p. 16 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 11. (3/12/1896)

Publications on the Sabbath

THE LORD'S DAY, THE TEST OF THE AGES

Presents in the briefest, simplest manner a part of the Bible evidence concerning both sides of the Sabbath question. The subject is treated in a new and interesting way. Fully illustrated with diagrams and original illustrations. 128 pages, paper covers, just out, price 15 cents.

ABIDING SABBATH AND LORD'S DAY

A pointed review of two of the best recent productions for the defense of the Sunday sabbath. The best arguments in support of Sunday are undoubtedly presented in this book. 173 pages, paper covers. Price 20 cents.

CHANGE OF THE SABBATH

A brief treatise answering the question so often asked, “Who Changed the Sabbath?” 218 pages, paper covers. Price 20 cents.

NATURE AND OBLIGATION OF THE SABBATH OR THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT

A candid and thoroughly scriptural treatise on this important question. 96 pages, paper covers. Price 10 cents.

THE SABBATH AND THE LAW

This work covers the Sabbath institution from Eden created to Eden restored, and its arguments are clear and forcible and convincing. 192 pages, paper covers. Price 20 cents.

THE HISTORY OF THE SABBATH

An exhaustive treatise on the Sabbath question, in which every passage in the Bible which has any connection with the Sabbath, either in the Old or New Testament, is examined at length. It is a veritable mine of information, both Biblical and Historical, on this subject. Three volumes, paper covers. Price $1.00 per set.

... Send for Catalogue containing Price List of other . . Publications on this Subject.

Pacific Press Publishing Co.

Oakland, Cal.

Kansas City, Mo. N. Y. City, N. Y.

Interlinear Greek-English New Testament

With the Authorized Version conveniently printed in the margin for ready reference, together with the various readings of the Greek text of the editions of Elzevir 1624, Griesbach, Lachman, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Alford, and Wordsworth.

LOVE,

Bible scholars know should replace the word “charity” in 1st Corinthians XIII. There are thousands of similar instances. In all such instances that other word, “the word that illumines,” may be found at a moment’s notice, and on the instant in the INTERLINEAR NEW TESTAMENT.

The text is well printed, with a PROPERLY ACCENTED GREEK TEXT, and where the arrangement of the word-for-word rendering is likely to be mistaken by a person unacquainted with the Greek idiom, the words are numbered to assist the student. It will be of real help to any Bible student.

SPECIAL INSTALLMENT TERMS TO CLERGYMEN.

Neatly bound in dark olive green cloth, stamped in gold. 670 pages.

PRICE $3.00, POSTPAID.

Address,

PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING CO.,

Kansas City, Mo., and New York OAKLAND, CAL.

“The Saints’ Inheritance.”

(Spanish.) Contents: 1. The Inheritance of the Saints. 2. The Millennium, or the Reign of a Thousand Years. 3. The End of the Wicked. 4. Immortality through Christ. 5. The Importance of the Prophecies. 6. The Hope of the Christian. 7. The Judgment. Paper; price, 5 cents. Address, PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING CO., Oakland, Cal.

Who Hath Required This?

The Christian Work of the 20th ultimo, in speaking of “The Lenten Season,” says that “while it is true that religion is not a matter of the observance of special days or weeks or months, it is also true that from the time of its very first organization the Christian church has set apart a specific time to the worship of God. This it did when it substituted Sunday for the Jewish Sabbath.” The parallel is a striking one. Both the forty days of Lent and the Sunday festival are pagan in origin, and, as Christian institutions, rest upon the same authority—that of the traditions of the church—an authority purely papal. The Christian Work further says: “The fact that the Lenten season is growing in favor, and that now many Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Methodists, and others delight to join with their Episcopal and Lutheran brethren in observing Lent, shows that the season meets a real want; and that it does do this is evidenced by the fact that for nearly three centuries it has been found so useful by two such bodies of Christians as the Episcopalians and Lutherans.” But what better are these two bodies because of Lent? The spirituality of 40 days ought to be that of 365 days; and if it is not, the lack of it for 325 days will prove a similar lack of it for 40 days. Well may the Lord say to Israel now as to Israel of old, “Who hath required this at your hand?” See Isa. 1: 11-15.

CONTENTS OF THIS NUMBER.

Editorial.

A Consuming Fire (Notes).....1, 2

The Golden Rule.....2

The Close of Probation.....2, 3

The Free Gift (Rom. 5: 12-19), E. J. W.....3-5

Let Christ Draw.....5

Question Corner.—No. 280, End of the Law for Righteousness—No. 281, Isa. 65 : 20—No. 282, Who Is Taken Out of the Way?—No. 283, Fasting.....5

Poetry.

The Two Seasons, CLYDE SCOTT CHASE.....6

Our Future Home, MRS. M. S. BARTON.....9

For Me, MARY C. WILSON.....11

General Articles.

Comforted by the Spirit, WM. COVERT.....6

God’s Law Immutable, MRS. E. G. WHITE.....6

How They Exchanged News, PARRIE L. H. ROBERSON.....7

The Outlook.—Increase of Crime—The Sectarian School Question.....9

The Fireside.—Faithfulness in Little Things—What to Teach Our Boys—A Drop of Water—Curious Books—An Accommodating Empress—Nothing to Fear.....9, 10

Missions.—A Bible Shop at Amara, Arabia—Doing Her Work—Missionary News—Our Work and Workers.....11, 12

International Sabbath School Lesson.—The Character and Triumph of God’s Remnant People (Lesson 13, Sabbath, March 28, 1896).....12, 13

International Sunday School Lesson.—Review (Lesson 13, Sunday, March 29, 1896).....13

News and Notes.....14

Publishers.....15

Mrs. White on the Immutability of God's Law

THE article by Mrs. White on the immutability of God's law contains important and instructive truth. That alone is worth the price of the paper.

Editorial Pages on Important Subjects This Week

By Editor

We give five pages to editorial this week, but the importance of the subjects discussed seemed to demand it. We hope they may be studied and heeded.

Armenian Tracts Received from Constantinople

Armenian Tracts.— We have received from our brethren in Constantinople three different tracts in the Armenian language. The titles of these tracts in English are, “The Prophetic Light,” “Bible Facts on the Sabbath Question,” “Why Not Found Out Before?” May the Lord, through these and other Armenian publications, of which, we believe, there are now ten, bring many souls to the light of truth.

Living Issues for Pulpit Treatment

Among the suggested subjects, or “Living Issues for Pulpit Treatment,” in recent numbers of the Homiletic Review, are, “How to Live on $500 a Year,” “Debts of the Nation,” “The Tramp Problem,” “Improvement of the Public Roads,” “Sales of Beer in This Country,” “The Ball and Chain for Tramps.” In fact, the above are all that are suggested in two numbers. We would like to suggest another,—“The Gospel of Christ.”

Our Next Symposium

By Editor

The next number of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES will deal almost wholly with the subject of civil government and the Gospel, under the general heading “God and Cæsar.” It will be by no means exhaustive; for it deals with the Gospel of Christ, which is inexhaustible. But it will, we hope, present important principles from a Bible view point which will enable our readers to rightly decide some of the perplexing problems of church and state now before the world. A theocracy, false and true, Christ’s teachings and example, the Golden Rule and its application, the province of civil government, and the duties of Christians towards civil rulers, will be among the subjects discussed. Let it have a wide circulation. The price for extra copies will be two cents apiece.

SOME CONGRESSMEN SEE IT.

As it becomes more and more apparent that church and state union is practically fastened upon the United States Government, men are beginning to see wherein the seeds of the iniquity were sown almost in the beginning, and its principles have been in a measure fostered all the way down. But they have been brought to see it only through the increasing boldness of its demands, which are apparently based on a consciousness of a secure footing. In a recent discussion in Congress of the question of sectarian appropriations, Representative McGuire, of California, uttered the following pointed sentiment:—

“The Constitution of the United States forbids Congress to establish religion—commands that it shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. Let me suggest to my friends who are so eager to divorce church and state—and none favor it more strongly than I—where a first step should be taken in putting this provision of the Constitution into operation. There is an establishment of religion right here in this House, and repeated appropriations of public money for the establishment and promotion of religion here, which, in my judgment, we ought to stop before we take up the subject of charitable appropriations to sectarian hospitals and asylums. The election of a Chaplain of this House is an act representing an establishment of religion. You can not select a Chaplain to pray for heavenly guidance for this House without having first determined that he is a minister of the true religion. How worse than useless, nay, how terrible it would be to select a minister of a false religion to serve as a medium of communication between this House and the Almighty. His appointment would be an insult to the Divinity, and his prayers would be blasphemies, bringing curses instead of blessings. We do necessarily establish a religion in the election of a Chaplain to conduct religious services for the House, and we do it in defiance of the constitutional provisions which absolutely forbid it. We have no right to do it, and no right to appropriate a dollar of public money for this purpose.

“I make these suggestions in no spirit of hostility to the churches nor to any church. I recognize their great power for good among men. I believe they will be stronger and greater when they shall be entirely separated from the state, and I believe that the state will likewise be made stronger and better and purer by such separation. This is a civil government, deriving nothing from the church, and capable of giving nothing to it. It should be strictly non-sectarian—professing no religion, but respecting and equally protecting all.”

Some congressmen recognize the church and state principle in the government chaplaincies, the appropriations for Catholic and other religious institutions, the Sunday laws, etc., etc., but the trouble with most of this class is that they think the evil may be overcome by exposure and political opposition. They will find, however, that it is here to stay, and to grow and complete the work of which the prophet speaks in Rev. 13:11-17. It will only be destroyed in the general wreck of human governments at the coming of the Lord.

The Right Kind of Preaching.

In his article, “The Preacher and Preaching for the Present Crisis,” in the December Homiletic Review, D. S. Gregory, D.D., LL.D., emphasizes, among other good points, the following essentials of effectual preaching:—

“First, the divine authority of the Bible as the word of God, by which all light, whether in the church or in the world, is to be judged; and the supreme and sovereign authority of God himself, the Creator, Law-giver, and Judge of the world. This is required in order to restore the faith shaken by the senseless materialism and criticism of the passing time, and to give God his rightful place back of law and conscience and life. . . . Secondly, the requirements and obligations of the law of God. This is requisite, if sinners are ever to understand and appreciate their lost condition, and their need of the Bible salvation as something infinitely different from a mere sentimental salvation, and are ever to ‘flee from the wrath to come,’ to find refuge in Christ as their Saviour. The dreadful lawlessness and consciencelessness of the age emphasize the call for a ‘law-work’ as profound and thorough as in the age . . . when Paul had to deal with Roman sinners in his epistle—and for law-work with a trumpet-call to repentance added. Thirdly, the Bible teaching concerning justification by faith and regeneration by the Holy Spirit as the only way, in any age, to vital piety, and a genuine Christian life.”

This kind of preaching would be Biblical and apostolical; and if generally adopted, it would also settle many of the religio-political questions now agitating the world, chief of which is the Sabbath question. Such preaching in sincerity would lead to the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath, the badge of our Lord’s power and authority.

How Moses Knew.

How did Moses learn about the creation? There was no man living when the heavens and earth were created, so that he could not have learned the story from man. Those who assume that he compiled the narrative from various existing documents, do not help the matter at all, for no man who lived before Moses had any better chance to learn about creation than he had. Even Adam had no more personal knowledge of the facts of creation than Moses had; for creation was complete when Adam first saw the light. He saw nothing of the process himself. Then how did Moses know what to write? Did he imagine it?—Not at all; he wrote just what he knew, because the Lord told him. He who created the heavens and the earth, “made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel” (Ps. 103:7), for the Lord spoke to him mouth to mouth (Num. 12:8). This is the way the entire Bible was written, “for no prophecy ever came by the will of man; but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Ghost.”

Preachers, Reformers, and the Lure of Politics

Not only are many preachers trying to crowd themselves into politics, but social and political reformers of all kinds, seeing that such is the case, are endeavoring to force themselves in. For instance, the Plain Citizens gives a two hundred dollar prize for the best essay on the “Philosophy of Dumbness,” showing why Ministers of Religion, University Professors, Politicians, Mugwumps, Socialists, Salvation Soldiers, Christian Endeavorers, and Leaders of Trades Unions refrain from pronouncing themselves on the subject of a national attempt to abolish compulsory poverty. Why politicians, trades unions, etc., and other secular organizations do not pronounce themselves on the subject, we do not know, but we do know that this is not a part of the mission which Christ has given his ministers. Their mission is higher and better. See Matt. 28: 19, 20; 2 Cor. 5: 18-21.

Some Living Questions on Sunday Laws and Church-State Union

By Editor

Some Living Questions.—Are Sunday laws Christian? Is a union of church and state proper? Ought Christianity and Christian institutions to be supported, protected, or promoted by civil law? These are living questions just now. Multitudes are in the valley of decision. Many are deciding wrongfully. Millions of pages of literature are educating the people in the wrong direction. We believe that the principles set forth in the next issue of this paper will prove a help in determining these questions. Will not our friends help us in giving it a wide circulation?