Signs of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 49. (12/23/1886)

Signs of the Times

Dec 23, 1886

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 23, 1886

General Articles.

By Mrs. E. G. White

Cain and Abel Tested.

BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.

(Concluded.)

THESE two brothers, Cain and Abel, represent the whole human family. They were both tested on the point of obedience, and all will be tested as they were. Abel bore the proving of God. He revealed the gold of a righteous character, the principles of true godliness. But Cain's religion had not a good foundation; it rested on human merit. He brought to God something in which he had a personal interest,—the fruits of the ground, which had been cultivated by his toil; and he presented his offering as a favor done to God, through which he expected to secure the divine approval. He obeyed in building an altar, obeyed in bringing a sacrifice; but it was only a partial obedience. The essential part, the recognition of the need of a Redeemer, was left out.

As far as birth and religious instruction were concerned, these brothers were equal, though Cain, being the first-born, was in some respects the favored one. Both were sinners, and both acknowledged the claims of God as an object of worship. To all outward appearance, their religion was the same up to a certain point of time; but the Bible history shows us that there was a time when the difference between the two became very great. This difference lay in the obedience of one and the disobedience of the other.

The apostle says that Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. Abel grasped the great principles of redemption. He saw himself a sinner, and he saw sin, and its penalty, death, standing between his soul and communion with God. He brought the slain victim, the sacrificed life, thus acknowledging the claims of the law which had been transgressed. Through the shed blood he looked to the future Sacrifice, Christ dying on the cross of Calvary; and, trusting in the atonement that was there to be made, he had the witness that he was righteous and his offering accepted.

How did Abel know so well the plan of salvation?—Adam taught it to his children and grandchildren. And the apostle says that "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." After Adam had sinned, a feeling of terror seized him. A constant dread was upon him; shame and remorse tortured his soul. In this state of mind he wished to be as far removed as possible from the presence of God, whom he had so loved to meet in his Eden home. But the Lord followed this conscience-stricken man, and while he condemned the sin of which Adam had been guilty, gave him words of gracious promise. In pronouncing the curse upon the deceiver, God had said: "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."

This was the first gospel sermon ever preached to fallen man; this promise was the star of hope, illuminating the dark and dismal future of the race. Adam gladly received the welcome assurance of deliverance, and diligently instructed his children in the way of the Lord. This promise was presented in close connection with the altar of sacrificial offerings. The altar and the promise stand side by side, and one casts clear beams of light upon the other, showing that the justice of an offended God could be appeased only by the death of his beloved Son. The bleeding victim consuming on the altar illustrated Adam's teachings, and thus the sight of the eyes deepened the impression made by the hearing of the ear.

Abel heard these precious lessons, and to him they were like seed sown on good ground. Cain also heard them. He had the same privileges as his brother, but he did not improve them. He ventured to go contrary to the commands of God; and the result is strongly presented before us. Cain was not the victim of an arbitrary purpose; one was not elected to be chosen of God, and the other to be rejected. The whole matter rested upon doing or not doing as God had said.

In the case of Cain and Abel we have a type of two classes that will exist in the world till the close of time; and this type is worthy of close study. There is a marked difference in the characters of these two brothers, and the same difference is seen in the human family to-day. Cain represents those who carry out the principles and works of Satan, by worshiping God in a way of their own choosing. Like the leader whom they follow, they are willing to render partial obedience, but not entire submission to God. Man, in the pride of his heart, would like to believe that he can confer some favor upon God; that our heavenly Father may be the receiver, and not always the giver. But God will not be bribed. He says: "Every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills." "If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; for the world is mine, and the fullness thereof." Man has nothing to give that he has not first received from God.

The Cain class of worshipers includes by far the largest number; for every false religion that has been invented has been based on the Cain principle, that man can depend upon his own merits and righteousness for salvation.

The great controversy from Adam's day down to our time has been on the point of obedience or opposition to God's law; and every soul will be found on the side of the obedient or the rebellious. Satan, who was once a mighty and lofty angel in Heaven, is the leader of the rebellion against God. From the first it has been his object to dethrone God, by breaking down the rules of his government. He had induced angels to join him in Heaven; and when Adam sinned, he thought to carry the whole human race on his side. The declaration of God, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed," was the first intimation Satan received that the world would not be given over to his dark sway, but that man would have a Redeemer. There is naturally no enmity between fallen angels and fallen men. Both are evil; and evil, wherever it exists, will league against the good.

Man was promised a Redeemer, and was granted a second trial, to see if he would develop a righteous character; but he is left a free moral agent. And in all ages the multitudes have accepted the Cain principle, and have maintained that a partial obedience is all that is necessary. They have claimed a right to the favor of God, while disregarding his positive commands. This is the position of the Christian world to-day. God has given men a code of laws, and the fourth precept of that code enjoins the observance of the Sabbath as a memorial of creation. There is but one Sabbath of the Lord, and that is the seventh day. Special injunctions have been laid upon men to remember this day to keep it holy; but many show their contempt for the divine authority by keeping, in its place, a day which God has given them as a day of labor.

Those who cherish error have ever manifested a spirit of intolerance toward the obedient children of God. They are actuated by the spirit that led Cain to slay his brother. "And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous." Abel, the first martyr, was not old and feeble, but a youth, full of life and vigor; but he lay down his life for the truth of God. And all the way down through the ages there have been some who have lost their lives because of their adherence to religious principles.

Our Saviour himself was a victim of religious intolerance. "He came unto his own; but his own received him not." Had he praised and exalted men, had he called corruption purity, and given license to human creeds by teaching for doctrines the commandments of men, they would have received him gladly. But his zeal for God, the righteous fervor with which he

denounced every abomination that was done in the land, and, above all, the sinless purity of his own character, aroused the bitter hatred of the "whited sepulchers" who deceived the people by the appearance of great sanctity. Satan and evil angels united with evil men to destroy from the earth the champion of truth. There was a bruising of the heel of the seed of the woman, when Christ was scorned as a deceiver, and was hunted down and put to death as a criminal; but could Satan have induced him to commit one sin, there would have been a bruising of the head, and the world would have been abandoned to the power of the prince of darkness.

The religion of Christ is for men to accept, with all its inconveniences. They may invent an easier way; but it will not lead to the city of God, the saints' secure abode. Only those who "do his commandments," will have "right to the tree of life," and "enter in through the gates into the city."

NOT NOW.

By Alice Cary

THE path of duty I clearly trace, I stand with conscience face to face, And all her pleas allow; Calling and crying the while for grace,— "Some other time, and some other place: O, not to-day; not now!"

I know 'tis a demon boding ill, I know I have power to do if I will, And I put my hand to th' plough; I have fair, sweet seeds in my barn, and lo! When all the furrows are ready to sow, The voice says, "O, not now!"

My peace I sell at the price of woe; In heart and in spirit I suffer so, The anguish wrings my brow; But still I linger and cry for grace,— "Some other time, and some other place: O, not to-day; not now!"

I talk to my stubborn heart and say, The work I must do I will do to-day; I will make to the Lord a vow: And I will not rest and I will not sleep Till the vow I have vowed I rise and keep; And the demon cries, "Not now!"

And so the days and the years go by, And so I register lie upon lie, And break with Heaven my vow; For when I would boldly take my stand, This terrible demon stays my hand,— "O, not to-day; not now!" —Alice Cary.

POPERY AND SOCIALISM.

The situation is farther complicated by another and very formidable fact. A new foe to liberty has suddenly sprung up in the leading countries of Europe. I refer to that atheistic socialism which has had so rapid and portentous a development of late, in France, in Italy, and more especially in Germany, and even in Russia. I remember the historian Ranke, whom I had the privilege of meeting in Berlin sixteen years ago, describing it to me as a church-rising against the church. His description was not untruthful; for socialism has a creed after a fashion, and its devotees are knit together by a sacred bond, the belief even that as the children of one mother, Nature, to wit, all things are a common heritage. Socialism, like the Papacy, attacks the modern State, but it attacks it from a different point. It would remodel the world through the preliminary process of destroying it. It seeks to abolish property, overturn government, and extinguish the idea of a personal God.

One would think that so terrible a programme of reform would find but few adherents in so educated a country as Germany. And yet it is otherwise. At the parliamentary election of nineteen years ago, less than a score of socialist votes were enrolled in the city of Berlin. At next election, not fewer than 36,000 such votes were tendered, and at the election of 1877, the number of socialist votes in the city of Berlin alone had risen to 56,000. The number of socialists in Germany is estimated at about half a million (450,000). This fact may well cause serious alarm on the part of every friend of order. And yet, when one thinks of the religious condition of Germany, one cannot well see how it can be otherwise. Half its people, speaking generally, never open the Bible, never go to church, never come under the influence of religious ordinances. Here is a vast void at the heart of the German nation, and what can rush in to fill that void, but just some such atheistic system as we see filling it.

This vastly enhances the dangers of the situation. We behold the European world falling asunder, dividing into two great camps. On the one side we have the Governments and their friends; on the other, communism and its adherents. The ultramontanes are sure to come in between the two, and to play the same game they have been playing of late years in the British Senate. The Papacy will ally itself now with the one and now with the other, just as it may subserve its own interests for the moment. It will serve both parties that it may betray and destroy both, and remain in the end master of the situation. It will go to the kings, and it will say to them, "These men will uproot everything. Neither order, nor property, nor religion, will they leave standing. I alone can save you from their fury. But in order that I may be able to save you, you must renew your former concordats with me. You must give free scope to my canon law in your kingdoms; you must give all liberty to my bishops and priests in dealing with your subjects. If you do that, I will tame these wild spirits; I will speedily quell these revolted masses, and lay them bound in chains at the foot of your thrones. But if you decline my bargain I shall retire, and then the deluge will inevitably roll in and overwhelm you."

If the governments of Europe, in the hope of escaping the danger, should cast themselves into the arms of the Papacy, their alliance with the ultramontanes will bring Europe again under a great despotism. If, on the other hand, the kings should repel the advances of the Papacy, and the ultramontanes combine their power with the communists, the attack on law and order will become yet more formidable, and will be pushed on with persistent and vengeful vigor. The church of Rome will show that she knows how to chastise those who will not permit her to rule them, and destroy those who decline to be saved by her. A great revolution will flow over Europe. And the Papacy having flung throne and law into the abyss, the ultramontanes will grapple with the communists, and either conquer or be conquered by them.

The Papacy; Its Position, Policy, and Prospects.—No 4.

It is further noteworthy that this whole scheme of the subjugation of Great Britain to the Vatican is led by the Jesuits. So Dr. Manning lately assured us. This body is again all-powerful in the church of Rome. Even the Pope must obey them. They walk to and fro with silent foot in our country; they enter our houses, corrupt our families, teach in our schools, write articles in our newspapers, create strifes in our churches, preach evangelical sermons in our pulpits, and in a hundred ways urge onward the work of subjugating Great Britain, and through Britain the world, to the yoke of the Papacy. The latest news from Rome is that the newly-erected bishoprics in India are to be filled with Jesuits.

There remains but one other statement, and it is, perhaps, the most distressing and humiliating of all. This vast propaganda is fed by our own money. The sum total of grants from Great Britain now given for popish uses year by year, is one million two hundred thousand pounds. That one million two hundred thousand pounds we give for our own undoing.

A CATACLYSM APPROACHING.

By Rev. J. A. Wylie

The affairs of Europe appear to me to be tending at this hour to a great cataclysm: a cataclysm of despotism, should the kings and the ultramontanes combine; a cataclysm of revolution, should the ultramontanes and communists contract alliance. There is only one thing that can prevent such a catastrophe, even the rapid diffusion of the gospel in Europe. But I see nothing at this hour to justify the hope of that. Neither the populations nor the governments of Europe show any great desire for the word of God, or any disposition to receive the gospel. Till the gospel enter there can be no national conscience, and till a national conscience be created there can be no basis, I do not say for piety, but for civil order and constitutional government. So far as I can see, no true basis for permanent liberty has yet been laid by the continental kingdoms. They are in the presence of forces to which they have no opposing element of equal or greater power and how they can escape being broken up, I do not very well see. They have the Commune beneath them, they have Rome above them, and between these nether and upper mill-stones it may yet happen that they will be ground to powder.—Rev. J. A. Wylie, LL.D., of Edinburgh.

Little Things.

By Methodist Recorder

THE round of life's duties is made up of little things. But few persons have either the ability or the opportunity to do any great act, by which their country and their race are especially benefited, and their own names rendered illustrious. Such acts are reserved for the few, and the occasion for them but seldom occurs. They are exceptional in their character, and are not connected with the every-day duties of life. The things which constitute the sum of duty and enjoyment are little things, connected with our ordinary pursuits and daily and hourly intercourse with each other. Considered separately they may appear to be insignificant, but regarded in the aggregate, they exert the most powerful influence upon our own character and happiness, and also upon the character and happiness of others. . . .

In our daily intercourse with each other, in the family and in general society, we cannot estimate the effects produced by little acts of kindness, by words of sympathy and encouragement, by looks of interest and approval, and by a thousand little attentions expressive of the kindly feelings of the heart. It is these little things that imperceptibly draw us to each other and make sunshine on our pathway. . . .

So also in the church. It is not the performance of some great and difficult duty that contributes most to our usefulness. Such duties may seldom be required of us. But it is the cheerful performance of little acts, prompted by love to the Master, in our daily and hourly intercourse with each other. . . . Here every Christian, however humble his talents may be, has presented before him a wide field for usefulness. Opportunities for doing good, in a quiet and unobtrusive way, are constantly occurring, and these should not be neglected in hope of being able at some future time to perform some important work of far-reaching influence. He that is faithful in that which is least, will receive the divine approval equally with him who is faithful in much. Do not, then, neglect the little duties of every-day life. Their influence will be felt, if not like the dashing showers of rain, like the noiseless, gentle dew, which nightly descends to refresh and cheer the earth.—Methodist Recorder.

The Victor.

By S. S. Times

To BE silenced is not always to have the worst of an argument. When Hananiah, in the name of Jehovah, by eloquent speech and no less eloquent symbol, demonstrated that Jeremiah's prophecies were all wrong, we read that the prophet Jeremiah quietly "went his way," leaving his opponent to exult as a victor among the priests and the people who thronged the temple. A man who knew that he was on the Lord's side, and that he had spoken the truth of the Lord, could afford to do that. The bitter sequel showed whether Hananiah or Jeremiah was right. There are occasions when it is the part of a wise man to follow this precedent of Jeremiah. When one is in the midst of scoffers who have demonstrated to their satisfaction that there is no God, that the Bible is a fiction and that immortality is a dream, it is sometimes better, having once delivered his testimony, quietly to go his way, rather than to spend precious time in fruitless parleying. What does it matter if the enemies of God's truth enjoy an occasional cheap triumph? The truth itself is sure beyond the reach of arguments, however brilliant, of sneers, however cutting, of gibes, however witty. Knowing that, the Christian can afford to go upon his way, even though, for a time, it seems as if he were silenced, and to wait quietly for the time which will justify all truth and put to shame all falsehood.—S. S. Times.

CHARITY is the scope of all God's commands.

Day by Day.

EVERYTHING difficult in life is met with far greater success when the duties of each day are taken up in their natural order. Anxiety as to the future is not consistent with a just view of God's superintending care. To neglect that which belongs to the day and become absorbed in future service is therefore not wise. When this habit is fixed we are prone either to choose without regard to God's will, or to attempt present burdens in our own strength. There are few persons whose daily lives could not be improved at this point. We have need to learn well the lesson that the best work, however insignificant it may seem, is that which comes to us in God's appointment, and which is performed at the time his providence indicates.

Christ had a perfect ideal in his mind of the work of each day to be done in that particular day. He was fully able to meet that perfect ideal. All trained effort to compass the task of to-morrow was foreign to him. He said: "Take therefore no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." He exemplified all this in his own blessed life. How did he observe this rule? in any hard, Pharisaical manner?

Was to-morrow an utter blank in his thought? We cannot suppose this, for Jesus lived upon earth, a man in all his experiences, interested in human pursuits, and full of his official work to be accomplished at Jerusalem. He communed with Moses and Elias respecting his future. To-morrow was in his mind. But it was there, not to hinder, but rather to stimulate, the activities of the present. In all this he was our perfect example. A proper regard for our future is always consistent with the work of each day, and helpful to it.

Our peril is found in an unlawful anxiety concerning the things of to-morrow. The experienced Christian knows how great this peril is. He feels this to be his weakness, and often mourns that his power for usefulness is in this way taken from him.

The all-perfect One was free from this calamity. We are always subject to it. This danger will be best averted if we will imitate him. But to do this successfully we must dwell in him and be loyal to him.

Spiritual food we must have "day by day" if we would be strong in God. To anticipate some special religious feast in the future, some holy convocation of saints on the morrow, without drawing fresh supplies for this one day through which we are now passing, will be only to reverse the divine order. These promised blessings can only become real when we act our part well in the living present. There is, then, a preparation for future good; the heart has an appetite to receive spiritual nourishment when it has been all along the precious days engaged in right living. It is suicidal to all vital religion to live in the present a life of self-indulgence, to neglect daily prayer or God's word, thinking that in the future we will attend to spiritual matters. However rich the opportunities may hereafter be, we never can become through them what we might have been if we had been constantly faithful through all our previous history.

Anything that robs us of the heavenly manna for this day is to be avoided. God's order is in all things the best. "To-day, if ye will hear his voice," is a most suggestive scripture. He has a blessing for every one to-day in the closet, at the family altar, in the act of ministration unto others, in the manly endeavor to obey the golden rule of the gospel, in the hourly watchfulness against secret pride, in the habitual mindfulness, while engaged in earthly service, of that spiritual realm which is out of sight, but which is more real than anything in this visible universe. Oh, may we follow our divine Lord in all things, especially in this his word: "I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day; the night cometh, when no man can work."—Sel.

"Joy Set before Him."

By H. S.

BEFORE the Saviour came into the world, he well understood that he was to be a "man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." He understood the nature of that bitter cup that he was to drink. He knew that our iniquities were to be laid on him, and that he was to taste death for every man. After he became man, and more especially after he had entered upon his public ministry, the cross was doubtless much in mind. Its dark shadows were ever falling upon him. He occasionally spoke of this matter to the disciples. On the mount of transfiguration "the decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem" was the theme of conversation between himself and Moses and Elias. And very probably this was the great burden of his prayers, when he spent whole nights upon the lonely mountains. The dreaded "hour" makes haste, and comes at length. Behold him bowed down with overwhelming sorrow in the garden. Behold him arrested and hurried away to the bar of Pilate, where he is insulted and abused. Behold him sinking beneath his heavy load on the way to Calvary. Behold him nailed, hands and feet, to the cross. Listen there to his heart-rending cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!" Men and devils do their worst to worry this innocent Lamb of God. But, worst of all, "it pleased the Lord to bruise him." His sorest inflictions were laid upon him by the Father's own hand, whose sword of justice then awoke against his Shepherd. His cup is now overflowing with a bitterness of which we can but faintly conceive. But it is at length drained, and with unutterable relief, with a loud, triumphant voice he exclaims, "It is finished;" and he bows his head and gives up the ghost.

Some forty days later, after repeated interviews with the disciples, the Saviour led them out as far as Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them; and it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into Heaven. Some thirty years before he had come down from Heaven. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. He had laid aside the glory that he had always had with the Father, and had tabernacled in the flesh, a man amongst men. He had here gone about doing good, and had finally paid the price of our redemption by his perfect obedience for us unto the death of the cross.

He had done and suffered all that justice required in order to make full atonement for our sins. And now he was returning as a conqueror over death and all his foes, to enter upon the joy that was set before him, when he consented to endure the cross, and to despise the shame. And what that joy was that he experienced as he re-entered those pearly gates, and trod again those golden streets, where he was welcomed by the Father to his exalted throne, no tongue can tell, and no imagination conceive. In that blessed hour he began to see of the travail of his soul, and to be satisfied with an unbounded satisfaction.

But there is a time, yet future, that must be eminently blissful in the experience of the Saviour. The day hastens when he shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him. Then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory, and all nations shall be gathered before him for judgment. He will separate the great congregation into two grand divisions, according to their characters, and unto the one he will say, "Come," and unto the other, "Depart." And then, accompanied with all the millions of the saved, escorted by legions of mighty angels, he will conduct them to the mansions that he has prepared for them, the grand work of redemption forever completed! What a happy hour that will be to all Heaven! and how blissful to the Son of God! With what satisfaction must he survey that great multitude for whom he shed his precious blood, and contemplate them as forever safe within the heavenly fold, forever to share with himself his own everlasting blessedness!—H. S., in New York Observer.

The Change of the Sabbath.

By Light of Home

If there was ever any divine authority for the change of the Sabbath at the resurrection, why was not the Sabbath changed at that time in accordance with the command? Why did the people of Southern Europe continue to meet for worship on the seventh day of the week, which they did do in nearly every city, until as late as the middle of the fifth century? If the Sabbath was changed at the resurrection, why did the people of Scotland continue to observe Saturday as the Sabbath until the year 1069, when Queen Margaret, who was a devout Catholic, commanded that her subjects should work on Saturday and rest on Sunday? If the Sabbath was changed by divine authority, why did the people of Eastern Europe and Africa, and Western Asia, continue to meet for worship on the seventh day of the week for 1,200 years after the resurrection? If the Sabbath was changed, why do all the people of Southern and Eastern Europe and Western Asia continue to call the seventh day of the week the Sabbath, even to the present time?

All these are historical facts, and we would be pleased to have our readers answer the above questions.—Light of Home.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

WHAT would you do if you woke some morn, And how would the morning seem, If you found that your faith in the Son of God Was only a midnight dream; And knew full well in your innermost soul There was no God on high;— No higher court for your appeal, No one to care for your woe or weal Or to hear your cry? That the city of God was only a myth, The thought of a poet's brain; There was no Christ for the heart's deep want, No cure for its hunger and pain? As you sank, and the chilling waves of doubt Were closing above your head, You would clutch for help, and nothingness Would be found in your grasp instead. If all of the light and all of the love, All that is good and true, Should go out of your life like a wind-blown lamp, What would you do? —Sel.

Futile Hope.

For several years past an appeal has been made to the Christian people of the country, to secure a better observance of Sunday by the enactment of laws to prevent the desecration of the day. The Rev. Leonard Woods, D. D., professor in Andover Theological Seminary in 1831, said at that time:—

"Some have relied upon the salutary influence of civil laws requiring the Sabbath to be treated with respect, and forbidding, under severe penalties, all open violation of it; but, in my apprehension, we have no reason to expect that mere civil enactments will ever be productive of any extensive and permanent benefit in regard to this subject, except merely as they afford protection to Christians in worshiping God according to their own consciences. The experiment has often been tried here and in other countries, but the result has made it evident that the great interests of morality and religion cannot safely be made to rest on the power of the civil law. The due observance of the Sabbath must be promoted by considerations addressed to man's reason and conscience and heart."—Sel.

Continue reading: The Ten Kingdoms in the Dark Ages