THE world is full of sickness, and in “Christian Science” is said to be found the panacea for all these ills. But false Christs and false teachers were to arise, said Jesus. Therefore false Christianity and “science falsely so called” must be expected and avoided.
“Christian Science,” when weighed in the balances of God’s word and of reason, is found wanting. Yet cures are performed. The devil, who, according to prophecy, is yet to make fire come down from heaven, can perform wonderful cures. A hypnotist may convince a patient whose ills are largely imaginary, that the disease is gone, and hence be regarded as a benefactor.
But let us examine the fundamental principle of this cult. To be fair, and to state the matter exactly, we quote from Mrs. Eddy: “There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite mind, and its infinite manifestation, for God is All in All; Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is real and eternal; matter is unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual.”
We are told that in that single paragraph, we have “one of the most comprehensive systems of philosophy ever presented to the world.”
STRIKES AGAINST FUNDAMENTALS
Here at the very start, this system strikes at the fundamental principle of the religion of the Bible; namely, the glorious and comforting truth of a personal God. We have no longer the God who created the universe, and who sits on high, ruling and loving His subjects; for according to this doctrine, God is diffused throughout all. He is now everywhere in general, and nowhere in particular. In other words, we now have the god of pantheism. Thus “Christian Science” proves its nativity to be of the far East, whence comes not only this doctrine, but also its twin sister, theosophy.
ARE THERE NO POISONS OR DISEASES?
But coming back to the subject of sickness and healing, we read the astounding statements, from Mrs. Eddy’s book, “Science and Health,” that there is no real disease anywhere (page 188); that man is never ill (page 393); that disease is nothing but fear (page 493); that illness and sin are only illusions (page 495); that hay fever is nothing but profane fancy (page 175); that there is no danger from infectious diseases (page 174); that less thought should be given to sanitary subjects (page 175); that poison is not poisonous, only the belief is poisonous (page 177); that there is no such thing as growing old (page 245); that mind can conquer death (page 393); that when a man dies, he does not die; death is “only a seeming disease caused by a majority of human beliefs” (page 164); that any material evidence of death is false (page 584).
THE BOIL A PAINFUL BELIEF
Now to give a concrete illustration of all this in Mrs. Eddy’s own words: “You say a boil is painful, but that is impossible, for matter without mind is not painful. The boil simply manifests through inflammation and swelling a belief in pain, and this belief is called a boil. Now demonstrate mentally to your patient a high attenuation of truth and it will cure the boil.” — Page 153.
Can anything be more ridiculous or unscientific? What a lively imagination Job must have had to think he was afflicted with boils, when he might just as well have known they did not hurt, for according to the above, it was all in his mind!
And in harmony with these irrational statements is another from Mrs. Eddy: “If half the attention given to hygiene were given to the study of Christian Science and the spiritualization of thought, this alone would usher in the millennium. Constant bathing and rubbing of the body to alter the secretions, or to remove unhealthy exhalations from the cuticle, receive a useful rebuke from Jesus’ precept, ‘Take no thought for the body.’”
FALSELY USING CHRIST’S WORDS
Here we submit that we have a direct insult to the Saviour in the false employment of His words, used out of their sense and connection, and here is also an insult to the Maker, who instituted the laws of nature which call for the bath and the use of natural methods as curative agents. He has taught the birds to bathe, and the savage knows enough to “remove unhealthy exhalations from the cuticle.”
No wonder Mark Twain said of Mrs. Eddy’s book, “Of all the strange and frantic and incomprehensible and uninterpretable books which the imagination of man has created, surely this one is the prize sample.” And another says truly of “Christian Science” that it is “philosophical anarchy, concealed beneath confusedness of thought and ambiguity of words.”
J. E. F.
THE DEMONSTRATION OF FULFILLED PROPHECY
By E. E. A.
Only One Who Can Read the Future—The Evidences of Inspiration in the Work of the Prophets
DR. KEITH, in his book entitled “The Evidence of Prophecy,” says of prophecy:
“That it is the effect of divine interposition cannot be disputed. It is equivalent to any miracle, and is of itself evidently miraculous. The foreknowledge of the actions of intelligent and moral agents is one of the most incomprehensible attributes of the Deity, and is exclusively a divine perfection. The past, the present, and the future are alike open to His view, and to His alone; and there can be no stronger proof of the interposition of the Most High than that which prophecy affords. Of all the attributes of the God of the universe, His prescience has bewildered and baffled the most, all the powers of human perception; and an evidence of the exercise of this perfection in the revelation of what the infinite mind alone could make known, is the seal of God, which can never be counterfeited, affixed to the truth which it attests. Whether that evidence has been afforded, is a matter of investigation; but if it has unquestionably been given, the effect of superhuman agency is apparent, and the proof of what it was given to prove, does not admit of a doubt.”—Pages 7, 8.
THE CHALLENGE OF PROPHECY
The great Jehovah’s challenge to all the gods of the heathen is as follows:
“Produce your cause, saith the Lord; bring forth your strong779reasons, saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring them forth, and show us what shall happen: let them show the former things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come. Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods.” Isa. 41: 21-23.
SHOWN THROUGH READING THE FUTURE
There seems to be no stronger evidence that God is speaking than the fact that what the prophet says concerning the future comes to pass. Thus when Judah had come under the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and Hananiah, a false prophet, had predicted peace, saying that within two years the yoke of the king of Babylon should be broken, Jeremiah the prophet said:
“The prophet which prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that the Lord hath truly sent him.” Jer. 28: 9.
Hananiah, in the presence of all the people, reasserted his prediction concerning the deliverance of all nations from the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar within the space of two years.
“Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the prophet, Hear now, Hananiah; The Lord hath not sent thee; but thou makest this people to trust in a lie. Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth: this year thou shalt die, because thou hast taught rebellion against the Lord. So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month.” Verses 15-17.
HIS DEATH WAS REVEALED
That all the people might know that God was speaking through Jeremiah, the Lord revealed through him the death, that same year, of Hananiah, which word was fulfilled. This incident also reveals the serious character of teaching rebellion against the Lord by leading the people to trust in a false hope, instead of trusting in the word of God through His prophet.
“If thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken? when a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.” Deut. 18: 21, 22.
It seems possible that a false prophet might show a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come to pass. But if such did occur, it would be to establish some unscriptural doctrine, to lead away from the true God; and in that case, we are strictly charged not to hearken to the words of that prophet. Deut. 13: 1-3.
TEST OF THE PROPHETIC GIFT
The genuine prophetic gift includes the power to read the future; but the supreme test of the true gift is the fruit borne in the life, and in the teaching, oral and written. “Beware,” said Jesus, “of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits.” See Matt. 7: 15-20. While, like Elijah, the prophet of God is “a man subject to like passions as we are,” yet his life will reveal that he dwells in the secret place of the Most High, that he holds continuous communion with the Holy One. The finger of the true prophet ever points heavenward.
God is omniscient. That is, He possesses unlimited, infinite knowledge of all things. This includes foreknowledge, or a knowledge of things before they take place. This knowledge is communicated to men by the Omniscient One through His prophets. In this way alone is the curtain that hides the future drawn aside.
“We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts.” 2 Peter 1: 19.
PROPHETIC LIGHT GROWS IN BRILLIANCY
Through all the centuries of the past, the light of prophecy has continued to shine upon the pathway of the faithful children of God; and as they near the end of their journey, this light will grow more and more brilliant, revealing the hidden snares of the enemy, and also flashing light upon the waymarks erected along the road to guide the feet of weary travelers toward the eternal city. How foolish, then, to close one’s eyes to this light!
God, in His love and mercy, has shed a flood of light upon the pathway of His people in these last days, not only through the prophecies of the Bible, but also through the prophetic gift which Seventh-day Adventists’ believe has been placed in the church, and has been manifested for a period of seventy years through Mrs. E. G. White. That this is the genuine gift is susceptible of the clearest proof, not only from the fruits borne on the tree, but also from the fact that much of that which has been spoken of the future has already been fulfilled, or is to-day being fulfilled before our eyes. One instance of the latter may be of interest to the reader.
“Navies will go down, and human lives will be sacrificed by the millions.”
A PREDICTION IN 1890
April 21, 1890, there appeared in the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, then published in Oakland, California, an article from the pen of Mrs. E. G. White, from which I copy the following paragraph:
“The Lord will arise to shake terribly the earth. We will see troubles on all sides. Thousands of ships will be hurled into the depths of the sea. Navies will go down, and human lives will be sacrificed by the millions. Fires will break out unexpectedly, and no human effort will be able to quench them. The palaces of the earth will be swept away in flames. Disasters by rail will become more and more frequent; confusion, collision, and death without a moment’s warning will occur on the great lines of travel. The end is near, probation is closing. Oh, let us seek God while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.”
Surely no one would question the fact that we are now seeing troubles on all sides. Since the great war began, a little more than a year ago, hundreds of ships have been literally “hurled into the depths of the sea.” To hurl is “to throw with violence; to fling or send with force; as, to hurl a stone.” (Standard Dictionary.) It may be truly said that the submarines in this present war have been literally fulfilling this prediction.
THE SUBMARINE SOON FOLLOWS THE PREDICTION
After a successful trial of a submarine constructed at Toulon in 1888, the French authorities decided to have more vessels of a similar type built, and by 1901 there were some eleven completed. These were the first submarines ever built for actual warfare. In the same year, the British admiralty gave orders for the construction of five submarines. Before a single nation possessed a flotilla of submarines, or their effectiveness in war had been tested, the above forecast of their work was made.
“Navies will go down, and human lives will be sacrificed by the millions.”780
From the Literary Digest, August 14, 1915, I take the following:
“The sacrifice of life entailed by the year of slaughter, says the Evening Post, is something that the world contemplates with a sense of aghast helplessness.”
APPALLING SLAUGHTER
Then follows a table compiled by the New York Independent from official statistics and estimates from Red Cross and other relief organizations. The grand totals are as follows: killed, 2,408,000; wounded, 5,155,000; prisoners and missing, 1,802,000; total, 9,365,000. As heart-rending as this is, it tells but part of the story of human slaughter and suffering.
Writing of the situation in Europe, Oswald F. Schuette, in the Los Angeles Times, October 24, 1915, says:
“The month just past has been the bloodiest and most decisive in the history of the world. The long promised and terrible French and British offensive, which began September 21, is now ended. At the same time, the fighting on all the other fronts reached a climax. The result has been that in thirty days the loss in killed and wounded has exceeded the terrifying figure of 1,000,000. There have been thirty days of slaughter on every front, so that many of the rivers of Europe are carrying crimson tides to the sea.”
It is not necessary that I call the attention of the reader to each sentence in this wonderfully graphic prophetic picture of the events now daily taking place, and filling the columns of the press. Surely that brief paragraph reveals divine prescience. But this is only one of many predictions that are likewise being fulfilled. There can be no stronger proof of the interposition of the Most High than that which fulfilled prophecy affords.
E. E. A.
Question Corner
By Milton C. Wilcox
CONDUCTED BY MILTON C. WILCOX
Mountain View, California
Note.—This department is for the purpose of helping Bible students. Answers must of necessity be brief, often only suggestive, never exhaustive, never infallible except as they agree with the infallible Word. Such questions only will be answered as seem to the editors to minister to the mission of the paper. Questions of the same import cannot be answered repeatedly in the same volume. Name and address must be given, not for publication, but as evidence of good faith and to insure reply by letter if thought best. It is well always to inclose stamp, not stamped envelope, unless answer is desired by letter alone.
We do not know what our correspondent refers to in this text. It seems to be very plain. The sixteenth verse declares that from that time on—that is, from the time when Judas went to the chief priests—he sought opportunity to deliver Jesus to them. The next verse states that on the first day of unleavened bread, or on the first day of the Passover feast, the disciples came to Jesus, and wanted to know where they would eat the Passover together; and He gave them direction—told them to “go into the city to such a man,” and say to that man, “The Teacher saith, My time is at hand; I keep the Passover at thy house with My disciples.” It was a customary thing among the Jews. Those who were able, had rooms, and were willing that those rooms should be used. That was Eastern hospitality. The disciples went and found the man and the house. Other evangelists tell us that the house had a room ready, a large upper chamber. The nineteenth verse says that “the disciples did as Jesus appointed them; and they made ready the Passover.” The twentieth verse states that “when even was come”—that would be the same as our Thursday evening—“He was sitting at meat with the twelve disciples;” and while they were eating, He declared that one of them would betray Him.
This is the simple narrative. Perhaps our correspondent has given the wrong reference. This is the one, however, that he gave in his letter. The scripture is an interesting one, as it tells us the beginning of the last agony of Jesus.
210 — Smoking
What is there in the Bible against smoking? Where is it forbidden in the Bible?
J. P. C.
Nowhere in so many words. The Bible could not, in the very nature of the case, forbid every wrong act that man can do. It would make so many volumes that no person could read them. God deals with great principles. He saves and cleanses us, that we may serve Him; and He gives us, in different places, these principles that will prove a stay and a guide to us if we have them in our hearts. Here is one of them, very comprehensive: “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 Cor. 10: 31. Let us measure the habit of smoking by this rule. Consider also:
1. Who will say that smoking has done him any good, or has made him better off than the man who does not smoke? Smokers and non-smokers work together continually, and we do not know where, other things being equal, the smoker has any advantage over the non-smoker.
2. Medical men have found, and have told us, again and again, that smoking is responsible for many diseases and abnormal conditions. It affects the heart; it affects the eyes; it affects the stomach and the liver; it affects the blood. Nicotine is a very active, virulent poison. Therefore it continually poisons the men who use tobacco. Thousands have demonstrated the evil of tobacco in their own lives, and have been greatly benefited when they ceased its use.
3. It is expensive. The writer has found, in his own experience, men who were paying more in an ordinary family for tobacco every week than they were paying for flour. How much better it would have been had this expense not been incurred, and the money had been used for other things, that would brighten the home; to pay for things that were really needed in the house, to say nothing of luxuries.
4. Tobacco is an enslaving habit. It grips the appetite of men more strongly than does whisky. I was once told by the superintendent of a mine, that if men who were in the habit of drinking whisky, could get none, they would still work for a month at a time, but it was impossible to hold on a job a tobacco user who was out of tobacco. Who wishes to enslave himself by such a habit as that?
5. It is a vile habit. We believe that even those who use tobacco are oftentimes disgusted when they see the evidences of its use upon the faces of others, or upon the floors of public buildings, in homes, and elsewhere. God wants a clean people. He tells us that our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit. He wants to dwell in us. Could we consistently ask Him to come in and dwell in us if we made first there the master tobacco?
Taking all these things into consideration—and much more might be said—surely every principle in God’s word pertaining to human duty is against the use of tobacco.
Some have felt that Deut. 29: 18, 19 referred to the use of tobacco. It seems to be comprehensive enough to do this, for certainly tobacco is what the margin indicates, “a poisonous herb.”
Heb. 13: 9 presents an injunction which all Christians ought to heed: “Be not carried away by divers and strange teachings.” Stay by the great fundamentals that God has given us. Those teachings seem to show that man is established by what he eats and drinks. The apostle declares that the heart is established by God’s grace, not by food. The word “meats” comes from a word meaning food. Those who wholly occupy themselves in such things, he declares are “not profited.” The same thought is expressed in Rom. 14: 17; “For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” The man whose heart is established by grace, will do all in his power to please God, and to eat and drink to God’s glory.
Titus 3: 9 warns us against giving time to unprofitable things, foolish questions, genealogies, and strifes, and fightings about the law. These are unprofitable and vain. We do not convince people by heated arguments or fighting. The only truly convinced ones are those converted by the love of God. Shun all these foolish questions.
1 Tim. 2: 12 is simply an injunction regarding church order; in which modest women would agree with devoted men; for no truly modest woman wants to teach or have lordship over a man. If she could do this, she would despise him. She might in a way sympathize with him as a mother. She certainly would not look up to him as a real help. He would not be to her the strength that God designed he should be, so the apostle did not want any one in the church who would be inconsistent in a well regulated home.
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OLIVES, DRIED FRUIT, and NUTS
By A. E. Crist
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OUR LITTLE FRIEND “SURPRISE” NUMBER
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TWICE as many pages as usual, and a pretty colored cover too. Here are some of the surprises in store for its youthful readers: Captain and King (two wonderful horses) at the Exposition; A New Year's Story; Puzzle Cut-outs; January Surprise, and How to Find Them; Missionary Story; Coverall Babies (large type); Drawing Lesson. This lesson, by Mr. Pedro Lemos, director in the San Francisco School of Applied Art, will be the first of a series that alone will be worth the price of a year's subscription.
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ELO THE EAGLE (2, 3)
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MAKING HOME PEACEFUL (2)
True-to-life experiences of an influential family in which discord and trouble gave way to harmony and happiness. Young and old will find pleasure and profit in reading this story. Illustrated. 227 pages. In cloth, 75c.
BEST STORIES FROM THE BEST BOOK (1, 2)
Easy nature lessons adapted to little folks just learning to read, also short stories based on prominent Bible characters, which are very entertaining and inspiring. The stories and the pretty colored pictures will impress helpful lessons that will never be forgotten. Cloth, 75c.
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UNCLE BEN’S COBBLESTONES (2)
Uncle Ben is loved by all who know him. In a pleasing story way, he tells about common things, such as the origin and use of fire, smoke, glass, salt, coal, and paper. His purpose is twofold,—to impart useful instruction, and to assist in character building. 221 pages. In cloth, $1.00.
OUR LITTLE FOLKS’ BIBLE NATURE (1, 2)
Bible nature, beginning with the light and continuing with the study of creation in the order of the Scriptures. 13 colored plates. 144 pages. In cloth, 50c.
THE HOUSE WE LIVE IN (2)
Physiology as generally taught is often uninteresting to children. The author of this book employs the conversational style in presenting studies of the senses, uses, and functions of the body. Mothers will enjoy this simple and interesting way of teaching their children how to care for their bodies. 218 pages. In cloth, $1.00.
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The Gift of Speech
“PRECIOUS indeed, in this world of sin and ignorance, is the gift of speech, the melody of the human voice, when devoted to the praise of Him who hath loved us and given Himself for us.”
