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Review and Herald, Vol. 82, No. 49.

An Appeal to Seventh-day Adventists

Review and Herald

Dec 7, 1905

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Dec 7, 1905

An Appeal to Seventh-day Adventists

THE present condition of things in the world at large, in the professed Christian church, and in our own denomination, moves us to make an earnest effort to arouse our people to an appreciation of the solemn significance of our position, and to call upon them to wait earnestly upon the Lord for a quickening of our faith and zeal in this message.
There are troublous times in the world. There is a manifest spirit of unrest among the people of many countries. They do not realize that they are being stirred by a power from beneath in preparation for the final conflict. Recent disclosures in the financial and political world indicate such a disregard of moral standards and such a weakening of moral character as cause surprise and alarm in the minds of those who do not know that we have come to the perilous times which are to characterize the last days. It seems that men's hearts are already beginning to fail them for fear of the things that are coming.
In the professed Christian church there has been such a spirit of compromise with the world, and such a departure from the fundamental truths of a Biblical Christianity, as show plainly that the prophecies concerning the complete fall of Babylon are now being fulfilled, and that the call should now be sounded forth to come out of her.
At the same time we are conscious of the lack of that spiritual life and power which ought to be revealed in our own churches, and which ought to accompany the proclamation of the third angel's message as the hope of deliverance from these evil times. We therefore feel impelled to make this appeal to our brethren in official positions, to our brethren in the ministry, and to our brethren and sisters in the churches, to take these things to heart, and to seek for a real revival of primitive religion among this people. We need it for the glory of God and His truth. We need it for the sake of those millions to whom this message is to be proclaimed. We need it for the sake of our own souls. We need it in view of the experiences which are just before us. We shall earnestly pray that God will stir the hearts of His people to wait upon Him for it.
General Conference Committee.

Our Publishing Work

By Editor

The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it. Psalm 68:11.
Any publication mentioned on this page may be ordered through your conference tract society or from any of our publishing houses or their branch offices. See last paragraph on this page for addresses of our publishing houses.
DON’T forget to order your Sabbath-school lesson Quarterly early. Every Sabbath-keeper should study the important series of lessons for the first quarter of 1906. Price, 5 cents.
You can still get a copy of the Year-book for 1905 if you order promptly. Its resume of the rise and progress of the denomination as shown chronologically by the record of General Conference recommendations, and its clear, brief statement of our fundamental principles, make it most valuable for reference. The price is now 15 cents a copy.
THE last of the special Message Series of The Signs of the Times bears date of November 22. It is a most excellent and helpful number, its theme being “The Church Triumphant.” Among the important articles which it contains we notice “A Spirit-Filled Church,” “Receive Ye the Holy Spirit,” “Spiritual Gifts,” “The Apostasy—Its Effect Upon Spiritual Gifts,” “The Seal of God,” “Our Preparation for the End,” “God’s Last Protest,” “The Church Militant and Triumphant.” The four numbers of the Message Series can still be secured, and this last one is well worth the price of the whole set. Price of complete sets in quantities of five or more, 15 cents a set. These may be mailed at this price to individual addresses furnished by you. Twenty-five or more sets to your own or any single address, cost 10 cents a set. You can secure these four specials all bound together for 16 cents each if you order five or more copies. Address Signs of the Times, Mountain View, Cal.
Do all the people in your neighborhood believe in the Bible? Do they believe it to be the inspired word of God? If not, what have you done to help them? Of course you have in your own library a book entitled “Thoughts on Daniel and Revelation,” and you know that this book, with its verse-by-verse exposition of these two important prophecies and its careful comparing of Scripture prediction with historical fact, proves the inspiration of the Bible to a certainty. But have you loaned your book to your skeptical neighbor? If not, why not? This book, if widely circulated, would do much to stem the tide of infidelity, and to establish the authority of the Holy Scriptures. And the most important work that we can be doing, now that we have this knowledge, is to pass it on to others. We can not be excused from this responsibility. Whom do you expect to come to your neighborhood and do the work which you ought to have done? Do it yourself, and do it now. You can get a plain cloth copy for $1, and perhaps you will find more than one who would like to read the book immediately.
HAVE you seen a copy of that new edition of “Hymns and Tunes”? Its contents are the same as the regular edition, but the paper is not quite so good, and the binding is plain cloth, embossed in black ink. Price, 75 cents.
THERE are many people in these days who are inquiring in regard to the hereafter. Is man really an immortal being? or does death end all? These and other kindred questions are often met. “Here and Hereafter” deals with the questions, and settles them once and for all on the authority of the Bible. Price, $1 a copy.
OF special interest to our young people in the Youth’s Instructor for the coming year, will be the series by Elder R. C. Porter. He will give most helpful suggestions concerning the best way of presenting the message. Elder Roy F. Cottrell, himself a young minister, will furnish articles on the “Points of Our Faith.” Those who are preparing for public work will find much to aid them in these articles. Subscribe now and secure all the articles: 75 cents a year or 40 cents for six months.
THE little booklet which has been prepared as a Sunday-school lesson help, and which gives reference from each lesson to the pages in “Desire of Ages” where the same topic is treated, is now ready. It should be used by every canvasser who is introducing this book during the coming year. A copy will be furnished free with each copy of “Desire of Ages” ordered from us, if request for same accompanies the order. A copy will be mailed to any interested person on receipt of request.
Life and Health for December is now ready. It is brimful of just such articles as all our readers will appreciate, and it should be in every home. “Recreation,” by Mrs. E. G. White; Medical Missionary Reports from Brazil, South Africa, and China; a new department of “Current Comment on Health Topics;” “Beginning Housekeeping or Improvising Furniture,” by Mrs. D. A. Fitch; “The Daughter in the Home,” by Augusta C. Bainbridge; “In the Kitchen,” by Mrs. M. E. Steward; and an abundance of other excellent matter make this number one of more than usual interest. Price, 5 cents a copy. To any person who is not now a subscriber to Life and Health, and who sends 50 cents for a year’s subscription, we will send the magazine for the year 1906, and in addition will send free the November and December numbers of this year. Address Life and Health, Washington, D. C.
Orders for any publication mentioned on this page may be sent to any conference tract society or to any of the following: Review and Herald Publishing Association, Washington, D. C., and Battle Creek, Mich.; Pacific Press Publishing Company, Mountain View, Cal.; also Portland, Ore., and Kansas City, Mo.; Southern Publishing Association, Nashville, Tenn., and Fort Worth, Tex.

Editorial

By Editor

An Appropriate Prayer

SEVERAL times in recent years it has been suggested to us that we may now pray the prayer of the psalmist, “It is time for thee, Lord, to work: for they have made void thy law.” It ought to be apparent to every one who observes the drift of things in the religious world that the statement of the psalmist applies to the situation now. The law of God, whether limited in its meaning to the ten commandments or taken in its broader sense as including the authoritative teaching of the truth of God in his Word, is being made of none effect through philosophy and vain deceit. Those who believe the Bible are held up to ridicule. The evolutionary conception of the Bible has taken the place of the old-time belief in it as the direct Word of God, and an interpretation of it in harmony with this conception is declared to be “the only method which to-day is practical with those who are well informed.” We may now expect to see the results of this heaven-insulting repudiation of God’s inspired message to man; for “when the Scriptures are suppressed, and man comes to regard himself as supreme, we need look only for fraud, deception, and debasing iniquity.” “There is a depth of depravity in unbelieving human nature that will never be healed, because the true light has been misinterpreted and misapplied. The Lord has given his Spirit in abundance of assurance to enable men and women to understand the fallacies and errors of Satan and to guard against them.” The “The Lord will soon rise up to do his strange work of judgment. Men may for a time impiously exalt themselves against God and his truth, but it will soon be demonstrated that there is a limit to divine forbearance, and the restraint now placed upon the divine attributes will be removed. In the meantime we are authorized to unite in praying, “It is time for thee, Lord, to work: for they have made void thy law.”

Vigilance and Fidelity

THE times demand watchfulness and loyalty in the work of God. Evil men and seducers are waxing worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. On every side men are betraying their trusts, and are departing from the truth. Professed Christians are testifying falsely against the Bible, and are placing it on an equality with the so-called sacred books of all false religions. Many are doing homage to Satan while they use the terms and forms which belong to the worship of God. The intellectual faculties of some of the keenest thinkers of this brilliant age are being perverted to explain a universe apart from a personal God, and to develop a system of religion apart from an infallible Bible. We are living in those perilous times foretold in the Word of God to come in the last days. There is special need of vigilance, or we shall be caught unawares. There is special need of fidelity, or we shall betray the cause of God. When we see those whom we know to be our superiors in intellectual endowments taken and held in the snare of deception, and hypnotized into compromising positions where they soon become confused in their views of truth and duty, we may understand that no merely human discernment will suffice as our protection, and that only divine wisdom and infinite power working through our own vigilance and fidelity will prevent us from being deceived by the enticing blandishments of the adversary who is able to transform himself into an angel of light. We are living in strange times, and we are seeing some remarkable developments. We are brought face to face in our own work with such methods of counterworking God’s leading and counsel as we did not dream of a few years ago. There is a most determined effort to demonstrate that it is safe to follow the plans which seem wise to human counselors, instead of submitting to be directed by the spirit of prophecy. All these conditions combined call for vigilance and fidelity on the part of those who desire to be kept in the simplicity of the faith and in obedience to the truth. The loyalty of God’s people is being tested.

Christ and His Brethren

By Editor

Two readers of the REVIEW have written to us concerning our recent editorial, “Like unto His Brethren.” One says:—
In an editorial in the REVIEW of November 9 are these words: “Into the world . . . ‘God permitted his Son to come, . . . at the risk of failure and eternal loss.’” I hope I am not a skeptic as regards divine revelation, but in this instance I can not harmonize your statement with the results of my reasoning. God permitted his Son to come, and of course he knew what the result would be. I therefore conclude that he knew the result would not be failure or loss, else he would not have permitted him to come. Christ before coming must also have known these facts, either of himself or through faith founded on the knowledge of his Father’s omniscience. I also have the Bible statement that “He shall not fail.” This reasoning does not controvert the truth that while here in the flesh Christ must and did gather his knowledge from the Bible.
Our correspondent practically raises the old question of free will and foreordination. His position is that God knew before he sent his Son into the world that he would not fail, and therefore there was no risk of failure. In the same way Christ must have known the outcome of his mission to this earth, either through his own divine foreknowledge or through his faith in the foreknowledge of his Father, and therefore there could not have been on his part any risk of failure and loss.
In coming to these conclusions our correspondent looks at the question from the standpoint of the divinity of Christ, and does not give due weight to the considerations which arise from the humanity of Christ. God sent his Son into the world as a man, subject to the conditions and experiences of humanity. As a man Jesus sustained the same relation to the foreknowledge of God as is sustained by every man. The foreknowledge of God did not limit his freedom as a man. His freedom as a man did not interfere with the foreknowledge of God. As a man endowed with the freedom of will, the second Adam, there was the same possibility of failureas there was with the first Adam in his sinless state. Otherwise there would be neither force nor comfort in the statement that he was “in all points tempted like as we are.” Otherwise the agony and the bloody sweat, and the cry, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” would have been merely the acting of a part, and Christ’s experience on this earth would have been the same sort of an example of trust in God as is that of the villain in the play who knows that the revolver is loaded with blank cartridges, and that he will be all right again as soon as the curtain falls. As a man Christ knew, through faith in God’s word, that his Father was able to keep him from falling, just as any man may know it who will believe God. In the fulness of this faith Christ committed himself to his Father’s keeping power, and was not disappointed. The same privilege is offered to every man.
Human reasoning fails in the effort to explain the union of divinity and humanity in the person of Jesus, Son of God and Son of man. This is the mystery which only God can understand. Therefore we can not explain how it is that the eternal Son of the infinite God, equal with the Father, could take upon himself the weakness of our nature without laying aside his divinity. This is the wonderful thing into which angels desire to look. It will be the wonder of the redeemed to all eternity.
It is true that through the prophet Isaiah the success of Christ’s mission is foretold, and so it was in the promise made to our first parents in the garden, and in many other places in the Scriptures, but these blessed assurances did not make of the Son of man a mere machine to register certain decrees concerning himself. His faith in these very promises gave him the victory in the hour of temptation, but faith’s victories prove the possibility of failure.
Our other correspondent urges that our experience and Christ’s could not be wholly parallel, inasmuch as he existed in another form before he took the flesh, and was therefore able to commit himself to God before he entered upon his new stage of existence as a child, while “our existence only begins at birth, and we could not share in the trusting of ourselves to God.”
A more careful reading of the editorial under consideration will show that we pointed out that the parallel between Christ’s experience and ours begins when we are born of the Spirit, as he was. It may be many years after being born of the flesh before we are born of the Spirit, but by virtue of this birth we become children of God, entering upon a new stage of existence just as Christ did when he was born of the Spirit. Jesus enjoyed no advantages over any member of the human family who has been born of the Spirit. The provision for one is the provision for the other.
It is quite possible that these two letters express thoughts which have arisen in many minds, and for this reason we have considered them in these columns. We venture to hope that this further study of the subject may make it clearer to all our readers.

Gathering the People’s Money

By Editor

Among the questions which come to the editor there is now and then one concerning life insurance. We have had our own opinion about this matter, but it seemed to be of little use to express it, inasmuch as we did not have at our command well-established facts to give force to our views. Now, however, the situation has been changed. An official investigation has been in progress for some time, and witnesses have testified under oath, making most astounding revelations of the betrayal of great fiduciary trusts.
The misuse of the people’s money, entrusted to their care, by the managers of the leading life insurance companies has been proved over and over again, and all the leading journals of the country have discussed the various phases of the question in strong language. That conservative magazine, The World’s Work, has begun to publish an exhaustive study of “The Life Insurance Machine,” to make clear “the mechanism by which the biggest treasure in the world is gathered into the hands of a few men without responsibility to its owners.” The writer asks: “Why has this rottenness centered about great insurance companies? What is there in the organization or the conduct of life insurance that has utterly demoralized the financial world?” And with terrible plainness he says: “In the depressing revelations of this insurance investigation, direct violations of law have been laid bare. But many more violations of moral law have been exposed; yes, on almost every page—for the whole thing is a mire of moral rottenness.”
Preliminary to the consideration of “the most wonderful piece of financial mechanism that has ever been built since the world began,” the writer of this study directs attention to the steady flow of money into the hands of a few men through “the device of modern insurance.” We quote as follows:—
Mississippi bubbles, South Sea bubbles, and all other schemes of all adventurous financiers become insignificant in comparison with the peculiar and simple device whereby an unceasing stream of money has come into these big insurance companies, for the use of a part of which the managers of the companies are not responsible to anybody. A mere handful of men have control of a practically inexhaustible flow of money, not their own, coming in, coming in, coming in to them, year after year, in constantly increasing volume. A large part of it is not needed for the conduct of the business. Yet they are not obliged to return it. If it is not theirs, the use of it is theirs.
And though they use it for their own enrichment, for financial jugglery, for industrial and political debauchery, they run no practical risk of bankrupting these great companies so long as the device of modern insurance works. So long as this works, they can go on, getting money in, getting money in, with a constantly increasing margin above the companies’ needs. Although they pay out to policy-holders all that they specifically agree to pay, and although they “divert” many millions, in mismanagement, in waste, in criminally large salaries, and in other ways, the stream comes in without slack.
All other treasure supplies that the world ever heard of at some time became exhausted. It will not be so with this, if the simple device by which it is perpetually renewed continues to be acceptable to the public, as it has been for a long generation.
From this extract it is evident that modern life insurance is so conducted that policy-holders are required to pay into the treasury of the companies enough money so that all legitimate claims can be paid, and millions upon millions be left in the hands of the managers of these companies to use without direct responsibility to the real owners of it. The recent investigation has shown that it has been used very largely for the personal benefit of the managers and their friends.
Furthermore, the ability to pay the claims of policy-holders depends upon a continuance of reasonably normal conditions in the financial world. In the troublous times which are just before us these institutions with their immense accumulations of money will be just as helpless as the ordinary individual. Their gold and silver will go to the moles and bats with all the rest. In view of these facts, why should those who believe in the soon coming of the Lord contribute to the flow of money which is being poured into the coffers of life insurance companies? Would it not be altogether more consistent to make our deposits in the bank of heaven? “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

Strangers and Pilgrims

By L. A. S.

THE attitude of one who counts himself a stranger and pilgrim in the land is quite different from that of a settled inhabitant. The two have different hopes and different aims. Their time, energies, and means are expended in different channels. We, as Christians, are to count ourselves strangers and pilgrims in this world, and on our practise in this respect will depend our attitude toward the work of God.
It is one thing to hold a mere denominational belief in the coming of that kingdom to which Abraham and the other ancient men of faith looked forward, and quite another thing to live the life of a stranger and pilgrim in this world. There are many whose profession in this respect is denied by their works.
Of the worthy men of old who died in faith, not having received the promises, it is recorded that they saw them “afar off;” but though they understood that their fulfilment was centuries in the future, having them in view by the eye of faith and desiring to make manifest their faith, they “confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” How appropriate, then, that God’s people to-day, living in the very generation to which these ancient servants of God looked forward, and with the fulfilment of the promises right at hand, should likewise make manifest that they count themselves strangers and pilgrims in this world.
If we would be identified with these ancient worthies in receiving the promises, we must be identified with them in the faith which separated them from the world. It must be made manifest in our lives that we seek here no continuing city, no abiding place, but that we are merely passing through this land, with our faces set toward a better country and a city whose builder and maker is God. There are many of us who need to become strangers and pilgrims.
L. A. S.

Our New World

By W. A. S.

THE spreading forth of our work in the last ten years has given us a new view of the world. Events in far lands that once would have appealed to us with little personal interest, now come home to our hearts directly; for they touch the cause we love. Any one who follows the news of the world week by week, with our own work in mind, has striking evidence of the truly world-wide character of our missionary operations.
Is it a failure of the monsoon rains in India, with prospects of a famine, or further outbreaks of the plague in Bombay or Rangoon? We think of our comrades in the Indian field, or in Burma, and wonder what added cares and perplexities, or what fresh calls for help, these things may bring upon them.
When the war in Manchuria was raging, its terrors were brought closer home to us by the knowledge that day by day it was adding to the burdens of the workers in Russia and Japan. Some of our own brethren, Russians on the one side, and Japanese on the other, were facing one another at the front, not, of course, as active combatants, but nevertheless unwilling witnesses of the carnage and sharers in its perils. We pray for peace in the far corners of the earth with new fervor when we realize what war in any part may mean to our own brethren in the faith of this message.
Is it rioting or agitation against America in China? We watch to see if any reports show special unrest in the regions where our own missionaries are working. In recent letters our missionaries report the stir of this agitation in their territories—in Honan, Amoy, and in the Canton province. Dr. Miller wrote from Honan:—
Just to-day a proclamation issued by the governor of this province was posted up over the city, commanding the people not to buy American goods. Further, societies are organizing against Americans. We do not know to what extent this will go.
A few years ago news from Inland China would have had a far-away sound to our ears. Now it sends us to our knees to pray God to care for our own brethren and sisters who stand for this truth in the midst of China’s darkness.
Progress in railway enterprise in the African interior now means that our workers have a quick route to regions before to be reached only by weeks or months of expensive and wearing travel. The extension of the Cape to Cairo route across the Zambesi and well on beyond meant this year a safe and short journey for Elder Anderson’s Barotseland party. And news of native unrest, as in the German sphere of influence, leads us to think of our own stations in the far interior which might be affected by the spread of discontent. Whatever touches the great Dark Continent, south, north, east, or west, touches us directly to-day.
More liberal legislation in Ecuador and Bolivia means greater freedom for our workers there. A bad fever season in Central America and the West Indies means that our own brethren and sisters are fighting to maintain life and strength amid attacks of wearing, burning fevers. A cable dispatch bringing news of a hurricane over almost any of the Pacific island groups, leads us to watch anxiously for the next news from our mission stations among the islands.
As we read of turmoil and strife and revolution in Russia, we know it means anxiety to our own churches and isolated believers in Finland, in St. Petersburg, in the Crimea, or in the Caucasus. When threats of the powers to force the hands of the sultan are met by threat of reprisals upon Christians in Turkey, we pray God to care for our brethren and their families in Constantinople, Asia Minor, and Syria, where already they are acquainted with bonds and imprisonments.
This cause has grown out into all the world. It is a new world to us—the world-wide field of the third angel’s message and in every clime, and on nearly every shore our own representatives are battling for this truth to-day. It means that we must let God’s love for the world flood into our hearts, and that we must study to become better acquainted with the world that he so loved. In all newspaper reading remember that it is the field of the third angel’s message that we are reading about as cable news reports events here and there. Trouble and unrest increase. Out of some of these things the overruling providence of God may lead into intervals of greater freedom in pushing our work forward, but all the world over there is a steady progression apparent into times of trouble which will increase the difficulties of the way. Now is the time to work. Now is the hour to bring every reserve force into service, whether of men or of means. There is just one business for every Seventh-day Adventist—the quick proclamation of this message to all the world. W. A. S.

Drawing Closer Together

By L. A. S.

According to the Boston Transcript, “a new era has dawned in New England,” the particular feature of which is the drawing together of Protestants and Catholics. This is indicated by “the character of the receptions given to Bishop O’Connell, of Portland, Maine, and to Bishop Harkins, of Providence [R. I.], by their fellow citizens, irrespective of creed, as they have returned home from Rome the past year.” It appears that these receptions were attended by Protestants of social and political eminence, who vied with Catholics in doing honor to the papacy. The Transcript says:—
For prudential, if for no higher reasons, it behooves public men in New England to-day to be respectful to the prelates of the Roman Catholic Church with its increasing numerical and social strength; but the tenor of the remarks by federal judges and State municipal officials on these occasions has been such as to show that higher motives have caused the presence on these occasions of the men of eminence among the non-Catholic laymen who have attended. Their congratulations and tributes have been too full of feeling to be perfunctory or servile in spirit.
One of these occasions, a dinner given in Providence, “was notable not only for the presence of so many Protestant public officials, but also for the presence of Bishop McVickar, of the Protestant Episcopal diocese of Rhode Island, concerning whom the toastmaster of the evening, Mayor Higgins, of Pawtucket, a Roman Catholic layman, said: ‘If all the potentates of the church were Harkines and McVickars, the question of the unity of Christendom would long ago have been a solved problem.’”
“All the reports which come from Rome to-day from Protestant visitorsto Pius X,” observes the Transcript, “show clearly that he is welcoming Protestant scholars and editors in confidential talks. . . . Both Prof. Charles A. Briggs, of Union Seminary, New York City, and Editor McBee, of the Churchman, the leading Protestant Episcopal journal of this country, have gone on record within six months as testifying to the cordial welcome they have had as fellow Christians from the great democrat and prudent opportunist who now rules at the Vatican. Such facts as these,” says the Transcript, “are to be borne in mind by all who are sincerely concerned with the future of New England and the United States.”
An argument designed to justify this coming together of Protestants and Catholics is drawn from existing social and political conditions, amid which it is discerned that “the great conserving institutions of society, the state, the church, and the family, are in peril from forces that are disintegrating, secular, and fleshly.” We are pointed to what has taken place in Europe, which “is witnessing some surprising realignments of Christians long hostile, in fighting these common enemies of faith, authority, chastity, and spiritual ideals,” and the prophecy is made that “a similar sinking of dogmatic feuds, rivalries of politics and disputes over the letter of the law and the historic accretions of a purely ecclesiastical, metaphysical interpretation of religion, in all probability must come in this country, under pressure similar to that which in Europe has made friends of those who for long have been foes.”
Rome’s method of conserving the state and the family is simply to make the church supreme over both. Rome’s ideal of a state is a government subordinate to, and directed by, the church, and Rome recognizes no family relations which have arisen without her sanction. The only valid marriage is that performed by the priest; all others, in her view, are unlawful and immoral. The acceptance of Rome’s dictum on this point would at once break up and destroy every Protestant family in the land. Rome would conserve the state and family only as incidental to the perpetuating of her own rule and authority. Rome is now posing as the great conserving force in society, and leading Protestants to believe that they must join hands with her in order to withstand the forces of disintegration, surrendering for the purpose such “minor” points as those for which the Reformers contended when the separation from Rome took place. Along this line Rome sees and rejoices in prospective victory.
L. A. S.
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