Earlier text: The Winter Is PastDevelopments of Our Work in the Eastern States
By Arthur G. Daniells
In the quotations from the Testimonies, given in the two preceding articles, it is very clear that it has been the Lord’s purpose for half a century to do a very decided work in behalf of the masses in the Eastern States before his work closes in the earth. This was promised sixty years ago. During the last ten years definite and repeated instruction has come to his people to enter upon this work. Counsel has been given us as to the spiritual preparation necessary for7 such a work. Light has also been given regarding the scope of the movement—that it was to be broad and strong and efficient. For some time the believers in Maine have been studying this instruction very carefully, and have been trying to carry it out the best they knew how. They have evidence that the Lord is rewarding them for all they have endeavored to do in his name for the advancement of his cause in that State. Our first meeting in the city hall was attended by nearly two thousand persons. The most of these were strangers whom we had never met before. The Master himself was present, imparting a sweet calm and a commanding influence that could be felt by all. We had prayed that the Lord would so deeply impress the minds of those attending the meetings that after returning to their homes they would think most seriously of the message presented. The next day we had evidence which made us feel that our prayers were being speedily answered. In the afternoon of the day following our first meeting, an invitation came to us from the business men’s club to repeat the address of the previous night at their monthly club meeting to be held that evening. This gave us an excellent opportunity to present an important and impressive feature of our message to two hundred or more of Portland’s leading business and professional men. We not only traced the historical and political phases of the subject, but placed strong emphasis on the Scriptural side. It seemed to us that the interest of these men deepened as we endeavored to show how wonderfully and clearly the present history of the nations is filling in the prophetic outlines. We have now held ten or twelve meetings in the city hall, with an attendance ranging from eight hundred to three thousand. The regular Sunday night attendance has been about eighteen hundred. Those who come to the meetings seem very friendly. Six hundred or more have handed in their names and addresses for literature to be sent them on the subjects we have presented. Besides the meetings held in the city hall, we have given addresses in a number of suburban halls around Portland, and in Lewiston, forty miles north. In all these meetings we have found many persons very friendly, and deeply interested in the subjects presented. A gentleman living in Bangor, one hundred and forty miles north, has attended two of our services in the city hall in Portland. This is good evidence of an earnest desire to hear. We have now organized our small force of workers for a steady, systematic, continuous effort in the State. A house has been rented for a city mission headquarters. Elder K. C. Russell has direct charge of the evangelistic work. He is being assisted in the preaching by Elder A. E. Sanderson. Three or four Bible workers, two nurses, and two colporteurs are associated with the ministers in the city effort. Elder Carlyle B. Haynes is assisting the writer in holding a few meetings in city halls of the leading towns in the State. It is earnestly hoped that these efforts will be blessed of the Lord in awakening many people in Maine to a realization of the time in which we live, and also in leading them to take their stand for the message of God now due the world. The Portland daily papers have given liberal space for the reports of our addresses. It is estimated that a fair report of each sermon was carried by these papers to 100,000 persons in the State. Having done the best we know how to carry out the instruction that has come to us, and having planned for an earnest, faithful continuance of the effort begun so encouragingly, we are looking to the Lord to lead the people to obedience. He alone has power to send deep conviction to hearts and constrain them to turn away from the world. This experience in Portland has taught us a number of things. It has revealed to us our unpreparedness for a general great awakening throughout the cities. We are unprepared spiritually for a great movement. Nor have we the experience needed to deal with great audiences. We are short of well-trained, efficient workers to fill the openings a great awakening would create. Local conferences are not in possession of the funds required to carry on city work on a large scale. And yet a mighty awakening must soon take place, and a great, quick work must be done in order to finish our work in the generation to which it is to be confined. Perhaps our greatest lack is in a deep spiritual life. We understand now better than we did two months ago why the messages given through the Spirit of prophecy placed such emphasis on spiritual preparedness for a great movement in Maine. These messages appeal to the ministers and workers and to all the members of the church to put away sin as manifested in pride, self-sufficiency, envy, jealousy, criticism. They are exhorted to remove all differences and all causes of differences from among them. This is absolutely essential to the manifestation of God’s power in arousing and saving large numbers through our efforts. It is so easy for pride to come to the front when large things are being done, and it is so easy for jealousy and criticism to be leveled against those who are in the front of the movement. All these wicked things have a chilling, paralyzing effect upon all who come within their reach. Surely there is great meaning in the opening statement of the account of Pentecost: “They were all with one accord in one place.” What could those disciples have done with those thousands of awakened people if their own hearts had been full of pride, self, jealousy, criticism? The heart cleaning, the Spirit infilling, were needed for the work they had on their hands when the multitudes were aroused. From our recent experiences in the cities of Portland and Pittsburgh, it is my deep, firm conviction that the time has fully come for a greater work to be done for the masses in our cities than we have yet seen. Large halls will be filled with people anxious to hear God’s message. Many favorable avenues will be opened to the messengers of the Lord. The promise of a “new era” to the cause in Maine must be a promise of a new era to the cause of God throughout the world. And that promise is surely an earnest appeal for a deeper spiritual life, for a truly victorious life, on the part of ministers and people. May all this come without delay, in order that the work of God in the earth may be quickly finished. UNDER date of February 27, Elder J. C. Raft writes as follows of the work in Scandinavia:— “The year “1915 has been our best year in Scandinavia. Five hundred fifty-five new members were added, as against four hundred sixteen in 1914. Tithes and offerings have increased materially, and the same is true of our book sales, which amounted to 403,000 kroner (one krone is twenty-seven cents). Our sanitarium work never had a better year. We have been able to reduce the debt of the institution considerably. The sanitarium is crowded with guests. “The outlook for 1916 is still better. Never before did our missionary workers have so good an interest in their meetings as this winter. We have reason to expect good results. The canvassing work also has prospered, although one might think we had about reached the climax. We do not intend to start on the downward course, however, but to go forward, and by God’s help we expect to gain glorious victories. “The war is continuing its bloody work, and there is no prospect of peace. The terrible events now taking place are but the fulfilment of prophecy, and they tell us that the dear Saviour will soon come to gather home his own. During the war we have had many precious experiences here in Scandinavia. I believe our faith in present truth has grown much stronger. We have seen many evidences that the Lord cares for his children. There have been many difficulties to encounter, and often the outlook was dark; but God has helped us through it all, and by his power we have thus far been able to triumph in every emergency. We are of good courage, trusting wholly in the Lord.” “The Patience of the Saints”
By George Ide Butler
The heading of this article presents an experience peculiar to the people of God in the last generation, just preceding the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. It occurs in a description of that people and their work in the closing message, designed to prepare a people for the coming of the Lord. In Rev. 14: 6-14 we have the clearest, fullest, most vivid description of the closing work of the true people of God in the last days to be found in the whole canon of Scripture. It is symbolized by the proclamation of three angel messengers, flying in the vault of heaven, their impressive proclamations constituting a great movement to warn the inhabitants of this world just before Christ comes with all the angels of heaven. The first proclamation was an announcement of the beginning of the great day of judgment in the heavenly courts, necessarily preceding the Saviour’s coming to gather all his saints. It is the final proclamation of the glorious gospel of all the ages. While this first warning message is sounding, the second angel appears, joining the first, and proclaiming the consequence of rejecting the first message— the moral fall of spiritual Babylon, or of religious sects, coming originally from the so-called “holy mother church,” and holding doctrines in which truth and error are mingled. While these have had great light, yet they have brought with them from the mother church more or less of her errors. They are reformers only in part. They have received great light, but have failed to part with some of their errors. They reject the great truth of Christ’s soon coming. The consequence is a moral fall somewhat similar to that of the Jews who rejected Christ’s first advent. Therefore this second angel announces the consequence of rejecting the message of the first angel. The third proclamation, which completes the series of three, vividly presents the great apostasy from the pure gospel of Jesus Christ and his apostles. Proclaimed by them after the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord, it went to the whole world. Col. 1: 6, 23. In the early centuries this glorious gospel was greatly perverted. This perversion practically became a great apostasy, a vast worldly church, cruel, lordly, persecuting the saints of God. The third message gives notice of the terrible fate awaiting all who affiliate with that apostate power, and calls on all true Christians to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus Christ. It thus describes those who accept this message: “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. 14: 12. The next view the revelator beholds is this: “I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.” Verse 14. Christ here appears, to reap the harvest of the earth. In the parable of the tares of the field (Matthew 13) Christ himself declares, “The harvest is the end of the world.” Therefore we know that these three angels’ messages represent the great warning proclamation of the coming of Christ. They constitute the world-wide warning given to prepare a people to meet the King in peace. Those who accept them and obey them will be prepared for his coming, and the conclusion is inevitable that those who reject them will not be prepared to meet Christ in peace. Let us now notice the significance of the phrase which heads this article, “Here is the patience of the saints.” What does the word “patience” mean? Webster defines it as follows: “State or quality of being patient; the power of suffering or enduring with fortitude; uncomplaining endurance of wrongs or misfortunes, as toil, pain, poverty, insult, oppression, calamity, etc. Act or power of calmly waiting for something.” The use of the word “patience” in the text evidently comes under the head of the second definition. “The patience of the saints,” implies a long period of waiting for Christ’s coming. Our Saviour declares, when speaking of his coming, that the world will be as it was in the days of Noah. The deluge of which Noah warned the world was not an event precipitated upon the people without warning. Noah was a preacher of righteousness for one hundred and twenty years. God had revealed to him that he would bear that length of time with a wicked generation. Gen. 6: 3. We must suppose that Noah warned them of the coming of the flood, both by words and by actions. He preached to them, and he began preparing for it by building a great ark, or vessel, in which to save his family and those who would believe his message; also for the preservation of animals of all kinds. We cannot suppose that Noah and his three sons alone could have built that vast ship, as large almost as any ship of modern times. Many carpenters doubtless worked upon it, and very likely some had more or less faith in Noah’s message. But the time was so long that they did not hold out to the end. Some of Noah’s long-lived ancestors died only a short time before the deluge. We cannot doubt that the antediluvians ridiculed Noah much because of his supposed folly, but at last the long-foretold flood came in all its fury. The waters bore up the ark. The ridicule of the wicked gave way to cries for mercy and groans of anguish. At last Noah and his family were rewarded for their faith. The proclamation of the great advent message of 1844 is well remembered by many people. The writer can recall it easily. I remember seeing William Miller in my father’s house. Many gathered to hear his message, and were stirred by it. Thousands of believers were sadly disappointed that the Lord did not come in 1844. The third angel’s message began to be proclaimed just after that, and the people developed by it were those of whom the revelator said, “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” There has been a long period of waiting, yet all the while the evidences have been increasing which show that the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Never were the evidences so strong as now, and we may know that he is near, even at the door. Surely no other generation has ever resembled the antediluvians so much as this in which we are living. Let us never forget that we are living in the time of the saints’ patience. The last warning message is gloriously going forth to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people. Soon, yes, very soon, our Lord will come. The Seventh Commandment
By Milton C. Wilcox
The seventh word of the great decalogue, engraved by the finger of God upon tables of enduring rock, and sure to meet us again in the great judgment day, is,— “Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery” Neither time nor space will be taken to draw the fine distinction between adultery and fornication. Both root in the same soil; both are transgressions of the seventh commandment; both mean unlawful relationship between man and woman. Some sins are more talked about than committed. With adultery it is probably the reverse. It has been prevalent at least since the days of earliest history. It was connected with idolatry from the beginning, and sanctioned by the religion of nature worship. It takes one of the strongest, most fibrous and tenacious holds upon flesh-and-blood humanity of any transgression of the decalogue. The positive side of the law of relationship between the sexes is holy and universally beneficial. All the legitimate ties and blessings of human affection grow out of its fruitful soil. Perverted, it becomes a fruitful curse, a magazine of trouble. God made man, and God made man’s complement in woman. Man was not complete without her. The very symbolism9 impresses upon the devout believer the proper relationship of man and woman. God did not make woman from the feet of man, lest man should say she was to be trampled upon, or should bow at his feet. He did not take her from man’s head, lest she should assume to lord it over her husband. But God took flesh and bone from man’s side, near his heart, that it might be seen that God’s design was that they should be companions, standing side by side, heart to heart, in holy and noble service for God and the race. She was not to be used as a means to satisfy his lust, not a slave to his passion, but his equal, though different, the mother of his children, the queen of the household. The man pledges his troth to her. He promises to love, honor, and cherish her till death separates them. She is also his. She promises to love, honor, and cherish him. Their sorrows are mutual, their responsibilities equally binding, their obligations coordinate and coextensive. He is not her slave. True love will bid her do her share. Love on the part of both will find joy in service each for the other, both for their children and for others. This same love will wisely train to the same unselfish service the children God may give them. Such homes will not lead husband or wife to seek companionship elsewhere among those of the opposite sex. Neither one will pour out private troubles to another of the opposite sex. They will talk them over together and with God. If others must be brought in, it would be wise to bring the matter before some good man and his good wife who have stood the tests of life’s troubles for years and have conquered. Let each one read, not for the other, but for himself or herself, the lessons in Eph. 5:22-33; Col. 3:18; 1 Peter 3:1-7. Never let the husband read these scriptures to condemn his wife; let not the wife read them to condemn her husband; but let each read for his own heart and life. Let the young man be warned and instructed by Proverbs 2 and 5. Let him fill his soul with Proverbs 5. There will come sex temptations to men and women, married and single. The devil has spread his nets, his snares, his traps everywhere. The food and drink of the world feed sexual passion. Hot with condiment, strong with stimulant, overabundant in quantity, they develop animal passion. The literature, the theaters, the flaming billboards, unholy fashions born of the demimonde, lewd talk, and nude art are among the things that foster and arouse and pervert the sexual nature of male and female. The open sin, the overt act, is the child of the cherished thought. The thoughts will come. The unclean demons and their agencies will suggest them on every side. They will knock at the human doors repeatedly. Thank God, we need not bid them enter. We need not cherish their presence. We need not let them employ our faculties or energies. As has been said, “The crows may fly over our heads, but we need not let them build nests in our hair.” The hot blast may fan our cheek, but we must not let it burn our soul. How may we be strong to resist? First of all, let us learn the lesson that we cannot overcome the sin by thinking upon it. In that lies defeat. Lust cherished brings forth sin, which, when finished, brings death. “I say unto you,” said Jesus, “that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” Matt. 5:28. The sin lies in the cherished thought. The secret of overcoming and maintaining victory, then, lies in so filling the heart and mind with good things that the demons of lust can find no place, nothing upon which to hook their tenacles. Above all things else, enthrone Christ within. Let him be your king, your Lord, your master, your teacher. The devil found nothing in him. John 14:30. If Christ reigns in you, the devil will find no lodging place for his temptations. Your position, your knowledge as physician or minister of the gospel, will not save you. Greater effort will be put forth by the devil to destroy you. Look upon all his temptations, however beautiful or attractive, as enemies that are seeking to compass your defeat, disgrace, and destruction. So cherish hatred toward them that you will have no desire even to think of them. Finally, “whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Phil. 4:8. Only so may a pure, noble, Christian manhood and womanhood be developed, which by their purity in a corrupt and darkened world will lead heavenward those who are looking for purity and light. Secret Societies
By Ellen G. White
Their Influence Not Conducive to Spiritual Growth
The soul is deceived when it trusts to worldly policy and human inventions instead of trusting in the Lord God of Israel. Can man find a better guide than the Lord Jesus? a better counselor in doubt and trial? a better defense in danger? To set aside the wisdom of God for human wisdom is a soul-destroying delusion. If you would see what man will do when he rejects the influence of the grace of God, look to that scene in the judgment hall, when the infuriated mob, headed by Jewish priests and elders, clamored for the life of the Son of God. See the divine Sufferer standing by the side of Barabbas, and Pilate asking which he should release unto them. The hoarse cry, swelled by hundreds of passionate, Satan-inspired voices, is, “Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas!” And when Pilate asks what is to be done with Jesus, they cry, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Human nature then is human nature now. When the divine remedy that would have saved and exalted human nature is despised, the same spirit still lives in the hearts of men, and we cannot trust to their guidance and maintain our loyalty to Christ. These societies that are not controlled by the love and fear of God, will not be found true and upright toward man. Many of their transactions are contrary to justice and equity. He who is of too pure eyes to behold evil will not, can not, be a party to many things that take place in these associations. Your own conscience will bear witness to the truth of what I say. The talent and skill and inventive power with which God has endowed men are, in these associations, too often perverted to instruments of cruelty, of iniquity, of selfishness in practicing fraud upon their fellows. Of course all this is denied by the members of these bodies. But God looks beneath the pleasant, attractive appearance, to the secret, underlying motives and the real working of the association. While some of them claim to make the Word of God in a certain sense the basis of their organization, they depart far from the principles of righteousness. The vows imposed by some of these orders require the taking of human life when the secrets of the order are divulged. Members are also pledged, under certain circumstances, to clear the guilty from deserved punishment. Toward those who work against the order, they are required to pursue a course that is not at all in harmony with the law of God. We cannot swerve from the truth, we cannot depart from right principles, without forsaking him who is our strength, our righteousness, and our sanctification. We should be firmly rooted in the conviction that whatever in any sense turns us aside from truth and justice in our association and partnership with men, cannot benefit us, and greatly dishonors God. Every species of deceit or conniving at sin is abhorrent to him. Fraud runs all through these secret associations, and none can be bound up with them and be free men before God and heaven. The moral nature is dragged down to that which God pronounces unjust, which is contrary to his will and his commandments. One who professes to love God may in these associations be placed in positions which are called honorable, but in the eyes of God he is tarnishing his honor as a Christian, and separating farther and farther from the principles of righteousness and true holiness. He is perverting his powers, that have been purchased by the blood of Jesus. He is selling his soul for naught. In the revelation of his righteous judgments, God10 will break up all these associations; and when the judgment shall sit and the books be opened, there will be revealed the unchristlikeness of the whole confederacy. Those who choose to unite with these secret societies are paying homage to idols as senseless and as powerless to bless and save the soul as are the gods of the Hindus. These societies offer some advantages which from a human point of view appear like great blessings, but not so when judged by the Lord’s measurement. Behind their apparent advantages are concealed satanic agencies. The larger the income drawn into the treasury, the more and deeper is the evil. The ungodly gain which has enriched these societies will, when traced out in all its bearings, be seen to be a curse. The words which Eliphaz spoke to Job are true in respect to these associations: “I have seen the foolish taking root, but suddenly I cursed his habitation.” They are Satan’s traps, his net to entangle souls. Very many things are sanctioned and upheld by the world when they are an offense to the Holy One of Israel. It was seemingly a small thing for Eve to depart from God’s specified restrictions and do the thing he told her not to do, and for Adam to follow her example; but that very thing was planned by the archdeceiver to destroy the souls of men by leading them to follow their own imaginations rather than the revealed will of God. So in these associations principles are held that bring men under the deceptive power of Satan, leading away from safe paths into rebellion against God and disregard of his holy standard of righteousness. “Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation,” is the oft-repeated injunction of our Saviour. Watch, watch, with diligence and care, lest Satan succeed in ensnaring the souls of those for whom Christ has paid the ransom money of his own blood. God calls upon you who would be his children to act as under the divine eye, to adopt the holy standard of righteousness. His justice and his truth are the principles that should be established in every soul. He who preserves his integrity toward God, will be upright toward man. No man who truly loves God, will, for the sake of a bribe of gold and silver, of honor, or any other earthly advantage, expose his soul to temptation. “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Christians must sever every tie that binds them to these secret orders that are not under the control of God. They cannot be loyal to these organizations and loyal to God. Either the connection with these bodies must be severed, or you will assimilate more closely to them, and as the result will come to unite more fully with them, and will sever the ties that bind you to those who love and fear God. The Christian will abandon those things which are a hindrance to his spirituality, Better lose money, possessions, and life itself than to imperil the vital interests of the soul. You who have connected yourselves with these secret societies are trusting in a staff that will be broken in pieces; you do not trust in the Lord God of Israel, diligently searching to know his will and to follow in his way. When you invest money in these organizations, you do so in the hope of making provision for the future. You have given them time and thought and labor and money, while the cause of Christ has been neglected. Every dollar paid into these organizations is as truly turned away from the cause of God as if sunk in the ocean. But was not this capital intrusted to you of God to use in his service, for the salvation of your fellow men? By investing it where it cannot honor God or benefit men, you are repeating the sin of the slothful servant who hid his Lord’s talent in the earth. The Lord had intrusted to the unfaithful servant not a large capital, but only one talent. That one talent the man did not invest for the interest of God; he hid it in the earth, complaining that the Lord was a hard master, reaping where he had not sown, and gathering where he had not strawed. The selfishness he manifested, and the complaints he made, as though God would require of him that which he had no right to claim, showed that he did not care to know God, or Jesus Christ, whom God had sent. Everything he possessed was the Lord’s own property, and was intrusted to him to use for God. When he said, “I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth,” he acknowledged that the talent was from God. And what saith the Lord?—“Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed.” Here he repeats the servant’s words, not acknowledging their truth, but showing what, even according to his own account, the servant ought to have done. The Lord virtually says: You made no effort to trade upon my intrusted capital, and to gain an increase to promote my glory in the earth. Thou oughtest “to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not [traded on his Lord’s goods] shall be taken away even that which he hath. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness.” To every soul to whom the light of truth has come is this lesson given. We should never forget that God has placed us on trial in this world, to determine our fitness for the future life. None can enter heaven whose characters are defiled by the foul blot of selfishness. Therefore God tests us here by committing to us temporal possessions, that our use of these may show whether we can be intrusted with eternal riches. It is only as the self-sacrificing life of Christ is reflected in our life that we can be in harmony with heaven, and be fitted to enter there.—Bible Students’ Library. Conditions of Fellowship
By Arthur L. Manous
On what condition is our fellowship with God and with one another based? “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7. What is light? “God is light.” 1 John 1:5. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” Ps. 119:105. “The commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life.” Prov. 6:23. “Whatsoever doth make manifest is light.” Eph. 5:13. What gives us light? “The entrance of thy word giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.” Ps. 119:130. What are we invited to do? “O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.” Isa. 2:5. Who willingly accepts this invitation? “He that doeth truth cometh to the light.” John 3:21. Out of what and into what has God called us? “He hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” 1 Peter 2:9. How does the path of the just shine? “The path of the righteous is as the dawning light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” Prov. 4:18, A. R. V. What is the light of truth to do? “O send out thy light and thy truth; let them lead me: let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.” Ps. 43:3. How does the apostle admonish the Christian to walk? “Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light.” Eph. 5:8. What are the Christians who walk as children of light not in? “Ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.” 1 Thess. 5:4, 5. What, then, is the essential thing for us to do? “Walk in the light, as he is in the light.” 1 John 1:7. We must meet reverses boldly, and not suffer them to frighten us.—"David Copperfield."