Earlier text: The Law of GodThe General Conference Bulletin
By Arthur G. Daniells
It has been decided to report the coming session of the General Conference through the REVIEW AND HERALD, instead of issuing a daily Bulletin as we have done for a number of years. The announcement of this plan may cause some disappointment to our brethren and sisters. We believe, however, that when the reports of the conference have all been read, general satisfaction will be felt. The committee to whom is entrusted the perfecting of the plans for reporting the proceedings of the conference, gave the matter much study before reaching a decision. It was found that it would be very difficult to produce a General Conference Bulletin this year. Our conference will be held five miles from the city where the printing houses are located. We have no facilities of our own in Washington for getting out a daily paper. It is a heavy task under the most favorable circumstances to produce a daily paper during the session of the conference. Other denominations do not generally undertake such a task. Finally, but few of our people read all that is printed in the dailies. Under all the circumstances, it was decided to report the proceedings of the conference weekly through the REVIEW. The conference numbers (which will probably be five to eight) will be enlarged to thirty-two pages, and almost the entire paper will be devoted to conference affairs. The reports will be carefully edited, and only the cream of the proceedings will be published. Instead of printing the recommendations as they are submitted by the committees, and then reporting the discussion, printing the amendments, and finally giving them as adopted, they will be printed only once, and then as adopted by the conference. This will save much space in the paper, and much valuable time of the reader. The most painstaking and perfect arrangements we are able to suggest for preparing conference business will be followed by the various committees and Boards so that we hope to make the conference numbers of the7 REVIEW AND HERALD as interesting and profitable as any number of the Bulletin which that has ever been issued. These conference numbers, taken together, will constitute the official report of the General Conference, and will be as complete as though they had been issued as a separate paper. Another great advantage that will come to our people from this is that thousands of our brethren and sisters will secure this full report of the conference without any additional cost. Every subscriber, and there are between fifteen and twenty thousand, will have these reports as a part of the regular matter supplied them through the REVIEW. We hope that all who may feel any disappointment over the announcement that no Bulletin will be issued, will take pains to examine critically the reports as they will be given, and when all is over, give us their opinion of the merits of this change. We have reason to believe that the coming conference will be an occasion of great blessing and profit to the cause of God. For this let all earnestly pray. The Concentration of Wealth
The following quotation from the Courier-Herald, Saginaw, Mich., shows how minds are becoming apprehensive over the outlook afforded by present conditions in this country. After enumerating a list of twenty millionaires possessing each from $50,000,000 up, the Herald says:— The tendency is for these great fortunes, and others not yet so large, to go on increasing in a greater relative ratio than the general increase of the wealth of the country. Now these twenty men own a fiftieth of the wealth of the land. Next year their holdings will be even greater actually and relatively. If this condition continues, why may we not expect these few men or their heirs and representatives to eventually own practically the whole country? When such a time comes, as it will unless these gigantic combinations of capital are checked, there no doubt will result a period of anarchy of which the world has never seen the like, and to which the present conditions in Russia will appear like the beginning of the millennium. The Secularization of the Sabbath
ONLY in obedience to God is there power to stand for the truth against the influence of opposing popular custom. The Jews, who profess to keep the seventh-day Sabbath, but do not observe it according to the commandment, are showing signs of abandoning even a formal adherence to the Sabbath proclaimed at Sinai, and of conforming to the practise of the majority, who stand under the banner of the first-day institution. A Richmond, Va., paper prints the following testimony on this point from a rabbi of that city, spoken in a recent sermon to his congregation:— Our Sabbath day has been secularized till naught is left but an attenuated shadow of its once splendid spiritual dignity, authority, and sanctity. . . . One of the most lamentable things in connection with our problem is the fact that the violation of the Sabbath is accompanied by no qualms of conscience on the part of the actor, and no reproach or loss of standing in the eyes of the community. . . . The Sabbath is an opportunity for worship, for soul-training and development; hence its sanctified and dignified character and its religious necessity. Industrial idleness in order that there might be spiritual activity, freedom from physical labor and from purely selfish pursuits in order to give strength and thought to the spirit. . . . Now our problem confronts us. Does our Saturday Sabbath give us this opportunity for rest and worship? for physical freedom in order for soul communion? The answer is in the negative. Is there a way in which this opportunity for rest and worship may be assured us? I believe there is, and that my position may be made plain I would say that if the decision lay in my hands, I would transfer the service and the worship to the day on which we do rest—to Sunday. . . . True it is that Sunday has for us no sanctity, that it can not for us take the place of the time-honored and beloved Sabbath which our fathers and our fathers’ fathers before us have observed and hallowed. True, it can not for us, but it may for our children. We are the martyrs of the transition period. I believe that the move is inevitable, and the sooner it is done, the better. And this is by no means the first time that a change from the seventh-day Sabbath to first-day observance has been advocated by a Jewish rabbi in a Jewish temple of worship. . . . LITTLE is said to-day about the ravages of the plague in India, but a simple recital of the facts would present an awful picture. An exchange says:— The deaths in India from bubonic plague were thirty-four thousand for the first week in March. Within a few years the plague in India has numbered nearly three million victims. The British government is doing all in its power to check the ravages of the plague, but it is constantly spreading, and has recently reached Burma. It is said that the deaths are ninety per cent of those infected. Sunday Closing of Saloons
A CAMPAIGN to close the saloons on Sunday is in progress in Kansas City, Mo. The movement is being pushed by the clergy of the city, on the ground that it is not religious in character, but wholly a “civic, moral, and economical” move; but this view seems not to be shared by the lady president of the Young People’s Union, who at a public meeting gave the following four reasons for Sunday closing:— First, because God says so; second, because the fourth commandment says so; third, because the State of Missouri by statute says so; fourth, because the ordinances of the city say so. Most people of this day have such a vague idea as to what God says, or what the fourth commandment says, that they are not prepared to dispute the assertion that there is something said in the divine prohibitions about Sunday saloons. The use of such arguments only shows the general ignorance of God’s Word which prevails both among would-be teachers of the people and among those whom they would instruct. The more any candid person will study God’s Word in general and the fourth commandment in particular, the less will such a person feel inclined to condemn an act simply because it is performed on Sunday. THE United Presbyterian says, in a plea for Sunday laws:— An open Sabbath means a demoralized nation. It means a debauched citizenship. It means that religion must go down before the mailed hand of greed. Destroy the religious conviction of any people, or that upon which conviction rests, or by which it is promoted, and you undermine the foundations of civil liberty. The blessings of the highest civilization can not be maintained without the Sabbath. It is better that the law be made stronger than to weaken it by legislation. A great deal that is true could be uttered along this line, but the essential point as regards “Sabbath” legislation, which the Presbyterian overlooks, is the fact that the demoralization of a nation begins and proceeds wholly independently of any power residing in the civil government. The integrity or the demoralization of a nation is a matter of individual self-government on the part of its people. Legislation can, and should, leave the way clear for the free exercise of individual rights and for the fullest degree of individual self-development, but it can do nothing further to maintain national integrity. When the demoralizing process has set in, legislation can not stop it. Only that can stop it which can reform the individual; and unless the majority of the individual components of a nation can be set right, the down-hill course of that nation must go on. The abounding crime and lawlessness of the present time are an evidence of the existing demoralization, but are not the cause of it. They are the symptoms, but are not the disease itself. The Presbyterian and other papers which advocate legislation to stop irreligion, take a superficial view of the situation, and the remedies they advocate are calculated only to increase the trouble. The gospel is the only cure for moral degeneracy. The world is dying to-day because it will not apply this remedy. I WOULD not ask that all my way may be
With earthly glory bright,
The shaded pathway may be best for me,
But give me, Lord, thy light. I know life's winter days will chill my
heart,
But as the blue above,
And the bright sun, the life of spring
impart,
Give me, O Christ, thy love. I know not where storms may sweep
my way,
How long ere conflicts cease;
But when the tempest rages, this I pray,
Give me, O God, thy peace. I do not know how long the way may be,
What care and toil are best,
Only when care and toil are done, with
thee,
Give me, my Father, rest. A Visit to Redlands and Riverside
By Ellen G. White
A Visit to Redlands and Riverside
FROM San Diego we returned to Los Angeles, and on Tuesday, December 6, we went to Redlands for a few days' visit. A little way out from Los Angeles, the scenery became very uninteresting. We passed through much barren land. Here and there, the desert, by means of irrigation, had been converted into flourishing orange groves; but for miles and miles at a stretch the land was uncultivated. As we rode along, I remembered scenes presented to me years before, of barren land, such as that through which we were passing, being cultivated and improved, and, by irrigation, made to yield rich returns. I was instructed that this was an object-lesson of the influence that the saving grace of Christ should have upon the hearts and lives of human beings. And had those to whom God has given the riches of the water of life, realized the responsibilities resting upon them as stewards of the grace of God, and gone forth as faithful missionaries into all the barren places of the earth, the wilderness would have been made to blossom as the garden of the Lord. The dreary, uninviting appearance of the desert over which we were passing represented only too well the spiritual condition of many cities, towns, and country places,—a condition that might have been changed had those who know the truth put forth earnest, self-sacrificing efforts to impart light to others. Places that have not yet been worked should long ago have heard the message. Those who are familiar with the teachings of God's Word, those who understand the things that Christ has commanded, are required, as stewards of his grace, to perform faithfully their appointed work. The means entrusted to them they are to use in opening new fields, in teaching those who would accept the truth were it presented to them in the way that Christ presented it when on this earth. All who have received the light of truth are held responsible to do their part in enlightening others. Of the Saviour's work we read, “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.” “Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them. And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from beyond Jordan.” These words give an illustration of the way in which Jesus cultivated the soil of the heart. They point out clearly the work that we are to do, not in one place merely, but in every place. The light that God has graciously given us we are to communicate to many others. To every nation and kindred and tongue and people the warning message is to be given. We are to learn from Christ the science of soul saving. He is the mighty Healer. In our work of preaching the gospel, we are to establish small sanitariums in many places. Sanitarium work is one very successful means of bringing the message of salvation through Christ to the attention of a large class of people who can be reached in no other way. Those from the higher walks of life will come to our sanitariums for treatment, and when they go away, they will tell others of the benefits they have received. Thus others will be induced to come. It is God's design that our sanitariums shall act an important part in giving the message of Christ's soon coming to those in the highways and the byways. As we neared Redlands, the aspect of the country changed entirely. Cultivation and irrigation have transformed the desert into beautiful and fertile orange groves, which, at the time of our visit, were laden with fruit. On reaching Redlands, we went to the home of Brother and Sister E. S. Ballenger, where we were entertained during our stay. In this short sketch I shall not attempt to describe Redlands. One morning we took a long drive over the city. We drove through a beautiful highland park, known as Smiley Heights. This was once barren hills, but it is now covered with orange groves and with a great variety of ornamental trees and shrubs. As we drove higher and higher up the mountainside, which was so beautifully adorned, we were charmed with the scenery. From the top of the hill, we obtained a fine view of the city of Redlands; and as I looked upon it, I realized that just such places had been presented to me in vision as places to which we must give special attention. I had been instructed that in places similar to this, we would have opportunity to establish sanitariums, and that by means of these institutions men and women would be taught the gospel of physical and spiritual healing. On Sabbath morning I spoke in the pretty little church building that has recently been erected by our people in Redlands. There was a good attendance, some of the brethren and sisters from San Bernardino being present. The Lord gave me strength to speak for about thirty minutes. I felt so thankful for this; for I was just recovering from a four weeks' sickness. The Lord blessed our meeting. In the evening another meeting was held, at which Brother Ballenger and W. C. White spoke of the Glendale Sanitarium and its needs, and invited those present to help in preparing the building for the reception of patients. The church-members in Redlands are poor, but they gave liberally in response to this call. The Baptism of the Holy Ghost, the Latter Rain
By R. A. Underwood
ON the day of Pentecost the disciples were endued with power from on high. See Acts 2:16-20, 33-39; 4:32, 33. This wonderful refreshing and baptism of the Holy Ghost is called in the Bible the early, or former, rain. A similar outpouring of the Holy Ghost will fall upon the remnant people of God. This is called the latter rain. This latter refreshing will be as wonderful in power and results as the first on the day of Pentecost. We are admonished to pray for it at this time. “Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain.” Zech. 10:1. Speaking of this, the prophet says: “Come, and let us return unto the Lord: . . . he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. . . . Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain.” Hosea 6:1-3. This same work is referred to by Joel in chap. 2:1-23. In verse 1 the prophet says: “Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand.” In verse 12 the Lord pleads, “Turn ye even to me with all your heart,” and in verse 23 he gives the result: “Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for9 he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month.” Also (verse 27): “And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed.” Here is the promise and conditions: “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” This promise fulfilled means the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, the latter rain, the refreshing from the presence of the Lord, the ripening of the harvest, the end of the conflict. Should the promise be fulfilled now, there would many fall under its power to rise no more, as did Ananias and Sapphira. Acts 5:1-10. Again I read: “Upon what ground may we claim the full and rich promises of God? We can claim them only when we have fulfilled the conditions prescribed in his Word. Have you robbed God in tithes and offerings? What treasure have you been laying up in heaven by giving to the Lord his own? Look at the days and weeks and months of the past, and see if your life service has not been one long, complicated robbery of God, because you have failed to remember him, and have left eternity out of your reckoning.” “Great objects are accomplished by this system. If one and all would accept it, each would be made a vigilant and faithful treasurer for God; and there would be no want of means with which to carry forward the great work of sounding the last message of warning to the world. The treasury will be full if all adopt this system, and the contributors will not be left the poorer.” —“Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. III, page 389. Eternal principles of righteousness are involved. Should God pour out upon his people the Holy Spirit while they are guilty of the high-handed crime of robbery, the principles of heaven would be compromised. Christ can only wait with long-suffering, and plead, “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” How long must the Lord wait for his people to turn unto him? May the reader of these lines decide, “As for me and my house we will surrender all to God; we will ask the Lord to subdue our iniquities; to take away selfishness and the root of covetousness, and write his own law of love upon our hearts.” “Our God is a consuming fire.” Sin must be consumed now, and destroyed, or the sinner will be consumed with the sins in the near future. Thank God for the precious promise, “Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord.” Let every one say, “I return.” Amen. Thoughts Concerning the Everlasting Covenant
By William Covert
There are references in the Scriptures to an eternal or everlasting plan for the redemption of man, which are stated in such language as to show that this plan existed prior to the creation of our world. Through the writings of Paul, the Lord thus calls the attention of Christians to the original source of their hope: “He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.” Eph. 1:4, 5. The chosen one is in character “holy and without blame” before God, showing that the choice which the Lord makes depends upon the willingness of the chosen one to conform to the eternal purpose. To accomplish this purpose the apostle said their work was that of “admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ; whereunto I labor also, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.” Col. 1:28, 29. According to these explanations of the apostle, the eternal purpose was to prepare a holy people to inhabit our world at whatever labor and sacrifice it might require to bring it about. Another comment relating to the council concerning the redemption of man, speaks of it as “the mystery which hath been kept in silence through times eternal, but now is manifested, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, is made known unto all the nations unto obedience of faith.” Rom. 16:25, 26. Isaiah, in speaking of the sure foundation upon which the hope of God’s people rested, said: “Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end. For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited.” Isa. 45:17, 18. In carrying out the great plan of the eternal covenant, God gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life. The great gift shows that the salvation of man depends upon the faith he exercises in accepting and coming into harmony with the covenant. In speaking of how the Son of God would perform his part in the great compact, it is said: “I also will make him my first-born, the highest of the kings of the earth. My loving-kindness will I keep for him forevermore; and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make to endure forever, and his throne as the days of heaven.” Ps. 89:27-29. These verses express the stability that would be seen in the Son of God. But as to the vacillating character of those who profess to follow him, it is said: “If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.” Verses 30-32. But of the Son and the covenant, the Word declares: “My loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.” The attention of the reader is called to the statement of what will occur if those who enter into covenant relation with Christ should fail to obey the Father’s commandments: I will “visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.” Christ took up this theme in his sermon on the mountain, and strongly emphasized his attitude toward the law, saying, “Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets: I came not to destroy, but to fulfil [accomplish]. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law, till all things be accomplished. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Matt. 5:17-19. This teaching of Christ shows that the keeping of the commandments by men has been considered, and also will in the judgment be considered by the heavenly councils. In the kingdom of heaven, men’s greatness and smallness are determined by their disposition to keep or reject the commandments in the law. In speaking of how the Lord teaches the intelligences in both heaven and earth relative to this covenant, Paul says the effort is “to make all men see what is the dispensation of the mystery which for ages hath been hid in God who created all things; to the intent that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The incarnation and sacrifice of the Son of God were essential to the revelation of this mystery. After the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ had been accomplished, then the reception of the wonderful truth by the church, and the experience of the Lord’s people under the power of the Holy Spirit, became another agency through which the principalities and powers in the heavenly places were enabled to see the great wisdom and love of God manifested. The terms and mysteries of this covenant are revealed to those who submit10 their minds to his working. Jesus said, “We know what we worship.” John 4:22. And David wrote, “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will show them his covenant.” Ps. 25:14. Thus the invitation and promise, “Incline your ear, and come unto me; . . . and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.” The “sure mercies of David,” according to comments made by Paul (Acts 3:34), are those things which are assured to David and to all the redeemed through the resurrection of Christ from the dead. The blood of this everlasting or eternal covenant is the blood of the atonement shed by the Son of God in making the great sacrifice for man. God, through the working out of this blood-sealed covenant, is to make his people perfect and well pleasing to himself for eternity. “Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” Heb. 13:20, 21. Gospel Assurances Lie on the Surface
By H. W. Cottrell
The doctrine of the second coming of Christ and of a final day of judgment was preached by Enoch, the seventh from Adam, and, being a heaven-born message, it was echoed and re-echoed by patriarchs and prophets until the days of Christ's first advent. Jude 14, 15; Isa. 25:9; Dan. 2:44. Christ, the only begotten Son of God, the greatest Teacher the world or the church ever knew, when on earth taught the certainty of these events, and prefaced them by definite way-marks, strewn all along the way from then until now. This is clearly shown in Matthew 24. On that memorable Thursday of Christ's ascension, two celestial evangelists renewed that thrilling gospel message in the soul-inspiring language: “This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” This assurance was a great comfort to the sadly bewildered disciples, and it is no less comforting to the trusting Christian to-day. The apostles took up the strain, and preached to sinners repentance and cleansing through Christ, the divine Son of God, “the way, the truth, and the life.” They said, “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, . . . and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you.” The ripened fruit of that day's labor was the addition of three thousand new believers. “My word . . . shall not return unto me void.” The word of the Lord to the sinner then, as now, was, Repent, forsake, receive, and then consecrate the newly received Christ life, with all its faculties, to God for eternal service. Neither Christ, the author of Christianity, nor the apostles knew of the scientific method—“science falsely so-called”—of becoming righteous by the development of a supposed germ of the God life, assumed to be inherent in every man. Then Christ, the author of all true science, said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Receiving the Christ life, cleanses the “spots,” smoothes out the “wrinkles,” and “every such thing.” The soul that has this experience alone with God through Christ, will welcome, joyfully welcome, the Master's royal return. Paul did not expect either the coming of Christ or the judgment to occur in his day. He gave counsel, “Let no man deceive you . . . for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed.” But he gave assurance that the mystery of iniquity had begun to work, and would develop into “the man of sin.” He further reasoned of a “judgment to come.” It must necessarily be in close proximity to the coming of the Lord. John, when an exile, gave assurance that the Saviour's return would not be under cover, but would be open as the day. He said, “Every eye shall see him.” Jesus compared the grandeur of his return and its prominence, to lightning in the heavens. “As the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” There may be those who are ignorant of the gospel facts concerning the event of Christ's return, yet the plain gospel assurances lie on the surface, so that any one may know his whereabouts in this earthly drama. But whether people will learn the lesson now or not, when the event occurs, all will bow in humble submission to the situation, and to him who is and has ever been above all, and who is lovingly anxious to abide with all. “If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him,”—a relation that can exist only where self is surrendered. Between the years 1831 and 1844, William Miller, a man of the Baptist persuasion, who both lived and died a Baptist, was the leader, under God, who, with his associates, presented to the world anew the message of the coming of Christ and the day of judgment, fulfilling literally the message recorded in Rev. 14:6, 7, known as the first angel's message, the first of the series of three,—“The hour of his judgment is come.” The time had at last come when the judgment was no longer a thing of the future. In the summer of 1844 they preached a message in fulfilment of verse 8, setting forth the experimental decline of the professed church,—“Babylon is fallen.” In the autumn of 1844 the message of the third angel was due. Rev. 14:9-14. This brought in the Sabbath reform (verse 12; Rev. 11:19), which gives the everlasting gospel its threefold and last setting. Rev. 14:6-14. The preaching of the doctrine of the second coming of Christ and the Sabbath reform, should have developed a people of just such a character as the Seventh-day Adventists, which it did, at the exact date specified by prophecy. The first church of Seventh-day Adventists was brought out in Washington, N. H., in the last three months of 1844. At this date the three angels' messages, formerly distinct each from the others, were blended into one message. It was the everlasting gospel. We then became a people. Our responsibilities as Seventh-day Adventists began. The message is due to “every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.” When it is delivered to the people, the gospel work will be finished, and the King will take control, “having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.” Early in 1845 God called forth men and women of strength of character, as leaders of men under him, to take charge of his work, prominent among whom were Elder Joseph Bates, Elder James White, Ellen G. Harmon, now Mrs. E. G. White, and later Elders J. N. Andrews and Uriah Smith, and others. The year 1844 was an eventful one, and it was no less prophetic. The longest and last symbolic prophecy of the Bible terminated in that year. It was the set time for the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary—the judgment period. The door into the holy apartment was shut, and no man could open it. The door into the most holy place was opened, and no man could close it. The seventh trumpet began to sound in 1844. The signs of the second coming of Christ,—the darkening of the sun and the moon, and the falling of the stars, as given by Christ and recorded in Matthew 24,—having been fulfilled, were recognized by the Christian world as signs, and were seen historically by tens of thousands of Christians who had accepted the message of reformation under the great Baptist reformer, William Miller, and his associates. Jesus said of such a generation that it should not pass away until the hope of his people should be realized. We are, therefore, in the last generation. This work with which we are entrusted must be pushed forward mightily. Every cord that binds the heart to this world must be broken before the best results of labor can be seen, and the work closed up. The realization of the highest ideal of the Christian's hope will be to see and forever be with his Redeemer, Christ the Lord. “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” “Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty.” Then those redeemed from among men will “follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.” “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” Little Words
By C. Benjamin Hopkins
It was easily said—that unkind word,
That fell from your lips at morn,
But you little thought as away it sped,
It would tear some heart like a thorn.
You did not mean it—’twas thoughtless, yes,
But it flew on its onward track,
And the prayers and tears of all life’s years
Can nevermore call it back. It was easily said—that kindly word
That you spoke with a pleasant smile;
But it cheered a soul that was lone and sad,
And it braved a heart for a trial.
The strongest monuments crumble and break,
And into the dust decay;
But a kindly word will live on and on,
Though the speaker has passed away. O, let us be careful of each small word
We speak with but little thought;
They will carry a message of love away,
If we say the words that we ought;
And by and by, when our lips are mute,
And our record of life is known,
The kindly words will shine forth like stars,
In the crown that shall be our own.