sadness, and turned the world into one vast charnel house.

It is expensive. It costs a life-time of labor and sorrow, and brings its victims down to death at last. It has cost the sufferings and death of the Son of God, and filled Heaven with weeping for human woe. All the labor and perplexity of this mortal state are due to sin. The employments of earth, before sin entered, were without sorrow or wearing care, and were of such a character as not to be expressed by the terms such as we now use in speaking of labor. There were joy and gladness in every action. Like the promised future state they could "run and not be weary, and walk and not faint."

Sin is a most hideous monster, hateful alike to God and all the reasonable creatures in his universe to whom its true character has been revealed. It is to be despised, shunned, resisted, cast out, and trampled under foot. He who engages in the business of sin reaps a sure recompense; but it will be a bitter one, for "the wages of sin is death,"—the second death,—for "whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." "This is the second death." Rev. 20:15, 14.

There is but one way of escape from the condemnation of the broken law here, and the final future consequences; and that is through the merits of Christ's work in our behalf. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9. "If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." 1 John 1:7. "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out." Acts 3:19. "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Isa. 1:18. If we accept the conditions of the new covenant, God will write his law upon our hearts, and our sins and iniquities he will remember no more. Heb. 8:12.

Who does not purpose to be clear of sin and its dire consequences? Do not wait until some irresistible feeling impels you to flee from the bondage of sin, but go at the dictates of your better judgment, and with child-like faith in God ask him for Jesus's sake to forgive your sins and impart strength for the work of overcoming. If you have failed in former efforts, block the wheels behind by confessing to your fellow-men the wrongs done them, and then set out to labor earnestly for the spiritual welfare of perishing men. Lack of spiritual efforts for others is a sure means of spiritual suicide. The hope of the glorious future should be bright in our minds in order that we may have strong faith and courage in the work. There is the "peace of God which passeth all understanding" in this life for the faithful child of God, and for the future a home in the everlasting kingdom of God beyond the reach of sin and all its fearful consequences.

Beware "lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." The way may look pleasant and prosperous, and may promise much in the way of carnal gratification. You will not be tempted at first to commit a great sin: only just a little deviation from God's way, only a little self-gratification is demanded. If the heart yields then the hardening process begins. When self comes in before God, the first command is broken, and then the growth of sin is rapid unless arrested by some merciful providence of God. Sin is only selfishness gone to seed. It begins with having our own way instead of God's way. It continues in following the carnal emotions and feelings instead of having the word of God as an inward monitor. Beware of the first approach of sin. Abhor it. Flee from it as from a venomous reptile. Avoid the highways where sin travels, and shun her secret paths. There is evil and ruin lurking at every step, and "the end thereof are the ways of death." Prov. 16:25. G. D. Ballou.

A Dark Picture.

MR. HENRY GEORGE, describing the growing demoralization of our cities, says: "In theory, the law protects to-day the lowest as completely as the highest; yet a man who has enough money can go into one of our great centers of population, and murder whomsoever he pleases, surrender himself to justice, with the chance as a hundred to one that he will suffer no greater penalty than a temporary imprisonment, and the loss of a sum proportioned partly to his own wealth and partly to the wealth and standing of the man he kills." His money will not, however, be paid to the family of his victim, nor to the State, but to the lawyers who are expert in securing delays, finding convenient witnesses, and corruptly procuring the disagreement of juries. Again, "If a man steal enough," says Mr. George, "he may be sure that his punishment will practically amount but to the loss of a part of the proceeds of his theft. And if he steal enough to get off with a fortune, he will be greeted by his acquaintances as a viking might have been greeted after a successful cruise. Even though he robbed those who trusted him; even though he robbed the widow and the fatherless, he has only to get enough and he may safely flaunt his wealth in the eyes of day."

Mr. George in all this sees cumulative proof of the decay of civilization. The people are growing used to corruption, and ceasing to resent it. There is even now a public sentiment that doubts the existence of an honest man in office, and looks rather contemptuously upon one who claims to be such. The people themselves are therefore becoming corrupted. If such corruption becomes chronic, public spirit will be lost, and law brought into contempt. When the burdens become unbearable, strong and unscrupulous men will make themselves the exponents of popular desires and passions, and become leaders in demonstrations of brute force and destruction. Thenceforward the descent to the modern form of barbarism that alternates between anarchy and temporary imperial despotism, is swift. The new barbarians, who shall destroy our modern civilization as the barbarians of old destroyed those of Greece and Rome, will not come from a distance. "Go through the squalid quarter of great cities," says Mr. George, "and you may see their gathering hordes."—Sel.

The Preacher's Theme.

By Rev. R. Davies

"THE unsearchable riches of Christ." We are told that these words may mean one of two things—either riches which cannot be measured or riches which cannot be exhausted. But are not both true in their relation to Jesus Christ? We know that in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And that to Paul's mind he was not only the Center, around which should gather the good of every age and clime, but that he was the Source of every blessing which crowns our life; the one perennial Fount from which streams down to us all that makes life glad and happy, and that we must exhaust God himself before we can exhaust Jesus Christ and the fullness which abides in him.

The theme is vast in its dimensions. For who can gauge the far-reaching influence of the cross of Calvary? It not merely affects man in his sad and fallen condition, but reaches forth into wider circles, until the whole universe feels its reconciling power. "For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell; and, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in Heaven." Blessed be God! these riches are inexhaustible. Many have drunk of the living waters, and the stream flows on as deep and full as ever. Many have taken of the bread of life, and the supply is not in the least exhausted. And many will yet stretch forth their hand to supply their heartfelt needs.—Rev. R. Davies.

The Power of a Living Bible.

IN his father's house a young lady resided, who was a relative of the family. Her fretful temper made all around her uncomfortable. She was sent to a boarding-school and was absent some time. While there she became a true and earnest Christian. On her return she was so changed that all who knew her wondered and rejoiced. She was patient and cheerful, kind, unselfish and charitable. The lips that used to be always uttering cross and bitter words now spoke nothing but sweet, gentle, loving words. Her infidel cousin George was greatly surprised at this. He watched her closely for some time, till he was thoroughly satisfied that it was a real change that had taken place in his young cousin. Then he asked her what had caused this great change. She told him it was the grace of God which had made her a Christian and had changed her heart.

He said to himself, "I don't believe that God has anything to do with it, though she thinks he had. But it is a wonderful change that has taken place in her, and I should like to be as good as she is. I will be so." Then he formed a set of good resolutions. He tried to control his tongue and temper, and kept a strict watch over himself. He was all the time doing and saying what he did not wish to do and say. And, as he failed time after time, he would turn and study his good cousin's example. He would read the living Bible, and say to himself: "How does it happen that she, who has not as much natural strength of character as I have, can do what I can't do? She must have some help that I don't know of. It must be, as she says, the help of God. I will seek that help." He went into his chamber and prayed to that God whose very existence he had denied. He prayed earnestly. God heard him, helped him, and he became a Christian.—Young Men's Christian Magazine.

Serving God in Daily Work

By Macdonald

The work you have to do in the counting-house, in the shop, or wherever you may be, is that by which you are to serve God. Do it with a high regard, and then there is nothing mean in it; but there is everything mean in it if you are pretending to please people when you only look for your wages.—Macdonald.

Afflictions Try the Christian

By Francis Roberts

The storm tries the building, and discovers which is built upon the rock and which upon the sands. The storm tries the pilot. The touchstone tries the metal whether it be gold or copper. The furnace tries the gold whether it be pure or dross. So afflictions and persecutions try the Christian.—Francis Roberts.

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