Earlier text: THE WORK AND THE WORKERS“An Unseen Protector”
By W. A. S.
THE story of the deliverances of John Wesley from the fury of mobs, in the early days of Methodism, has often been told. But similar deliverances were experienced by his associates. The revival of the eighteenth century was a reformation, in the special order of God's providence, and God's hand was revealed, working with mighty power through many agencies. The same heavenly power that wrought in the conversion of souls in that age of rationalism and dead formalism was again and again manifested in protecting the human agents in the work. There was John Nelson, the stone cutter, called to go to and fro preaching the gospel. At Horbury a mob had sworn to put a halter round the preacher's neck and drown him in the river. Hurst says: — The parson's son, as captain of the mob, had six large hand bells brought from the clerk's house, and these were rung violently that his voice might not be heard. A half-crazed man, six feet tall, was to put the halter round his neck, and a butcher held the rope. Nelson only pushed the halter from his neck, and the man fell as if he had been knocked down with an ax; the butcher stood trembling, and touched him not. A shout was raised as the constable approached to arrest him, and the bells were silenced. Without hesitating a moment, Nelson said, “I am glad you are come, and I charge you in the king's name to do your office.” He asked, “What is my office?” Nelson answered, firmly, “It is to quell this mob, and deliver me out of their hands.” The constable turned pale, and finally bade the mob be silent; said to Nelson, “Follow me,” went to the stable, led out the horse and held the stirrup, led Nelson through the crowd and bade him go in the name of the Lord! — ‘History of Methodism,’ Vol. I, page 491. When Charles Wesley opened a meeting in the St. Ives market, in 1743, men stopped their ears and rushed at him to pull him down. “But,” he said, “they had no power to touch me.” Four days later he was preaching in the chapel, when the rioters entered and smashed the windows and benches, leaving nothing whole but the stone walls. . . . “Several times,” he said, “they lifted up their hands and clubs to strike me, but a stronger arm restrained them.” — Id., Vol. II, page 506. Amid another tumult, at Wednock, weapons were raised to strike him down, but he says he had “an unseen Protector.” At Devizes, on his way to Bristol, Charles Wesley had his longest siege by a mob, stirred up by the religious prejudices of the “best people.” The crowd was gathered by the ringing of bells. A hand fire engine was used for pouring water into the house where Wesley and his companion were stopping. “Many seeming accidents,” he says, “concurred to prevent their breaking in.” The mob was a thousand strong. He says: — We stood in jeopardy every moment. Such threatenings, curses, and blasphemy I have never heard. They seemed kept out by a continual miracle. I remembered the Roman senators sitting in the forum when the Gauls broke in upon them; but thought there was a fitter posture for Christians, and told my companion they should take us off our knees. We were kept from all hurry and discomposure of spirit by a divine power resting upon us. We prayed and conversed as freely as if we had been in the midst of our brethren; and had great confidence that the Lord would either deliver us from danger or in it. . . . They were now close to us on every side, and over our heads until the roof. A ruffian cried out, “Here they are behind the curtain.” At this moment we fully expected their appearance, and retired to the farthermost corner of the room; and I said, “This is the crisis.” In that moment Jesus rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. We heard not a breath without, and wondered what had become of them. The silence lasted for three quarters of an hour, before any one came near us; and we continued in mutual exhortation and prayer, looking for deliverance. I often told my companion, “Now God is at work for us; he is contriving our escape; he can turn these leopards into lambs; can command the heathen to bring his children on their shoulders, and make our fiercest enemies the instruments of our deliverance.” — Whitehead's “Wesley,” page 189. In this lull, the “persecuting constable,” who had been their bitter enemy, appeared, and tried to get a promise that the preachers would not preach in that town again. They refused to make such a promise, and assured him they would surely preach the gospel again in that place if God permitted; but said they were going on now, elsewhere. This he construed as he desired into an assurance to the people that the preaching would cease, and he used his authority to disperse the mob. “We perceived that it was the Lord's doing,” wrote Wesley, “and it was marvelous in our eyes. The hearts of our adversaries were turned. Whether pity for us or fear for themselves wrought strongest, God knoweth.” It is to be remarked in all these experiences that the prayers of faith and the clinging to the arm of God had their part in the revelation of delivering mercies. “We prayed, with little intermission, the whole day,” said Wesley, of this siege of peril at Devizes. It is living faith, and importunate faith, that lays hold upon the arm of the living God for the doing of things beyond human power. It was out of experiences such as these that Charles Wesley wrote the hymn: — “Other refuge have I none,
Hangs my helpless soul on Thee;
Leave, O leave me not alone!
Still support and comfort me;
All my trust on thee is stayed,
All my help from thee I bring;
Cover my defenseless head
With the shadow of thy wing.” Characteristics of the Last Generation
By C. M. S.
It is indeed wonderful how the declarations of God’s Word corroborate each other, and how the prophecies therein contained are woven into each other like the warp and woof of some marvelous fabric. The correlation and interrelation of the books of Daniel and the Revelation furnish the most striking example of this, and on the grandest scale; but it is a characteristic of the entire Book of God. The present Titanic struggle in Europe and Asia must be looked upon by the observant student of prophecy as a prelude of, or a preparation for, the last great battle of the armed forces of this world—Armageddon. That closes the history of the world so far as man can make it, and therefore comes in the last generation of men. But the last generation of men is to be the generation that will give the “peace and safety” cry, when “sudden destruction” is hanging over the world. The world is preparing for Armageddon, and it is also preparing as never before for those conditions which will make the peace and safety cry seem the most reasonable thing in the world. Those two conditions were to be characteristic of the last generation, and they are coming forward now, both at the same time. Thus they must do to fulfill God’s Word, and thus they are doing. It seems an incongruous thing to talk of peace and safety now when all the great nations of the world but two are striving with every power at their command to crush out each other’s lives; yet leaders of men and leaders of thought are today8 declaring that this will be the last great war, because modern civilization will revolt against the blood-madness of militarism, and that the nations as a result of this war, will perfect an arrangement which will make war impossible. Thus do they with the same breath fulfill prophecy and contradict God’s Word. But these two conditions are not the only characteristics of the last generation. In speaking of the approach of the great day of God, Paul says, “That day shall not come, except there come a falling away first;” and the Saviour himself asks, “When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” Both are speaking of last-day conditions; they are speaking of the last generation of men. But the facts show that they were speaking of conditions that obtain in our own day. The falling away has come, a precursor of the coming of the Lord. The Christian world is driving straight into a sea of doubt in our day. Faith such as our fathers had is conspicuous, when it is found, because of its very scarcity. The doubt and uncertainty in the religious world are manifest in the decrease of candidates for the ministry in certain of the largest and most influential sects. Various reasons are given for this condition, such as the increasing spirit of worldliness in the churches, commercialism, a low state of vital piety, materialism, lust for luxury, and the worship of Mammon. Some, however, openly declare that the true cause is the tyranny of creed; that young men shun the pulpit because it is not a place of intellectual freedom; that the higher education brings with it a horror of credal bonds, and leads them to see a contradiction between the belief of the church and the more advanced “modern knowledge.” To such as hold this view the remedy lies in permitting the younger ministers more freedom of teaching in the pulpit, bringing their religious teachings “into God’s harmony with the facts known,” which have been learned “in library and laboratory,” and discarding “useless tradition.” Certainly “useless tradition” has never been an essential of salvation, and such dogmas as are founded upon it are founded upon sand. But those who are advocating this change in pulpit methods are putting a very large portion of the Word of God itself in the category of “useless tradition,” and are exalting above the Bible this “modern knowledge” and the “facts known,” which have been found out “in library and laboratory.” The young preacher must harmonize his religious teachings with the teachings of the higher critic and the evolutionist, and the churches must allow their ministers to teach this clerical infidelity, or see the pursuits of the world swallowing up the young men who started out to study for the ministry. Higher criticism—an attempt to vivisect the living Word—and evolution—an attempt to dethrone the Creator of the heavens and the earth—have combined their forces to overthrow faith in God and his Word. These studies have been fostered in theological schools, and many who have started out to be ministers have been stranded on these rocks. Now comes the proposition that this “modern thought” shall have more free course in the pulpit, to finish off in the congregation the damage which it began in the young minister. This is being done under the plea that it will unhamper the minister, give him a more inviting field, and thus increase the number of candidates for that kind of ministry; but it will result in giving infidelity a freer sweep in the sacred desk. The result will be that these twin deceptions will perform the same undermining and faith-destroying work in the congregation that they have accomplished among the clergy. This faith-destroying work was to be a characteristic of the last generation—when the Son of man was to appear. We see it today, and this is another evidence that we are living in the last generation. But there is another evidence, an evidence specified by our Saviour himself: “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” The bearers of that gospel message are today in nearly every country in the world, giving that witness to the peoples of earth. How soon that work will be finished we cannot tell; but its zealous promulgation today among these many nationalities furnishes its part of the evidence that this generation is the last. These great facts are not mere coincidences; and the fact that they are all seen in this generation is not a mere coincidence; but the fact that we see them all in this generation is indubitable proof that God’s Word is true, that its prophecies are fulfilling before our eyes, and that the coming of our Redeemer is nigh at hand. The Time and the Work
By Francis M. Wilcox
Earnest Labor in Place of Idle Speculation
IN this day of startling events, when history is making so rapidly, when on every hand the predictions regarding the end of all things are fulfilling so significantly, there will be found many theorists and religious prophets who will make all sorts of wild predictions regarding the portent of the present situation. In present conditions will be found rich fields for time setters and alarmists and those who would prey upon the credulity and fears of their fellows. It behooves us to be sober-minded, to be careful in our statements, conservative in our estimates. We need to be stirred. Sad indeed is the condition of the Seventh-day Adventist who is not stirred to the very depths of his soul by the situation which exists today. But we need to be moved in the right direction. As watchmen upon the walls of Zion, when we see the enemy approaching, when we hear the mutterings of the coming storm of disaster, we must sound abroad the warning cry. Seventh-day Adventists should give the trumpet a certain sound. From us as a people there should go forth a clear, distinct message of warning and admonition, of invitation and of comfort. We should seek to show our fellows where we are living in earth's history, and the remedy for the evils found on every side—the evils of the human heart. We should point them to the Lamb of God that ‘taketh away the sin of the world,’ that will take away the sin and wretchedness of every individual that will come to him. The church of God has always been tempted to dwell upon the curious and to philosophize rather than to labor. This was the temptation of the disciples of the early church. When Christ was about to ascend, they inquired of him, “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” A knowledge of the time was the chief desire of their hearts. When will you establish your kingdom? When will the kingdoms of the world come to an end? The Lord directed their attention away from the time of the setting up of his kingdom to the work which must be done before that kingdom could be established. “And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Knowing that our Lord is soon coming to the earth again, let us not waste time in idle speculation. Let us not theorize too greatly over time questions, but let us set to work to accomplish the task which he has given us to do before his coming takes place. The early disciples needed the power of the Holy Spirit to fit them for their work. We need that power today. As that power rested upon them, they could become fit witnesses for the Lord in Jerusalem, in Judea, and in Samaria, and finally unto the uttermost parts of the earth. We need that power today to enable us to witness for the truth of God in this generation. Let us seek for it. Let us pray for the divine unction that we may go forth with a living message from the throne of God. With that power we shall be able to move the hearts of men. For the manifestation of that power the world is waiting today. The multitude has listened to the cold logic of facts; they have listened to the oratory of human language; they9 have found these but husks without the satisfying power of truth. These have afforded no means by which they could break away from the bondage of sin. They need the energizing touch of the divine Spirit. Let us pray God to make us the messengers whereby this power may be carried to them, so that we shall be able in God's name to bid them arise and come to their Father's house. F. M. W. The Joy of Service
By I. H. EVANS
We frequently hear people complaining because there are so many things demanding their attention, and wishing that the work was finished, and there was nothing more to do. At first thought, we might be inclined to consider such a state of idleness desirable; but when we stop to think about it soberly, we shall surely conclude that it is not a condition really to be desired. In the first place, God made man to be active, not to be idle. In the morning of creation, when the work was finished and God had placed Adam and Eve over all things, he said to them, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” “And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” In this is the thought of service. Had man not sinned, he would have been able to subdue the earth; but when sin entered the world, and man lost his innocence and was driven from his Eden home, God pronounced a curse upon the earth. “Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” The curse multiplied man’s labors, and created all the unfavorable conditions making labor oftentimes painful, oppressive, and frequently lowering it to drudgery. But work is not a “penal clause of the original curse. There was labor, bright, healthful, unfatiguing, in unfallen Paradise.” Everywhere in the Scriptures we find work approved. In the law of Jehovah, we read, “Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work.” Even the Son of God bore this testimony, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” Saul, while making a tedious journey, was called to be the king of Israel; David was anointed king in Saul’s stead while shepherding his father’s flocks; Elisha was called to be a prophet while plowing in the field. Even our Saviour was a carpenter, and we believe he, like other men, labored for his daily bread. The Gentile apostle, whose evangelical labors seemed almost beyond endurance, many times helped to maintain himself by physical labor while preaching the gospel in the great cities and commercial centers of the East. All nature is active. The heavenly bodies are ever in motion. The waters of the sea are ever in the ebb or flow. The air we breathe is purified by change. All life is active. The animal and vegetable kingdoms live and thrive by doing. Labor is of God. It is one of the unspeakable blessings given to humanity. It ennobles the soul, stimulates the physical being, and makes man more akin to his Maker. It has been said: “No man is base who does a true work; for true action is the highest being. No man is miserable that does a true work; for right action is the truest happiness. No man is isolated that does a true work; for useful action is the highest harmony: it is the highest harmony with nature and with souls, it is living association with men, and it is practical fellowship with God.” Idleness is ever a hindrance to the highest type of manhood. It begets degeneracy, and leads to sin. The wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah is attributed to idleness and superabundance. “Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.” Some think that labor is undignified and cheapens the reputation, but many of the greatest men of the ages have been the most arduous laborers. Milton said of himself: “By labor and intent study (which I take to be my portion in this life) joined with the strong propensity of nature, I might perhaps leave something so written to aftertimes as they should not willingly let it die.” And Carlyle declared: “Labor is life.” “Work is of a religious nature; work is of a brave nature, which it is the aim of all religion to be. Blessed is he who has found his work: let him ask no other blessedness.” Sir Joshua Reynolds said, “God does not give excellence to men but as the reward of labor.” And Beecher wrote: “No man is born into the world whose work is not born with him. There is always work, and tools to work withal, for those who will.” There is great difference in how we work, as wide a distance as between joy in service and wearing drudgery. To the man who loves his work, labor is not hard. He gives to it all his strength, yet doing his work is his delight. Labor, when joyfully done, is recreation. Drudgery is doing any service under protest and without heart. Henry Giles spoke truly when he said: “Man must work. That is as certain as the sun. But he may work grudgingly, or he may work gratefully; he may work as a man, or he may work as a machine. He cannot always choose his work, but he can do it in a generous temper, and with an uplooking heart. There is no work so rude that he may not exalt it; there is no work so impassive that he may not breathe a soul into it; there is no work so dull that he may not enliven it.” The Christian, of all men, should enjoy his labors. For, as Carlyle wrote, “There is a perennial nobleness, and even sacredness, in labor. . . . The real desire to get work done will lead one more and more to truth, to nature’s appointments and regulations, which are truth.” Paul gave the keynote to true service when he said, “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.” Surely we who live in the time of the finishing of God’s work on earth, should enter his service and perform each duty with glad hearts. It matters not what our task may be, on the farm, in the home, teaching, or in the ministry, we should work joyfully. Since God has given to each his work, and it is his will that that work should be done to his glory, how can we glorify our Maker more than to do, with all our might and with all our hearts, the work he has assigned to us? “Labor is sweet, for Thou hast toiled,
And care is light, for thou hast cared;
Let not our works with self be soiled,
Nor in unsimple ways ensnared.
Through life’s long day and death’s dark night,
O gentle Jesus! be our light.” Prohibition in United States
WITH the prohibition of liquor in force in West Virginia, there are nine dry States, as follows:— | STATE |
POPULATION |
|---|
| Georgia |
2,776,513 |
| Kansas |
1,784,897 |
| Maine |
762,787 |
| Mississippi |
1,901,882 |
| North Carolina |
2,339,452 |
| North Dakota |
686,966 |
| Oklahoma |
2,026,534 |
| Tennessee |
2,254,754 |
| West Virginia |
1,332,910 |
The local option territory scattered through the other States increases the population of the dry areas to 46,029,750, or forty-seven per cent of the entire population of the United States. Southern Negro Exposition Planned
An exposition will be held next year by the Negroes of the South. The purpose of the exposition will be to show the advancement made by the Negroes since the Civil War. An association of Negroes in charge of the project has purchased 100 acres of land at Ft. Lee, five miles south of Richmond, on which the exposition will be held. The State of Virginia has made a liberal appropriation toward the enterprise, and other State help is promised from several Southern commonwealths. The interest Congress has in the exposition is manifested by an appropriation of $55,000. The land will be used for an experimental farm after the exposition is over. The North African Mission
By L. R. CONRADI
In the afternoon we took the train for Algiers and reached it in nine hours. Here Brother Colthurst and another brother met us, and took us to a pension kept by one of our aged sisters. This beautiful city has today, with its suburbs, 172,000 inhabitants, mostly European. From the high tower of the Emperor Fort, we enjoyed a beautiful view of the whole city, which spreads out around the bay in the shape of a half-moon and then rises in terraces to a considerable height. The European quarter contains fine buildings from six to eight stories high. The finest one is the new post office. A German sister who carries on a good business here with native embroideries, and employs about one hundred native women in their homes, was so kind as to introduce us into some of their homes. In order to visit the Jewish and Arab quarters, we had to climb up hundreds of steps. The alleys are so narrow that the houses often touch one another, and sometimes are connected by covered gangways. Over many doors, one sees a hand painted, which probably serves the same purpose as a horseshoe with superstitious persons in some countries. In one of the houses seven poor families live. The houses have but few windows toward the street and let in no sunshine, but they have an open court in the interior. The women wore no veils, and showed us all the rooms, which had hardly any furniture. In another house a well-to-do Arab lived, who had two wives. We were not admitted to the women’s apartment. His best room was beautifully furnished with inlaid furniture. These Arabic homes often contain in their interior furnishings greater luxury and pomp than many European houses. But the most pleasant scene we saw in the evening. Our little hall was filled with forty listeners. Some of them had come over an hour’s journey on foot and were very much interested. Several had already begun to obey the Sabbath commandment, and there is a good prospect of an increase. Elder L. P. Tieche spoke the next evening. Elder J. C. Guenin came a week ahead of us from Constantine and celebrated with them the Lord’s Supper, and held a meeting every evening. On May 13, fourteen hours in some of the best cars I have seen anywhere on French soil brought us to Constantine. The country through which we passed was very fruitful in sections. High up in the mountains we saw bare rocks, then we came down again into beautiful valleys. As there had been no rain for a long time, immense wheat fields were ruined, and had to be plowed up. Elder Guenin has a good hall in the center of the town, and his lectures are well attended. Constantine, the ancient capital of Numidia, has rather a peculiar location. It is situated on a rocky plateau at an elevation of about 2,000 feet; mighty bridges span the stream that flows in a gorge far below. There are 62,000 people in this town. Another fourteen hours brought us to Tunis. On the Tunisian border, French customs officials with the Tunisian star on their caps, examined our luggage. Tunis has a population of about 2,000,000, 200,000 of whom live in the capital. One fourth of the population are Jews, and the Jewish women here wear wide trousers instead of skirts. Of the 80,000 Europeans, the majority are Italian. The European quarters contain fine modern buildings and stores. In the narrow bazaar passages, one sees a variegated picture of North African life. But the most interesting of all was a visit to the ruins of old Carthage. Every half hour the electric tram goes along beside the channel to Goletta, and suddenly we see a railway station named Carthage. Carriages stand ready to take tourists up the hill on which the acropolis of old Carthage stood. We preferred to walk and thus see all the sights to better advantage. We found on the old Byrsa hill a large Catholic cathedral, a mission seminary, orphanage, etc., which Cardinal Lavigerie, the founder of the White Fathers, had erected. The White Fathers are found everywhere in Africa, despite the unhealthful climate. They are on the Victoria Nyanza, Tanganyika, Nyasa, and Kongo. They have a fine museum at Byrsa, with a multitude of Punic antiquities. A little south we come to the village Malga, whose inhabitants live chiefly in the old cisterns of Carthage; and near by is the Roman arena where so many Christians sealed their faith with their blood. In this very arena there is a little subterranean chapel which is dedicated to the martyrs Dativ, Felix, Saturninus, and Victoria, who are referred to in the revised “History of the Sabbath,” pages 283-288. The Catholic Church, by planting its immense institutions here, has made excellent use of this old historic site of Carthage. From this center, Cardinal Lavigerie carried on his zealous propaganda to Romanize Africa. He died here in 1892, and on one side of his tomb we see the representation of a Negro who has been loosened from his chains by the cross. There are immense ruins all about,—old Punic tombs, the ruins of a Christian church, Roman theaters, etc. Thus far we have no worker whatever in Tunis, nor in Tripoli, where there are one million people. We have only three in Algeria, and one now for populous Morocco. The Lord has done considerable work to prepare the way for us. These old African pirate states, where thousands of Christians were once kept in the worst of servitude, and where a little while ago a Christian was insulted in the public streets, are all now under European rule. The gospel can be preached everywhere. There are thousands of miles of good railways, which facilitate travel in every direction. Fast steamers bring the missionary in a day from France or Italy and in a few hours from Spain. A few decades have sufficed to develop here modern cities with from 30,000 to 200,000 inhabitants. Mighty tracts of barren land have been changed through European industry into fruitful grain fields, vineyards, and orchards. The railway, the pioneer of culture and mission work, is already built right into the Sahara. A million Europeans have settled in North Africa, and they offer a promising field of labor. Many understand Arabic; most of the children can speak it. These people know the customs and the country, and are used to the climate. When they are won to the truth, they have excellent opportunities to win souls, as they employ thousands of Mohammedans. Many of the sixteen million natives know French, others Italian or Spanish, and can be reached through these tongues. Should we not arise and send more workers to these countries, that the light of the divine truth may again shine there? By God’s grace, already fifty souls are walking in the present truth. The first fruits have been garnered in, the country stands open, and we hear the call, Come over and help us. Certainly it will cost sacrifices, but in this we can learn something from the children of the world. France carried on a terrible war for forty years, sacrificing 500,000 of her sons and spending $500,000,000 in order to conquer Algeria alone. France, Italy, and Spain have not been disheartened by their sacrifices, but each has gone right on in conquering other states. But we have a nobler object in mind: we want to lead souls to Christ. Should we not remember these fields in our prayers? Should we not intercede for our missionaries and members in these countries? Should we not readily give our means in order that the work of the threefold message can be finished, and the Lord of the harvest appear?