p. 301 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 41, No. 19. (5/19/1914)

Seeking to Save

By E. A. Sutherland

An interesting little mission center may be found away out in the hill country of Tennessee. Away from the regular lines of travel, and away from what we are in the habit of calling centers of civilization, there is a group of families whose one object seems to be to manifest the Christ life before others. In a clearing in the woods there stands a little schoolhouse into which are gathered, day after day, the children of the community. They come from miles around. Some walk; others ride horseback, two, three, and even four children on one animal.

The teacher in that school is a woman who has held positions in several well-known educational institutions. One might think that that isolated life in the woods would be considered a burden. But the following words from her pen show the contentment and even joy that come to one who feels that God's call is answered in this manner of life. She says:

"My heart is very full of joy and thankfulness. I do not know where we would have been had we had our own choosing, but we are still here in the place of my heart's choice. Our little school is surely a very precious thing to me. There is something sacred about it. Is it not a vine of His own planting? Does He not watch over it day and night?"

Such work results in heart development. In this little mission center there are combined the school, the home, and the farm. There is the father, a minister of the gospel, who is meeting his family's daily needs from that mountain farm, and at the same time preaching heart-searching sermons to his mountain neighbors. There is the mother of the family looking after the home interests, and at the same time mothering those children that come from the community. There are sons and daughters being brought up under that influence where the spirit of self-denial prevails, where the growing girls are the ones who are called upon in case of sickness. They sit by the bedside, they minister to the suffering, and they are the ones who comfort the sorrowing in case of death.

This same little school is a training station for other young people who are there preparing themselves to start centers of their own. Such soul yearning for others one seldom finds. Such heart searching

for soul purity is rare in this world of ours. "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it." Matt. 16: 24, 25.

E. A. SUTHERLAND.

"THE FIELD IS THE WORLD"

"The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth laborers into His harvest." Matt. 9:37, 38.

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Educated in Godliness

"THROUGH the grace of God in Jesus Christ, which reveals salvation and immortality and life, His heritage are to be educated, not in the minutiae of etiquette, the world's fashions and forms, but in the science of godliness."

Influential Personages Won to Christ in Japan

By H. Kuniya

LAST week I baptized three young men at Kagoshima, after thoroughly instructing them. On the morning of his baptism, one of them told his mother about baptism, and said: "Mother, I am going to be baptized by the Seventh-day Adventist pastor to-day. If you think I am going to a hellish church, why do you not say a word to prove me wrong? Do you think that I shall go to Satan's church?" She replied: "No, no. I don't think so. Your church is right. I will hear more about the Bible from your pastor."

This message is going everywhere. Lately an aged sister of Admiral Togo began to keep the Sabbath. She heard about the Christian religion when her brother returned from England many years ago. But then she heard only about one great God who created the worlds. Now she is glad to hear more about God and Christ. I hope that some of her family may be converted to Christianity through her influence.

Hundreds—nay, thousands—are tired of Buddhism, and searching for a new religion; but because many Protestants backslide, and have lost power, many of the heathen are wondering. Now is the time to let our light shine.

H. KUNIYA.

Light in Heaven

"That which is dark below is light in heaven."

God Uses the Disappointed Ones

By Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle

By Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle

THE world is full of sorrow and of sorrowful people—of tears and grief and blasted hopes and disappointed men and women.

Yes; but God will make use of the disappointed ones—make them wonderful instruments to His glory, IF—

"Why do you place such emphasis upon that little word 'if'?" you ask. "Do you mean, if they are rich or powerful or great? Do you mean that God can use them if they are influential? if they are eloquent? if they are famous?"

No; I mean, IF the disappointed man will not allow his disappointments to sour his disposition and harden his heart—in other words, IF he is willing.

After all, do you know that the saddest heart in the world can be the most "willing"—can be the most obedient, the most tractable?

Why does the refiner place the precious metal again and again in the fierce flame?—O, he is only burning away the dross—that’s all. Gold is not very valuable when it is full of dross; and the only way to get the dross out of it, is to burn it out.

Now, then, I don’t know whether you have ever noticed it or not, but it is true, that the man or the woman whose life has held but few trials, whose slightest wish has always been gratified, who has never felt the keen pangs of poverty or sickness or adversity—that man or that woman is generally the last person on earth to whom the sick or the sorrowing instinctively turn for loving sympathy and real help in the hour of sorrow.

But God has bidden us bear one another’s burdens. So when we become hardened by prosperity, He sometimes allows adversity and disappointment to come upon us, so that we may be the better able to sympathize with those upon whom the numbing hand of sorrow has been laid.

Do you see that fine house yonder? In that home, quietly resting upon a bed of velvet, lies a sweet babe. The young mother is prostrate with grief. Friends and relatives offer her loving sympathy in vain. Dry-eyed and white with agony, she only moans brokenly: "You know nothing about my sorrow. None of you has ever lost a sweet babe. You are kind, but you do not understand. No one understands."

Just across the street, in a humble cottage, another young mother has but recently lost her little one. Ah, here we shall find real sympathy. Grief is a wonderful medicine for pride. It makes brothers and sisters of us all. When affliction speaks, wealth and social position are thrown to the winds.

The childless mothers meet. Their arms are entwined about each other. Each reads the sorrow of the other’s heart like an open book—and each is comforted.

I tell you, God afflicts no man or woman willingly. He says so. He allows no disappointment to come to us without a purpose.

Let us note a few examples. We will head the list of disappointed men with the man Moses. "But," you say, "Moses was one of the greatest men that ever lived. Surely he was in no sense of the word a disappointed man."

We shall see. Moses was a man with a mission. From his youth up, he had anticipated the wonderful work before him; and with all the energy and enthusiasm of his young manhood, he undertook that mission.

But he was not prepared.

Learned in all the arts of Egypt—indeed he was; but before God could use him, he must be educated and trained in the school of adversity and bitter disappointment—must serve a forty years’ apprenticeship in the far-off land of Midian, in the humble capacity of a shepherd. And so well did he learn his lesson, that instead of the hasty, hot-headed, impulsive prince of Egypt, he became "very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth."

But even yet, he had not quite graduated in the school of adversity. One more disappointment, bitterer than all the others, must be meted out to him.

Year after year, he had patiently waited the time when he should lead his victorious people over the Jordan to their promised inheritance. I suppose the great leader had expected to do this at once, when they followed him out of Egypt, guided by the cloudy pillar. But the weary years passed one by one. In vain did the patriarch law-giver beg the mighty "Angel of the covenant" to allow him the one wish of his heart—"to go over this Jordan."

No; and the disappointed man, who had talked with Jehovah as a man talks with his friend, turned his tear-dimmed eyes toward the towering heights of Nebo, and took his lonely journey thither.

Who can picture the silent grief of the grand old hero, as he slowly climbed toward that cloud-wrapped chamber of death? This, then, was to be the end of that wonderful life.

From lone Nebo, those dark eyes, still piercing and bright as an eagle’s—eyes which had looked unflinchingly upon the glory-mantled summit of Sinai—were turned sorrowfully toward the far west. From the distant north rushed the turbulent waters of the sinuous Jordan, beyond which stretched the inheritance of Israel.

For forty weary years he had looked longingly toward that goodly land, the center of all his hopes, the goal of his ambition.

And now he must die—not decrepit and bent and weary of life, but in the full strength of manhood; with eye undimmed; with great, unselfish, loyal heart beating strong and vigorous as when, nearly a century before, he had been heir to the proud throne of Egypt.

All alone, with no sympathizing hand of brother or wife to minister to him, he must struggle with the grim monster. How many times had his unselfish prayer prevailed for the life of his ungrateful nation! But now, in this extremity, his prayer for his own life availed nothing.

Disappointed?—Ah, yes; but God had something better for His faithful servant than the heritage of the heathen beyond Jordan. O, the heavenly Canaan is better, better than the earthly. God wanted him. And God wants the disappointed man to-day.

It was not because God delighted in the grief of His servant, that He sent disappointment, keen and bitter, to the patriarch Jacob, until he cried out despairingly, "All these things are against me!"

It is easy enough for us to wonder at his lack of faith and trust, because, looking back upon his life’s history, we can so plainly see God’s providences; but he could see only the fact that his dearly loved son had been taken from him—the son of whom he had expected so much, and upon whom he depended as the staff of his old age.

But God had a beautiful surprise for him; and out of his bitter grief, God caused to spring forth a mighty deliverance.

It has been the most bitterly disappointed men and women in all history, whom the Almighty has seen fit to honor with His most important work; and to those who have suffered most keenly, has He entrusted His most wonderful commissions. God’s true children never forget that the bitterest disappointments often prove but blessings in disguise. Some one has aptly said that we must learn to look upon our dis-appointments, as His appointments.

When we do this, we can cry, with Job, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him."

Fermented Wine in the Drink-Offering

By MRS. S. N. HASKELL

Why Was Fermented Wine Used in That Service?

By MRS. S. N. HASKELL

MANY advocates of fermented wine point to the numerous texts where wine is mentioned in connection with the Levitical service, and suppose that the priests and worshipers drank freely of the wine; but this was not the case. The wine of the drink-offering was always poured out upon the burnt offerings. Num. 28:7. One fourth part of a hin — over a quart — of strong wine was offered with each lamb. When we consider the great number of burnt offerings sacrificed, as indicated in the twenty-ninth chapter of Numbers and other passages, and remember that there were "drink-offerings for every burnt offering" (2 Chron. 29:35), we can understand why wine was mentioned so often in connection with the sanctuary service.

WHY THE UNFERMENTED IN COMMUNION SERVICE

The question arises, Why was unfermented wine taken to represent the blood of Christ in the communion service, and strong or fermented wine used in the ancient drink-offering? The drink-offering is not mentioned in the first chapters of Leviticus, where all the other sacrifices of the Levitical services, except the offering of the red heifer (Num. 19:1-10), are described.

The drink-offering was superadded to show that the worshiper was in perfect accord with all he saw done at the altar. As expressed by Bonar: "He saw the lamb slain — a type of atoning blood for his guilty soul; he saw the meat-offering presented — a type of entire dedication to the Lord; and therefore, when he lifted up the cup of wine, and poured it forth before the Lord at the altar, over the ashes, or (according to some) over the flesh of the sacrifice and the memorial of the meat-offering, his so doing was equivalent to saying, 'In all this I do heartily acquiesce. I welcome atoning blood to my guilty soul, and I give up my redeemed soul to Him that has atoned for me. Amen, amen!'"

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE DRINK-OFFERING

While the drink-offering in a sense represented the offering of Christ, yet it represented the life of the worshiper poured out in service for God. Paul seems to have understood this when he wrote to the Philippian brethren, "Yea, and if I be poured forth upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all." Phil. 2:17, margin. Thus we can readily see that strong, fermented wine, containing evil, was a fit emblem of the life of humanity, "born in sin, and prone to evil as the sparks to fly upward"; while the pure, unfermented wine represented the blood of the Sinless One.

With the drink-offering in view, we can understand why Hannah had "a bottle of wine" with the three bullocks and the ephah of flour that she offered at the temple when she gave the child Samuel to the Lord. 1 Sam. 1:24. The three men that Saul met "going up to God to Bethel," carried three kids, and three loaves of bread, and a bottle of wine for the drink-offering. 1 Sam. 10:3.

A TOKEN OF FULL SURRENDER

In the light of the drink-offering, we can comprehend how God can be cheered by the fermented wine poured out before Him by His people as a token of their lives' being fully surrendered to Him. And although they, like the fermented wine, have sin in their natures, yet He accepts, O, so gladly, the service they render; and the sinner who surrenders his life to God is blessed. Thus the wine, because of its type of the sin removed, "cheereth God and man." Judges 9:13.

A tithe of the wine of ancient Israel was given to the tribe of Levi. The Levites were expected to offer the usual offerings before the Lord, as the other tribes; but they had no vineyards from which to secure wine for their drink-offerings, as they had no inheritance in Israel. Num. 18:20. They were dependent upon the tithe given them for things necessary for their sacrifices. Num. 18:26-29.

God has ever required purity of life in those who served before Him, and His commandment was: "Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations." Lev. 10:9.

Really Hidden

ONLY when we have learned how to hide away beyond the possibility of discovery have we learned the secret of the richest Christian life. This "hiding" of the Christian is declared by Paul when he says, "For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God." The purpose of hiding a thing is to put it beyond reach. One blessed result of the literal hiding of our life in God is to put our life beyond the reach of Satan. When we are so hid with Christ in God that God Himself is within us and wholly round about us, the practical result is that Satan can not get at us. Though he is permitted to tempt even the God-hidden Christian, nevertheless if that hiding is maintained by faith, Satan can only tempt, and never successfully break through into the hiding-place to molest. Better still, when we are thus concealed in God, others looking at us may all the time see only God's life, the Christ life. The hidden human life gives Christ His opportunity to reveal Himself.—Sunday School Times.

A GOOD HOME FOR SALE

By Milton C. Wilcox

ON account of change of work, I desire to sell my property in best part of Mountain View, California, consisting of an acre of land, nine-room house, bathroom, lavatories, toilets, large closets, sleeping porches, fireplace, good basement, solar water heater; a neat shingled bungalow of three rooms, bath, and toilet; a good well and tank house, with complete power pumping plant, water piped to all parts of the acre; a garage, chicken house and yard; two magnificent live oak shade-trees in right place, with palm and other trees; a good family orchard, just well in bearing, of more than thirty trees — apple, almond, cherry, fig, nectarine, orange, peach, plum, prune, quince, walnut, small fruits, grapes and berries, with plenty of land for garden. Fifteen minutes’ walk, five minutes’ ride, from station where fourteen trains stop each way, daily; six miles from Stanford University; good schools in town, including S. D. A. school of ten grades; town dry and growing. A good place for small sanitarium. Address M. C. Wilcox, Mountain View, California.

Shining Through Christ

By Ellen G. White

"CHRIST's followers have no need to try to shine. If they will behold constantly the life of Christ, they will be changed in mind and heart into the same image. Then they will shine without any superficial attempt."

Pregnant with Meaning

By John O. Corliss

MINING troubles have been brewing for a long time in Colorado. Lately, however, men's passions in that strife have become so aroused that the spirit of the very demons has seemed to control their actions. According to late despatches from that calamity center, armed men had trapped fifteen miners, five women, and a baby in the flaming shaft house of the Empire mine, near Aguilar. At the time this message came through, no hope was held out for the lives of these imprisoned ones.

To say nothing of the unestimated loss of property around that center of infernal vengeance, the terrible impulse that can lead men—otherwise companionable husbands and considerate fathers—to be so recklessly ferocious toward fellow men in the same walk and calling in life, is unaccountable, were it not for divine predictions regarding the ruling disposition of humanity at this juncture of the world's history. This has, however, been pointed out substantially as follows,—that in the last days "perilous" times would come because of men's selfishness, and lack of natural attachments, gendering human savagery. 2 Tim. 3: 1-5.

It will be seen also, from a careful examination of the scripture here cited, that those bearing such unfortunate traits, give recognition to some form of godliness. That is, they, under ordinary circumstances, would favor religious services, while denying, by their actions, any power of religious control. Whether or not any of those engaged in the Colorado miners' war have their names enrolled in certain church-memberships, we have no method of knowing, but observation makes it appear certain that with many, Christian influence is becoming less effective than formerly, in these days of strenuous living.

It must be that the days have come, as predicted, when Satan is working with "all power" (2 Thess. 2:9) to bring men into full fellowship with his own gory methods. It must be also that his late renewed activity in this direction is because he knows that his time to work among men is short. Rev. 12:12. But out of it all the Lord Jesus will soon gather His faithful ones, when He comes the second time "without sin unto salvation." Heb. 9:28. May the faithful in heart prepare for that thrilling event. J. O. C.

AN ARMORED AUTOMOBILE, CARRYING SEVEN MACHINE GUNS, USED BY THE MEXICANS IN THEIR FIGHTING

Commerce and War

THERE have been reports current that gigantic commercial associations and corporations have been both stirring up and financing rebellion and disorders in Mexico. In consequence of this, Representative W. D. B. Ainey, on May 4, introduced a resolution in Congress directing the House Foreign Affairs Committee to make an investigation of this matter. Representative Ainey is reported to have said, "But for American brains and money, there would have been but few wars in Central and South America."

Men of enormous wealth see opportunities in many of these countries for making money, provided they can have men to their liking in power. And it is a sad commentary on the times in which we live, that notwithstanding our great enlightenment, men will, for the mere hope of making money, drive nations into war, regardless of the bloodshed, the destruction, and the heartaches that may thereby be caused.

Of course some plan must be studied to make these wars appear patriotic and reasonable. Some false motive must be set before the people, and presented until it becomes popular and sentiment is aroused that will break forth into the flames of war.

It would seem our civilization should have outgrown such things. Men have fondly hoped and taught that the twentieth century was giving us a moral power that would obliterate war. But among many other things, this twentieth century has given us the greatest and most far-reaching commercial enterprises and combines that the world has ever known anything about. The greed that has entered into commerce stops short of nothing in reaching its desired ends. God foresaw this, and He told us, hundreds of years ago, in the plainest language, that we may—

"Be sure of this, that in the last days difficult times will come. Men will be selfish, mercenary, boastful, haughty, and blasphemous. They will be disobedient to their parents. They will be ungrateful, ful, impure, incapable of affection, merciless, slanderous, wanting in self-control, brutal, careless of the right, treacherous, reckless, and puffed up with pride. They will love pleasure more than they love God; and while they retain the outward form of religion, they will refuse to allow it to influence them." 2 Tim. 3:1-5, Twentieth Century Translation.

These verses give the "twentieth century" translation of some words that were written something over eighteen hundred years ago by the inspiration of the Almighty. They tell us that we will have difficult times in the last days, because of the selfishness, the mercenary spirit, the brutality, the treachery, the want of self-control, and the recklessness of men.

This scripture should be kept well in mind and closely studied in connection with conditions that are prevailing. The prophetic utterances that God has made all through His word in regard to this time in which we live, could not have been made plainer or clearer. The verses here quoted are a sample of divine predictions.

Just beyond the difficulties and the perils that evil men are stirring up in this time is the eternal haven of rest. If we are not prepared to enter into it with inexpressible joy, it will not be because God has failed to make things plain. It will not be because of a lack of clearness in His prophecies, and of earnestness in His entreaties and warnings.

"I Will Come Again"

By Editor

LET not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know." John 14: 1-4.

These words are the definite promise of the infinite Christ. They are plain, they are clear, they are simple. These words will be literally fulfilled. The personal Christ has spoken them, and the personal Christ will come in answer to what He Himself has said.

Views of His second coming have been given to prophet and apostle, from the days of the translated Enoch down to John, who wrote his apocalyptic vision on the isle of Patmos. The consummation of all of these great prophecies lies in this generation. We are standing in the presence of the supreme event of human history. The next truly great thing in this world's program is the second coming of Christ. In view of its importance, every other interest should be held in abeyance, and our every energy should be devoted to preparing for that great time. Eternal joys that are beyond the powers of description await those who are preparing to meet Him. 'Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.'

Glorious hope! Has it entered into your life; and thrilled your soul with its satisfying joys?

The Next Pope a Foreigner

By Editor

THE leaders in the Catholic Church, according to influential European papers, are very much exercised over the question of the successor of Pius X. It is said that Pius X came to the pontifical throne with an idea that the cardinals ought to be distributed with some approach to equality among the nations of the world. Germany, it is said, will not tolerate any further discrimination against herself in the distribution of cardinals' hats, and she thinks that America has altogether too many cardinals.

The fact that there is a prospect that the next pope will not hail from Italy is solidifying all the factions to unite upon keeping their College of Cardinals in proper shape to insure the continuance of Italian popes. But we know, according to the prophetic Word, that all the world is finally to bow to the papal power; and, it is truly significant to study, in connection with this prophecy, the strong currents that have set in to make the papal power popular in all the nations of the world, and not only to make it popular, but to give it the balance of power in political control. And when it has the balance of power, it will before a great while become the chief power itself. This is a question of fact and prophecy, and its study is as important for our Catholic friends as it is for Protestants. Dogmatisms and prejudices should not enter into our consideration of so great a theme, and especially since God has clearly spoken upon the subject.

War Burdens and Public Morals

By Editor

David Lloyd-George, the chancellor of the British exchequer, in introducing the budget in the House of Commons on May 4, made the announcement that a deficit of nearly $27,000,000 would have to be made in the fiscal year of 1914-15, and that an increase of something like $50,000,000 in the income of the government would be necessary. A large part of the income of all the leading governments in these times is sacrificed to the insatiable demands of the war-god. The leading men of the nations are searching diligently for new sources of income in order to meet the increasing demands for war. And yet we are in the blazing light of the twentieth century. But notwithstanding this, the war burdens increase more and more, and they will continue to increase thus until the world reaches the Armageddon war foretold in the sixteenth chapter of Revelation, and in many other scriptures as well.

The governor of Oregon issued a proclamation on May 5 ordering a squad of militiamen to close the Milwaukee Tavern at Milwaukee, Oregon. "Under the guise of a club," said Governor West, "a man named Wilbur is maintaining a resort where men and women and young girls congregate, carousing and indulging in debaucheries." Certainly vice-laden dens are getting to be pretty strong affairs when it becomes necessary for the governor of the state to call out soldiers to suppress them.

Our brethren in the Asiatic Division have been using the neostyle in preparing their local conference paper; but we are glad to welcome, by the last steamer, a neat little printed sheet under the name Asiatic Division Mission News. It gives cheering reports of the progress of the work in that field. Every advance step taken adds courage to the hearts of the loyal workers who are so earnestly laboring to evangelize the world with the great message of the soon coming of Christ.

The Standard Oil Company has notified its employees that from now on, promotion will be confined strictly to those who do not use alcoholic liquors. Most railroad companies have taken similar action. The most intelligent people of this world are waking up to the fact that where high efficiency is required, alcoholics must be eliminated. Why tolerate an evil in the world whose only effect is to produce inefficiency, degeneracy, and crime?

The statistics recently given out by Dr. H. K. Carroll, the well-known authority on this subject, show the gain of the Catholic Church since 1900 to have been 5,000,000, or, in other words, their numerical strength in this country has been increased by over one third since the opening of the twentieth century.

Despatches tell us that Germany's kaiser has ordered to be inserted in the liturgy of the Lutheran Church a special prayer for military and naval air craft.