IN Rev. 14: 6-12 we find three messages which are to be proclaimed to the kindreds, nations, tongues, and peoples of this earth. The first says: “Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come; and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” The third says: “If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation,” etc.
Thus we see that these two are simply the positive and negative sides of one great message; the first telling us what we must do, and why; and the second telling us what we must not do, and why. He who heeds the first, will not have part in the direful calamity brought to view in the third, for he who fears God and gives glory to Him, will not worship the beast nor his image, nor receive his mark.
The second message describes a fallen condition, and tells why it exists. The first presents a remedy for this condition, while the third shows the final outcome of not receiving this remedy. So here we find a great threefold message for all the people of this world.
The Hour of His Judgment.
This message is to go to the world in the time of the Judgment, for it is to announce the fact that the hour of His Judgment is come, not is coming, but is actually present.
Paul tells us that God hath appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness (Acts 17: 31); also that Christ shall judge the living and the dead at His appearing and kingdom. 2 Tim. 4: 1.
Daniel saw the Judgment going on while earthly powers were still carrying on their work here upon earth. Dan. 7: 9-12. The Judgment must take place before Jesus comes, for He comes bringing His reward with Him, to give to every man according to his work. Rev. 22: 12. Since, as we see from these texts, God has a definitely appointed time in which He will judge the world, and since this precedes and is closely connected with the coming of the Lord, then this message which is to be given in the hour of judgment must go to the world just before Jesus comes.
In corroboration of this thought, in verse 14, immediately following this message, the revelator says: “And 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.”
The Last Message of Mercy.
Being the message which immediately precedes the coming of the Lord, it must be the last message of mercy to mankind. This is clearly seen by a study of the message and that which immediately follows. Verse 10 states that the one who does not heed this message, or who worships the beast and his image and receives the mark, “shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation.”
Rev. 15: 1 reads: “And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.” Since the wrath of God is filled up, or finished, in the seven last plagues, and those who do not heed this warning are to drink of the wrath of God, therefore, upon them who will not obey this message by refusing to worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark, will fall the seven last plagues. In harmony with this we read, Rev. 16: 2: “And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshiped his image.”
The first message urges men to give God glory, but Rev. 16: 9 tells us that under the fourth plague they are still refusing to give God glory.
The second message, which tells of the fallen condition of Babylon, swells into a loud cry and is repeated in Rev. 18: 1-5; and here God’s people are commanded to come out of Babylon, that they be not partakers of her sins, and receive not of her plagues. Thus we see that those who refuse the first message, and do not give God glory, those who ignore the second message, and remain in Babylon, and those who, heedless of the third message, worship the beast and his image and receive his mark,—all these shall drink of the seven last plagues.
The Time of the Plagues.
In Ps. 75: 8 we read: “For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture; and He poureth out of the same; but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them.” This cup in the hand of the Lord is one from which all the inhabitants of the earth must drink. The wine is red because to all come tribulations, sorrows, and afflictions; all of which are expressions of wrath against sin. But they are mixed with mercy, for the cup is full of mixture. But when human probation ends and the door of mercy is forever closed, then shall the wicked drink of the dregs of the cup; or as stated in the third message, drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture.
When this takes place, Jesus will have left the throne of grace, from which He as King of Grace has been dispensing to mankind the mercy of God and will have ceased His ministration for sinners; and this He does just before the plagues begin to fall, for we read in Rev. 15: 8: “And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from His power; and no man was able to enter the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.” When the temple is thus filled with smoke, the command is given to the angels: “Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.” Rev. 16: 1, 2. Then these angels begin their work.
While these plagues are falling, Jesus comes on the cloud, not as a priest, but as a king, having received His kingdom, sitting upon the throne of His glory, “having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle,” coming to reap the harvest of earth. See Luke 19: 12, 15; Matt. 25: 31; Rev. 14: 14.
The Message Is Now Due.
This message is to be given before Jesus comes. The fact that Jesus is soon to come is being taught to-day by devoted ministers of all denominations. The great signs of His coming are all in the past, and a sentiment prevails in the minds of men that the second advent of Christ is very near.
Then this great Threefold Message should be proclaimed. And it is, and is going rapidly to all the nations of earth. There is to-day an organized company of people, who by sacrifice and earnest labor are carrying this message. Already their evangelists have encircled the globe. In the short space of fifty years they have established mission stations in almost every country in the world. God is leading out in the work by remarkable providences, and hundreds of souls are accepting the light and giving God glory. They are refusing to worship the beast and his image and to receive his mark, and are looking with joy to the coming of Jesus in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.
Reader, will you not study this message with us, accept it, and join us in giving it to all people, that Jesus soon may come?
God’s Will Better Than Arithmetic.
“GREATEST good to the greatest number” has a plausible sound to it; but it is never a safe guide to duty-doing. One who bases his work on that principle is likely to spread himself so thin that neither a great number nor a small will get much good from his efforts. Christ’s rule was to give Himself chiefly to serving one at a time. He suggested that “he that is least among you all, the same is great;” and He announced the awarding of eternal life to those who have ministered “unto one of these My brethren, even these least.” Nowhere6does the Bible even hint at great numbers as a test in determining one’s duty. The only test a man need consider is: “Is this God’s will for me?” God may call him to serve a great multitude; but when God does, He will make the duty plain by other reasons than merely the count of heads. And those who serve great numbers effectively do so by virtue of concentrating their efforts chiefly on one at a time; for the one-at-a-time method is the secret of the greatest good to the greatest number. — Sunday School Times.
THE cry of him who reaped thy field,
Who filled thy garner with its yield,
Whose wages ye kept back by fraud,—
His cry hath come before the Lord.
His little ones are lacking bread;
Jehovah’s curse be on thy head!
He sees the stricken sparrow fall,
He hears the hungry raven call.
And can ye hope unscathed to go;
Who dare to wrong His children so?
“Vengeance is Mine, I will repay!”
Injustice meets its judgment-day.
—Charles A. Banister.
Passover and Pentecost.
By S. H. Carnahan
Having in my Bible work been called upon to place special study on the time of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection in connection with the Passover and Pentecost, I will lay before the readers of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES the information gained.
The Passover was a movable festival as far as the days of the week are concerned, like our Christmas-time, December 25, which may come upon any day of the week; the Passover season always commenced on the fourteenth day of the first month, and continued to the twenty-first. Ex. 12:18. Pentecost, which means fiftieth, depended for its date upon the day the Passover season began; hence might fall upon any day of the week.
To find the day of Pentecost, we count from the fifteenth day of the first month. As the fourteenth day of the month, which is the first day of the Passover festival, is a sabbath, we begin the count on the second day of the season, and count seven complete sabbaths, or weeks (compare Lev. 23:15, 16 and Deut. 16:9), which would be forty-nine days (seven times seven), and the day following, or the fiftieth day, would be Pentecost.
In order to ascertain the day of Pentecost mentioned in Acts 2:1-4, we must find when the Passover occurred. The Passover was to be eaten “in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose.” Deut. 16:7. The day preceding our Lord’s crucifixion the disciples came to Him and asked, “Where wilt Thou that we prepare for Thee to eat the Passover?” He told them the place and they prepared it. Matt. 26:17-19.
The time of this Passover undoubtedly was Thursday night, March 29, A.D. 31, according to our system of reckoning. “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us” (1 Cor. 5:7), “and become the first-fruits of them that slept.” 1 Cor. 15:20. In the old typical system, they were to “bring a sheaf of the first-fruits” of the harvest unto the priest.
“And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. And ye shall offer that day when ye wave the sheaf an he lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt-offering unto the Lord.”Lev. 23:10-12.
In our Passover, Christ, we have the antitypical, or true, sheaf waved, the real Lamb of God slain, who was crucified without the city, as was the Passover lamb. “Thou mayest not sacrifice the Passover within any of thy gates.” Deut. 16:5. Likewise Jesus our Passover was slain on the fifteenth day of the first month, which, according to Roman time, was Friday, March 30, A.D. 31.
Calculating seven full weeks and a day, or fifty days, we have the great Pentecostal day coming on Sabbath (Saturday), May 19, A.D. 31—the day when the Spirit of God, or the Holy Ghost, was poured out in such marvelous degree on Christ’s disciples.
It is true that chronologists differ in regard to the date of the crucifixion, some placing it as early as A.D. 30, others, as late as A.D. 33. But that it occurred A.D. 31, March 30, we believe we have indisputable evidence in the prophecy of the twenty-three-hundred-day period, and the declaration that the Sabbath coming the next day after the crucifixion was an “high day.”
Daniel was told in vision, “Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” Dan. 8:14. The prophet did not understand it then; but later the angel Gabriel came to explain it to him. Chapter 9:21-27. He told Daniel that seventy weeks were determined upon his people; that is, seventy weeks, or 490 days (“a day for a year,” Eze. 4:6; Num. 14:34), of the twenty-three hundred days, were cut off for the Jewish people. Verse 24.
This great period was to begin at the going into effect of the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, which was in 457 B.C., or about 456½ years, for it was in the fifth month of the seventh year of the reign of Artaxerxes, king of Persia. Ezra 7:8, 9. The seventy weeks, or 490 years, would reach (being more than 456½ years) down thirty-three and one half years this side of the birth of Christ, or to the autumn of A.D. 34—the time when the work of the apostles was turned mainly from the Jewish people to the Gentiles. Acts 13:49.
At the close of the sixty-ninth week, 483 years, or just seven years prior to A.D. 34, autumn, was to be the setting forth of Christ as the Messiah, or Prince. Dan. 9:25. This was done at His baptism. Matt. 3:13-17. Messiah means the anointed one. Compare Luke 4:18 and John 1:41, margin. This baptism took place seven years before 34 A.D., or autumn, A.D. 27.
In the midst of this week of years the Messiah was to be cut off. This was fulfilled in the crucifixion of Jesus, which occurred half way between the autumn of A.D. 27 and the autumn of A.D. 34, which would be in the spring of A.D. 31.
Now as to the day and the month. Most all agree that the crucifixion took place on Friday. In A.D. 31, Friday came on the 30th of March. And hence the order to break the legs of those who were crucified, “that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day (for that Sabbath was an high day),” as it came in the Passover week. John 19:31. The reason they were requested to break the legs of Jesus was that that high day Sabbath came the next day after the crucifixion day.
When the soldiers came to break their legs, they broke the legs of the two that were crucified with Him. “But when they came to Jesus, and saw that He was dead already, they brake not His legs.” “For these things were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of Him shall not be broken.” John 19:33, 36; Ps. 34:20. Neither were any bones of any of the typical Passover lambs broken. Ex. 12:46; Num. 9:12.
The Passover was both commemorative and typical—pointing back to the deliverance from Egypt and the angel of death, and forward to the greater deliverance to be accomplished by Christ in freeing His people from sin and eternal death.
As the ordinance was to come to an end when the type met the antitype, the Saviour, just at the close of this Passover supper, instituted another ordinance, the Lord’s Supper, which is a memorial, or reminder, of both His crucifixion and His coming. Luke 22:13-19.
It is not stated at just what period this ordinance should be celebrated, but the Scriptures say, “As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till He come.” 1 Cor. 11:26. The emblems should be unleavened bread and unfermented wine, which are to represent the body and blood of Jesus. The meat-offering in connection with the Passover supper consisted of fine flour mixed with olive-oil, and the drink-offering of wine. Lev. 23:13.
Further, the Sunday that is popularly called Easter fell that year, A.D. 31, upon April 8. But strictly speaking, the Easter Sunday was unknown at that early date, for the Easter of those times was a heathen festival, and, like the Passover, came upon a certain day of the month and upon any day of the week.
While the children of Israel kept the Passover by eating the paschal lamb with unleavened bread and bitter herbs (Ex. 12:8), the heathen observed Easter, from a different motive, by eating many eggs and other dainties in honor of the Saxon goddess of love and lust. This heathen festival was later transplanted into the Christian usage by the Church of Rome, and through her special manipulations was made to come upon Sunday and be observed, it is said, in honor of the resurrection of Christ. See Gibbon’s History of Rome.
The word “Easter” in Acts 12:4, as in the Revised Version, should have been translated “passover.” Therefore, instead of observing the Passover which has served its time, or the Easter, a heathen institution, should we not rather celebrate the ordinance of humility and the Lord’s Supper? John 13:3-17; Luke 22:15-20. And to do even this acceptably, we should be living in obedience to God and be at peace with the brethren. Compare 1 Cor. 11:27-29 with Matt. 5:23, 24. S. H. CARNAHAN.
Religious Liberty for All
WE PLEAD NOT for liberty for ourselves, but for each and every man,—for our neighbor, be he infidel or believer, Protestant or Catholic, Jew or Gentile. As long as the liberty of the individual is secured, the liberty of all is safe.
Remember the Sabbath Day.
By T. W. Richardson
THE word “remember” is an injunction never to forget, and it also shows that this was no new commandment, but one already in full existence. The delivery of the law of God, the Royal Law, in all the pomp and grandeur of Sinai, did not constitute its first appearance; for prior to that we read, in Exodus 16, that the Lord would prove them (the Israelites) “whether they will walk in My law, or no.” And after that He has to ask, “How long refuse ye to keep My commandments and My laws?” But if we look back to Gen. 2:3, we see that the Sabbath was made and sanctified at Creation, and thus not for Israelites, as there were none, but, as our Saviour says, “The Sabbath was made for man.” In James 2:10 it is shown us that to break any one of the Ten Commandments renders us guilty of all. The object of the Sabbath commandment was that man should never forget that it was God who made heaven and earth. This reminder was considered by the Almighty so important that it could not occur like other memorials, annually, but every week of our lives.
What are we to remember?—The day God has set apart as His day—the Lord’s day, “the Sabbath day,” the day now commonly called by its pagan name, Saturday. It is clearly defined in the law itself as “the seventh day.” This law, made at Creation, spoken by God, and written with His finger at Sinai, stands out in bold relief, as it were in letters of fire, from Genesis to Revelation. When God speaks, who dare alter His word?
It has been contended that in the early days, there being no records, the seventh day could not be traced to Creation. But this is worthless argument, for the great God who made the day could not make a mistake when He caused the manna to fall on Sunday and every day but Saturday. Even our present-day dictionaries show that Saturday is the seventh day. No, the day has not been lost. We need only date back to the time of our Saviour, for He as the Son of God and a Jew would not have kept Saturday had it not been the true seventh day. He could not alter God’s law; for He said, “My Father is greater than I.” John 14:28. He admitted the life-giving power of the law when He instructed the young man in the words, “If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.” Matt. 19:17. He also summed the law up as love to God and love to man. “This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.” 1 John 5:3.
That the Sabbath was to be kept by Christians after Christ’s death is clearly shown when He told them to pray that their flight (forty years after) be not on the Sabbath day. Matt. 24:20. And we read, “they rested the Sabbath day, according to the commandment.” Luke 23:56.
Naaman to be cured of his leprosy had to do exactly what Elisha told him. He pleaded for the bright waters of Damascus, but he could not be cleansed in them. It must be absolute and perfect obedience— he must wash in muddy Jordan, and that seven times. When God speaks and says the seventh day is the Sabbath, and from “even unto even,” how dare men dictate to Him and say the first day will do as well!—Col. T. W. Richardson.
The One Book.
A WEEKLY paper has been inviting its readers to say what single book they would desire to have with them if they were to be left for a year upon a desert island. Among the answers sent in is the following: “I am a rationalist, an agnostic, and a free-thinker. . . . I make this statement with all the seriousness that should accompany expression on such an important subject; that if I were stranded on an island and doomed to live in solitude, the one book that I should wish to have by me for constant study and reference would be the English Bible. For I know of no book that has so helped me in the past and promises to be a steadfast guide in the future. After years of study, the profundity of its psychological message astounds the intellect, and the apparent sincerity that resounds through all its chapters adds a fervent tone. Besides, for simplicity and beauty of word and phrase it undeniably holds the monopoly of all the most ennobling and the most inspiring of the verbal possibilities of the English language.”—Present Truth, London, Eng.
May We Know the Time?—A Message.
By H.
1. What promise has God made to His children concerning the future?
“Surely the Lord Jehovah will do nothing, except He reveal His secret unto His servants the prophets.” Amos 3:7.
2. As a result of the wickedness of the earth, what message did God give to Noah?
“God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for that he also is flesh: yet shall his days be an hundred and twenty years.” “Behold, I do bring the flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh.” Gen. 6:11-13, 3.
3. What provision was made for Noah’s salvation?
“Make thee an ark of gopher wood.” “I will establish My covenant with thee; and thou shalt come into the ark; thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee.” Gen. 6:14, 18.
4. The first advent of our Saviour was definitely foretold, and many events and circumstances were described minutely. A messenger was foretold, and his message was given. Note the following:
Forerunner foretold: “The voice of one that crieth, Prepare ye in the wilderness the way of Jehovah.” Isa. 40:3.
Fulfillment: “In those days cometh John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make ye ready the way of the Lord, Make His paths straight.” Matt. 3:1-3.
The message of the forerunner foretold: “Say unto the cities of Judah, Behold, your God.” Isa. 40:9.
Fulfillment: “On the morrow he seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world.” John 1:29.
5. The time for this message to be given was definitely made known by the prophet Daniel.
“Seventy weeks are decreed upon thy people [Daniel’s people, the Jews] and upon thy holy city. . . . Know therefore and discern, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Anointed One, the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks.” Dan. 9:24, 25.
NOTE.— The Jewish students of prophecy knew how to interpret this passage. This period began in 457 B.C., when the decree was made to restore and build Jerusalem, and extended sixty-nine weeks, 483 years, which came down to the date now known as A.D. 27, when the Messiah should be anointed. According to Jewish ceremonial law, this anointing would be when He was thirty years old; figuring back thirty years would locate the date of Christ’s birth.
6. Were there those who did understand?
“One Anna, a prophetess, . . . spake of Him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.” Luke 2:36-38.
7. While here on earth, Jesus Himself promised to come again.
“If I go to prepare a place for you, I come again.” John 14:3.
8. The prophet Joel foretold a message of that event.
“Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain; let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of Jehovah cometh, for it is nigh at hand.” Joel 2:1.
9. How widely will this message be carried?
“This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations; and then shall the end come.” Matt. 24:14.
NOTE.— The preaching of the Gospel of the kingdom to all the world is evidence that Christ’s coming is near, for when this has been accomplished, “then shall the end come.” For half a century such a message has been going to the world. Future studies will bring it out more in detail.
H.
For All.
By Robert Speer
WHAT God, who is the God of all, has provided for His children, He has provided for all His children. His own love is for them all. It is not for one favored race. His Son came for them all. You might not think so from looking at the world, but it is the fact. He came as truly and as much for the Chinese and the African as for the English and American. The words of the Saviour made no distinction in favor of special races. His disciples were to go to all nations, to preach the Gospel in all the world, to be witnesses unto the uttermost parts of the earth. As long as anywhere in the world any man is left unreached, men have been narrower than the love and thought of God.—Robert Speer.
Adoption
ADOPTION is an act of God's free grace, whereby we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges, of the sons of God.—Westminster Catechism.
Time for God to Work.
By H.
A VERY large proportion of professed Christians to-day will unhesitatingly say that the law has been done away. The percentage of these who could give a text of Scripture which they think will prove the statement, is very small indeed. Not alone laymen, but ministers of the Gospel believe the statement true, in spite of the utter lack of Scripture proof. From pulpit and press efforts are made not only to prove that we are not under the claims of the law, but to compel men to acknowledge it by observing a man-made institution, by setting aside the true Sabbath of the Lord and placing in its stead the first day of the week. Truly, in the words of the psalmist, “It is time for Thee, Lord, to work: for they have made void Thy law.”
H.
How to Not Sin.
It was a wonderful lesson taught the old heathen king by the prophet of God, a message which later on that king proclaimed to all the languages and peoples of his mighty realm: “Wherefore, O king, . . . break off thy sins by righteousness.” Dan. 4:27. There is no other way. In the message lies salvation and victory.
Only by God’s righteousness in the place of ours can we be made acceptable to Him. Only by being in harmony with Him can we endure or enjoy His presence. Heaven itself would be distasteful to the man who loves sin, and like Milton’s Satan, he would prefer to reign in hell than serve in heaven, tho the service be that of Infinite Love. But to him who longs for the perfect, who with all his heart desires to be like God, God waits to clothe him with His own righteousness. “Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom Jehovah imputeth not iniquity.”
But forgiveness is not all the soul longs for. He not only longs to have a merciful God forgive his sins, but he wants to live above sin. Of small worth is the forgiveness unless it can issue in power over sin, in perfection of character. And God meets our needs here also. He who can impute righteousness, can impart righteousness. He who can cleanse the sins of the past, can keep the heart from sinning. But there must be cooperation. If we are satisfied in having our house of character cleansed and swept and garnished, the demon of doubt and discord will return with seven other demons who will take possession and utterly destroy. If the house is kept clean, there must dwell within it the Cleanser. The heart must be actively engaged with the forces of good. There must be struggle with the forces of evil, but the victory is not gained by fighting the evil.
No negative goodness can long persist. There must be positive force for good or the soul will backslide or dry up and die. There are no negations in God’s work. In His strength the soul must meet the enemy in the very temptation to sin, when passion is hot, when all the powers of an undisciplined carnality rise up to press home the enticement of the adversary, “Do this,” he pleads; “there is pleasure in it.” And every inherited, fostered appetite of the flesh rises up and assaults the very citadel of the soul, and pleads with the will, the conscience, the reason. “Do this; there is pleasure in it.”
But here faith should sustain the soul’s triumvirate. It should bring the word of God, which would enable the soul to see the fruitage in the sowing. “He that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” Right there, in the time of temptation, resist the enemy, with every unholy prompting of passion, pleasure, ambition, hatred, envy, pride, and sow to the Spirit. “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify [crucify, put to death, kill, and count dead] the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” Then and there, in the temptation, do God’s will. Ask for His Spirit’s aid, and do, resolutely quickly, knowing that He will help, that there is victory. Parley not for a moment. “Break off thy sins by righteousness,”—right doing. There the victory must be won. There is no other way.
The “California Christian Advocate” Again.
By Editor
HERE is another characteristic utterance from our “Christian” contemporary in Berkeley, regarding the proposed Sunday law in California, in its issue of February 11:
“We scarcely think that the Legislature seriously considers the activity of the Seventh-day Adventists. Their opposition is so clearly a sectarian movement, an unscrupulous and conscienceless sectarian measure, that we think no well-balanced or well-instructed mind will seriously consider their alleged claims. The bill provides all liberty to those who keep any other day than Sunday. The ‘dog-in-the-manger’ policy is scarcely strong enough to characterize the policy of these ecclesiastical Ishmaelites. They have succeeded in enrolling the evil contingency of the state and in utter shamelessness have formed a coalition with wickedness in order to conserve a contemptibly small sectarian contention.”
We would pass the above utterance by without notice, were it not for two things: (1) We wish to show the animus of some parts of the Sunday-law advocacy; (2) we wish to help our readers to see the true basis of this question.
1. The Advocate has had every reason to know that Seventh-day Adventists have presented no “sectarian measure,” nor “measure” of any kind whatsoever. They number only about 6,000 communicants in this state,—men, women, and children. The 36,000 names presented in protest against the Sunday-bill were male citizen voters. Not one of them was compelled to sign this petition. Not one of them was threatened with anathema or boycott if he did not sign it. On it are names of as reputable citizens as there are in California, and not a few members of orthodox churches, such as the editor of the Advocate misrepresents. Personally, so far as we know, no Seventh-day Adventist has anything to gain in a temporal way by opposition to such a law. He could stultify conscience, shut his eyes to all the mighty truths of Christianity and to the lessons written in oppression and blood on the pages of history, and be called by some of our Sunday-law friends good fellow. We would rather meet all the undeserved opprobrium of men and meet God in the judgment with a clear conscience.
The Advocate has never presented, to our9knowledge, the Sabbath question on its merits. It has never attempted to establish the Sunday-sabbath by Scripture. It has never presented one single article nor one coherent argument for a Sunday law on the basis of justice, equity, liberty, or Christianity. It can not do it. It has no such foundation. Its chief argument is that of the disgruntled advocate in a bad cause—abuse, vituperation, false accusation. And it is indeed a mighty poor cause which will stoop to such things; really, neighbor, it is not worth defending.
The animus of all religious legislation is shown in the charge that the opposition to that law is “conscienceless.” So will be judged by our Sunday-law “friends” those who may assert their God-given rights to work on Sunday when, according to the “sure word of prophecy,” the law is secured. On the contrary, the man who believes in true religious liberty, will contend for the same liberty for his bitterest opponent which he asks for himself, and, if he is a Christian, he will be willing to leave the judgment of that opponent’s conscience to God.
2. What Seventh-day Adventists have done in this matter has been open and above board. They have not only presented their own arguments, but the arguments of the other side. They have appealed to men, all men, on the doctrine of pure human rights—the equal rights of all men. Seventh-day Adventists do not believe in Roman Catholicism. They believe it to be a great perversion of Christianity; but they believe that all Roman Catholics—each and several—have the same inalienable human rights as themselves, not because they are Catholics or because they number millions, but because they are men, humans. Seventh-day Adventists do not believe in Spiritualism or Christian Science, or Unitarianism, but they do believe that the devotees of those cults have the same inalienable human rights as themselves, not because of what they teach or because of their numbers, but because they are humans. Seventh-day Adventists do not believe in rumselling. There are none among them. No true Seventh-day Adventist drinks even beer or wine. They believe the rum traffic to be an unmitigated and awful curse. They say this in all their literature, even in their anti-Sunday-law literature; but they also believe that the men in that traffic have equal God-given rights in their relationship with God, not because of their business, but because they are humans.
Seventh-day Adventists have “formed” no “coalition” with any men in or out of organization under the sun, social, political, or religious, and the Advocate knows this, or ought to know it.
Sunday legislation is religious legislation. Its proponents know it tho they deny it. They betray themselves. Every religious term has been struck out of the California Sunday bill. It was not deemed good politics to show its true inwardness. But the same identical evil bill comes before the Oregon Legislature with the one exception that it is proposed to legalize “the Lord’s day, commonly called Sunday.” Mr. Tufts, the author of the bill, tells us that it is not “ideal,” and he tells us what his ideal is in religious circles, the Puritan Sunday law. Let in the thin end of the wedge, and sooner or later the rest will follow. Our “Protestant” federation friends will wish next to suppress not only work on Sunday, but Seventh-day Adventists, as “unscrupulous,” “conscienceless,” “Ishmaelites.” Then will come Unitarians and the Jews, and Christian Scientists, and every other unfederated sect or cult which makes inroads upon their flock, or walks outside their creedal circle. Then they will demand public-school textbooks after their order. Then the Inquisition. That is the logical order.
Our American fathers of the Federal Government saw the evil seed in the principle and rejected the principle. Would that their sons of this day were as wise and far-seeing.
Our plea is for liberty for all, for the sake of free, unfettered truth, for the sake of the church of Christ, for the sake of our bitterest enemies. God can care for His own planting. We appeal to our Christian brethren throughout this state, to the California Christian Advocate, to turn from all religious legislation, and seek to persuade men to stand on the true foundation of moral principles, trusting in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the power of God, to save men. Then say to the meddling Sunday-law promoters from the East that we have a people and state in which men can be moral and Christian without the aid of civil law.
