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Review and Herald, Vol. 91, No. 7.

THE WORK AND THE WORKERS

Review and Herald

Feb 12, 1914

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Feb 12, 1914

THE WORK AND THE WORKERS

By Editor

“S. O. S.” WIRELESS signal of distress, to all agents and agencies: Have you any unsold January Protestant? If so, will you exchange for the great February number or for cash? Notify A. J. S. Bourdeau, manager Protestant Magazine, Washington, D. C., before sending.
Some of the Washington Missionary College students and others who took the city of Washington, D. C., by storm, January 20, in the "Protestant Magazine" campaign.
Some of the Washington Missionary College students and others who took the city of Washington, D. C., by storm, January 20, in the "Protestant Magazine" campaign.
“SEND one thousand Protestant Magazines for February to the Upper Columbia Tract Society, College Place, Wash.,” wires Brother T. G. Johnson, the secretary. Could spare him only 500, and then held up orders for several hundred more. By February 4, 6,200 copies of the second edition of 10,000 of the February number had been ordered.
FOR several weeks we have been obliged to substitute the February for the January Protestant Magazine, on SUBSCRIPTIONS as well as AGENTS’ ORDERS. Two editions and the 1914 reserve supply for new subscriptions, ALL GONE! Requests to “Please begin my subscription with the January number” are numerous and appealing. Every 1914 subscription MUST BEGIN with the great February or “Protestant Mass Meeting” and “Roman Mask Put On Again” number. If our “S. O. S.” call brings relief, we will let you know promptly.
ONE order blank slipped into a sample copy of the Protestant Magazine has just returned accompanied by $4.50 and 15 six-month subscriptions. And, as we write this, two others have turned up in this morning’s mail, each with a $6.00 check, to pay for ten yearly subscriptions each; another with $3.00 for five yearly subscriptions, and another with $1.50 for five six-month subscriptions.
Send $2.00 for 50 or $1.00 for 20 “loaded” sample copies of the February number, and turn them loose among your friends. Put your name and address across the lower corner of the order blank, and we will notify you as the people subscribe.
ELDER H. C. HARTWELL, president of the Massachusetts Conference, writes from the Fitchburg, Mass., depot: “Shall do all I can to encourage the circulation of this epoch-making number of the Protestant Magazine [February]. I feel impressed to make an effort to place it in the hands of every Protestant minister in Massachusetts. It would probably take several thousand copies. Think we should be willing to invest liberally in this proposition. We would furnish you with their names and addresses, and have the magazines mailed direct from your office. Then I thought of getting out a letter from our office to each of these ministers, urging his subscription. How does this plan appeal to you?” An excellent idea! Let other States write for special rates on a similar basis.
ENTIRE February edition of Life and Health sold out by February 4. All orders must now be filled with the beautiful and practical March number, just off the press. Niagara Falls cover design. Symposium on “What I Know About Rearing the Baby,”—seven articles,—and much other matter equally as good. Order early.
SHIPPED 1,881 February Protestants January 30, 1,176 copies February 1, 491 February 2, and 1,060 copies February 3. Subscriptions not counted—231 received in one mail, besides 157 subscriptions for Liberty and 133 for Life and Health, all on February 2.
MR. ARTHUR WALSH, editor of the Protestant Observer, London, England: writes: “I take this opportunity of saying how much I appreciate the Protestant Magazine. Please tell the editors that I look forward to its reception each month with great pleasure. I only wish that we had sufficient funds in hand to publish our monthly in so creditable a form. With all good wishes for your noble work.”

That Thou My Love Wilt Own

By Worthie Harris Holden

WORTHIE HARRIS HOLDEN
Long patience hast thou, Lord, with such as I,— Not meet to serve as friend nor be close by,— Still let my flowing tears anoint thy feet, Or grant within thy gate some lowly seat.
Surpassing strange that thou, the King of kings, Art satisfied with finite offerings; That love which sought, redeemed, and set us free, Rejoices in our grateful ecstasy.
So glad am I that thou my love wilt own, That thou wilt hear me from thy glory-throne, But happier still my ransomed soul shall be To dwell in heaven forevermore with thee.

A. G. DANIELLS

By Arthur G. Daniells

Does the History of Turkey and Egypt Since 1798 Fulfill the Prophecy of Daniel 11: 40-44?—No. 17

A. G. DANIELLS

NUMBER 16 of this series of articles on Dan. 11: 40-44 appeared in the REVIEW of May 8, 1913. In resuming these studies, a brief review will serve as a helpful connecting link between what has been given and that which is to follow.
The prophecy set forth in the last six verses of the eleventh chapter of Daniel, may be separated into three parts:—
First, the conflict at “the time of the end” between the “king of the south,” the “king of the north,” and another power designated by the pronoun him, with the result that the king of the north comes out of the struggle the victor. Verse 40.
Second, the continuation and extension of the triumphs of the king of the north over “many countries,”—the glorious land (Syria), Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, and the adjacent regions. Verses 41-43.
Third, serious reverses of the king of the north, resulting, first in the loss of independence, and finally in complete overthrow and extinction. Verses 44, 45.
The conclusions reached in the preceding studies are as follows:—
1. That “the time of the end” began in 1798.
2. That the “king of the south” at that time was Egypt.
3. That the “king of the north” was Turkey.
4. That the power represented by the pronoun “him” was France.
In tracing the history of these countries at that time, we found,—
1. That in 1798 France invaded Egypt for the purpose of conquest, and that Egypt offered the most determined resistance, but went down in the struggle.
2. That in the year 1798 Turkey declared war on France, assembled a land army of 30,000 at Damascus, and a navy of 30,000 at Rhodes, to engage the French, and that at the close of the terrible struggle between these forces in Syria, Turkey was the victor.
3. That following the victory over the French at St. Jean d’Acre, Turkey promptly and resolutely extended her rule over Syria, Egypt, Arabia, Ethiopia, and Libya, and thus gained power, or control, over the “treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt,” to a far greater extent than ever before.
In the year 1825 Turkey was complete master of all the countries in the south, and was exacting heavy tribute from them to restore her depleted treasury at Constantinople.

A Change Foretold

It is here, at this point, that the prophecy foretells trouble for Turkey: “But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.” Dan. 11: 44, 45.
This part of the prophecy predicts serious reverses for this power, which, up to this point, was to be victorious in repulsing the French invaders, and in reestablishing and even extending its control over the countries of the south.
And with a change in the fortunes of Turkey there is also to be a change in the place of operations. “Tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him.” Immediately preceding this the conflicts were in the south,—Palestine, Egypt, and Ethiopia. Now the scene shifts to the eastern and northern parts of the empire. The eastern part is Syria, Armenia, and Asia Minor. The northern is the Balkan territory extending northward from Constantinople to the Danube. It is in these regions that the Turk will find the enemy encroaching upon his territory, and threatening his existence. It is into these parts that the armies will be sent under the furious commands of their ruler “to destroy and utterly to make away many.” But they will not succeed. In this long struggle Turkey will go down in defeat, and “come to his end.”
As we believe and teach that verse 44 predicts Turkish reverses that will result in the transfer of the capital from Constantinople to Jerusalem, and, in the end, the overthrow and extinction of the empire, we ought surely to give the history of the period and the events referred to the most careful study. This period began about 1825. Of the general conditions Turkey was facing at that time Creasy says:—
“Peril from Russia, peril from England, peril from mutinous Janizaries, and factious ulema; peril from many-headed insurrection among Wahabis, Mamelukes, Servians, Albanians, Greeks, Druses, Kurds, Syrians, and Egyptians; peril from rebellious pashas, who would fain have founded new kingdoms on the ruins of the house of Othman,—such were some of the clouds that hung over the reign of Mahmud, the second sultan of that name, and the thirtieth of his dynasty [whose reign extended from 1808 to 1839].”—“History of the Ottoman Turks,” Vol. II, page 39.
Another writer says:—
“In this concurrence of domestic revolt and foreign war, at a period of the decline of her political institutions, Turkey was like a ship in a storm, whosecrew were in a mutiny, and whose tackle was worthless and worn out. But, in the midst of this tremendous crisis, the gigantic political figure of Sultan Mahmud appeared at the post of the pilot, weathering the storm with a genius and an energy that challenges the admiration and sympathy of the world. From north, south, east, and west, the elements seemed to gather themselves together for a final effort which should engulf the Ottoman vessel of state; but it was not written in the book of fate that the hour of the break-up was arrived.”—“History of the Egyptian Revolution,” by Paton, Vol. II, page 92.
While the historian tells of troubles in all parts of the Turkish Empire, the prophet points to the east and the north only. It was in these parts that he foresaw the most serious and perilous developments. It was the “tidings out of the east and out of the north” that troubled and alarmed the government, and caused it to send forth its armies to meet the enemy. This is what is foretold by the prophet, and it is what is recorded by the historian.

Some Things to Keep

By Arthur L. Manous

ARTHUR L. MANOUS
1. THYSELF: “Keep thyself pure.” 1 Tim. 5:22.
2. THE BODY: “But I,” says Paul, “keep under my body, and bring it into subjection.” 1 Cor. 9:27. See also Rom. 8:13; Col. 3:5.
3. THE SOUL: “Keep thy soul diligently.” Deut. 4:9. See also Prov. 22:5.
4. THE MOUTH: “He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life: but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction.” Prov. 13:3. See also Ps. 39:1; Prov. 21:23.
5. THE TONGUE: “Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.” Ps. 34:13. See also Ps. 141:3; Prov. 15:4.
6. THE HEART: “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” Prov. 4:23. See also Phil. 4:7.
7. THE HAND: “Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.” Isa. 56:2.
8. THE FEET: “Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God.” Eccl. 5:1.
9. WISDOM: “Keep sound wisdom and discretion.” Prov. 3:21.
10. INSTRUCTION: “Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life.” Prov. 4:13.
11. MERCY: “Keep mercy and judgment.” Hosea 12:6.
12. GOD’S WORD: “If a man love me,” says Christ, “he will keep my words.” John 14:23. See also John 8:47; Prov. 4:21.
13. THE SABBATH DAY: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” Ex. 20:8. See also Ex. 31:13–16; Lev. 19: 3, 30; 26:2; Deut. 5:12; Isa. 56:4; Matt. 24:20.
14. THE LAW OF GOD: “My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments.” Prov. 3:10. “If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.” Matt. 19:17. See also John 12:50; Eccl. 12:13; John 14:15; 15:10; Rev. 22:14.
15. THE LORD’S WAY: “Keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment.” Gen. 18:19. “Wait on the Lord, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it.” Ps. 37:34.
Nashville, Tenn.

Destroyed for Lack of Knowledge

By Ellen G. White

(Concluded)
MRS. E. G. WHITE
During the long reign of Jeroboam II, the armies of Israel gained signal victories; but this time of apparent prosperity wrought no change in the hearts of the impenitent; and it was finally decreed: “Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land.” Amos 7:11.
So far had Israel gone in impenitence that even this terrible sentence left them unmoved. Amaziah, a leader among the idolatrous priests at Bethel, said to Amos: “O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there: but prophesy not again any more at Beth-el: for it is the king’s chapel, and it is the king’s court.” Amos 7:12, 13.
But the prophet’s answer was, “Thus saith the Lord, . . . Israel shall surely go into captivity.”
The destruction of the northern kingdom came gradually. In judgment the Lord remembered mercy, and at first, when “Pul the king of Assyria came against the land,” Menahem, then king of Israel, was not taken captive, but was permitted to remain on the throne as a vassal of the Assyrian realm. “Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver, that his hand might be with him to confirm the kingdom in his hand. And Menahem exacted the money of Israel, even of all the mighty men of wealth, of each man fifty shekels of silver, to give to the king of Assyria.” Having humbled Israel by making it tributary to his empire, “the king of Assyria turned back, and stayed not there in the land.” 2 Kings 15:19, 20.
But Menahem, far from repenting of the evil that had wrought ruin in his kingdom, continued throughout the ten years of his reign in “the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.” 2 Kings 15:18. Pekahiah and Pekah, his successors, also “did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord.” 2 Kings 15:24, 28. “In the days of Pekah,” who reigned twenty years, “Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria” invaded Israel, and carried away with him a multitude of captives from among the tribes living in Galilee and east of the Jordan. “The Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh,” with others of the inhabitants of “Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali,” were scattered among the heathen in lands far removed from Palestine. From this terrible blow, the kingdom never recovered.
The feeble remnant of Israel continued the forms of government, though no longer possessed of power. Only one more ruler, Hoshea, was to follow Pekah. The throne was tottering; soon the entire kingdom was to be swept away. But God in mercy gave the people another chance to turn from idolatry. In the third year of Hoshea’s reign, Hezekiah came to the throne of Judah, and soon afterward important reforms were instituted in the temple service at Jerusalem. As speedily as possible, Hezekiah arranged for the celebration of the Passover, and to this feast he invited not only his Judean subjects, but all Israel as well. He “sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, to keep the Passover unto the Lord God of Israel.” A proclamation was sounded “throughout all Israel, from Beer-sheba even unto Dan, that they should come to keep the Passover unto the Lord God of Israel at Jerusalem: for they had not done it of a long time in such sort as it was written.
“So the posts went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the commandment of the king, saying, Ye children of Israel, turn again unto the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and he will return to the remnant of you, that are escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria. And be not ye like your fathers, and like your brethren, which trespassed against the Lord God of their fathers, who therefore gave them up to desolation, as ye see. Now be ye not stiffnecked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves unto the Lord, and enter into his sanctuary, which he hath sanctified forever: and serve the Lord your God, that the fierceness of his wrath may turn away from you. For if ye turn again unto the Lord, your brethren and your children shall find compassion before them that lead them captive, so that they shall come again into this land: for the Lord your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if ye return unto him.” 2 Chron. 30:1-9.
“From city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh even unto Zebulun,” the couriers sent out by Hezekiah carried the message. Israel should have seen in this invitation an appeal to repent and turn to God. But nearly all treated the royal messengers with indifference or with contempt. “They laughed them to scorn, and mocked them.” 2 Chron. 30:10. But there were a few who gladly responded. “Divers of Asher and Manasseh and of Zebulun humbled themselves, . . . to keep the feast of unleavened bread.”
About two years later, “in the seventh year of Hoshea,” “Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria, and besieged it. And at the end of three years they took it: even in the sixth year of Hezekiah, that is the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken. And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel unto Assyria, and put them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes: because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord their God, but transgressed his covenant, and all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded.” 2 Kings 18:9-12.
The destruction that came upon the northern kingdom was directly from God himself. The Assyrians were merely the instruments that he used to carry out his purpose. Through Isaiah, who began to prophesy before the fall of Samaria, the Lord referred to the Assyrian hosts as the “rod of mine anger.” “The staff in their hand,” he said, “is mine indignation.” Isa. 10:5.
“The children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, . . . and wrought wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger; for they served idols, whereof the Lord had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing. . . .
“Notwithstanding they would not hear, but . . . rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he had made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; . . . and they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger.
“Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and . . . afflicted them, and delivered them unto the hands of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight, . . . as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria.” 2 Kings 17:7-23.

The Sabbath of the Lord

By C. E. Holmes

C. E. HOLMES
IN a pamphlet recently published by the Lord’s Day Alliance of the United States it is stated that the fourth commandment of the decalogue refers to the institution and not to the particular day; that is, after any six days of work the seventh day should be a day of rest, and this idea carried out will be observing the Sabbath.
This argument is used quite generally by First-day observers, especially when it is desired to switch the Sabbath from the seventh day of the week to the first. If this idea were literally followed, there would be no day in the week on which somebody would not be resting. Each person would be at liberty to select his sabbath, or rest day.
Such an argument, however, entirely overlooks a very fundamental statement of the Author of the decalogue. It says plainly in the fourth commandment that the seventh day is the “Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” The Creator, as a personal being, has seen fit to work six days and rest on the seventh. He selected the six days of labor and the seventh of rest that he wished. He used the same liberty that the writer already referred to claims belongs to all. But—and here is the point—the Creator after specifying exactly the day on which he rested and which he blessed, asks his creatures to respect his Sabbath.
It should be apparent at once from this that the creature, man, has not been authorized to select a day to observe and call the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. Man’s duty is to accept the period set apart for him, and keep it in the way required by the One who set it apart.
Takoma Park, D. C.

Day and Date of Christ’s Crucifixion

By O. A. JOHNSON

Annual Feasts and Annual Sabbaths—No. 5

Day and Date of Christ’s Crucifixion

O. A. JOHNSON
ON the Sabbath following the crucifixion, Christ lay in the tomb. Luke 23: 54-56. This day was the sixteenth of Abib, and on it the priest waved the sheaf of first fruits before the Lord. But it must not be forgotten that this sixteenth day always followed the first Passover sabbath, or the fifteenth of the same month. Lev. 23: 6, 7, 10, 11. In this year of Christ’s crucifixion the wave sheaf was presented before the Lord on the seventh day, Sabbath; wherefore this “Sabbath day was an high day.” John 19: 31. See Clarke’s comment on this verse; also Edersheim’s “Life of Christ,” Vol. II, page 613.
J. B. Dimbleby, in the pamphlet “All Past Time,” published in New Haven, Conn., eighth edition, 1894, page 95, makes the following statements concerning the time of Christ’s crucifixion: “The crucifixion was at the beginning of 31 A. D.” “Jesus Christ was crucified in the middle of the seventh civil [first ecclesiastical] month [Abib, or Nisan], early on Friday, the fifteenth, the day after the Passover;” “Saturday, the old Sabbath day, being the sixteenth.”—Page 67. Under table “m” of the “Ancient Hebrew Solar Cycle,” page 56, the sixteenth of Abib falls on the weekly Sabbath.
From the above it is evident that the day in which Christ was in the tomb was the

Sabbath, the Sixteenth Day of Abib

Christ rose from the dead on the first day of the week, Sunday, being the third day after his crucifixion. Mark 16: 9; Luke 24: 21-23. From what has been said concerning the events on the preceding days, and on which days of the month they occurred, it follows that the resurrection of Christ must have been on

Sunday, the Seventeenth Day of Abib

Christ did not remain in the sepulcher three full days; for he was buried on Friday afternoon, and rose early the following Sunday morning, the third day after his crucifixion. Luke 23: 53-56; Mark 16: 9; 1 Cor. 15: 4. Some have found it difficult to harmonize his resurrection on “the third day” with the statement that “after three days” he should “rise again.” Mark 8: 31. But the following note will explain this apparent contradiction:—
“In common with other nations, the Jews reckoned any part of a period of time for the whole, as in Ex. 16: 35. An attention to this circumstance will explain several apparent contradictions in the Sacred Writings: thus, a part of the day is used for the whole, and part of the year for an entire year. . . .
“Abenezra, an eminent Jewish commentator (on Lev. 12: 3), says that if an infant were born in the last hour of the day, such hour was counted for one whole day. This observation critically reconciles the account of our Lord’s resurrection in Matt. 27: 63 and Mark 8: 31, ‘three days after,’ with that of his resurrection ‘on the third day,’ according to Matt. 16: 21 and Luke 9: 22, and according to fact; for, as our Lord was crucified on Good Friday, about the sixth hour, or noon, the remainder of that day to sunset, according to the Jewish computation, was reckoned as one day. Saturday, it is universally admitted, formed the second day; and as the third day began on Saturday at sunset, and our Saviour rose about sunrise on the following morning, that part of a day is justly reckoned for the third day; so that the interval was ‘three days and three nights,’ or three calendar days current.”—“Horne’s Introduction,” Vol. II, part 2, chap. 4, pages 76, 77. Compare also Ruth 4: 16; 5: 1; Luke 13: 32.
Provision was made in the days of Moses that if for valid reasons some failed to keep the Passover in the first month, they were permitted to keep it on “the fourteenth day of the second month.” Num. 9: 9-12. Later we find the Jews observing two feast days instead of one. “Instead of the people’s keeping the first and last days of the feast as a sabbath, they observed two days in each case.”—“Practical Lessons,” by Gilbert, page 244. “To make, however, assurance doubly sure, it soon became the practice to keep New Year’s Day on two successive days, and this has since been extended into a duplication of all the great feast days.”—“The Temple,” by Edersheim, page 172.
We have already learned that the sixteenth day, on which the wave sheaf was presented to the Lord, must have been on the Sabbath. The second day for this ceremony must have been on the first day of the week, the day of Christ’s resurrection. The following statement from “Desire of Ages,” large edition, page 785, is in harmony with this view: “Christ arose from the dead as the first fruits of those that slept. He was the antitype of the wave sheaf, and his resurrectiontook place on the very day when the wave sheaf was presented before the Lord.”
The next feast after the Passover was Pentecost, and that fell on the fiftieth day after the wave sheaf was presented before the Lord. The wave sheaf was waved before the Lord on the sixteenth day of Abib, the day following the first Passover sabbath. Lev. 23: 10, 11, 15-21. In the year of Christ’s crucifixion this wave sheaf was offered on the Sabbath. Fifty days after this would bring us to the day of Pentecost, which also fell on the Sabbath. Therefore the Pentecost mentioned in the second chapter of Acts fell on the Sabbath and not on Sunday.
“The year that the Saviour was crucified, the Passover sabbath fell on Friday, from Thursday evening sunset to Friday evening sunset. The first day of the omer, therefore, would be the Sabbath of the Lord. This day was, then, the first day after the Passover sabbath; therefore, fifty days from this day would again bring us to the seventh day of the week, or the Bible Sabbath. It is thus evident that the Holy Spirit fell on the Sabbath of the Lord, the seventh day of the week. See Lightfoot, Edersheim, and other Hebrew Christian writers.”—“Practical Lessons,” by Gilbert, page 269.
Many other authorities might be quoted who hold that Pentecost fell in this year on the Sabbath of the Lord, and not on the first day of the week. The following might be named: Jennings, in his “Jewish Antiquities;” Olshausen; August Dachel, in his “Comments on Acts 2.”
Walla Walla (Wash.) College.

Where Is Our God of Olden Times?

By Caroline Louise Clough

CAROLINE LOUISE CLOUGH
I RECENTLY received an unsigned letter, from which I quote the following:— “My husband is not converted. I have been praying very hard for him lately, but it does not help. God will not hear. I am very, very sorry. I cannot believe in prayers any more. In olden times when God’s people prayed, he always heard them, but he does no more. Where is our God and Father of old, the Lord of all power? Is there any among you that knows how to pray as in the olden times when God heard and answered prayers? Will you pray, then? but not an ordinary prayer. There must be some one who knows God personally. I understand no more.”
This pathetic letter set me thinking, and I cannot let this challenge of my God pass by unanswered. It is true that there are very few manifestations of God’s power among professed Christians today. But is God to blame?—No, never! “Jesus Christ [is] the same yesterday, and today, and forever,” and he declares, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.”
Let us consider one of the promises: “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” Mark 11:24.
One woman had found this promise and had been praying for some selfish object. Not receiving an answer to her prayer, she was about to give up her faith and curse God, when she happened to meet a Christian minister, to whom she told her experience. He immediately turned to 1 John 3:22, and read: “And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.” She at once recognized that the difficulty was not with God, but with her, and she began to make things right.
A few days ago a friend, as an accommodation, cashed a check for some one who was leaving the city. The check was sent to the bank on which it was drawn, and was returned with the information that the person whose name appeared on the check had no credit in that bank. So it is with the great bank of heaven. It has been said, “Prayer is the key that unlocks heaven’s storehouse,” but the conditions of answered prayer must be met. When these conditions are met, then, through the merits of Christ, we have a credit in the bank of heaven. By faith we may avail ourselves of Christ’s righteousness. We may pass up our checks at any time, and they will be honored.
We find, in olden times, that before every manifestation of God’s power in behalf of his people there was a putting away of sin and a cleansing of the camp. The Lord says, “Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.” Isa. 59:2. Also, “He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.” Prov. 28:9.
There is too much professing religion in these days, and too little experiencing religion. No power in prayer means no God in the life. No Christ enthroned within means a heart stained with sin.
If we will but come to him, he will cleanse our soul temple from all defilement, give us grace and strength to “keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.” Then we shall be able to reveal to others his wondrous power working in our lives.
Hinsdale, Ill.

Results of Rebellion

By John Francis Olmsted

JOHN FRANCIS OLMSTED
The baneful results of rebellion are many times obscure until sedition breaks out in the midst of malice and resentment. The seeds sown in the garden of Eden have not failed to poison and destroy.
The history of ancient Israel is in many respects a sad story. The Lord took his people from the taskmasters of Egypt, and would have placed them in the land of promise had they not been filled with envy and unbelief. They complained against Moses and against God because they feared the future. They were unwilling to trust Jehovah, and Satan caused them to murmur and complain. Korah and his confederates succeeded in winning over a large part of the congregation to their side, and as a result thousands were deceived, ruined, and destroyed. Human ideals are not always so high as they might be. When individuals should be as strong as adamant, they sometimes, like Aaron, yield for fear of personal safety. It took Moses, a man of God, to dethrone the golden calf and grind it to powder even in the face of rebellion. Dependable persons are pillars in every Christian community, and their influence is commendable when opposition is apparent.
The church of God has been assailed without and within by those who have failed to see the importance of doing right, and when reproved they feel greatly grieved and hurt. The history of rebellion is ever the same. Lucifer refused to remain in the light of God's presence as a covering cherub, and coveted a more exalted place, but he was eventually cast out of heaven for his rebellion.
Suspicion and rumor are enemies of society. Let us beware lest they turn us away from our faithful friends. The servants of the Lord are admonished not to strive, but, somehow, when men arm themselves with weapons of resentment, they forget the better and nobler traits. Loyalty to God will prompt the faithful to press on, hold on, and keep steady when the battle goes hard. The fearful and unbelieving will find themselves beyond the reach of help, while those who have yielded all to God and been faithful will receive the benediction of heaven.
The religion of Jesus Christ elevates and purifies the heart; lack of loyalty makes a man miserable and unhappy. Trust in God gives hope; unbelief makes one unworthy and suspicious. But in the extreme tests that will come to us a personal acquaintance with a personal Lord will keep us in the path of the upright, and will finally enable us to scale the rugged heights that would have disheartened and ruined us had we not had that personal hold on God.
Rebellion in its earliest stage may appear mild and harmless, but when fully developed its fangs are so securely fastened that the helpless victim cannot escape. The unfortunate are ensnared, and find out too late that genuine rebellion is incurable, and they are lost.
Springfield, Ohio.

Turn to the Right

A MAN said to Bishop Wilberforce, “Pray, sir, can you tell a plain man in a single sentence the way to go to heaven?” “Certainly,” was the instant reply: “turn to the right and go straight ahead.”

Employ Thy Time Well

EMPLOY thy time well if thou meanest to gain leisure; and since thou art not sure of a moment, throw not away an hour.—Franklin.

Praying Downward

By C. M. S.

OUR Saviour never instructed his followers at any time that they should pray to any other being than God, nor that their prayers should be addressed to God the Father through any other intermediary than God the Son. In the issue of the Jesuit journal America, dated January 24, a request is made that prayer be offered for the restoration of eyesight in the case of a young student in a Jesuit college who was blinded by a chemical explosion. The young man will be ready for ordination to the priesthood in June next if he can recover his eyesight. We quote:—
Now that God may deign to restore his sight and insure his entering holy orders with his class, the students of theology of Woodstock, with the entire community, will unite in a novena to Sister Teresa of Lesieux. “The Little Flower”of Jesus, which is to begin on Sunday, January 25, and end on the feast of the purification of Our Lady, February 2. We are eager to have all the readers of America unite with us in this nine days’ prayer. If many voices from our beloved country rise in novena to the throne of God, we feel confident that “The Little Flower” will be glorified and our wish for Mr. Wessling fulfilled.
“P. S.— The prayers to be recited will be the ‘Approved Novena,’ Our Father, Hail Mary, three times, with an invocation to Sister Teresa.
“Woodstock College, Woodstock, Md., Jan. 10, 1914.”
Here is a prayer for healing addressed to a certain woman long since dead. In spite of the Scriptural declaration that “the dead know not anything” and have no more a part forever in anything that is done under the sun, here is an organization, known by the name Christian and numbering its adherents by the millions, that is teaching the world to pray to the dead. “Sister Teresa” is not the only one to whom the prayers of the members of that organization are addressed.
When on earth, Jesus healed the sick, opened the mouths of the dumb, and unsealed the eyes of the blind. But in this novena, or nine days’ prayer, there is no mention of him. There is “an invocation to Sister Teresa,” that she may intercede with God on behalf of the unfortunate student; but of Jesus Christ, the great Healer, there is no recognition.
In spite of the fact that Jesus himself directed his followers to come unto the Father by him, this novena ignores him utterly, and attempts to come to the Father by a way which he has not ordained. Jesus himself said, “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it.” John 14:13, 14. Here is a definite promise, made by Jesus himself; but nowhere in the divine Word is there any intimation that prayers addressed to any individual, living or dead, will bring results. Why should men trust in a dead human being when they might trust in a living Saviour? Why ignore God’s way, and adopt in its place something God has never put in its place?
In case the young man were healed, who would get the credit?—Sister Teresa, for to her the prayer is addressed; while Jesus, who gave up heaven that we might gain it, who lived among us that we might know how we ought to live, who died for us that we might escape eternal death, is thrust aside to make way for a human being, who, no matter how good she may have been, is still locked in the arms of death awaiting the voice of “this same Jesus” to bring her from the tomb.
What a fearful deception the father of evil has worked upon the human race in causing so many to think that by praying downward to the dead they can accomplish wonders for the living! And yet out of that darkness God will bring many to his light. “On behalf of the living should they seek unto the dead?”
C. M. S.
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