Earlier text: THE KREMLINAS He stands related to men in His various offices of creator, mediator, priest, and king, Jesus Christ is the central figure of revelation. More than this, in its entirety the Word expresses His personality, His power, and the great object of His manifestation to the world, so that it can all appropriately be called a revelation of Him. The Scriptures are to make us wise unto salvation. 2 Tim. 3:15. He is Saviour (Matt. 1:21); and the only Saviour. Acts 4:12. Again, a knowledge of God through Christ is essential to salvation, but knowledge must come by a revelation. Rom. 10:14–17; John 17:20; 5:39; 1 Peter 1:10, 11. This is sufficient to show that we are to find Jesus in all direct revelation. He is first brought to light as Creator in Genesis, corroborated by John 1:3; Col. 1:16. As Creator of the world He had an absolute right to its government; but His ideal was man as vicegerent; so man was formed, and given dominion. By yielding to temptation, man lost his liberty, life, and dominion. Now Christ appears as Mediator and Saviour, in evidence of which the sacrifices were ordained to prefigure His own suffering and death, by which man and all that he lost was to be redeemed. Man was to be placed back in his home, with perfect liberty to enjoy all the blessings it could impart; but Christ, who has never relinquished His proprietary right, is to have the direct rulership. Micah 4:8; Luke 1:32, 33; Rev. 21:1–7. This will be the kingdom which Christ has gone to receive (Luke 19:12), into which the righteous will be invited (Matt. 25:34), for which Christ taught His disciples to pray (Luke 11:2), and which it is the Father’s good pleasure to give to “the little flock” (Luke 12:32). Having accomplished our redemption, He took up His priestly work. Heb. 10:12–14; 8:1, 2. When that work is over, He will be invested with kingly authority. Dan. 7:13, 14. Then He will come to this earth, and begin the establishment of His kingdom by taking His people away until the territory shall be prepared; and when the work of preparation is completed, the Lord’s people shall possess the kingdom “forever, even forever and ever.” Dan. 7:18, 27. Then the kingdoms of this world will have become the kingdom of our Lord. Rev. 11:15. The object of the plan of salvation will be realized, and man will have received the blessing of eternal life with all its attendant joys and glory. With loving interest in His people, Jesus, on the Mount of Transfiguration, gave His disciples, Peter, John, and James, a miniature representation of its arrangement, and Peter speaks of it in his letter afterward in such words as plainly point out the object of Daniel’s prophetic teaching. Referring to the transfiguration, he says, “We . . . were eye-witnesses of His majesty;” i.e., we saw Him in His kingly state. Then he adds an unquestionable confirmation in these words: “We have also a more sure word of prophecy, . . . , a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts,” meaning, without a doubt, the time when the real kingdom, with its eternal splendor, shall be reached. The sure word of prophecy must include that of Daniel. At the beginning of his explanation to the king in chapter 2, the prophet said, “There is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days.” He then traced in outline the history of nations as they were successively to rise and fall, until the final change takes place, and establishes the kingdom of which Christ shall be the King, symbolized by a stone “cut out of the mountain without hands” and filling the whole earth. Like the illuminating energy in the search-light, that enables the master of the war-ship to see the enemy miles away through the darkest night, the concentrated light of the brief prophetic delivery of Daniel 2 sends its powerful rays over the changing billows of humanity’s restless sea, revealing the tempests and calms attendant upon the changes of the world’s control. But always it is focused upon the last kingdom, the enduring kingdom of God, and lost in the exceeding splendor of its introduction by the coming of its King with the glory of His Father, attended by the shining host who reflect the light of His eternal presence. Standing in the light of this prophecy, we see that four important stages of human history are in the past, and the fourth is— “Only waiting till the shadows
Are a little longer grown,” ere they will all be chased away by the dawn of Christ’s coming glory. The lesson to us is that Jesus is soon coming to reign as King. To those who believe Him when He said, “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again,” and who pray with John the Revelator, “Come, Lord Jesus,” “come quickly,” this prophecy is a joy-inspiring message. To those who are all absorbed with worldly schemes, it is a lesson of warning, an exhortation to cease their mad rush in life’s fitful struggle, and heed the entreaty of divine love to get ready for the Lord’s coming and kingdom. ‘MADE FOR MAN.’
By H. W. Thomas
Jesus said (Mark 2:27, 28) that “the Sabbath was made for man.” He also said that He Himself was Lord of this Sabbath. Jesus was speaking of the seventh-day Sabbath of the Lord. Mark that He does not say it was made for any particular class or race of men, nor yet for any particular time or dispensation of man. It must be allowed, therefore, that He was speaking of mankind in general from the creation to the end of the world. It was made for Adam, the head of the entire race. Now as this Sabbath was made for you, what are you going to do with it? accept it and keep it? or say you do not want God’s precious gift, but would rather have a day of man’s invention instead? H. W. THOMAS. Idols of Resentment and Prejudice
“MANY a professing Christian who sends money to win the heathen from sacrificing to gods of wood and stone, has himself set up some idol of resentment and prejudice to which he is sacrificing the sweetness of his years, the happiness of lives dear to him, and his own soul’s growth and welfare.” IT DOES NOT REACH THE ROOT.
A SPLENDID dream is that of Socialists, namely, that this struggle in which so many of them are sacrificingly, bravely, and hopefully engaged “can only result,” as Walter Thomas Mills puts it, “in the overthrow of the master class and the end of class struggle with the disappearance of all classes. Socialism will end the class struggle by removing the economic inequality of opportunity which has created the classes.” It is a grand dream, we say, but only a dream, “as when a hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty; or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite.” We would not presume to argue that a change in economic conditions might not prove temporarily beneficial, but it would be emphatically briefly beneficial. The economic condition is not the cause; it is only one of the results of a cause, one of the symptoms of a disease, one of the fruits of a seed-sowing which Socialism with any effort whatsoever can never destroy, cure, or uproot. That primal cause which no political ism can extirpate is the innate selfishness of the human heart, the incarnate sin of which all evil in mankind is the fruit. Mankind, or society, is not one great homogeneous body; it is an aggregate of diverse units. It is primarily, logically, and generally true that what is good for one, especially in principle and opportunity, is good for all. But as long as man is the selfish being that he is, he will never yield to that law which will work only for the good of all. That law is “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus,” coming into every man’s life by the voluntary yielding of his own life and the free choice of the mind and life of Christ Jesus. It is not a matter of evolution, but a matter of recreation of the soul in Christ Jesus. It is not supernatural as regards God, but it is as regards sinful man. It is God’s power by the free choice of man lifting man to the divine, so that he will seek his neighbor’s good as he will seek his own. That is Christianity, that which will lift man above all earthly masters even tho he be a slave. If fully appropriated, it will make new men physically, mentally, spiritually. But it will not do it in the aggregate. It can not accomplish it by the evolution of ages. It can not effect the transformation by legislation. It must be by individual, personal life-relationship with Jesus Christ. Let Socialism hold the balance of power in politics, let it bid fair to be a success, and every place-seeker and gold-worshiper in the world will swear fealty to its tenets till he fills and controls the party, and then decay and dissolution and utter defeat will come from within. No; let every true-hearted man working for the good of others, not depend upon politics, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. “The long gain is the true gain,” and the gain of the Gospel is eternal. A GRAVE RESPONSIBILITY.
By S.
THERE are continually coming to our attention illustrations of the pitiless struggle between the present educational system and the weak constitutions of the many children who ought never to be required to master, in the allotted time, all that the educational course demands. One has said that “the world is going university mad;” and with the hundreds of children that are offered every year on the altar of the present educational system, it certainly looks as if the world was running in that direction. We have nothing to say against the acquirement or possession of a good education. Good education is a blessing. The educated mind, with the same degree of spirituality, will accomplish more for God than the mind which is not educated. But the physical and spiritual welfare of the children should be a matter of far greater consideration than the acquirement of a specific amount of book learning in a specified length of time. The pitiful little wrecks that are strewn along the wake of that course ought to be enough to settle in every parent's mind what his duty is in reference to the matter. The fact that a certain course is marked out, and that many children accomplish it without apparent injury to themselves, is no excuse for any parent allowing his child to wreck its life in the attempt to master the task. But the ambitious parent who drives a child through the course at the sacrifice of health is guilty before God. The following by a writer in the Ladies' Home Journal will illustrate the terrible result of this criminal procedure:— A few years ago a family, whom I shall miscall Woolman, lived close by. Like many of their neighbors, they were poor, ambitious, aspiring folk. But the Woolmans had the pride of blood. It made them hopeful and also barred the women out from any but “genteel” employments. The eldest child was a dull girl. Her brain was abnormally weak and slow moving. But she was neat, gentle, and affectionate, and she had plenty of common sense. She would have made an ideal nursemaid or chambermaid or waitress, or could have been trained into a capable housekeeper. But these occupations in the Woolman code were servile. Neither did it comport with the dignity of their ancestry that she should become a saleswoman or a stenographer. Teaching was the only work suitable for women of that family. Polly was sent to the public school, and for years plodded her slow, tearful way until she was pushed and dragged into the Normal Department. Then began an actual struggle for life. Before her was a certain enormous amount to be memorized, a certain number of questions to be answered with some degree of intelligence in order to “pass” and become a teacher. She had neither the memory nor the intelligence to do this. It was as if you should set a row of hurdles before a man without legs and tell him to jump them or die. She worked desperately all winter long—teachers drove, her father threatened, her mother wept. She went up to her examinations, and—failed. Polly changed strangely; she became pale, and she had a hacking cough. Her doctor remonstrated with her parents; but their pride was kindled. “The Woolmans always had brains. What other girls did, she could do. Polly should try again.” She did try again through all of that year. Her father used to tell how she worked all night with ice to her head, taking black coffee and bromides to keep her awake. “I know she'll do it yet,” her father bragged. She did do it, and passed her next examination. Then came headache, fever, stupor. Her mother raved wildly of typhoid, of “galloping consumption,” but the doctor told her nothing. To others he said, “The girl's vitality is exhausted. In her condition any ailment could bring death. Slow murder has been going on for four years.” I can show you Polly's grave in the cemetery. Life is more important than the deepest philosophy; health is more precious than the problems of Euclid or the declensions of Greek and Latin; and the full, symmetrical, perfect development of an entire human life is of infinitely greater worth than all the mythologies and aphorisms of the ancients, or the heaped-up and pressed-down wisdom of modern economics, psychology, and commercialism. Let the child and the man be educated; but never permit education to become the shroud or the grave that will hide away from you the young lives entrusted to your keeping. THE subject of the Sabbath is a very simple one. It is quite generally called the Sabbath question, but there is no question about it only such as have been raised by men who have tried to find some pretext for not obeying God. All of God's institutions and all of His requirements are simple and easily understood; but the adversary of souls instigates doubts, questions, complications, in order that men may be confused in regard to them. Confusion of doctrine comes of unbelief of the plain Word of God. The very simplicity of language in which the Lord's institutions are presented before us is made an excuse for question. The adversary suggests that there must be more to it than is implied in the commandment. Satanic wisdom (which is the proper name for human wisdom) seeks to enlarge upon the simplicity of divine expression, and to bring out something that God is supposed to have kept back. This is illustrated in the case of the temptation of Eve. The commandment of the Lord was brief and plain: “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” There is nothing in this language that a four-year-old child of ordinary intelligence, even in this degenerate age of sin, can not understand. But Satan, when he gained the woman's attention, suggested that there was something behind that which God had purposely kept back. And of course that which the deceiver said had been kept back was directly contradictory to what the Lord had said. Satan boldly asserted, “Ye shall not surely die,” and then proceeded to reason out his assertion: “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” Thus the subject of life and death became a “question,” a “problem,” which men have ever since been endeavoring to solve from the standpoint of the wisdom of this world. The result is “confusion, and every evil work.” Another illustration, if further illustration be necessary, is found in the traditions of the Jewish elders. They deemed it essential to the keeping of the commandments of God by the people, that arbitrary detailed rules of life be added to the instructions given by the Lord. They followed this principle until the real import of the law was veiled in mystery and confusion. When Jesus was on earth, He reproved their perversion of truth in adding their own doctrines to the commandments of God. He said that they made the commandment of God of none effect7 by their tradition. Of their service He said, “In vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” It is pertinent to the subject in hand to remember that these Jewish traditions were especially applied to Sabbath observance. While the Jews, after the Babylonian captivity, were always very scrupulous as to the day of the Sabbath, and did not again go into open idolatry, they were led into so many absurd ceremonials in its observance that the commandment was made of none effect. There was none of the spirit of true Sabbath observance in their human formalities. They no more kept the Sabbath in the spirit of the commandment than do they who ignore it in regard to the day of God's appointment, and set up a tradition of man. For, like those who uphold the day of human appointment, they were disposed to compel the observance of their human traditions and to inflict human penalties for non-observance. They were especially bitter against Jesus Christ because of His disregard of their Sabbath traditions. The Pharisees said, “This man is not of God, because He keepeth not the Sabbath-day;” yet He always observed the Sabbath in the real spirit of the commandment, and defended His course against their charges of Sabbath-breaking. As a result of this principle of questioning and ignoring the Word of God, more than one-half of the world do not recognize any Sabbath at all, and more than ninety-nine per cent of the remainder observe sabbaths of human institution. Some of the latter class (the Mohammedans) keep the sixth day—the day before the Lord's day, and a large majority of professing Christians observe the first day of the week—the day after the Sabbath of the Lord's appointment. The confusion regarding the Sabbath “question” could hardly be more to the pleasing of him who first suggested doubts concerning the plain Word of God. Thus it is that man's perversion of the plain Word by the substitution of human tradition has even made it a question in the minds of men whether we have a Sabbath at all, other than as men may choose to institute and observe it. And this will always be a question in the mind of those who are not willing to come to the Word of the Lord in its simplicity for instruction. That we have a Sabbath of the Lord is evident from the fact that He once made a Sabbath, and made it for man. Passing for the time the Scripture proof of this statement, we appeal to those who do not regard the Scripture as proof, and ask, Is it at all probable that man would ever have thought of such a thing himself? There is nothing in nature to suggest such a thing as a weekly cycle, or any particular day as a day of rest. The revolution of the planets suggests signs and marks the month and the year, but there is nothing of a material nature to suggest or mark the week. The day is marked by the revolution of the earth on its axis, and the physical fatigue of the daylight activity induces sleep and rest. All this is natural. But there is nothing to induce an extra physical rest on any particular day. There is nothing in nature to suggest worship as an original idea of the creature. So here are three things—the week, the Sabbath, and worship—that must have been suggested to man by appointment of a higher mind. That higher mind was the mind of God, the Creator. The fact that men observe sabbaths is evidence that God first made a Sabbath; and men, in instituting other sabbaths, not only aimed to imitate God in the matter of form, but to do something in the way of assumed improvement. The existence of formal worship among men is proof that God at one time instituted worship, and that man, in setting up other systems of worship, was merely trying to imitate what God had established. Being disinclined to obey God, the carnal mind would fain do something which would answer a like purpose, and for which he could himself claim the credit. The French Government endeavored to establish a ten-day week in defiance of God, but it soon failed. Therefore the very existence of sabbath institutions in the world is evidence that God made a Sabbath for man. And the fact that He once made it is proof that He still recognizes its existence; for “the Word of the Lord endureth forever.” Then this Word must be our basis of truth on the subject, and from this standpoint, in a future article, we will show the origin and institution of the Sabbath. G. He on His part is already your friend; for all have sinned, and He is the Friend of sinners. He has demonstrated by His eternal sacrifice for man's sake, by His undying love exercised toward unlovely man, that He would be your friend. “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” It would be better to say then, Accept His friendship. Let Him be your friend. Why not? Do we not need such a friend as He in this uncertain world? We may not appreciate the fact that we do in the sunshine and fair weather of to-day, but to-morrow may be like some of the yesterdays—dark, with low, foreboding clouds, wild with storm and tempest, desolate and forsaken of earthly friends. The windows may be darkened. Crape may be upon the door. The bell or knocker may be muffled, and the feet of companions more quiet. Voices are stilled, song has ceased. The deep gloom of night and death seems over all. There are sympathizing ones, but they do not know; they have not suffered; they can not understand. Then take Christ for your friend. He knows all about your sorrow. He feels in a heart more sensitive than ours every soul-pain, every parting fiber. He knows and feels the anguish, and He knows how to comfort you. Tell Him all about it, not to inform Him, but to relieve your own bursting heart. Sometimes when you meet the enemy, in your own soul perhaps, you are stripped of your strength, and fall helpless before his darts. You are sore wounded and weak. Then you need a friend. Take Him, Christ Jesus, the mighty One. He is “able to save to the uttermost,” however strong your enemy. He “is able to keep you from falling,” however weak you are. All authority is His because all power is His. O soul, His is an infinitely wise, strong friendship; take Him. Tell Him all your woes, all your weaknesses, and let Him help you. He is a loving friend. He will not upbraid you because you are foolish. He will not blame you because you are weak. He will not mock your grief. He will not condemn you, tho you are sinful. He will put His great, strong, tender, loving arms about you and bear you up. Let Him be your friend. He knows all. He has all power. He loves you with infinite love. Enter into His blessed companionship, and find purity and power, and find righteousness and rest. A WRITER, J. N. Smith by name, uses columns of the Pacific Christian in endeavouring to prove that the Lord had several different minds. In his hard effort he has the following to say that contains the germ of his theory:— Recently I read a small pamphlet written by a Sabbatarian and published at Oakland, containing a very labored argument to prove that Christ was the Angel of Jehovah, the Angel of His presence, who led Israel through the wilderness and who gave the law to them at Sinai. And as Christ has all authority in heaven and on earth, it follows, so the writer argued, that the Sabbath law was binding. Now, whatever Christ may have been to Israel, the author should have remembered that it is Christ Jesus the man who was placed far above all principalities and power, and who has all authority. The Sabbath, to be binding, must have the seal of Christ’s approval after His resurrection and ascension. Now we do not know to what pamphlet Mr. Smith refers, but it needs no “labored argument to prove that Christ was the Angel of Jehovah,” for it is clearly revealed in the Scriptures to all who are not Unitarians in belief, and Mr. Smith does not dispute it. But (and here is the real ground upon which the opponents of God’s unchangeable law all stand, though many will not admit it) whatever Christ believed then, whatever were His purposes and principles then, that is no guide to us now. He may have approved of a thing before His resurrection and ascension, but that we can not depend upon. How does He look upon it now? And this is taught as Christianity! Reader, What think ye of Christ? Is His standard of morality; His plan of saving men, a changeable one? Is it a tentative one, a matter of mere experiment? Is He altogether such an one as ourselves? (See Ps. 50: 16-22.) The SIGNS OF THE TIMES believes that He is “Jesus Christ the SAME yesterday, and to-day, and forever.” Heb. 13:8. What do you believe? THERE is a false impression abroad that Jesus Christ is endeavoring to persuade people to be good so that God the Father can be reconciled to them, and forgive their sins. In much of present-day theology the idea prevails that the scene on Mount Sinai was one of terrible anger on the part of the Almighty, and the law spoken on that occasion was a species of tyranny. But that wonderful scene was an expression of love. See Deut. 4: 36, 37; 33: 2, 3. We often hear expressions implying a marked contrast between the law of God and the love of Christ. But “love is of God,” and “God is love.” 1 John 4: 7, 8. This always was true. It was just as true at Sinai as it was in the manifestation of God in the flesh by Jesus Christ. God’s love was manifested in the gift of His Son (John 3: 16; 1 John 4: 9, 10), and that was decided before the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1: 20), the Creator knowing that the race would fall. Christ did not give His life to reconcile God to us, but to reconcile us to God. 2 Cor. 5: 18-21. The law of God shows the character and purpose of a God of love and purity. The second commandment shows Him to be a God of mercy; the fourth manifests His great creative power, and the fifth is a “commandment with promise.” The other commandments are all protective in their requirements, and the whole law is designed for the promotion of the happiness of all creation. Its provisions can not fail to give peace of mind to all who will be reconciled to God. “The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.” Ps. 19: 8. “More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them is Thy servant warned; and in keeping of them there is great reward.” Verses 10, 11. The greatest proposition before the world to-day is, “Be ye reconciled to God.” His Word tells us that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all they that do His commandments.” Ps. 111: 10. “Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly in His commandments.” Ps. 112: 1. Serving Christ Through Shoemaking
An old shoemaker said, “My chief work is to serve Christ, and I am in the shoemaking business to pay expenses.” 1239.—Man's Privilege of Choice.
I have been led to believe that the seventh day is the Bible Sabbath and that flesh-eating is wrong; but some bring up Romans 14, which seems to teach very clearly that it is left entirely to each individual to do as he desires about eating and Sabbath-keeping. This confuses me; please let me hear from you on this through the Signs. J. R. (1) For the lessons of Romans 14, see the Question Corner of our issue of April 30, question 1230. (2) It is left to every individual to do just as he pleases about every moral question. Every man must “be fully persuaded in his own mind.” It will avail naught for a man to practise Sabbath-keeping while in doubt about it. He is not, in such a case, serving God from choice, or through love, but through fear. His service is the service of a slave to fear. Every man may keep the Sabbath or not, as he chooses. He may eat herbs or flesh-meats or both. Man is not his judge; God will not compel acquiescence; but man must reap at last the fruits of his own sowing. If he chooses to disobey God's Word, he will reap the wages of sin, which is death. If he chooses to feed upon that which is unwholesome, he will reap the harvest of disease. But for his own soul's sake, let him choose in harmony with God's Word, that he may possess the righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. It is God's Word that will judge him in the last day. John 12: 48. Romans 14 is not written to tell what a man should do morally, but to tell him what he should not do—namely, judge his neighbor. 1240.—When Were the Gospels Written?
How long after Christ's ascension were Matthew's, Mark's, and John's Gospels written? W. E. According to the best calculations and guesses, Matthew wrote two Gospels, one in Hebrew about A.D. 42, the other in Greek—our present Gospel—in A.D. 60; Mark is placed by many in A.D. 61, by others earlier than Matthew. John wrote his Gospel at the close of the first century, A.D. 98 to 100. 1241.—When Did Sin Originate?
When did sin originate with Lucifer—away back before the creation of the world? E. B. P. Just when sin originated, when the working of its leaven began in the mind of Lucifer, we do not now presume to speak. The question was over the supremacy, as many scriptures show. The elevation of the Son aroused envy in Lucifer the Light-bringer. And yet when the foundations of the earth were laid, “the Morning Stars,” of which Lucifer was one, sang together God's praise. Job 38: 6, 7. When it began, everything wrought by the Son aggravated Satan's envy and permeated his heart with the desire to destroy Christ's kingdom. See “Patriarchs and Prophets,” “Introductory,” “The Great Controversy,” chapter 29; Isaiah 14; Ezekiel 28; 2 Peter 2: 4. (1) Isa. 11: 6-9 speaks of the peaceful condition of the Messiah's kingdom. This kingdom would have been established gradually if the Jews had only yielded to God, upon this earth in its present condition. Ezekiel's sanctuary (Ezekiel 40-48) would have been built. The marshes and deserts and salt lands would have been healed by the water of life. The wild beasts would have grown mild under the power of righteousness, and the smallest infant would be safe on the hole of the basilisk or adder. But it was not thus fulfilled, for God's people did not meet the conditions; but it will be fulfilled more gloriously in the earth made new. The blessed Spirit of absolute peace will preside over all nature, so that if serpents and children were present, no harm would come to the feeblest. 2. The New Jerusalem, where Jesus begins His reign and where the saints are first taken, is a part of the new earth, even before it descends. To that city will be taken the little children who died in merest infancy, the nursing child and the sucking child; and here will they grow up to maturity. All who are raised in the first resurrection will come up with immortal bodies, of course in nature like Christ's body; but the children will not be grown; that process will be completed during the thousand years by the healing virtue of the fruits and leaves of the tree of life. Mal. 4: 2; Rev. 22: 2. SNARES FOR UNWARY FEET.
By S.
THERE is a true optimism, and there is an optimism which is nothing less than sheer blindness to the conditions that exist. We are living in an age of license—license of saloons, license of vice, and license of all kinds of attractions that lead to both. The snares that have been set for the unwary feet of both age and youth are beyond number, and innocence and virtue are not safe even under police protection; for in many instances the police are protecting the vice and the snares and pitfalls, rather than the persons who would fain escape them. Rural districts are continually feeding the already congested centers of population, and in those centers lurk the ravenous Minotaurs, whose appetite is never satiate, tho it feed continually upon the innocent offspring of a million desolated homes. There is no adequate safeguard to-day even for those who prize virtue above rubies. The following extract from a sermon recently delivered in Brooklyn, N. Y., by the Rev. Newell Dwight Hills, at the Plymouth Church will show something of the terrible snares that beset the feet of the young in that and adjacent cities; and what is true of those great cities is true to a greater or less extent, of all the large centers of population, and of many that are not so large:— There never was an age when cities held more temptations, and the necessity for safeguards was greater. There never was an era when there were so many forces gilding sin. We have come to a time when all the places where vice reigns and men appeal to the lower passions are made beautiful. It is a popular saying among the thousands of young men who come to this city from the country, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” But that sentence should be interpreted to mean, “When in hell, do as the devils do.” It is an age when beautiful paintings and stained-glass windows adorn saloons and hotels; when men are hired to write alluring plays; when tunes are made catchy to convey suggestive words; a time when gardens such as those on the road to Coney Island abound, where young men and girls stop, first for a chop or a roll, and then for worse. It is easy enough to break through the hedge of innocence. According to the American nowadays, the Revised Version of the Bible seems to be, “Obey your children.” If to-day a child does not wish to go to church or Sunday-school, he is not made to go. Parents should themselves drill into children the principles of morality and integrity. Men and women, if you find your children go astray, do not blame them, but their fathers and mothers. It is thought that the methods of restraint of our New-England forefathers were too severe. Thank God they were rigorous. Our pleasure-loving age differs from that age as a jewsharp from a pipe organ. Don’t think for a moment, young men and women, that because you are living the life of the flesh, you have any conception of pleasure. Liberty degenerates quickly into license. Every time you commit a single sin, you cut a sensitive nerve of happiness. If you could only hear the stories that are told to me. If you ever had to go to pray at the bedside of a dying girl, and heard her curse you with hideous curses, and ask the devil to dam you for the sin you had heard her confess, you could understand what a pastor sometimes has to hear. Another peril is the tendency of Americans to turn night into day. All the wreckages of life are in the night. If we could only go back to old-fashioned candles and bed at eight o’clock, we would soon get back to virtue and integrity. Men and women, if you want to ruin your children, turn them loose in the streets at night. Give them parties when they are ten or twelve years old. Give the boys dress suits, the girls party dresses. Teach the latter to count their little lovers before they are twelve, and then God pity the man that marries these unmarried widows at fifteen. The picture which he presents is a terrible one, and we know that it is true. The professional optimist will hide his eyes from this, and pin his faith to a glorious future. The true optimist sees the deplorable conditions into which the world has fallen, remembering that God has said it would be as we have found it to be, but pins his faith to God’s promise that when these conditions had reached their climax, He would come to make an end of sin, destroy those who had identified themselves with it, and upon the renewed, purified earth, establish His rule of righteousness. That good time, that glorious future, is hastening on. Sin is reaching its climax in this earth, and the advent of man’s Redeemer draweth nigh. [We publish the following, from the World's Crisis, not because it specifies the Methodist Church in particular, but because it gives a well-authenticated object-lesson illustrative of conditions existing to a greater or less extent in all the churches.] Last year the Methodists of this country, under the earnest direction of the bishops, were engaged in a well-organized effort to set in motion a wave of revival effort. Special services were held throughout the body, and extravagant statements were made as to the groundless pessimism of many who were less hopeful. The movement had the full weight of official sanction, and the honest aid of a very large part of clergy and laity of the body. In spite of all the favoring conditions, and of the great magnitude of the undertaking, which had for its worthy aim the religious awakening of the whole church, and incidentally the disproving of the claims of Pre-millennialists that the “days are evil,” and that “last-day” iniquity is abounding, the movement was practically a failure. The effort to raise $20,000,000 for the institutions of Methodism is easily carried forward into a second and a third year; but the great effort for revival was so manifestly a failure that it has not been projected into a second year, and it is now hardly mentioned in Methodist papers. It is not in any spirit of exultation that this is here mentioned. It is only because our Methodist friends have been so pronounced against the teaching of Adventists as to conditions in the “last days,” that we note their failure. If the claim that we are in the spiritual declension and religious apostasy of the last times is groundless, and only an unfortunate type of pessimism, why has not the great revival come? The fact that it has not come, has at least proven that even the great Methodist body can not turn back the present current which is setting worldward, and can not take the kingdom “by violence.” A further and even more painful evidence of the declension in the Methodist fold is manifest in the present agitation going on within the body as to “card-playing and theater-going.” These amusements,9 which have long been forbidden in the discipline of the church, seem likely to be eliminated. [That is, the prohibition of these things in the discipline eliminated.] At least there is an organized effort, of increasing influence, which now aims at accomplishing this change. On April 25, there was held in Chicago a meeting of the Union League Club, at which sixty-five prominent Methodist ministers and laymen were present, among them Bishop Hamilton. The session was given to a discussion of these questions, and the following was a part of the League's declaration:— If the clergy of the M. E. Church expect to keep their young men and women in the fold, they must do away with old restrictions against card-playing, dancing, and attendance at the theaters. If they are not allowed to follow the dictates of their conscience, they will attend churches where they will be allowed to do so, or they will not attend church at all. If we do not take active steps toward arousing interest in the church on the part of our young men and women, we shall stand alone in our old age; there will be none to take the burden from our shoulders, when we pass away. If we seek to bind the young people down too closely, or draw too tight a rein, we can not hope to keep them with us. I recommend that all laymen and clergymen to whom the interests of the Methodist Church are dear, organize around this question, and insist that at the next general conference the present regulations and restrictions be removed.