Earlier text: The Field, the Message, and the MessengerArcheology and the Bible
By L. L. C.
The last hundred years, with the wide circulation of the Holy Scriptures by the Bible societies, have been a period of greatly increased Bible study. It has also been a period of Biblical criticism. Some have studied the Bible reverently, with a desire to know the truth revealed by the Bible itself concerning its origin and the messages of its several component parts; others have studied it skeptically, to cavil and find fault. Knowing that in these last days destructive criticism would raise many questions which would tend to undermine belief in the authenticity and inspiration of the Bible, God in his providence has preserved in the very bowels of the earth that which is not only proving an answer to the destructive critic, but a great aid to the reverent student of the Bible. We refer to the archeological remains which have been brought to light within recent years. Archeology, as a science, is little over one hundred years old. No systematic examination of Egyptian antiquities had been made until Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt in 1798. The army was accompanied by nearly one hundred eminent scholars and artists, and their discoveries were numerous. In the settlement with England in 1802, the French were forced to surrender their archeological treasures to the English, but were permitted to publish the results of their observations and explorations. This work advanced slowly, and it was not until between 1820 and 1822 that, embodied in seven volumes, it was given to the world. Among the objects discovered by the French at the time of Napoleon’s expedition was the famous Rosetta stone. The inscription on this stone was in three kinds of writing, hieroglyphic Egyptian (picture writing), demotic Egyptian (conventionalized symbols), and Greek. Though it was generally assumed that the three inscriptions were identical in meaning, for a period of twenty years no one succeeded in reading either of the Egyptian portions. It was Jean Francois Champollion to whom the honor of successful translation fell. Thus was unlocked the door to the treasures of ancient Egypt, and since then the study of Egyptian inscriptions has gone steadily forward, opening up vistas of history hitherto but little known. It was not until the beginning of the nineteenth century that study of the archeological remains of Babylonia and Assyria really began. The British East India Company, hearing that there were bricks with curious inscriptions on them to be found in the Mesopotamian valley, instructed its resident in southern Babylonia to secure some if possible. He did so, and early in 1801 the first case arrived in London. The latter half of the century witnessed archeological explorations by men too numerous to mention in this article. Suffice it to say that the first correctly to read and interpret a long inscription in old Persian was Henry Rawlinson. When in Persia with other British officers sent to reorganize the Persian army, Rawlinson’s attention was attracted by the great Persian inscriptions on the mountains near Hamadan, the ancient Ecbatana. He attained considerable success in reading these inscriptions, but it was not until 1846 that he published a full interpretation of the Persian column of the great Behistun inscription of Darius I. Various scholars continued to wrestle with the more difficult problem presented by the Babylonian column. Again Rawlinson attained the first great success. In 1851 he published one hundred and twelve lines of the Babylonian portion of the Behistun inscription, accompanying the same with a translation, and with numerous notes in which were set forth the principles of the grammar. Since then the archeological study of Babylonia and Assyria has made rapid strides. Scientific study of the antiquities of Palestine dates from 1838, when an American, Prof. Edward Robinson, of Union Seminary, New York, traveled through that country. He made a second journey in 1852. Robinson’s labors were continued by Tobler, Guerin, Renan, and many others. An American exploration society was founded in 1870. Previously the Palestine Exploration Fund had been organized in London in 1865. Under the permanent body thus created, a large share of the subsequent explorations in Palestine were conducted. Considerable has also been done by the German Palestine Society, organized in 1877, and under the auspices of the American School of Oriental Research in Palestine, opened at Jerusalem in 1900. The archeological discoveries of the last hundred years have proved the truth of many statements of the Bible which had been challenged by the critical skeptics. The sincere believer in the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures is often led to marvel at the inscrutable providence of God, who is now causing this witness from the centuries of the past to speak to us in confirmation of the revelation which has been given us in the pages of God’s Holy Word. Of some special points illuminated by archeological discovery we will speak in a subsequent article. L. L. C. “THERE is a God! The herds of the valley, the cedars of the mountains, bless him; the insect sports in his beam; the bird sings him in the foliage; the thunder proclaims him in the heavens; the ocean declares his immensity; man alone has said, There is no God!”—Chateaubriand. R. D. QUINN
By R. D. Quinn
The Spirit and Power of Elijah — No. 1
Elijah the Tishbite, an inhabitant of Gilead, is one of the greatest characters of Old Testament times. He has the peculiar distinction of being the only man since the flood to be translated to heaven without seeing death. From those far-off times until the present age he seems to be God’s type of a true man. The prophet Malachi could find no better type of the forerunner of Christ than Elijah the prophet; and the angel Gabriel, four hundred years later, when making known to the aged priest Zacharias the birth of his wondrous son, said: “He shall be great in the sight of the Lord, . . . and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias.” Luke 1: 15-17. The final fulfilment of Malachi’s prophecy, which is to reach to the very end, is still in the future. “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” Mal. 4: 5, 6. Elijah was a type of all those who will be translated at the second coming of Christ. One noted writer has said: “We are studying the life of a man of like passions with ourselves—weak where we are weak, failing where we would fail; but who stood single-handed against his people, and stemmed the tide of idolatry and sin, and turned a nation back to God. And he did it by the use of resources which are within the reach of us all. This is the fascination of the story. Prove to us that he acted by the spell of some secret which is hidden from us meaner men; convince us that he was cast in a heroic mold to which we can lay no claim,—then we must lay aside the story; disappointment has overcast our interest: it is a model we cannot copy, an ideal we cannot realize, a vision that mocks us as it fades into the azure of the past. “But this is not the case. This man, by whom God thrashed the mountains, was only a worm at the best. This pillar in God’s temple was, by nature, a reed shaken by the breath of the slightest zephyr. This prophet of fire, who shone like a torch, was originally but a piece of smoking flax. Faith made him all he became; and faith will do as much for us, if only we can exercise it as he did, to appropriate the might of the eternal God. All power is in God; and it has pleased him to store it all in the risen Saviour, in some vast reservoir; and those stores are brought into human hearts by the Holy Ghost; and the Holy Ghost is given according to the measure of our receptivity and faith. “Elijah’s strength did not lie in himself or his surroundings. He was of humble extraction. He had no special training. He is expressly said to have been a man ‘of like passions’ with ourselves. When, through failure of faith, he was cut off from the source of his strength, he showed more craven-hearted cowardice than most men would have done; he lay down upon the desert sands, asking to die. When the natural soil of his nature shows itself, it is not richer than that of the majority of men; and, if anything, it is the reverse.” It was said of John the Baptist that he would go before Christ in the spirit and power of Elias. When we think of John the Baptist, we are wont to think of the great power he wielded as the wilderness preacher; and when we think of Elijah, we are apt to think of him on Mt. Carmel, praying down fire on the sacrifice, or of his wonderful departure out of this world. But let us notice the text, “He shall go before Him in the spirit and power of Elias.” Let us consider not alone the power these men wielded, but the spirit they manifested, and especially the training, experience, and discipline through which Elijah passed before he came to Carmel. Elijah was evidently a student of the prophecies, and from the writings of Moses (Deut. 11: 13-17) he had learned that God had said that if the people should turn aside and worship other gods, he would shut up the heavens, so that there would be no rain. Now, under the reign of Ahab, who had done more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him, Elijah knew that the true God had been set aside, and that Baal had been set up. And so “he prayed earnestly that it might not rain; and it rained not.” Afterward he went boldly into the presence of Ahab and said, “As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.” When he had delivered his message, “the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.” Think of those lonely days and weeks and months beside that drying brook in the wild wilderness gorge that runs down from near Jerusalem to the northern shores of the Dead Sea! But God had commanded him to go there, and had promised that the ravens should feed him there. “So he went and did according unto the word of the Lord: . . . and it came to pass after a while, that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.” When the last drop of water had seeped into the ground, Elijah was still there. Then the word of the Lord came unto him again, saying, “Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee. So he arose and went to Zarephath.” It will be noticed that Elijah did exactly what he was told, “according unto the word of the Lord;” and afterward he could say, when the time came for God to display his power wondrously through his servant, “I have done all these things at thy word.” The word “Zarephath” means “place of refining,” and surely this last mission upon which God had sent his servant was calculated to drain the last dregs of pride or self-reliance or independence from the already tried soul of Elijah. Some one has remarked that Elijah, with his great heart, would not have so much minded to sustain a poor widow during those terrible years of famine, but it was certainly not pleasant to his manly nature to feel that a poor widow was to sustain him. So the days slowly passed into weeks, and months, and years. The barrel of meal did not waste, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord that he spake by Elijah. The pen of inspiration records only one instance in the life and experiences of Elijah during those weary years of drought and famine, and that was the death of the widow’s son, who, Jewish tradition says, afterward became Elijah’s servant, and who was also the future Jonah. However this may be, Elijah raised him to life, and presented him again to his mother. We can judge of his hold upon God during those times by the testimony of this woman, who said, “I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth.” GEO. O. STATES
By GEO. O. STATES
I BELIEVE that one of the severest trials the remnant church will pass through will be in developing the grace of patience. At the coming of Christ, God's people are to be “without fault before the throne of God.” As Satan sees them attaining this standard, he will work with all power to lead them to lose their patience and go into sin. “The Lord has shown me that his grace is sufficient for all our trials; and although they are greater than ever before, yet if we trust wholly in God, we can overcome every temptation, and through his grace come off victorious.” —Early Writings, p. 46. I recently passed through an experience which I will briefly relate for the10 encouragement of others who may be passing through similar trials:— Circumstances made it necessary for me to stay for a time in a home where there were three children. Soon after I came, a sister who was going away on a visit left her two children at the same place. You can judge of my feelings when night came and I wanted to be quiet, to have five children from six to fourteen years of age performing all sorts of pranks. After about a week, one night I was alone with them when I heard a little six-year-old crying bitterly. I went out and asked her what was the matter. She told me that her brother had thrown her down and hurt her. Feeling that something should be done, I gave the boy a pretty straight talk. The next morning I awoke about daylight, and began to reflect on what had happened the night before. I felt that what I had said to the boy was very proper, but did I manifest the spirit of Christ? The more I thought of it, the more the gentle Spirit impressed me that I had failed. When I thought the boy would be awake, I went to his room, and sitting down on his bed, I took his hand and looked into his bright eyes as I said, “My dear boy, I was unkind in the way I spoke to you last night.” It touched him, and he said, “Grandpa, you did not say anything but what I needed. I did tease sister.” There is one thought I wish to impress upon every one who reads this article, and that is that in dealing with the erring it is not to give them what they deserve, but if possible to “restore such a one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.” This experience caused me to reflect on the past. When the dear Lord was giving me health to visit our churches, and I found things far from what they should be among the remnant people, many times I reproved wrongs without manifesting the spirit of Christ! Like Peter, I “followed afar off,” until finally the Lord had to drop me out of public work. These long years have given me time for serious reflection. It is truly hard to learn the lessons we need. “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out.” Rom. 11: 33. The Lord loves you and me, dear reader. He has manifested that love by the unspeakable gift of his Son, but he sees, oh, so much about us that will shut us out of the kingdom! He wants to save each of us, but cannot do it with all our sins. “God has shown me that he gave his people a bitter cup to drink, to purify and cleanse them. It is a bitter draft, and they can make it still more bitter by murmuring, complaining, and repining. But those who receive it thus, must have another draft, for the first does not have its designed effect upon the heart. And if the second does not effect the work, then they must have another, and another, until it does have its designed effect, or they may be left filthy, impure in heart. I saw that this bitter cup can be sweetened by patience, endurance, and prayer, and that it will have its designed effect upon the hearts of those who thus receive it, and God will be honored and glorified.”—Early Writings, p. 47. He will never send a trial but he sends strength to endure; so let us lean on the everlasting arms, for he has told us, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” John 16: 33. “He will lead us on to certain victory. What God promises, he is able at any time to perform. And the work he gives his people to do, he is able to accomplish by them. If we live a life of perfect obedience, his promises will be fulfilled toward us. God requires his people to shine as lights in the world. It is not merely the ministers who are required to do this, but every disciple of Christ. Their conversation should be heavenly. And while they enjoy communion with God, they will wish to have intercourse with their fellow men, in order to express by their words and acts the love of God which animates their hearts. In this way they will be lights in the world, and the light transmitted through them will not go out or be taken away. It will indeed become darkness to those who will not walk in it; but it will shine with increasing brightness on the path of those who will obey and walk in the light.”—Testimonies for the Church, Vol. II, pp. 122, 123. I love to think of Christ when he was here in the flesh. While he was tempted in all points as we are, he did not yield. There is not a temptation that we have but he was called to endure the same. He relied upon the Father, and angels were sent to strengthen him. Thus it may be with us if we plead for help. Separate from the World
By Mrs. J. S. Padgett
“Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord.” 2 Cor. 6: 17. The Lord commands his people to come out and be separate from the world; to have no intimate association with the worldly. His people are to be as Christ was—not of this world. Jesus gave his life for them, that he might deliver them from evil. “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” Our love is not to be set on earthly things, but on spiritual things. “They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.” If we love worldly society and partake of worldly pleasures, and if we set our hearts on worldly prosperity, we are not following Jesus, nor are we making him our example. We are not obeying the commands of our heavenly Father. We must remember that the world is our Saviour’s enemy; that it is under the power and influence of Satan. It is his influence that works wickedness and disobedience in us. We must walk with Jesus so that God can cleanse and purify our hearts from love of sin and of the vanities of this present world. We must be dead to the evil of the world, and alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Saviour. We must strive for fellowship with our Lord, for that which will raise us above sin, and keep us apart and distinct from it, so that we may honor and glorify our Father in heaven. Adopting False Sabbaths
By F. D. STARR
That a rest day of human appointment has taken the place of the original Sabbath of Jehovah, must be apparent to any who will investigate the matter. In the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, there occurs a very plain reference to this innovation, found in Amos 6: 3: “Ye who are approaching the evil day, who are drawing near and adopting false sabbaths.” The chapter opens with this declaration, as found in the Septuagint: “Woe to them that set at naught Sion, and that trust in the mountain of Samaria.” Amos, like others of the ancient prophets, gave warnings and rebukes largely to the kingdom of Israel after its separation from Judah. Years before the time of Amos, Jeroboam, the first king over the ten tribes, had introduced an apostate system of religion, and ordained a counterfeit festival to take the place of a divinely established institution. Concerning this we read: “Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah. . . . So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart.” 1 Kings 12: 32, 33. This new festival was to take the place of the feast of tabernacles, an annual sabbath that God had appointed to be observed on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, continuing one week. Lev. 23: 34. Under the false system of religion, the people adopted idolatrous practices, error was substituted for truth, and the true God and his ordinances were forgotten. While adopting false sabbaths, they found the true Sabbath a burden. Amos 8: 5. This state of things must have continued to the Saviour’s time, for he severely denounced the Samaritan system, pronouncing in favor of the saving truth committed to the Jews. To the Samaritan woman he said, “Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.” John 4: 22. This is a remarkable and very significant statement. Like the idolatrous Athenians (Acts 17: 23), the Samaritans were worshiping in ignorance, and this worship centered in the mountain of Samaria; and like their ancestors in the days of Amos, they set Zion at naught, and trusted in the mountain11 of their own choice. But it was not so much concerning their own times that these prophets spoke. It was in reference to the “day of the Lord,” which would be an “evil day” to those who were unprepared, that they uttered their warnings. Amos 5: 18-20. Amos had a view of the fearful famine for hearing the word of the Lord, when probation’s sweet moments are closing. Amos 8: 11-13. In the modern apostasy there has been adopted a false mediator, a false sacrifice, a false system in which a false sabbath is the distinguishing mark. But those who do not adopt the false sabbath, but receive the true rest day and the seal of the living God, do not abandon or set at naught Zion, for they stand at last on Mount Zion, without fault, having the harps of God and keeping the commandments of God. The common rendering of Amos 6: 3 is: “Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near.” The seat of violence and the false sabbath will be closely associated. In fact, the pseudo-sabbath will be enforced by oppressive ex-cathedra enactments. W. S. CHAPMAN
By W. S. Chapman
The Laodicean Message — No. 2
“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock.” Rev. 3:21. What is meant by the word “knock”? “Every warning, reproof, and entreaty in the Word of God or through his messengers is a knock at the door of the heart.”—The Desire of Ages, p. 490. Why is it that these gentle admonitions, these tender pleadings, pass unheeded? The Lord says: “The Holy Spirit waits to soften and subdue hearts, but they are not willing to open the door and let the Saviour in, for fear that he will require something of them.”—Testimonies for the Church, Vol. VI, p. 262. We are all settled and at ease, and do not wish to be disturbed. And so we find this solemn warning given, and this statement made:— “The unfaithful steward did not enrich himself with his master’s goods; he merely wasted them. He let idleness take the place of sincere, whole-hearted labor. He was unfaithful in the appropriation of his lord’s goods. “Unfaithful steward, do you not see that you will lose your soul if you do not coöperate with God, and make the most of your talents for the Master? Your mind was given that you might understand how to work. Your eyes were given that you might be keen to discern your God-given opportunities. Your ears are to listen for the commands of God. Your knees are to bow three times a day in heartfelt prayer. Your feet are to run in the way of God’s commandments. Thought, effort, talent, should be put into exercise, that you may be prepared to graduate into the school above, and hear from the lips of One who has overcome all temptations in our behalf the words: ‘To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.’ . . . If you do not coöperate with the Lord by giving yourself to him, and doing his service, you will be judged unfit to be a subject of his pure, heavenly kingdom.”—Id., pp. 207, 208. A special and very solemn work, because a final one, is soon to be engaged in by the churches, and a heavy responsibility rests upon all to prepare for it. Let me try to make this plain. Peter, quoting Joel’s prophecy concerning the work of the Lord in the last days, declares: “It shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy [teach. See Dan. 12:3, margin]: . . . and on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy,” or teach. Acts 2:17, 18. That this refers more specifically to the youth of today is evident from the following from “Counsels to Teachers,” pages 536-549:— “The burden bearers among us are falling in death. Many of those who have been foremost in carrying out the reforms instituted by us as a people, are now past the meridian of life, and are declining in physical and mental strength. With the deepest concern the question may be asked, Who will fill their places? To whom are to be committed the vital interests of the church when the present standard bearers fall? We can but look anxiously upon the youth of today as those who must take these burdens, and upon whom responsibilities must fall. These must take up the work where others leave it. . . . Those who are older must educate the youth, by precept and example, to discharge the claims that society and their Maker have upon them. Upon these youth must be laid grave responsibilities. . . . Never before was there so much at stake; never were there results so mighty depending upon a generation as upon these now coming upon the stage of action. . . . The youth must soon bear the burdens that older workers are now carrying. . . . From our colleges and training schools missionaries are to be sent forth to distant lands. While at school let the students improve every opportunity to prepare for this work.” From these quotations—and many similar ones might be given—it seems very evident that the burden of the work, the carrying of the message to “every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,” will be placed more and more fully upon our educated young people; while upon the churches, as a whole, is to rest the responsibility of giving the Laodicean message at home. It is clear that this work is, in a sense, a separate one, in that this message is not to be given to the world in general, but is confined to the members of churches, or to persons who are at least professed Christians. “The command of Christ to his people is, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.’ Luke 14:23. The call to the gospel feast is first to be given in the highways. It must be given to those who claim to be in the highways of Christian experience,—to the members of the different churches. ‘He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.’ Rev. 2:7. In these churches there are true worshipers, and there are false worshipers. A work must be done for those who have fallen from their first love, who have lost their first zeal and interest in spiritual things. We must bring the warning before professed Christians who are transgressors of the law of God. To them the message must be given. . . . The warning for the last church also must be proclaimed to all who claim to be Christians. The Laodicean message, like a sharp, two-edged sword, must go to all the churches. . . . It is our work to proclaim this message. Are we putting forth every effort that the churches may be warned?”—Testimonies for the Church, Vol. VI, pp. 76, 77. There seems to be a clear line of demarcation between the two classes of work. Both are parts of the third angel’s message, just as the temperance work is a part of it; but while there is union and coöperation, yet, as in all other lines of labor, a different class of workers is in charge of each. The responsibility of carrying the warning to the world in general—of introducing present truth—is therefore to rest more and more fully upon the young. They are to go out into the foreign fields, while the older ones are to minister to communities clearly under Christian influence. The message to be given is a warning of the judgment to come; and as judgment always begins at the house of God, so it begins with a summons to get ready, a summons given to the members of the Adventist churches, who are to carry this message to the other churches. “The people of God must see their wrongs, and arouse to zealous repentance, and a putting away of those sins which have brought them into such a deplorable condition of poverty, blindness, wretchedness, and fearful deception. I was shown that the pointed testimony must live in the church. This alone will answer to the message to the Laodiceans. Wrongs must be reproved, sin must be called sin, and iniquity must12 be met promptly and decidedly, and put away from us as a people.”—Id., Vol. III, p. 260. That there is not a moment to lose is painfully evident. “The restraining Spirit of God is even now being withdrawn from the world. Hurricanes, storms, tempests, fire and flood, disasters by sea and land, follow each other in quick succession. Science seeks to explain all these. The signs thickening around us, telling of the near approach of the Son of God, are attributed to any other than the true cause. Men cannot discern the sentinel angels restraining the four winds that they shall not blow until the servants of God are sealed; but when God shall bid his angels loose the winds, there will be such a scene of strife as no pen can picture.”—Id., Vol. VI, p. 408. We are certainly approaching the fulfilment of the prophecy of Rev. 11:18. A little time of trouble lies between the time of war, called the “anger” of the nations, and the pouring out of the seven last plagues. “At the commencement of the time of trouble, we were filled with the Holy Ghost as we went forth and proclaimed the Sabbath more fully.” “The commencement of the time of trouble here mentioned, does not refer to the time when the plagues shall begin to be poured out, but to a short period just before they are poured out, while Christ is in the sanctuary. At that time, while the work of salvation is closing, trouble will be coming on the earth, and the nations will be angry, yet held in check so as not to prevent the work of the third angel. At that time the ‘latter rain,’ or refreshing from the presence of the Lord, will come to give power to the loud voice of the third angel, and prepare the saints to stand in the period when the seven last plagues shall be poured out.”—Early Writings, pp. 33, 85, 86. The people of God might have finished this work years ago in a time of peace; but having slept then, they must now complete the giving of the message in such a time of peril that none will be able to take part in it except those specially prepared by the outpouring of the latter rain. Get ready, brethren, while yet it is called today, for the night cometh in which no man can work. God Heareth
By N. D. Anderson
“To talk with God do thou but pray
With heart sincere and true,
Nor take account of place or day,
Nor of the words that thou shouldst say:
He heareth from the blue. The broken word of halting tongue,
The whisper fearful given,
That from repentant heart have sprung,
Are by rejoicing angels sung
Before God's throne in heaven. Have faith! Jehovah heareth thee
Like when thou speak'st, O man,
Although his answer be decree
Thou canst not bear, thou dost not see,
Thou mayest not understand. Problems for Pastors to Study
By E. K. Slade
A MINISTER should be both a pastor and an evangelist. The original meaning of the word “pastor” is, One who cares for or feeds the flock. An evangelist is one who carries the message of salvation to the unsaved, and leads them to accept salvation. In our ministerial work in connection with churches, it is very important that these two phases be properly proportioned. Those who are newly brought to a knowledge of the truth, and who are not well established by the evangelistic labors, need much of such help as is bestowed by the true pastor. The flock must be fed. It must be tenderly fed, and well established within the fold. It should be borne in mind, however, that Christians must not expect always to be under the pastor’s care, for they in turn are to enter into such labors as will lead others to a knowledge of the truth and to the way, of life. The popular idea concerning the work of the minister in the great churches of the land is that he is primarily a pastor. It is thought that no church can well exist without a pastor. The members of such churches, instead of becoming active missionaries and entering into such a ministry as is committed to every believer, feel that they must be ministered unto throughout their whole Christian career. Churches thus dependent upon the pastor are certainly coming short of the Lord’s purpose concerning his children. The pastor who accepts a position more as an occupation than as a calling, who formally performs his duties from week to week as a mere hired servant, is coming far short of the gospel plan concerning the true pastor and soul-winner. In our own work we are confronting a great danger. It is a temptation to the church as well as to the pastor to lapse into this deplorable condition that we witness in other churches. There are many believers, especially in our city churches, who feel that they must have a pastor to minister to them, and there are many pastors who are inclined to lapse into this ineffective form of ministry. There is a tendency on the part of both people and preachers to permit this sort of thing to come into existence, which contributes so much to the formal, lifeless church, and so little to the developing of men and women to become true ambassadors for God in the work that he has given us to do in the world. The experience that is related of a man who had been pastor of a prominent church in Richmond, Va., for twelve years, will be of interest, and may serve to be a note of warning to those who are inclined to lapse into this condition. In submitting his resignation to his church board, he writes in part as follows:— “A good part of my life has been devoted to this pastorate. I should like to spend the next decade in one place, as the past one has been spent here. Looking at the church, the prospect for enlarged and permanent usefulness is not bright. The arguments that I remain as pastor confirm my views that the church is contented, is ‘at ease in Zion.’ You are satisfied, but I am not. Coldness and formalism chill my heart. The Sunday school is the most important department of the church, but I have been unable to enlist many of our most prominent members in this phase of the work. The prayer meeting is the spiritual thermometer of church life, and I have tried in vain to secure the attendance of many of you. Our great evangelistic opportunity is the evening service, but many men and women whose presence would be an inspiration to the pastor and a powerful example to the unsaved, never attend this service. In short, these, my good friends, simply attend church Sunday mornings. This is only making religion respectable.” “My life is too short to spend it where I can secure no better coöperation. This I say frankly, but in love, for I do love every one of you. During the early years of this pastorate, some were enthusiastic who are now indifferent. Another pastor may awaken them. At first, when you did not know me, I advanced cautiously; but now you ought to believe unhesitatingly. On the contrary, some of you have been willing for me to spend and be spent while you looked on, or touched the work lightly. Religion, with me, is serious, and service is a sublime obligation. I cannot wait upon your conservatism. The King’s business requires haste. It would be standing in my own light, and in the way of the kingdom of God, for me to stay here simply because you want me to, and because it is easy.” Those who have the oversight of the work in our large conferences will keenly appreciate the experience of this pastor, whose church represents the condition of many churches about us presided over by less conscientious pastors. It should serve as a means of arousing our workers and our people. It becomes necessary to locate ministers in our large cities, and it is logical and proper that they should be placed in charge of our city churches. It does not follow, however, that they are to be there simply as pastors. In every city church there is more or less pastoral work to be done, but the primary work of a Seventh-day Adventist minister placed in charge of city work and a city church, is to carry on a strong evangelistic campaign, and to enlist and organize his flock to coöperate with him in such work. In efforts of this sort, the minister becomes a strong evangelist as well as a pastor. His pastoral duties will be to feed his flock and to establish those newly brought into the church, but his great evangelistic burden will be to carry the message to the thousands about him who are not acquainted with it. Our churches will need the aid of the ministers in trying to avert the danger of repeating the experience of the church cited above; and our ministers will need the aid of the churches in their efforts to avoid the same danger. “COUNT the mercies! Count the mercies!
Number all the gifts of love;
Keep the daily, faithful record
Of the comforts from above.
Look at all the lovely green spots
In life's weary desert way;
Think how many cooling fountains
Cheer our fainting hearts each day.
Count the mercies! Count the mercies!
See them strewn along the way!” Hope Against Unbelief and Fear
“THE devil triumphs and hell blossoms when hope gives way to unbelief and fear.”