The work is onward. The most successful meeting we have ever had in all my experience in Washington was held last Sunday evening, March 6. I am certain there was the largest outside attendance I have ever seen here, and when the character of the people is considered, and the deep interest manifested, it was certainly most encouraging.
Brother W. A. Spicer spoke on the subject of Russia in prophecy, the coming Armageddon, and the sealing work, and we believe that all saw the old truth in a new and startling light.
Our public meetings are held in a very good hall, located in a most central position, accessible to all parts of the city. For fourteen weeks, from ten to twenty thousand leaflets have been placed in as many homes weekly. These leaflets are large, four page, and contain a comprehensive summary of the last discourse, and an announcement of the subject for the next Sunday. These are also given to the people at the close of the meeting, so they may take home with them a very complete statement of all they have heard, with scriptures quoted and indicated, historical extracts, etc. These leaflets are doing good work. Many desire the whole set from the beginning of the series.
A number of lawyers and professional men are deeply interested. One of the lawyers has not missed a meeting. They seem nearly ready to obey. There are more openings for visiting and Bible work than can be filled. This field is ripe for the harvest. Great opportunities
Unlimited Possibilities
are before the workers here. I believe that every one who reads this article is deeply interested in the prosperity of the work in Washington. But very few can come to this city personally. And we earnestly hope that those who come to work will first have a definite understanding with those in charge of the work. W. T. Bland, secretary of the school board, J. R. Scott, secretary of the sanitarium board, and A. P. Needham, business manager, are the brethren who have a special oversight of this department. No building is as yet in progress. Plans are being laid, and we are hoping that a good amount of money will be sent in before a —
Foundation-Stone
has been laid or a nail driven. We have often been told that our people much prefer to pay for our institutions before they are built rather than after. We believe it is so. You who read this article have the privilege of proving this to be true.
Very few will come in person, but all can send that which represents their love and sympathy for the work, and their faith in this move. You can send the representative of your strength, your energy, that which stands for your very heart; your treasure, the “sinews of war.”
Up to the present date, March 8, the actual amount of money sent in for the purpose of paying the expense of the removal to Washington, and of building the institutions to be erected here, is $3,144.57.
We are glad for this good beginning; but there will need to be the giving of large sums by a goodly number to make up the twenty-five thousand dollars needed by the first of May.
Consider the number of institutions to be built here,—training-school, sanitarium, and General Conference offices,—and that these institutions must be representative; consider the cost of the land, the laying out of the grounds, the furnishing of these buildings, and all who have had any experience in building up such institutions will say that one hundred thousand dollars is a very small amount. We do not intend to erect expensive or extravagant buildings. We thank the Lord that he has sent to us special directions in regard to the character of the buildings to be erected in Washington. We quote from a letter of instruction written February 15:—
The instruction that has been given me in regard to the buildings to be erected in Washington is that it is not the Lord’s will for an imposing display to be made. The buildings are to show to believers and to those not of our faith, that not one dollar has been invested in needless display. Every part of the buildings is to bear witness that we realize that there is before us a great, unworked missionary field, and that the truth is to be established in many places.
When I was last in — [one of the great cities], I was in the night season called upon to behold buildings rising story after story toward heaven. These buildings were warranted to be fireproof, and they were erected to glorify the owners. Higher and still higher these buildings rose, and in them the most costly material was used. Those to whom the buildings belonged were not asking themselves, “How can we best glorify God, that we may enjoy him forever?” God was not in their thoughts. I thought, O that those who are thus investing their means could see that this display does not give them one iota of advantage with God! They are piling up magnificent buildings, but how foolish in the sight of the Ruler of the universe is their planning and devising! They are not studying with all the powers of heart and mind what they may do to glorify God, that they may enjoy him forever. They have lost sight of this, the first duty of man. . . . The scene that next passed before me was an —
Alarm of Fire
Men looked at lofty and supposedly fireproof buildings, and said, “They are perfectly safe.” But these buildings were consumed as if made of pitch. The fire-engines could do nothing to stay the destruction. The firemen were unable to operate the engines.
I am instructed that when the Lord’s time comes, should no change have taken place in the hearts of proud, ambitious human beings, men will find that the hand that has been strong to save will be strong to destroy. No earthly power can stay the hand of God. . . .
The buildings that you erect must be —
Solid and Well Constructed
No haphazard work is to be done. The buildings are to be thoroughly presentable, but no extravagance is to be seen. We are not to make it possible for worldlings to say that we do not believe what we preach,—that the end of all things is at hand.
The buildings should be put up at as little cost as possible. No money is to be spent on them merely for show. We are living in a time of fearful depravity. The whole world has thrown off the restraints of religion. Worldlings and church-members are making void the law of God. We are to bend every energy to the proclamation of the message of warning.
These directions will be most carefully carried out. You will note that the buildings are to be “solid and well constructed;” that “no haphazard work is to be done;” that while “no extravagance is to be seen,” yet “the buildings are to be thoroughly presentable.” This surely can not be done for less than one hundred thousand dollars. There are not a hundred thousand Seventh-day Adventists in the world. Some can give but little; therefore many will necessarily make large donations.
We are waiting for a gift of one thousand dollars, with which to start the list of donations. We shall not wait in vain. Send all gifts to W. T. Bland, 222 North Capitol St., Washington, D. C.
The sun is sinking in the west, but I see that its last beams are shining brightly on the beautiful Capitol building. O brother, the sun of mercy, of divine opportunity, is setting forever on millions of souls, yea, truly, on all the world, but its last rays are shining brightly, tenderly, mournfully, on all the beautiful, empty plans and works of men, and for those who know the truth these last moments of sunlight are moments of destiny. This is our opportunity.
O, hasten! for soon the night cometh when no man can work, when no man can give. NOW.
J. S. WASHBURN.
Financial Secretary.
A Contented Mind
By J. G. Whittier
No longer forward nor behind
I look in hope and fear,
But grateful take the good I find,
The best of now and here.
All as God wills, who wisely heeds
To give or to withhold,
And knoweth more of all my needs
Than all my prayers have told.
Enough that blessings undeserved
Have marked my erring track—
That whereso'er my feet have swerved,
His chastening turned me back;
That more and more a providence
Of love is understood,
Making the springs of time and sense
Sweet with eternal good.
— J. G. Whittier.
The Revelation of God
By Ellen G. White
MRS. E. G. WHITE
“God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
Before the fall, not a cloud rested upon the minds of our first parents to obscure their clear perception of the character of God. They were perfectly conformed to the will of God. For a covering, a beautiful light, the light of God, surrounded them. The Lord visited the holy pair, and instructed them through the works of his hands. Nature was their lesson book. In the garden of Eden the existence of God was demonstrated in the objects of nature that surrounded them. Every tree of the garden spoke to them. The invisible things of God were clearly seen, being understood by the things which were made, even his eternal power and Godhead.
But while it is true that God could thus be discerned in nature, this does not favor the assertion that after the fall a perfect knowledge of God was revealed in the natural world to Adam and his posterity. Nature could convey her lessons to man in his innocence; but transgression brought a blight upon nature, and intervened between nature and nature’s God. Had Adam and Eve never disobeyed their Creator, had they remained in the path of perfect rectitude, they could have known and understood God. But when they listened to the voice of the tempter, and sinned against God, the light of the garments of heavenly innocence departed from them; and in parting with the garments of innocence, they drew about them the dark robes of ignorance of God. The clear and perfect light that had hitherto surrounded them had lightened everything they approached; but deprived of that heavenly light, the posterity of Adam could no longer trace the character of God in his created works.
The things of nature upon which we look to-day give us but a faint conception of Eden’s beauty and glory; yet the natural world, with unmistakable voice, proclaims the glory of God. In the things of nature, marred as they are by the blight of sin, much that is beautiful remains. One omnipotent in power, great in goodness, in mercy, and love, has created the earth, and even in its blighted state it inculcates truths in regard to the skilful Master Artist. In this book of nature opened to us,—in the beautiful, scented flowers, with their varied and delicate coloring,—God gives to us an unmistakable expression of his love. After the transgression of Adam, God might have destroyed every opening bud and blooming flower, or he might have taken away their fragrance, so grateful to the senses. In the earth, seared and marred by the curse, in the briers, the thistles, the thorns, the tares, we may read the law of condemnation; but in the delicate color and perfume of the flowers, we may learn that God still loves us, that his mercy is not wholly withdrawn from the earth.
Nature is filled with spiritual lessons for mankind. The flowers die only to spring forth into new life; and in this we are taught the lesson of the resurrection. All who love God will bloom again in the Eden above. But nature can not teach the lesson of the great and marvelous love of God. Therefore, after the fall, nature was not the only teacher of man. In order that the world might not remain in darkness, in eternal spiritual night, the God of nature met us in Jesus Christ. The Son of God came to the world as the revelation of the Father. He was that “true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” We are to behold “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
In the person of his only begotten Son, the God of heaven has condescended to stoop to our human nature. To the question of Thomas, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake.”
The most difficult and humiliating lesson that man has to learn is his own inefficiency in depending upon human wisdom, and the sure failure of his own efforts to read nature correctly. Sin has obscured his vision, and of himself he can not interpret nature without placing it above God. He can not discern in it God, or Jesus Christ, whom he has sent. He is in the same position as were the Athenians, who erected their altars for the worship of nature. Standing in the midst of Mars Hill, Paul presented before the people of Athens the majesty of the living God in contrast with their idolatrous worship.
“Ye men of Athens,” he said, “I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshiped with men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: for in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.”
Those who have a true knowledge of God will not become so infatuated with the laws of matter or the operations of nature as to overlook, or refuse to acknowledge, the continual working of God in nature. Nature is not God, nor was it ever God. The voice of nature testifies of God, but nature is not God. As his created work, it simply bears a testimony to God’s power. Deity is the author of nature. The natural world has, in itself, no power but that which God supplies. There is a personal God, the Father; there is a personal Christ, the Son. And “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.”
The psalmist says: “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.” Some may suppose that these grand things in the natural world are God. They are not God. All these wonders in the heavens are only doing the work appointed them. They are the Lord’s agencies. God is the superintendent, as well as the creator, of all things. The divine Being is engaged in upholding the things that he has created. The same hand that holds the mountains and balances them in position, guides the9worlds in their mysterious march around the sun.
There is scarcely an operation of nature to which we may not find reference in the Word of God. The Word declares that “he maketh his sun to rise,” and “the rain to descend.” He “maketh grass to grow upon the mountains. . . . He giveth snow like wool: he scattereth the hoar-frost like ashes. He casteth forth his ice like morsels; . . . he sendeth out his word, and melteth them: he causeth his wind to blow, and the waters flow.” “He maketh lightnings for the rain; and bringeth the wind out of his treasuries.”
These words of Holy Writ say nothing of the independent laws of nature. God furnishes the matter and the properties with which to carry out his plans. He employs his agencies that vegetation may flourish. He sends the dew and the rain and the sunshine, that verdure may spring forth, and spread its carpet over the earth; that the shrubs and fruit trees may bud and blossom and bring forth. It is not to be supposed that a law is set in motion for the seed to work itself, that the leaf appears because it must do so of itself. God has laws that he has instituted, but they are only the servants through which he effects results. It is through the immediate agency of God that every tiny seed breaks through the earth, and springs into life. Every leaf grows, every flower blooms, by the power of God.
The physical organism of man is under the supervision of God; but it is not like a clock, which is set in operation, and must go of itself. The heart beats, pulse succeeds pulse, breath succeeds breath, but the entire being is under the supervision of God. “Ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.” In God we live and move and have our being. Each heart-beat, each breath, is the inspiration of him who breathed into the nostrils of Adam the breath of life,—the inspiration of the ever-present God, the great I AM.
The ancient philosophers prided themselves on their superior knowledge. Let us read the inspired apostle’s understanding of the matter. “Professing themselves to be wise,” he says, “they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. . . . Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator.”* In its human wisdom the world can not know God. Its wise men gather an imperfect knowledge of God from his created works, and then in their foolishness they exalt nature and the laws of nature above nature’s God. Those who have not a knowledge of God through an acceptance of the revelation he has made of himself in Christ, will obtain only an imperfect knowledge of him in nature; and this knowledge, so far from giving elevated conceptions of God, and bringing the whole being into conformity to his will, will make men idolaters. Professing themselves to be wise, they will become fools.
Those who think they can obtain a knowledge of God aside from his Representative, whom the Word declares is “the express image of his person,” will need to become fools in their own estimation before they can be wise. It is impossible to gain a perfect knowledge of God from nature alone; for nature itself is imperfect. In its imperfection it can not represent God, it can not reveal the character of God in its moral perfection. But Christ came as a personal Saviour to the world. He represented a personal God. As a personal Saviour, he ascended on high; and he will come again as he ascended to heaven,—a personal Saviour. He is the express image of the Father’s person. “In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.”
Fully Following the Lord
“BUT my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.” Num. 14:24.
I would like to call your attention to this one thought of “fully following the Lord.” The Lord requires of any man who intends to serve him, or pretends to serve him, a whole-hearted service; anything short of that is not acceptable to him. It does not make very much difference to the Lord about a man’s position, or ability, or education; God looks straight into a man’s heart, and requires implicit obedience, and the man who renders such obedience has acceptance with God.
That which is written of Caleb in this text brings him prominently before God’s people in all the ages. He was one of the two men who saw light when other men saw darkness. He saw with the eye of faith the possibilities that lay before God’s people, when all about him was confusion, chaos, and rebellion. God has ever recognized the loyal heart; he takes account of the men who are obedient to him, and he remembers it; and in this, Caleb, and Joshua, who was his companion in this matter of obedience and faith, have been examples to the people of God through all time since that day.
No excuse, no argument, no reason, can ever be given for not obeying God. Take the case of Solomon. God took Solomon, a strong, mighty man, and he dealt most wonderfully with him, and gave him very great blessings. You remember that God said to Solomon, “Ask what I shall give thee,” and Solomon said: “I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in. . . . Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad.” God bestowed upon Solomon the gift of wisdom in a pre-eminent degree, so that he could look out on all nature, and name every plant that grew in the field, and call every tree by name. “He spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes.” His wisdom was proverbial, and kings and queens came from all nations “to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart.”
But God required one thing of Solomon,—that he should fully follow the Lord,—and in that one thing Solomon failed. And when that man, who had received the greatest gifts that God could bestow, departed from the path of obedience, God left him to his folly, and he went down, as far as we know, in his idolatry and sin. How pitifully sad for a man to end his days in disobedience to God!
Take also the case of David, of whom God says that he was a man after his own heart. God loved David, and gave him almost every gift that he could desire; yet when he departed from the path of virtue, and followed his own way, he suffered intensely for his sin. And so our minds call up instance after instance in God’s Word where the Lord gave great light and great power, but where that light became darkness when men departed from the Lord’s way.
Take the sad story of the disobedient prophet, recorded in the thirteenth chapter of 1 Kings. You remember he came to the altar that Jeroboam had erected, and Jeroboam stretched out his hand, and said to his armed men, “Lay hold on him.” And the hand that Jeroboam stretched out against the prophet was paralyzed. And Jeroboam said, “Pray for me, that my hand may be restored me again.” The prophet prayed, and the Lord answered his prayer. Then said Jeroboam to the prophet, “Come home with me, and refresh thyself, and I will give thee a reward.” But the Lord had told the prophet that he was not to go home by the way that he came, but was to return by another way. So when Jeroboam tried to persuade him to return to his house with him, he turned and looked upon him, and said, No, “if thou wilt give me half thine house, I will not go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place.” So the prophet started home another way. But there was an old prophet who dwelt in Bethel; and when he heard which way the young man went, he went out to meet him, and found him sitting under an oak. And he said to the young man, “Come home with me.” But the young man said, “I may not return with thee. . . . For it was said to me by the word of the Lord, Thou shalt eat no bread nor drink water there, nor turn again to go by the way that thou camest.” And the old prophet said to him, “I am a prophet also as thou art; and an angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water.”
The young prophet listened to his lying words, and went back with him, and the man made a feast for him. He ate and drank; and what followed?—When he departed, a lion met him in the way, and he was destroyed. It seems hard, does it not? but it is a lesson to every man that believes in God, that he is to follow God, and that no man that10lives shall lead his feet away from the command that God has given him.
If any man chooses to depart from God’s command, he does that thing at the peril of his soul. God means what he says; he says nothing he does not mean. It becomes every man and every woman who expects to get into the kingdom of God to take heed to God’s word; for God is in dead earnest in his commands, and in his work with the children of men.
There is no need of multiplying instances; but let us consider for a moment the case of Saul. You have all read the story many times. God crowned him king. He honored him. He lifted his name up above all the sons in Israel. He said that all his people should obey him. One day God sent word to Saul to go and smite the Amalekites. “Now go and smite Amalek,” he said, “and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.”
You remember how the biography runs. Saul went out, and did valiantly. God was with his army. The enemy was put to rout. Defeat came to the Amalekites, and the Israelites slew on the right hand and on the left. But they took the king prisoner. Why?—O, they had an idea of redemption money, the price that would be put on his head; they could get great riches from it. But that was not all. They spared also “the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs.”
That night the word of the Lord came to Samuel, and in the morning he went out to meet the king, as he returned in victory from the battle. And he said to Samuel: “Blessed be thou of the Lord: I have performed the commandment of the Lord.” And Samuel answered, “What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?” Saul immediately began to excuse himself. “The people,” he said, “spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God.” Then the prophet, speaking as the mouthpiece of the Lord, said: “Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king.”
I tell you, brethren, there is a great meaning for us in that question,—Hath God so great delight in sacrifice and offerings as in obedience? Let me impress its answer upon your hearts: “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.” That is God’s answer in regard to obedience. A man never did a work so grand and glorious, when selfishness and sin and disobedience were mingled in it, that he could gain the favor of God for that act—never. God hates sin and rebellion and wickedness.
I wish that every one of us could remember how severely God punished Saul, and how Solomon was punished, and David, when they turned from the path of obedience. Saul lost his crown. You can take up instance after instance of disobedience, and see how God put his mark of disapproval upon that thing.
There was Moses. If ever a man came near to the heart of his fellow men, it was Moses, by the trials he endured, the patience he manifested with that great, rebellious people he led out of bondage, through that wilderness, and over those mountains, and all along that dreary pathway! He stood all their murmuring, all their complaining, all their stubbornness, but once—just once! And that once Moses stood before the rock, and in his wrath said, “Must we fetch you water out of this rock?” You remember the penalty that came to him, do you not? God spoke, and said, Moses, because of that thing, “ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.” And God never relented on that thing, either.
Moses had led that people for forty long years up and down in that wilderness. When God was about ready to take them across the Jordan into Canaan, he led Moses, who was now one hundred and twenty years old, up on Pisgah’s height. “This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob,” he said; “I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither.” That is God’s way of dealing with disobedience. We do not appreciate the character of God. We do not understand how exacting God is, and how he expects men to obey him. If we did, we would be more careful to follow him fully.
God often requires of his people the unexpected; and oftentimes he gives us precepts and commands that almost stagger us; and we wonder whether he really requires this thing of us or not. We find it so in our work in this earth, do we not? Why, there are men who could rise up in this audience to-day,—and I am one of them,—and say that often the plain command of God’s word staggers us. And then we parry it, and reason about it, and turn it this way and that way, and wonder if somebody has not been trying to “influence,” and somebody has not been “presenting the other side of the question,” and whether God really means what he says. I have heard a great many query the same way. Brethren, there is one thing that ought to be settled—is God among us, leading his people, or is he not? If God is among this people, we ought to be ready to hear great commands from him. When he speaks, every loyal heart ought to bow his head, and say, “By the grace of God, that thing shall be done.” If God is not with us, then we are the most deceived people I know of in this whole earth. I am not going to argue the question whether God is with us or not, for I believe he is. And from that standpoint I am going to encourage my own heart to fully follow the Lord when he says, “Go forward.”
(To be concluded)
Have We the Mind of Christ?
By George B. Thompson
G. B. THOMPSON
“Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, counted it not a prize to be on an equality with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.” Phil. 2: 5-8, R. V.
What amazing love and condescension is revealed in these words! No human mind can fathom it. It will take all the endless cycles of eternity, with minds emancipated from the thraldom of sin, to measure the tremendous risk and infinite sacrifice made in rescuing man from the terrible woe into which transgression hurled him. He was the Son, and above every angel in the unnumbered host who worshiped around the burning throne. Cherubim and seraphim adored him, and obeyed with joy his commandments.
From this atmosphere of purity, and the companionship of holy and sinless beings, he stepped down into an atmosphere tainted with sin, where curses and the most base ingratitude surrounded him on every side. He was mocked, despised, hated, and spit upon. He took upon him human nature, not as Adam stood in his primeval innocence in Eden, but as man stood after deteriorating in physical strength and moral worth for four thousand years. To strike the shackles of sin from mankind, he humiliated himself to the depths of human woe, and drank to the dregs the cup of suffering.
He had the highest place, but he did not count this the prize to be retained. He voluntarily relinquished it; he emptied himself; he gave up all. Love compelled him. Man was in distress; he had missed his way; he was lost, and the Redeemer could not rest. Could you rest some stormy night in your comfortable home, amid all the luxuries of wealth, surrounded with every comfort and pleasure, if you knew your child was out in the chilling blast, away from home, wandering hither and thither, lost, and crying for help? To remain within the most splendid mansion would be unspeakable torture. All else would be forgotten, and you would fly to the rescue of your darling child. So with Jesus. He loved man, and he could not let him perish. He must go to his relief, and save him at all hazards.
“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” When once this condition is reached among the remnant, the loud cry of the message will be heard, and the proclamations of the Saviour's speedy coming finished. No soul who has the mind of Christ can be at ease in Zion when there are those around him who are unwarned and unprepared for the end. In this time when the sand in the great hour-glass of time has almost run out, and but a remnant of time remains in which to work, there should be no idlers in the vineyard. There is opportunity for all to labor; for a restless11tide is carrying mankind over the precipice of destruction.
Somewhere I read of a man who, in a dream, was taken to heaven and shown all the beauties of the paradise of God. After viewing the matchless splendor of the celestial abode of the righteous, his guide took him where he could behold another scene. He showed him a mighty stream filled with human beings who were being carried over a raging cataract to destruction. The guide then said: “Will you remain here and enjoy all this bliss, or return yonder and help to save those who are being carried to ruin?” Jesus did not remain in the paradise of bliss, though he might have done so. He left all, and went to save those in distress. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”
We should ever regard it as a great privilege to engage in the work of saving souls. “Angels were so interested for man's salvation that there could be found among them those who would yield their glory and give their life for perishing man. ‘But,’ said my accompanying angel, ‘that would avail nothing.’ The transgression was so great that an angel's life would not pay the debt. Nothing but the death and intercession of God's Son would pay the debt, and save lost man from hopeless sorrow and misery.”—Early Writings, page 40, Supplement. The Macedonian cry is heard from all parts of the world, from souls who are crying for the bread of life. Shall we let them perish? or shall we feed them? Should we not give ourselves and what little paltry treasures we may have to this noble work ere the opportunity is gone forever? Shall we not willingly do the work which angels would gladly do?
Accepting Truth
By B. L. House
An Experience
B. L. HOUSE
A BROTHER who recently accepted the truth related his experience, which is here given in hopes that it may encourage some one else.
After attending meetings regularly for several weeks, in which present truth was pressed home to the hearts of the people, the conviction of the Holy Spirit began to take possession of the man.
Afterward in visiting him I asked him about his experience, knowing of what the Lord had done and was doing for him. I asked him how he gave up his tobacco. He replied, “One Saturday night after the meeting, as I was about to take a chew of tobacco, I was impressed not to take it, and also never to take another. So I went home that night without gratifying my desire for tobacco, and I have not touched it since. But I soon became very restless, and on Sunday evening I craved something to eat, and finally asked my wife to get supper for me, which was something unusual.
“To satisfy my wife’s curiosity, I told her that I had not used any tobacco since the meeting last night, and then she gladly prepared my supper. But for three or four days I was nearly sick. I determined, however, to have the victory, and I got it. The appetite has now left me, and I feel well. This was before Christmas, and on Christmas day the only treat I was offered in town among the men was a cigar and a glass of whisky, both of which I refused.”
Shortly after this experience he began to keep the holy Sabbath, and to arrange his business in harmony with God’s law. Being in charge of a coal bank, he wondered how he could avoid selling coal on the Sabbath. He did not want to stay at the bank and watch the coal all day Sabbath; and if he should stay away, he was afraid people would come and haul it away.
Friday came, the bins were stocked with coal, and it did not seem possible to sell it all that day. But the Lord sent the buyers, and before the Sabbath all was sold, and the brother went home rejoicing, to keep the Sabbath in peace. And the Lord’s blessing has been seen since in helping him to continue to keep the Sabbath.
I next asked him about the tithing, and the use of swine’s flesh. He said: “When I decided to sell my hogs and to give up swine’s flesh according to Isa. 66:15-17, I promised the Lord that I would pay my tithe from the money and stop robbing God. I was busy at my bank, and did not have time to go and sell my hogs, nor to find out how much they weighed. So I just sent word to a man who wanted to buy some to come and get them. After he came, I told him to weigh them, and give me whatever was right and just.
“In my own mind I hoped to get twenty-five dollars for them; but I left it all with the Lord, and told him to sell them for me; then I went to my work, and thought no more about it. But when the money came for them, I took out my tithe first, and found I still had over twenty-five dollars left. I could not help but praise the Lord.” This brother cleared in the next week more than three other similar coal-bank men did who lived near him.
A short time before this conversation took place, I had asked the brother to offer prayer in the Sabbath-school. That was his first public prayer after conversion, and the night before and that morning had been his first experience in family worship. He told me of his remorseful feeling on learning that his children could say the Lord’s prayer when he scarcely could say it himself.
But the sunshine of Jesus’ love has come into this home, and with tears of joy and praise, this dear brother tells his experience. And God has given him his wife and children to be with him in this glorious message. To the Lord be all the praise.
God's “At Home”
By Eva Wesley
THE Sabbath day is God's special “At Home.” Can those persons, therefore, claim to be his friends who habitually refrain from visiting him in his own house on that day, though possessed of both invitation and leisure? Or can those who pay their call as a mere formality think that God has any pleasure in receiving their cold civilities,—an offering of external courtesy only, to the loving Father who says to each of us, “My son, give me thine heart”?
Again: there are others who accept the invitation just in order to criticise the house of their Host,—his servants and his real friends,—and not from any true regard for the Master's person.
Reader, ask yourself whether you would not prefer the absence from your own assemblies of any such so-called friends.—Eva Wesley, in South African Sentinel.