We May Take Our Choice—Whichever We Choose, It Will Be Eternal
By M. H. BROWN
GOD is the author of life. “He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things.” Acts 17:25.
He has life in Himself. He is the origin of life. It inheres in Him by nature. He “only hath immortality.” 1 Tim. 6:16.
He imparts life because He has it in abundance—an inexhaustible quantity.
“As the Father hath life in Himself; so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself.” John 5:26.
BRIGHTNESS OF HIS GLORY
Christ is said to be “the brightness of His [the Father’s] glory, and the express image of His person.” Heb. 1:3. In all things He has the preeminence, and in Him all fullness dwells. Col. 1:18, 19.
Christ is called the Word of God, because God speaks through Him. This is true both in creation and in redemption. John 1:1-3; Col. 1:13-18; Heb. 1:1-3. He is Creator and Redeemer, our Example, our Sacrifice, our Mediator, our Advocate, our High Priest; and He declares, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” John 14:6. Again He says, “I am the resurrection, and the life.” John 11:25. John says, “In Him was life.” John 1:4. He had it in Himself; because the Father gave Him life in Himself.
HAS LIFE TO IMPART
From these plain declarations of Scripture, we know that Christ has life that He can impart to others. He is the “Life-giver.” So He says of His sheep, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” John 10:10.
He said to the Jews who sought His life, “Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life.” John 5:40. The life to which He referred was not their natural life, for this they already had. It was the life He would give to His people in the resurrection. They will have a “resurrection unto life.” Verse 29.
THE FIRST DEATH
Adam sinned, and fell under the penalty of death; for “the wages of sin is death.” Rom. 6:23. His life was forfeited. The sentence of death is recorded in Gen. 3:19. The Lord said, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” We all inherit a mortal nature from Adam, therefore all men are subject to death. This death may be called the first death. It came to Adam as the result of his sin. It comes to his posterity as a consequence of sin,—as an inheritance from parents who were mortal under the divine sentence. Hence we all die “in Adam,” but “in Christ” all are made alive. 1 Cor. 15:22.
SAVES ALL FROM ADAMIC DEATH
Christ is said to be “the Saviour of all men.” This is true, but He does not save all men from sin. He saves them all from the Adamic death, the first death, by a resurrection. There will be “a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.” Acts 24:15.
Christ “is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.” 1 Tim. 4:10. He saves all men from the first death by a resurrection. He saves believers from sin, and gives them eternal life. They “shall not be hurt of the second death.” Rev. 2:11. “On such the second death hath no power.” Rev. 20:6. They come up in the “first resurrection,” “the resurrection unto life,” “the resurrection of the just.” Verse 5; John 5:29; Luke 14:14; Acts 24:15.
THE SECOND DEATH
The human race is now on probation. We have an opportunity to choose between life and death. We may have the life so graciously and so freely offered by the Saviour; but if we refuse the gift of life by neglecting the great salvation, we will be counted among the unjust, and come up in the resurrection of that class, and suffer the second death in the lake of fire. Rev. 20:14; 21:8.
NO SALVATION FROM IT
There is no salvation from the second death. There will be no resurrection from it. “The wages of sin is death.” Death is the penalty, or punishment, of sin; and Christ died for our sins. 1 Cor. 15:3. He bore “our sins in His own body on the tree.” 1 Peter 2:24. He died in our room and stead. He suffered the penalty for sin, not something substituted for the penalty. Hence we know that endless misery, or eternal torment, is not the penalty. If eternal torment were the penalty, it would preclude the possibility of man’s salvation, for it would require all eternity for the penalty to be inflicted, and the Saviour Himself would be eternally lost, as well as man. The wisdom and love of God would not permit such a catastrophe.
AN OBJECT LESSON
In what the second death consists, and how it is accomplished, we are not left to conjecture or doubt. The Lord has given us an object lesson that settles the question positively, and leaves no room for argument. The figurative expressions used in connection with the punishment of the wicked, to denote great and prolonged suffering, must be understood and explained in harmony with the object lesson which the Lord has given us with such clearness as to preclude any ground for controversy.
Sodom and Gomorrha were destroyed, burned up with fire and brimstone rained down from heaven. Gen. 19:24. They “are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” Jude 7.
What did eternal fire do for those cities? Are they still burning?—No. Let Peter answer: “And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly.” 2 Peter 2:6.
Malachi foretells a time when the wicked will be burned up (Mal. 4:1-3); and John, in holy vision, saw the wicked powers of earth, and all the wicked, meet their fate—the second death, in the lake of fire and brimstone. Rev. 19:20; 20:7-9, 14, 15; 21:8.
ETERNAL FIRE—EVERLASTING PUNISHMENT
“Eternal” and “everlasting” are identical in meaning. They are translated from the same Greek word. When used to describe fire and punishment, in the Scriptures, they refer to the results or effect, and not to duration. We find them so used in Heb. 6:2; 9:12; Rev. 14:6. The term “eternal judgment” does not mean that the judgment will be eternal in its duration, but that it will be eternal in its results. It will be irrevocable. Its decisions will not be changed. Surely the judgment will not last eternally, else the work would never be completed, and the wicked would never be punished.
The same is true concerning the terms “eternal redemption” (Heb. 9:12) and “everlasting gospel” (Rev. 14:6). The results of “redemption” and of the “gospel” will be eternal, not the duration of the work.
Just so with “everlasting fire” and “everlasting punishment” in Matt. 25:41, 46. The results are everlasting, as was the case with the “eternal fire” that turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes.
“The wages of sin is death.” Rom. 6:23. Death is the cessation of life, and that is the punishment for sin. It is called “everlasting” punishment because its results are everlasting. The condition of death will always continue. There will be no resurrection from it.
The second death is not “the death that never dies,” for that is no death at all. It is a contradiction of terms. The righteous will have eternal life, and the wicked will have the opposite, eternal death, called in the Scriptures the “second death.”
We can have our choice. Deut. 30:15-20; Eze. 33:8-16. Jesus invites us to come to Him, that we may have life.
A REMEDY IS PROVIDED
By L. H. E.
Sin Demands More and More—It Offers No Remedy, and Promises Only Worse and Worse Slavery—God Offers a Remedy for Sin—His Love for All Is Manifested
WHEN the apostle Paul asked, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” he meant to grant no license to continue in sin, but rather to emphasize freedom from sinning, having once been made free from past transgressions by the blood of Christ.
No one who realizes what sin is, and what sure punishment will follow those who transgress the law of God, will cherish sin in his heart. It is because our dulled senses are numbed by oft repeated disobedience, that sin loses its terribleness to us.
DO NOT REALIZE ITS AWFULNESS
The awfulness of sin cannot be realized by man in his present condition. Man is born in sin. From the first day of consciousness till death, he sees sin and its evil results ever about him. He has so familiarized himself with its effects, that his heart seems seared and his conscience dead.
Sin is deceitful. Its effects on the heart and conscience are like a deadly paralysis, which sends forth no cry of pain to call for help. It hardens the heart, and leaves its victim dead to his own best interests.
SIN DEMANDS MORE AND MORE
Sin is never satisfied. One indulgence only calls for more. Of itself it never leaves its victim to walk in virtue’s path, but demands more and more continuation in disobedience. Every transgression of God’s law only whets the appetite for a repetition of the act. Every road of sin leads farther and farther into the wilderness of rebellion. There is not one thing in sin that brings a remedy for itself. The thief may become honest, but not by stealing; the liar may come to the truth, but not by lying; the blasphemer may some day be influenced to use his lips in singing praises to Jehovah, but not by cursing; the unclean may some day walk in the path of purity, but not because of indulgences.
Sin never works reformation, but only goads its victim on in the downward road. Its entire history has been to multiply itself and ruin those whom it has smitten. Sin is like a poison in the blood; it whips the appetites into a mad frenzy for indulgence, while it paralyzes the will. The sinner is never normal. His passions and evil nature are aflame with desires, while his will slumbers, and his conscience is stupefied, so the carnal desires cannot be held in leash.
IT PROVIDES NO REMEDY
Sin has never offered a remedy for itself. It cannot deliver one soul from its horrible bondage. All its poor victim can say is, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Whoever violates the law of Jehovah has been bitten by sin, and the fiery sting can be cured only by the great Physician. Sin can kill, it cannot save; sin can send its victim to hell to be punished, but it has no way of satisfying the demands of the law of God.
GOD’S REMEDY FOR SIN
Christ is God’s remedy for sin, and the only means of salvation to the lost. No intellectualism, no activity, no shining talents, no gifts of riches, nothing in heaven above nor on the earth beneath, can save a soul smitten with sin, except faith in Jesus Christ as the divine Son of God. It was for this reason the apostle declared, “And in none other is there salvation: for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved.”
The blood of Christ has redeeming power, and faith in that blood has regenerating power. Christ, His life and blood are the only remedies for sin. When the angel announced to Joseph that his wife Mary should bring forth a son, he said that “He shall save His people from their sins.”
SIN DEFINED
Sin is the transgression of the law of God. “Where no law is, there is no transgression.” Without the law, there can be no sin; for “by the law is the knowledge of sin.” No transgressor has the means of salvation in himself. As he cannot save himself, and as sin cannot save him, his salvation must come from another source.
When the fiery serpents bit the people in the wilderness, there seemed to be no remedy. No physician in Israel could cure this bitten people. Then Moses was commanded to make a brazen serpent, and lift it up on a pole, that all who had been bitten might look upon it and live.
In all that country, there was no medicine that would cure the poison of the serpents’ bite. There were no rational methods provided for the sick whereby they might save themselves. The only thing the dying person could do was to turn his eyes to the serpent; and when he looked, he was healed. So it is with the sin-sick soul. He cannot find any remedy for sin but Christ. There is nothing that can wash that stain from the soul but the blood of the Son of man.
THE EVIDENCE OF GOD’S LOVE
Christ is God’s free gift to the lost and perishing. To Him the poor despairing sinner may come for cleansing and power. Christ is God’s evidence to the world that He loves men even when they are in sin, and He desires to free them from sin. Christ is man’s Saviour from sin, and not his license to sin. Grace does not abound that sin may continue. Rather, grace abounds that the sinner may be free from sin; for we are charged, “Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Jesus Christ.”
“‘Worthy the Lamb that died,’ they cried;
‘Be exalted thus!’
‘Worthy the Lamb,’ our lips replied,
‘For He was slain for us.
Let all that dwell above the sky,
The air, the earth, the seas,
Conspire to lift Thy glories high,
And speak Thine endless grace.’”
L. H. E.
G. B. T
By G. B. T.
THERE is really no ground for a difference of opinion or practice in reference to the observance of the Sabbath. The Lord has said that “the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” This settles the question. The seventh day is either the Sabbath, or it is not. The Lord, who made the Sabbath, tells us which day it is—it is the seventh day of the weekly cycle. Nowhere in His holy book has He ever changed or altered these words. They stand fast forever, and if believed, will settle forever which day is the day to be observed as the Sabbath.
This is the first of four articles by Elder Porter on the general theme of the seal of God and the mark of the beast. In this article, he shows what the beast of Rev. 14:9-12 symbolizes. In his article next week, he will show what is the seal of God as contrasted with the mark of the beast. The next article following will show what the mark of the beast is, and his last article of the four will present God's last appeal to a lost world. God appeals to men to stand loyal to Him and to the truth, regardless of all danger and opposition, for the reward that comes at the great climax of the coming of Christ is well worth the struggle. EDITOR.
“AND the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. 14:9-12.
Since this message follows the first and the second angel's proclamation of verses 6-9, it must apply after the hour of God's Judgment is come, or during the time the Judgment is in session. From verse 14 we learn that it is the last call of the gospel before the coming of the Son of man upon the white cloud to reap the harvest of the earth. “And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud One sat like unto the Son of man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle.” Christ says, “The harvest is the end of the world.” Matt. 13:39.
This message must therefore be proclaimed to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, during the time of the Investigative Judgment, which began in 1844, and its work will close with the second coming of Christ to gather the harvest and establish His everlasting kingdom.
NO SUCH JUDGMENTS BEFORE
Such awful judgments as are here declared were never pronounced for the rejection of any other message. The unmingled wine of the wrath of God, poured out without mixture, will follow its rejection. On the other hand, those who accept this message are to be prepared to meet their returning Lord in peace, and to step over into the kingdom of glory without tasting death. From experiences of persecution, they pass under the reign of the Prince of peace. O, happy transition! O, the joy and delight of knowing that persecution, strife, hatred, on account of loyalty to God and faithfulness in the observance of His law, are gone forever!
Such are the vital issues that hang in the balance, as we study and decide upon our acceptance or rejection of this final warning message, which is now due to a world thoughtless of the impending calamity hanging over it, but stayed by the infinite hand of God — until the last warning is given, as in the days of Noah and Lot.
CAREFUL HEED SHOULD BE GIVEN
With such serious considerations involved in our personal decisions with reference to this announcement of the angel, we should come to the study of this subject with subdued hearts, and a humble prayer for personal guidance, lest, through a desire for the favor of the world, commercial gain, or worldly pleasure, we decide the wrong way, and at last find ourselves with that company who fall under the seven last plagues, calling upon the rocks and the mountains to fall on them, to hide them from the presence of the Lamb of God, when the great day of His wrath is come.
The message rightly received will place us where with the greatest delight we shall meet the Judgment of that day, and looking up into the face of Christ with a confidence born of a faithful adherence to His word, we shall say, “This is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us. . . . We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.”
The message begins thus: “If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation.” The questions, therefore, that demand our study are: What is the beast? What is his image? What is his mark, that is to be received either in the forehead or the hand, on account of which the judgments threatened befall the world? Can these questions be answered with certainty? — They can. Otherwise, how could there be any warning given to the world concerning them? The time is now ripe for that warning, and we may look with confidence for light at this time, by which the world may be warned, and those saved who will accept it.
WHAT IS THE BEAST?
Since the warning refers to the worship of God as opposed to the worship of the beast, it implies the application of force to compel man's worship of the beast instead of God. The beast is mentioned in the following texts: Revelation 13 and 17; Dan. 7:8, 20, 24, 25. In Rev. 13:6 it is said, “He opened His mouth in blasphemy against God.” Notice the following comparative table on this point:
1. “He shall speak great words against the Most High.” Verse 25. He had “a mouth speaking great things.” Verses 8, 11.
2. He shall “wear out the saints of the Most High; and he shall think to change the times and the law.” Verse 25, R. V.
3. He was to hold power and rule “until a time [a year] and times [two years] and the dividing of time [half a year]”—three and one half years, forty-two months, or 1,260 prophetic days, or years. Verse 25.
1. “He opened his mouth in blasphemy against God.” Verse 6. “And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies.” Verse 5.
2. “And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them. . . . And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him [or serve according to his perversion of law].” Verses 7, 8.
3. “And power was given unto him to continue forty and two months,” which, counting thirty days to the month, is 1,260 prophetic days, or years. Verse 5. In prophetic time a day is counted for a year. Eze. 4:6; Num. 14:34.
All agree that this beast represents the papacy. Every detail of the prophecy is borne out in the work of the papacy. It has arrogated to itself infallibility, and blasphemously assumed the titles “Lord God the pope,” and “vicegerent of the Son of God,” or “vicar of Christ.” It has been “drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.” It has worn out the saints of the Most High, and492has continued “a time and times and the dividing of time” (Dan. 7:25), “forty and two months” (Rev. 13:5), “a thousand two hundred and threescore days [years]” (Rev. 12:6).
TWELVE HUNDRED SIXTY YEARS OF SUPREMACY
Beginning with her supremacy in A. D. 538 by the overthrow of the Heruli, the Vandals, and the Ostrogoths, the three powers that opposed her plans, and which the prophet Daniel said would be plucked up by the roots at the time of her rise, she continued 1,260 years, when she was overthrown, and her supremacy over the nations was broken, in 1798. The French army under General Berthier entered the city of Rome in February of that year, captured Pope Pius VI, carried him a prisoner into France, and declared the city of Rome a republic.
A further description says that she shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change His times and laws. In doing this, the papacy exalted itself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, and directed the worship of all to itself. Paul says: “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” Thess. 2:3, 4.
A power which stands before the world with the character here described, is not difficult to identify. The great Matthew Hale, who is no mean judge of evidence, says: “If the apostolic description were inserted in the public Hue and Cry, any constable in the realm would be warranted in seizing wherever he found him, the bishop of Rome, as the head of that ‘mystery of iniquity.’”—“Two Babylons,” page 4.
No power on earth save the papacy has presented to the world all the details of character described in the foregoing prophecies. The papacy fulfills them all. History declares that upwards of fifty million of martyrs, lying cold and silent in death, witness to the horrible persecutions by which the papacy, while seeking to change the law of the Most High, wore out the saints.
The beast and the Son of God are engaged in direct conflict during the time of the giving of this message of the third angel. They both claim man's worship. Christ was the Lawgiver and man's Creator. He therefore claims man's worship. The papacy claims to have changed the law of the divine Lawgiver, and this is its pretext for claiming obedience. Let us study the law of God as related to the seal of God and the mark of the beast.
R. C. P.
QUESTION CORNER
By Milton C. Wilcox
CONDUCTED BY MILTON C. WILCOX
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA
NOTE.—This department is for the purpose of helping Bible students. Answers must of necessity be brief, often only suggestive, never exhaustive, never infallible only as they agree with the infallible Word. Such questions only will be answered as seem to minister to the mission of the paper. Questions of the same import cannot be answered repeatedly in the same volume. Name and address must be given, not for publication, but as evidence of good faith and to insure reply by letter if thought best. It is well always to inclose stamp, not stamped envelope, unless answer is desired by letter alone.
160 — EATING MEAT
Is it the Adventist belief that we should not eat meat? And is it not just as much harm to use butter, milk, and eggs? When one is sick, it is difficult to get anything that will take the place of broth, and Jesus ate fish. I wish to find out if the laws concerning the clean and the unclean meats were abolished, or is it a burden that some people have taken upon them in the last days? INQUIRER.
First of all, the Lord does not want us to make the matter of diet an unbearable burden. When He called the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, He gave them laws concerning clean and unclean meats. These laws are found in Leviticus 11, and repeated in Deuteronomy 14. The Lord did not at that time make, arbitrarily, certain animals clean and certain animals unclean. This distinction existed all the way through, as we learn in Genesis 7. What He did was to show what animals belonged to the unclean class and what belonged to the clean class. He evidently did this for the good of His people. He wanted them to abjure the unclean meats because these were unwholesome; and science has told us the same ever since.
The swine is still one of the most unwholesome of animals. Unhealthy itself, its meat is unwholesome to humanity. It is one of the first foods forbidden when one is sick. When disease or epidemic gets in among swine, it is more fatal than among other animals—hog cholera, for instance. The very term “scrofula” comes from a Latin word meaning “sow.”
But more than that, science has told us in these days, and experience has demonstrated, that the flesh of all animals is becoming more and more diseased. One of the reasons for this is doubtless the spreading of disease by the mixing of herds, until whole herds are contaminated, which could not take place anciently as in these days; and these in turn contaminate others, until it is almost impossible to find a herd that is not infected.
Some of the very best herds in the United States, kept purely and solely for scientific purposes, have been found to be half or more tubercular. It is for this reason that Seventh-day Adventists and other reformers have felt that it was better to discontinue a meat diet altogether. They do not contend that God’s word expressly enjoins that, but that it does favor it. This is shown in the fact that the original bill of fare contained no meat at all. See Genesis 1. It clearly intimates that men would do better to go back to the original diet of fruits, grains, nuts, and vegetables. And experience has demonstrated that this is true if such foods are properly prepared and man uses them temperately. But the Bible does not forbid in law the use of these things.
Jesus did eat fish. God’s servants did eat meat. We are told expressly that the law which enjoined meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal ordinances passed away. But He did give us a rule that is just as binding as any of the rules of the past—found in 1 Cor. 10:31: “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”
That is the rule that the Christian ought to follow. There may be times when one may be so placed that he must eat things that he naturally would not choose. In such case, let him do it temperately and properly, to the glory of God, believing that the Lord will overrule those things for good. If he is able to select his diet, let him do that, not with the idea of burdening himself, not with the idea of feeling that if he lives on such and such a diet, he is made righteous by it, for “the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” So declares the apostle in that wonderful chapter, Romans 14.
The true, intelligent Christian will endeavor to select just those things which are best for him; which will give him the strongest body, the clearest mind, and the most spiritual and responsive affections. Flesh-eating makes one gross. Intemperate eating and drinking of any kind of food, however good, has the same effect. The Christian should aim in all things to render the best and fullest service to His Master.
There is another thing connected with the vegetarian diet, or the diet of fruit, grains, and vegetables: It is less expensive than the meat diet. It does not call for such frequent meals as does a meat diet. The fact has been demonstrated, again and again, that those who live on a vegetarian diet can endure more than those who live on a flesh diet. Everything in science, all the general teaching of the Word, the experience of humanity, and the experience of Christian life, speak for a vegetable diet. It seems to us that the intelligent, faithful Christian will follow the better way, and will take as instruction that which God has Himself clearly revealed in His word, if not always in law, in principles as strong as law.
We would commend our readers to some of the excellent vegetarian cook books, and also to the little tract published by this house, “The Danger of Flesh-Eating,” giving the experience of a doctor and an editor.
161 — SUNDAY IN GERMANY
Some time ago, in the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, Mr. Hall stated that one publishing house in Europe was so pressed with work that they had to work Sunday, and applied to the German government, and received permission so to do. Is Germany so intolerant that men are not allowed to work on Sunday without special permission? A. K.
It is in Germany as it is in most of the countries of the Old World. All of them have Sunday laws; and of course if work is to be done on Sunday, special permission must be received from the authorities. Of course there ought not to be such a thing as a Sunday law in a Protestant country; but it can be said of Germany, as of other Protestant countries, that they did not come out into the fullness of light so as to separate utterly church and state. Sunday is one of the heritages that was left from the Roman Catholic Church. If Germany and England too, had gone on in their reformation until creeds had been entirely swept away, and the word of God had become dominant, it would have had no such thing as Sunday laws on the statute books of professed Protestant countries.
162 — THE CHANGE OF TIME
Who changed the time in the starting of the day from sundown to twelve o’clock at night? R. P. W.
No one knows just when the day began to be reckoned at midnight. It came through the Egyptians into Rome. That is about all that we know about it. God’s time is just where it always was, and the day begins just where it always did, at sunset,—the natural time of the beginning of the day, the natural time of the ending of the day. We have never as yet seen any record as to when the Egyptians or the Romans began to reckon the beginning of the day at midnight.
Diet in an Automobile Factory
By David Paulson
Mr. Ford Inaugurates a Department of Dietetics — Finds We Waste Much Food — If We Desire Good Health, We Must Feed Ourselves Right
THINK of the master mind that could organize a factory so as to turn out two complete automobiles every minute. Yet that is what is actually accomplished in Ford’s factory. In this great enterprise, “efficiency” has become a word to conjure by. It is natural that a man who has brains enough to make two automobiles every minute should be able to discover that there is no close relationship between what his men eat at home and the kind of work they turn out in his factory. So he has recently established a department of dietetics. The thousands of his workmen will be taught how to eat more sensibly; and it is estimated that even from a financial standpoint, they will save a million dollars a year. For remember that the average man spends more for food than for any other one item; and in most instances, fifty per cent of this is worse than wasted. Thirty cents is often spent for a certain food, when five cents would have purchased the same amount of nourishment.
EAT THREE TIMES TOO MUCH
Mr. Ford says: “We eat three times as much as we need. The other two thirds is not only unnecessary, but positively harmful to us. We wouldn’t feed an engine three times as much fuel as it needs; yet we pay out good money to gourmandize at the expense of both our income and our health.” The last few spoonfuls eaten at a meal are the cause of all the trouble for the man who overeats. That little additional amount day after day overtaxes the system, and frequently makes the difference between efficiency and inefficiency, clear-headedness and stupidity. On this point Mr. Ford says, “We cram dessert down our throats when we don’t need it, because it tastes good.” And Mr. Ford is right. Too often, after the demands of the system have been met, and the appetite has been fully satisfied, when the heavy dessert is served, we are assured that we will “just taste it” and discover “how good it is,” we will want to eat it.
AN IMPORTANT DISCOVERY
Mr. Ford has discovered a great temperance truth that was demonstrated abundantly to my own satisfaction years ago in my experience with drunkards in darkest Chicago. “I have the greatest sympathy for a man addicted to liquor,” says Ford. “His appetite is a disease, caused in many cases by unwise eating. That he craves strong drink is often not his fault.”
Mustard, pepper, and all these condiments and fiery spices train and develop artificial tastes and appetites, which are no longer satisfied with plain, simple foods and drinks, but absolutely demand still more stimulating foods and drinks. In other words, they create a thirst that the town pump cannot satisfy, and nothing but the saloon will quench it.
The food served as free lunches is always of the kind that develops a demand for the saloon keeper’s wet goods. But unfortunately, the same kind of stuff is served in too many Christian homes, and even to those who are heroically struggling against the awful liquor thirst. Too frequently, the cook is in partnership with both the saloon keeper and the undertaker, for unconsciously she makes business for both.
SICKNESS IS A HARVEST
Dr. A. S. Gray, a writer on health topics for the Chicago Daily News, has well said that if one eats and drinks correctly, breathes pure air, and has the right amount of mental and physical exercise, he will not fall a victim to the disease germs that surround him, or even to those slumbering within his own body; in other words, that sickness is not, as most people suppose, an accident or an incident, but the deliberate harvest from our own sowing.
Ill health does not rain down ready-made from heaven, but is the natural result of violation of nature’s laws. Some one has said it is a greater disgrace to be sick than to be in prison, for the prisoner has broken a man-made law, while the invalid has violated a God-made law. However, it is only fair to admit that nature compels some of us to pay up our parents’ debts.
WORSHIPS CUSTOM AND HABIT
Professor Mendel, of Yale University, says that in matters of diet, the average mortal “worships the dictates of custom and habit in matters pertaining to his nutritive welfare.” He eats what he likes, for the same reason that the pickpocket steals. Both may be fortunate enough, for a time, to escape punishment; but sooner or later, they generally come to grief. Then one goes to the hospital, the other to jail.
Recent laboratory experiments have demonstrated that even if rats are fed all they can eat of a rich and abundant diet, if there is one necessary food element lacking, they will speedily develop sore eyes, lung disease, and other distressing symptoms; but as soon as the dietetic deficiency is corrected, the symptoms disappear. For exactly the same reason, frequently children in the slums, and sometimes those living on the boulevards, have sore eyes. But instead of having their diet corrected, the doctor is called; and he drops medicine in their eyes, instead of educating the cook.
God’s Eternal Ordinance
By Eliza H. Morton
By ELIZA H. MORTON
AN ordinance is an appointment of time to be observed. See Ex. 12:14, also dictionary. The Mosaic or ceremonial law contained many ordinances. 2 Chron. 33:8. These were types, or shadows, pointing to Christ; and when He came, they ceased, because fulfilled in Him. Eph. 2:15; Col. 2:14, 17; Heb. 9:1, 10.
There is, however, one ordinance which is in no sense a type or a shadow. It was instituted before sin came into our world, before ordinances were necessary to point to a Saviour. This ordinance is designated as God’s observation (Mal. 3:14, margin), because He observed it. God gave it to His people as a memorial of creation, as a safeguard against idolatry and its kindred abominations. “Therefore shall ye keep Mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein; I am the Lord your God.” Lev. 18:30.
SPECIFIC AGAINST IDOLATRY
Those who remember that the Lord, who made the heavens and the earth in six days, and rested the seventh day, is the true God, will not bow down to false gods, or follow in the ways of those who thus worship. Ex. 20:10, 11.
Moses, Aaron, and Samuel kept the ordinance—the Sabbath—that God gave to them. Ps. 99:6, 7. The prophet Isaiah, looking down the stream of time, saw something that made him exclaim, “The earth also494is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance [God’s Sabbath], broken the everlasting covenant.” Isa. 24:5.
Again the prophet speaks, referring to a message to the professed church of God in the last days: “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show My people their transgression; and the house of Jacob their sin.” Isa. 58:1.
That the special sin committed is one of ignorance is shown by the expression, “Yet they seek Me daily, and delight to know My ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance [Sabbath] of their God.” That the message is concerning a restoration of the true Sabbath is clearly shown in the last verses of the same chapter. A blessing is pronounced upon those who cease to trample the Sabbath under their feet.
Latter-day conditions are also shown in Malachi 3 and 4. Some of the Sabbath reformers are represented as saying, “What profit is it that we have kept His ordinance [the Sabbath], and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?” This shows a sifting time even among those proclaiming the truth for the last days. God, however, recognizes His own, and promises to number them among His jewels just before the day comes that shall burn as an oven. Mal. 3:14–18; 4:1.
