3 “Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for an household; 4 and if the household be too little for a lamb, then shall he and his neighbor next unto his house take one according to the number of the souls; according to every man’s eating ye shall make your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it from the sheep, or from the goats; and ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at even. And they shall take of the blood, and put it on the two side posts and on the lintel, upon the houses wherein they shall eat it. And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; with bitter herbs they shall eat it. 6 Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; its head with its legs and with the inwards thereof. And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; but that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire. 7 And thus shall ye eat it: with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the Lord’s passover. For I will go through the land of Egypt in that night, and will smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. 8 And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and there shall no plague be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. 9 And this day shall be unto you for a memorial, and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever.”
Golden Text.—“Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.” 1 Cor. 5:7.
SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS.
(1) After Pharaoh had disregarded the warning of the ninth plague, what did the Lord say to Moses? Verse 3. (2) What arrangement was to be made for eating the lamb? Verse 4. (3) What kind of lamb was it to be? Verse 5. Note 1. (4) On what day of the month should the lamb be killed? How many of the Israelites were to observe this feast? Verse 6. (5) What was to be done with the blood? Verse 7. Note 2. (6) What direction was given about eating the lamb? Verse 8. (7) How was it to be cooked? Verse 9. (8) What was to be done with any part of the lamb that might be left? Verse 10. (9) How were the people to be prepared for eating the Passover? Verse 11. Note 3. (10) What did the Lord say He would do that night? Verse 12. Note 4. (11) What would the blood be to them? Verse 13. Note 5. (12) What was the day of the Passover to be to the Israelites? How long were they to observe it? Verse 14. Notes 6 and 7.
NOTES.
1. “Without Blemish.”—This lamb was the type of Christ, therefore any deformity would have rendered it unfit to represent the perfect Son of God. We are redeemed with “the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” 1 Peter 1:19. He was “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” John 1:29. “For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.” 1 Cor. 5:7.
2. The blood must be on every house. There was no idea of national salvation there. Blood on the doorposts of the elders was not enough. No one would have been spared from the scourge threatened upon Egypt by virtue of his being an Israelite. Every dwelling must show the blood, and every individual must eat of the Passover lamb. The blood on the doorpost was the sign of faith in the Word of God, and the name of Israel was of no consequence without the obedience of faith.
3. All ready to depart must be the attitude of those who were willing to go, and who believed that God was able to deliver them. Thus again was the manifestation of faith called for. Every soul that was not ready that night when the word was given to go, would have been left to the doom of the Egyptians. So Christ warns us in these days: “Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he shall return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.” Luke 12:35, 36.
4. “This Night.”—Egypt had dallied away her last day of grace. The day of reckoning had come. And in Israel the time was at hand when the decision must be made, once for all, “Who is on the Lord’s side?” “This night” comes to every individual, sooner or later. To the man engrossed in the affairs of this world, there comes the sudden announcement, “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.” To the spiritual seed to-day the Master is saying, “Be ye also ready; for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.”
5. The Lord requires outward tokens of inward15faith. Not that He does not know the heart, but His people are to be witnesses unto Him before the world. While the Christian walks by faith in God’s Word, the world walks by sight. Having no faith, the people of the world must have ocular demonstration of the truth. All the ordinances of the Lord’s house are tokens of faith, and their neglect shows to all, believers as well as unbelievers, a lack of faith in Him who has ordained these testing tokens. To those who are faithful in all things, the Lord has promised that no plague shall come nigh their dwelling. Ps. 91:10.
6. A Memorial.—The day of the Passover was to be a memorial, an object-lesson, by which they should remember the grace of God in sparing them in the day of judgment upon unbelieving Egypt. The two objects linked together, the day and the feast, were a double test of faith and gratitude.
7. “Forever,” in connection with any object or institution, would be during its existence. Keeping the Passover “forever” could only mean as long as that feast could have any force as a type, and that would be until the type met the antitype.
OUR WORK AND WORKERS.
NOVEMBER 9, three candidates were baptized at Ariel, Pa., by Brother C. F. McVagh.
THE addition of three to our ranks at Granite Heights, Wis., is noted in the Reporter.
THREE churches have been organized in Wayne County, Pa., during the past three and a half years.
BROTHER I. SANBORN, of Wisconsin, has been transferred to Mississippi, and has located at Ridgeland.
Dr. A. B. Olsen has returned to England, to begin the work of establishing a sanitarium in that country.
ONE of our canvassers in Arkansas recently took seventy-five orders in fifty hours, the total amount being $248.
A NEW house of worship was recently dedicated at South Canaan, Pa., by Brother R. A. Underwood, president of the conference.
BROTHER WALTER HARPER reports the delivery of from $375 to $400 worth of books at Phillipsburg and Granite, Mont., in five days in the middle of November.
FROM the Review we learn that the Swedish edition of “Christ’s Object Lessons” is now ready. It is a page-for-page facsimile of the English book, and the same price, $1.25. The proceeds of this edition go to the school in Sweden.
REPORTING to the Review concerning the work in Chile, Brother G. H. Baber, notes the organization of a church of thirty-four members at Iquique, also a demand for the book, “Daniel and Revelation,” in the Castellano (Spanish) language.
BROTHER E. S. BUTZ, who has been acting as State canvassing agent for Illinois Conference, has resigned his position, and will return to the Island of Tonga, in the South Pacific Ocean, to resume the missionary work in which he was formerly engaged.
THE new church that was organized a few weeks ago at Middlefield, Ohio, has now seventeen members, with others interested in the truth. A lot has been procured, and a house of worship is being erected. Brother C. C. Webster is looking after the work there.
THE General Conference Committee has appointed December 21–28 as a season of special devotion. Readings have been prepared for the occasion, and will be sent to church officers and isolated Sabbathkeepers. In connection with the meetings the usual offering for foreign missions will be taken.
THE young people of the church in Des Moines, Iowa, says the Bulletin, “have found a number of the Lord’s needy ones in the city during the past week, and have provided them with comfortable clothing, donated for the purpose. Much more along this line will be done this winter.”
THE harvest ingathering service held in the fore part of November, at Newark, Ohio, is reported to have been a very interesting occasion. The Visitor says: “The meeting-house was trimmed with evergreen and fragrant with flowers. A fine display of fruits, grains, and vegetables reminded all present of the bountiful Giver of all good. An hour and a half was filled full of Scripture recitations, speeches, reading of papers, and songs, in which both old and young took part.” A collection of over thirty dollars was taken for mission work.
THE Correspondence School for Nurses connected with the Sanitarium Medical Missionary Training School, will begin a new class at the commencement of the new year. Lessons are sent weekly to students who are unable to leave home duties in order to take a regular course at one of our sanitariums. This is the third year this course has been carried on, and scores are availing themselves of it. Studies on eleven subjects are given, among which missionary work and care and treatment of the sick are prominent. The tuition fee is $3. Address Correspondence Department Sanitarium Training School, Battle Creek, Mich.
BROTHER JOHN HOFFMAN, who is laboring in Finland, tells of going to a certain neighborhood and holding a meeting in a farmhouse. Writing to the Workers’ Bulletin of the occasion, he says: “The people had us stay with the parish priest and his wife in their large house, where we were made welcome. He was a learned man, and I took an interest in his translations from the Hebrew and Greek; and as he loved music, Mrs. Hoffman played some, and the old folks seemed pleased to have us there. The next evening he let us have a meeting in the assembly hall. The organist was there to play and sing, and about two hundred and fifty people gathered to listen to the message. They took up a collection to pay our fare there.”
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Ten “SIGNS” ONE YEAR
By Editor
Had you thought of the fact that ten copies of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES will be furnished for a whole year for only $7.50?
How much good you might do among your friends and neighbors with such a club. To all sending us such a subscription at once, we will furnish The Golden-Text Calendar for 1902, absolutely free of charge. This calendar is described elsewhere in this issue. It is certainly something you will prize very highly. If you want to know how some missionary workers are using the SIGNS, write the
SIGNS OF THE TIMES
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—The San Francisco Examiner points out that 6,000 new doctors receive diplomas in this country annually. These are from the regular schools, and do not include Osteopathists, Christian Science practitioners, and others not considered by the law and profession as regular. We are told that “practising physicians feel alarm ‘at the great number of doctors turned out,’” and the wish is expressed that seven out of ten be driven out of business, and the remaining three be subject to proper supervision at the hands of a competent medical board. It is said that “there are undoubtedly ‘more competent physicians in the United States than in all the rest of the world put together.’ ‘There are also in the United States more murders ‘committed by doctors through ignorance than in all the rest of the world put together.’” Three sample cases are given of wrong diagnosis; a typhoid fever patient is treated for the grip, a case of indigestion is diagnosed appendicitis and an operation demanded, and a third who had severe kidney disease was told that he was simply run down and needed a tonic. The first and last died; the second barely escaped operation and probable death by seeking other counsel. The Examiner points out that the licensing is wrong; it licenses many who know naught of practise; their knowledge is merely theoretical. How do all these doctors live? Many do not employ doctors at all, and get along very well. Many depend on patent medicines, which sell by the million or gross, packages or bottles. Surely the old world is a great hospital, but it seems as tho it were overstocked with physicians. What will the world do?
The Earnestness of Your Prayer
The earnestness of your prayer for power will be measured by a sense of your need. Your reception of power will depend on your simple faith in God's goodness and ability to give.
Appeals for Mission Organizations
By Editor
“Saving the Children” is the title of an appeal in our Missions department. We give it space, not alone because the work is a good one, not alone that it may be the means of completing homes among the SIGNS readers, but because it is representative of other organizations, appeals for which we have not space to print.
Sunday School Lessons.—
By Editor
We soon begin a new series of Sunday-school Lessons. Most of the first quarter of 1902 are taken from the Acts of the Apostles. In connection with these we publish interesting and instructive articles on the general topic of the lesson from the pen of Pastor J. O. Corliss. These lessons and articles are on that wonderful subject so much needed now, the outpouring of the Spirit. The first four subjects are as follows: “The ‘Promise of Power;” “The Promise Fulfilled;” “The Early Christian Church;” “The Lame Man ‘Healed.”
Jonah’s Hidden Greatness
The littleness of great men is well exemplified in Jonah. God would not have called him to His great foreign mission if there had not been the elements in Jonah’s character which the Spirit could mightily use. But Jonah was proud and easily irritated; the mission was displeasing; he would get no glory out of it, and he fled to Tarshish. But when the severe test of the storm comes, pride and irritation vanish. He frankly tells the sailors that he is to blame, and to cast him overboard. The greatness of soul with which he does this so impresses the ignorant heathen that they strive all the harder to save the man, and are led to pray to the great Jehovah. The best of a man is not always seen on the surface. Sometimes ill health in the form of dyspepsia, catarrh, indigestion, and the irritation consequent on these ailments, hide many a noble soul. But even over all these God will give the victory to him who will co-operate with divine power.
There Is No Passive Righteousness.
—We do not estimate the worth of a tree by its harmlessness, but by the fruit it bears. It is needful that Christians be more than passively good. To do no wrong is to be as the fruitless fig-tree. It is God’s purpose that mankind bear much fruit, even so are they His disciples. John 15:1-5. “If any man have not the Spirit of ‘Christ, he is none of His,” but “the fruit of the ‘Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and ‘truth.” The tree is known by its fruit.
Forthcoming Articles for Readers
By Editor
There will immediately follow the excellent article, “Co-operation,” elsewhere found and referred to, these named below:—
“The Love that Is of God,”
“The Mother’s Work,”
“Enduring [adjective, not participle] Religion,”
“Living for Christ,”
“What It Means to Be a Christian.”
We know that our readers, who desire the sincere milk as well as the meat of the Word, will welcome these articles.
CHRISTIAN LIBERTY THE ONLY DESIRABLE.
ONE of our esteemed contemporaries on the sunny side of the Mason-and-Dixon line seems strangely indeed to misunderstand the term Christian liberty as applied to an upholder and advocate of the teaching. It seemingly takes the term as meaning liberty for Christians only, and not for all. But does it not agree with us in the following answers:—
Who is the Author of Christianity?
Jesus, who is called the Christ.
Who enjoyed the most perfect liberty of soul of any man who ever walked the earth?
Jesus, who is called the Christ.
Who came to proclaim liberty to those in bondage as it was never before proclaimed?
Jesus, who is called the Christ.
For how many did He proclaim this liberty?
To all, irrespective of race or sex or previous condition.
How could this liberty be made an actual experience?
In receiving by faith Jesus, who is called the Christ.
What liberty did He alone, of all founders of all religions, grant to all?
Absolute liberty to accept or reject, either unto freedom or slavery, any or all teaching including His own, without temporal punishment or condemnation even from Him, the Perfect One.
What liberty, therefore, did Christ, the Founder of Christianity, proclaim?
Christian liberty.
What liberty is the only truly equal and acceptable liberty in this world?
Christian liberty.
And what liberty shall we as Christians, brother, proclaim to all men to the end of the world?
Of course, Christian liberty.
To the reader who knows the Bible there will be plenty of texts of Scripture to suggest themselves as the direct confirmation of the above answers, or the answers will be seen to be direct corollaries of these scriptures. If the reader wants abundant proof of all this, let him subscribe for and read the Sentinel of Christian Liberty, published at 11 West 20th Street, New York City, and the SIGNS OF THE TIMES. The journals combined are only $2.00 a year.
The Army Canteen and Beer
All manner of schemes are being concocted by men interested in the beer business to make it appear that it was a mistake to abolish the army canteen. One of the features is the reading-room, and to show the alleged evil effects of abolishing the beer, a picture of the “deserted canteen” at the Presidio, San Francisco, was inserted in a daily paper. But the Pacific Ensign says, “It now comes ‘to light that the picture was secured by asking the ‘men to leave the room before it was taken.’” However, if the picture were a true representation, it would merely show that the beer was the attraction, and would be no argument in favor of the canteen institution from the standpoint of morality. But the idea of the liquor traffic’s advocating the canteen on the plea that the soldiers do not drink so much in the canteen as they would without it, is too absurd for serious consideration. That line of business is not conducted on the principle of curtailing sales, or of saving men from the drink habit.
Which Is the Inconsistency?
—The fiction “This is ‘a Christian nation,” uttered by the U. S. Supreme Court in 1892, has been given as much prominence in National Reform literature and oratory as tho it expressed an actual condition. Numerous and various have been the demands on legislative bodies and other public functionaries because “this is a ‘Christian nation.’” But in a recent issue of the Christian Statesman, the editor says: “The studied ‘and almost unvarying omission of the name of ‘Christ from our Fast and Thanksgiving proclamations, is an inconsistency and an offense.” Is not the inconsistency rather on the other side,—the calling of a nation “Christian” whose executives study to evade the use of the name Christ? One of the National Reform arguments is that this is a Christian nation because the Supreme Court says so. But Christianity is not imparted in that way; it is the work of the Spirit of God.
The Imaginary Strong City
The wise man tells us: “The rich man’s wealth is ‘his strong city, and as an high wall in his own imagination.” Prov. 18:11. There is no real strength in the wealth; it is only temporal at best; and in reality exists only in imagination. How frequently men lie down at night, and in the morning find themselves ruined. Flood, fire, ill-starred investments, sweep away the imaginary “strong city,” and the man is left without a defense. How many have piled up riches to buy themselves off from evil. But sometime all this will cease. When God rises up to judgment, “neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord’s wrath.” Nay, more, in that day men shall cast their silver and gold, in which they have trusted, “to the moles and to the bats.” How much better it is to trust in God.
