Signs of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 9. (3/1/1899)

Signs of the Times

Mar 1, 1899

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 1, 1899

DOOM OF SODOM; ITS LESSON FOR TO-DAY.

By Geo. W. Rine

NEARLY four thousand years ago there nestled in the very heart of the garden of the East one of the most opulent, splendid, and luxurious cities of antiquity. To the valley of the Jordan had been given the glory of Lebanon, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon. Resplendent with the tints of leaf and blossom and redolent with their fragrance, it was, in the language of inspired Writ, "as the garden of the Lord." Upon its breast was set, as a bright and shining gem, the far-famed Sodom. In her trade and money vaults Sodom was the ancient London; in her arts, fashions, and luxury, she was the olden Paris.

"The Dead Sea . . . is the Melancholy Monument to Sodom's Folly and Fate."

But when in the very plenitude of her power and splendor; when her presses were bursting out with new wine; when she had more than heart could wish, she forgot the Giver—forgot God, the Author of all good. First she became rich, then proud, then idle, then gluttonous and drunken, then lecherous and bestial. These, in turn, work destruction, issue in death. Note the testimony of the prophet Ezekiel: "Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before Me; therefore I took them away as I saw good." Pride, idleness, luxury, these wrought her ruin. Pride is the mother of ingratitude; idleness and luxury give birth to all forms of vice and crime. Her moral sensibilities starved, her conscience dead, she could no longer respond to the pleadings of divine mercy. The cup of her iniquity soon ran over; she became a stench in God's earth, a foul blot in His universe. "The wages of sin is death." She suffered the "vengeance of eternal fire."

God had promised Abraham that He would spare the city if there were fifty, forty, thirty, twenty, or even only ten righteous souls within her walls. But that number was not there.

Even after the angels, or messengers of divine vengeance, had entered the city, the Lord sent a message of warning through His one remaining servant, Lot, to the people of the doomed city, saying, "Up, get you out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city." But "he seemed unto them as one that mocked." They regarded Lot as a visionary alarmist. They reasoned that all things appeared as they had always been.

Lot himself was so incredulous as to make it necessary for the angels to resort to physical constraint to save him and his wife and two daughters from the fate of the city. They were saved as a brand plucked from the burning. Tho in body Lot's wife fled from the city, she left her affections behind; her heart still lingered within the city's walls. She turns to once more feast her eyes upon her idols. The awful issue every reader knows. Here let us note and heed the admonition of the Saviour. Speaking of the days of the Son of man, the days when He is about to come again, He commands us to "remember Lot's wife." Looking back after putting our hands to the plow, proves us unfit for the kingdom of God.

Our Saviour clearly teaches that the flames which consumed the ancient cities of the plain shed their warning light down even to the end of time. The woful doom of the Sodomites because of unbelief was recorded for our admonition upon whom the end of the world has come. Note the Saviour's words: "Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot: they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed." Luke 17:28-30.

In tender love God sent a message of warning and mercy, through Noah, to the antediluvian people. They scoffed at the messenger and scouted his message. They all perished. The people of Sodom laughed as they heard Lot proclaim his heaven-sent message. They all likewise perished. John the Baptist, filled with the Holy Ghost, proclaimed to the Jews the coming of the One mightier than himself.

Only a handful believed. Christ came to His own, and His own received Him not. Hence their house was left unto them desolate. A pall blacker than night soon shrouded Jerusalem; in the year A.D. 70 her streets ran with the blood of more than one million of her sons and daughters. "So shall it be in the days of the Son of man."

In the books of Daniel and the Revelation and in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew and the twenty-first chapter of Luke are many lines of prophecy bearing distinctly on the coming of Christ in power and glory. The student of these prophecies must admit that every one of them shows conclusively that the return of our Lord is near, even at the door. Thousands of the Master's servants are to-day proclaiming that solemn fact "to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people." As in the days of Lot, however, the people, not only outside the pale of the church, but the vast majority within, are completely occupied in eating, drinking, planting, and sowing, etc. They make these things supreme, and the kingdom of God and His righteousness secondary. By their lives professed Christians are saying, "My Lord delayeth His coming." Through the apostle Peter we are told that in the last days scoffers will say, "Where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were."

"In the last days," says the apostle, "perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers

of their own selves, . . . lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof."

True, we can not know the day nor the hour of His appearing, but we are solemnly commanded to know when it is near. For 'unto them that look for Him will He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.' The prophecies bearing upon the second advent of Jesus were given for the express purpose of enabling the people living in the closing days of time to know that their Lord is about to come again and receive them unto Himself, that where He is, there they might be also. These prophecies our Lord tells us are 'as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.' As certainly as God's Word is true, those who refuse to heed this message of the second advent—who stop their ears and shut their eyes to it—will suffer the fate of those who scoffed at the message of Noah, of those who laughed at the fears of Lot, and of those who despised the lowly Nazarene.

The Dead Sea, dark, sullen, brackish, and destitute of all forms of life, is the melancholy monument to Sodom's folly and fate, and the awful monitor to all succeeding generations—an awful reminder of the woful fate which awaits all who abandon themselves to the vices made possible by the possession of great riches.

That this is an age of unprecedented wealth is notoriously patent. American millionaires have yearly incomes ranging from $1,000,000 to $30,000,000. Since 1860 our national wealth has grown from thirty billion to seventy-one billion dollars. By reference to the fifth chapter of James we learn that riches would be heaped together in the last days. Ex-Senator Ingalls, of Kansas, a few years ago declared that society had become hopelessly 'stratified into the condition of the superfluously rich and the hopelessly poor.'

Read the column in our city dailies devoted to society events, and you will see that feasts and banquets costing from one thousand even to a hundred thousand dollars are occurrences extremely common among the money lords and ladies of metropolitan society. 'Abundance of idleness and fulness of bread' will in our age work death and ruin just as certainly as it did in that of Sodom. Ladies of wealth and fashion are dawdling over champagnes and iced teas, coddling and pampering dogs, while thousands of the children of the poor, half-starved, half-clad, are growing(?) up in utter ignorance, squalor, and vice.

'Be patient therefore, brethren,' says the Lord to His poor and suffering, 'unto the coming of the Lord. . . . Establish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.' Then 'the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.'

GEO. W. RINE.

desires—which is seldom the case—will find the expected good a viper to sting his soul. 'What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?'

The day is not far distant when a correct estimate will be placed upon the value of worldly possessions, even by the inhabitants of the earth. Then its treasures will be cast aside as utterly worthless; they will be thrown to the moles and bats. But alas for their possessors! It will then be too late to transfer them to the bank of heaven.

Who, in that day, would not prefer a crown of glory, and an inheritance that is incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, to the treasure of this earth? Let it be the one aim and object in life to seek 'the kingdom of God and His righteousness,' and there need be no fear but that every temporal need will be supplied. 'He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?'

LAURA E. CUSHING.

Carlton Place, Ont.

THE PARABLE OF THE HOUSEHOLDER.

By Ellen G. White

No. 1.

AFTER Jesus had spoken the parables recorded in the thirteenth chapter of Matthew, he ended by inquiring, "Have ye understood all these things?" They said unto Him, "Yea, Lord." Then said He unto them, "Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old."

"Things new and old." The Gospel is not merely the New Testament. It is the Old Testament as well as the New. One is not complete without the other. Jesus declared that the truths of the Old Testament are just as valuable as those of the New. Christ was just as much man's Redeemer in the beginning of the world as He is to-day. No one has ever been saved except by faith in Him. In the Old Testament dispensation, as well as in the New, He was the only one who could speak pardon to the sons and daughters of Adam.

Christ was the foundation of the whole Jewish economy. But the Jewish nation unduly exalted the forms and maxims which had been handed down from rabbi to rabbi. They taught error instead of truth. Many of the doctrines they cherished were not in the Bible, but were the opinions of men. The Jewish leaders thought themselves to be the most religious people in the world; but Christ said to them, "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God," "teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." Ye make void the law of God by your traditions.

This many of the teachers in the churches are doing to-day. They propagate error by teaching for doctrine the commandments of men. In no way do their lives honor God or the Scriptures. Falsehoods which have been handed down from century to century are taught as the Word of God. If these are questioned, those who advocate them do not say, "Let us search the Word of God, which is the test of all doctrine; let us compare scripture with scripture, for the Word of God is the treasure-house of all knowledge." Instead, they utterly refuse to make unprejudiced investigation.

Many of those to whom the people look for instruction are not leading their flocks to the pure water of life. If by reading the Word one is awakened to search for truth, if by seeking to know what the Scriptures teach, he shows that he would become a wise householder, he is charged with doing great mischief. He sees the truth, not as the ministers have declared it, but as Christ has presented it in the Old and New Testaments, and as a faithful steward he tells those around him; for he would have them share with him the message of grace. But how is he treated by the religious teachers?—Just as Christ was treated by the Jewish leaders. He is held up to ridicule. The ministers denounce him from the pulpit, declaring that he is causing division in the churches. Eternal interests are at stake, but those who ought to receive the light with rejoicing, fight against the Word of God as dangerous. They do not say to those they think are misled: "Come, let us examine this subject together. If you have received light, give it to us; for we need every ray of light that is shining from the Word of God. Our souls will be imperiled if we entertain and teach error."

If those who are now advocating error would listen to God speaking in His Word, they would see that they are teaching for doctrine the commandments of men. They would refuse to follow the example of the Jews by reiterating assertions which have not a "Thus saith the Lord" for a foundation. This is the only true course for those to pursue who would teach God's Word. True knowledge will be found by every humble searcher. Men of every rank, learned and unlearned, may understand the Scriptures for themselves. The Eternal Mind has declared the truth, and this truth is of the highest value to those who receive and practise it.

By Christ's death on the cross, human beings have been raised in the scale of moral value. "God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whatsoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Christ looked into the mind of man, and He saw that it was debased and corrupted by sin. He determined to present in the most attractive light the principles of the Gospel, that man might receive and obey them. He desired to refine, purify, ennoble the powers He had given to man, that they might act the part for which they were created. If permitted, the lower passions will obtain the mastery over the whole being. Christ would have these passions subject to the higher powers of the mind.

Christ presented the cross to His disciples. "If any man will come after Me," He said, "let him deny himself, and take up his cross,

and follow Me." The cross must be lifted by all who receive Christ as their Saviour. God does not forgive sin to encourage us to continue in sin. It is to bring sin to a close, that the divine nature may take possession of the being, and the riches of heaven be poured into mind and heart. God has made every provision that the divine resources may flow freely, and we are to deem no sacrifice too costly in order that the treasures of truth may be given to the world. To fall short of this is a betrayal of sacred trust.

Those who claim to preach Christ while they declare that the law of God is abrogated, do not preach the truth. Had not God's law been unchangeable, Christ need not have suffered on Calvary. He died that the transgressor of the law might be pardoned, and return to his loyalty. He took human nature upon Himself, and suffered for us, that we might have another trial, that we might be given opportunity to leave the banner of rebellion, and stand under the banner of the Prince of Light. And He declared, "I have kept My Father's commandments." In Him is no sin. "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law; for sin is the transgression of the law. And ye know that He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin." Christ's sacrifice would have converted the world to truth if false teachers had not upheld false doctrines, making it appear a virtue to trample on the law of Jehovah.

God would have His people proclaim to the world the great truths of redemption. He would have them tell of the great sacrifice made to restore the almost obliterated moral image of God. When men partake of the divine nature, they will bring forth from the treasure of the heart things new and old. They will open to those around them the great truths of the Word of God in our world.

In order to possess the heavenly treasures, man must have a faith in the truth that works by love and purifies the soul. He must search diligently and earnestly, and He must impart to others what He has received. He can not continue to receive heavenly treasure without communicating to those around him. He must not consult his own pleasure or ease. A great responsibility rests on him to give the truth to others, that they also may receive its saving principles, and with heaven-born zeal develop an enlarged comprehension of and appreciation for the heavenly treasure. As a faithful householder he is to bring forth from the Old and New Testaments eternal, unchangeable truth. As he does this, the treasure in his possession will increase.

When the truth is received into the heart, the habits and customs are conformed to Christ. The learner feels bound to uplift the Saviour. The truth works by love and purifies his soul, and he regards God's commands, not as being abrogated, but as unchangeable truth, given to the world from the beginning. He presents the treasures of God's Word in a fresh and agreeable way, because the truth has taken possession of his mind, his heart, his entire being.

MRS. E. G. WHITE.

THE KINGDOM OF GOD FIRST.

THE Saviour says that if we will seek Him first, He will add everything else we need; for He knows all our temporal wants. He does not say, "Seek first the treasures of this world, and the kingdom of God shall be added unto you." But many act as if the text read thus, and spend the precious time God has given them in heaping together earthly treasure, which perishes with the using.

One who shrinks from duty the performance of which will apparently bring pecuniary loss, even tho he may gain the advantage he

THE TRUE SABBATH.

By Mrs. J. B. Goldsborough

SWEETLY dawns the day of Sabbath As the sun sinks in the west, And our Lord, the great Jehovah, Brings the symbol of His rest. With what memories it comes freighted, Fresh from Eden's glorious birth, Grand memorial of creation, God's own rest day on the earth.

Nature smiled in perfect beauty, Fragrance filled each gentle breeze, Fruits and flowers in rich abundance, Birds made vocal all the trees. Adam, who had vast dominion, There proved recreant to his trust; Then was heard the dreadful sentence, "Dust, return again to dust."

But the Sabbath, sacred, holy, Stands unchanged by human fall, Lives because of Christ's own presence, And it brings His peace for all; Pregnant with a wealth of treasure, Big with blessings for our race, In its sacred calmness mirrored See the light from Jesus' face.

MRS. J. B. GOLDSBOROUGH. Minneapolis, Minn.

Gal. 3:22-29. (Continued.)

By E. J. Waggoner

FROM PRISON TO A PALACE.

Gal. 3:22-29. (Continued.)

The Law Preaches the Gospel.—"But," says one, "the law says nothing of Christ." No; but all creation does speak of Christ, proclaiming the power of His salvation. We have seen that the cross of Christ, "Christ and Him crucified," is to be seen in every leaf of the forest, and indeed in everything that exists. Not only so, but every fiber of man's being cries out for Christ. Men do not realize it, but Christ is "the Desire of all nations." It is He alone that "satisfies the desire of every living thing." Only in Him can relief be found for the world's unrest and longing. Now since Christ, in whom is peace, "for He is our peace," is seeking the weary and heavy-laden, and calling them to Himself, and every man has longings that nothing else in the world can satisfy, it is evident that if the man is awakened by the law to keener consciousness of his condition, and the law continues goading him, giving him no rest, and shutting up every other way of escape, the man must at last find the Door of Safety. In Christ alone will the sinner find release from the lash of the law, for in Christ the righteousness of the law is fulfilled, and in Him the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us. Rom. 8:4.

Faith Emancipates.—When faith comes we are no longer under the gaoler, no longer in prison. "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." No longer slaves in chains, to be cast out, but sons, to be received into the Father's presence as rightful members of the family, and heirs of all that He possesses. Faith is freedom, for the Spirit is given to all that believe (John 7:39; Eph. 1:13), and "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (2 Cor. 3:17).

When Does Faith Come?—Strangely enough, many have supposed that there was a definite time fixed for faith to come. This passage has been "interpreted" to mean that men were under the law until a certain time in the history of the world, and that at that time faith came, and then they were henceforth free from the law. The coming of faith they make synonymous with the manifestation of Christ on earth. We can not say that anybody ever thought so, for such an "interpretation" indicates utter absence of thought about the matter. It would make men to be saved in bulk, regardless of any concurrence on their part. It would have it that up to a certain time all were in bondage under the law, and that from that time henceforth all were free from sin. A man's salvation would therefore depend simply on the accident of birth. If he lived before a certain time, he would be lost; if after, he would be saved. Such an absurdity need not take more of our time than the statement of it. No one can seriously think of the idea that the apostle is here speaking of a fixed, definite point of time in the history of the world, dividing between two so-called "dispensations," without at once abandoning it.

When, then, does faith come?—"Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." Rom. 10:17. Whenever a man receives the Word of God, the Word of promise, which brings with it the fulness of the law, and no longer fights against it, but yields to it, then faith comes to him. Read the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, and you will see that faith came from the beginning. Since the days of Abel, men have found freedom by faith. The only time fixed is "now," "to-day." "Now is the accepted time." "To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts."

How Great Is This Freedom?

What is the freedom that comes by faith? That is easily settled by a few texts of Scripture. Christ dwells in the heart by faith, and makes one comprehend "the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge." Eph. 3:18, 19. This is the "large place" in which Christ causes the believer to walk at liberty. The whole universe is His. "He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifeth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory." 1 Sam. 2:8. "For he hath looked down from the height of His sanctuary, from heaven did the Lord behold the earth; to hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death." Ps. 102:19, 20. For "God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved), and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus," "far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion." Eph. 2:4-7; 1:20, 21. This is "the glorious liberty of the children of God," the liberty to which the law shuts us up, and towards which it drives us. So emphatically is it true that the law is not against the promise.

Putting on Christ by Baptism.

"As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death?" Rom. 6:3. It is by His death that Christ redeems us from the curse of the law; but we must die with Him. Baptism is "the likeness of His death." We rise to walk "in newness of life," even Christ's life. See Gal. 2:20. Having put on Christ, we are one in Him. We are completely identified with Him. Our identity is lost in His. It is often said of one who has been converted, "He is so changed, you would not know him; he is not the same man." No, he is not. God has turned him into "another man." Therefore, being one with Christ, he has a right to whatever Christ has, and a right to the "heavenly places" where Christ sits. From the prison-house of sin he is exalted to the dwelling-place of God. This, of course, presupposes that baptism is with him a reality, not a mere outward form. It is not simply into the visible water that he is baptized, but "into Christ," into His life.

One in Christ, the Seed.

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." "There is no difference." This is the key-note of the Gospel. All are alike sinners, and all are saved in the same way. They who would make a distinction on the ground of nationality, claiming that there is something different for the Jew than for the Gentile, might just as well make a difference on the ground of sex, claiming that women can

not be saved in the same way and at the same time as men, or that a servant can not be saved in the same way as his master. No; there is but one way, and all human beings, of whatever race or condition, are equal before God. "Ye are all one in Christ Jesus," and Christ is the One. So it is that "He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy Seed, which is Christ." "For ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye are Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." There is but one seed, but it embraces all who are Christ's.

Christ Not for Himself.

Christ did not live and die for Himself. It was not necessary that He should bear the curse of the earth in order to possess it as God; for it never passed out of God's ownership. Christ came as the Son of man, to win back as man, for man, that which man had lost. "He taketh on Him the seed of Abraham." Therefore it is that it is impossible that the seed should be complete in Jesus alone, as a single individual. He is the representative man. God's purpose is to "gather together in one all things in Christ." Eph. 1:10. So the seed includes every soul who can be induced to accept the Lord Jesus, and become one with Him. And this gives the glorious assurance that whatever He has is ours.

"Till the Seed Should Come."

It needs not many words now to determine what is meant by the phrase, "Till the seed should come, to whom the promise was made." We know what the seed is, and we know that it has not yet come in its fulness. To be sure, Christ was once manifested on earth in the flesh, but He did not receive the promised inheritance, any more than Abraham did. Abraham had not so much as to put his foot on (Acts 7:5), and Christ had not where to lay His head. Moreover, Christ can not come into the inheritance until Abraham does also, for the promise was "to Abraham and to his seed." The Lord, by the prophet Ezekiel, spoke of the inheritance at the time when David ceased to have a representative on his throne on earth, and He foretold the overthrow of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome in these words: "Remove the diadem, and take off the crown; this shall not be the same; exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it; and it shall be no more, until He come whose right it is; and I will give it Him." Eze. 21:26, 27.

So Christ sits on His Father's throne, "from henceforth expecting till His foes be made His footstool." Soon will He come, but not until the last soul has accepted Him that can by any possibility be induced to accept salvation. When He comes to execute judgment, and to slay those who said, "We will not have this Man to reign over us," He comes "with ten thousands of His saints." Jude 14.

Then will the Seed be complete, and the promise will be fulfilled. And until that time the law will faithfully perform its task of stirring up and pricking the consciences of sinners, giving them no rest until they become identified with Christ, or cast Him off altogether. Do you accept the terms? Will you cease your complaints against the law which would save you from sinking into a fatal sleep? and will you, in Christ, accept its righteousness? Then, as Abraham's seed, and an heir according to the promise, you can rejoice in your freedom from the bondage of sin, singing:—

"I'm the child of a King, The child of a King; With Jesus my Saviour, I'm the child of a King."

E. J. WAGGONER.

Honesty Reduces Rascality

By Thomas Carlyle

MAKE yourself an honest man, and then you may be sure that there is one less rascal in the world.—Carlyle.

How Many Days Do You Expect

By Thomas De Quincey

My friend, you make very free with your days; pray how many do you expect to have? —De Quincey.

When a Hive Is Disturbed

By Ralph Waldo Emerson

If a hive be disturbed by rash and stupid hands, instead of honey it will yield bees. —Emerson.

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