Earlier text: GivingThe Sabbath Through the Ages
By Charles L. Taylor
VI. The Sabbath Made Known
SUPREMELY awful and terrible to the hosts of Israel was that day when Jehovah, in glory and majesty, descended upon Sinai, and from its hoary summit with voice of thunder spake to them His law. It was a day of blackness and darkness and tempest. God’s voice shook the earth. “And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake.” Heb. 12:21. To the great multitude gathered around Sinai’s base the scene was one of inexpressible terror. Afraid of being consumed by the glory of God which, like lightning tongues, seemed to dart forth for their destruction, “they removed and stood afar off,” imploring Moses not to let God speak with them, lest they die. But all this fulfilled a tremendous purpose. Not in vain was a single iota of the entire experience. “And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that His fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.” Ex. 20:20. The day at Sinai was a day of revelation and enlightenment to a people whose minds had been blinded and whose senses had been dulled by long years of sojourn in a land of base superstition and licentious ignorance. Protracted contact and intercourse with idolatry had destroyed almost totally their sense of right and wrong, and brought them low in the scale of purity and righteousness. “Living in the midst of idolatry and corruption, they had no true conception of the holiness of God, of the exceeding sinfulness of their own hearts, of their utter inability in themselves to render obedience to God’s law, and their need of a Saviour. All this they must be taught.”—“Patriarchs and Prophets,” p. 357. And this the glories of that Sinaitic day did teach them, at least in part. The entrance of the law made their offenses to abound. Rom. 5:20. That is, as the voice of God sounded forth to their consciences the certainty, the completeness, the sacredness of the principles of His government, they were convinced of their sinful condition. Punctuated as they were by divine energy, illuminated by the face of Jehovah Himself, and translated into actual life-experience by angel ministration, God’s commandments ceased to be to the people a mere succession of meaningless clauses and phrases; they were, in the hand of the Mediator, Christ Jesus (Gal. 3:19; 1 Tim. 2:5), Heaven’s agency for bringing conversion to the soul. Ps. 19:7. The real character of the sacred precepts was made known. The mere fact that God had a law and that He asked them to obey its commands, was well known to the Jewish people before they came to Sinai. At the falling of the manna, the Lord had said of them, “I will prove them, whether they will walk in My law, or no.” Ex. 16:4. And when the people went contrary to the instruction regarding observance of the Sabbath, He again spoke, saying, “How long refuse ye to keep My commandments and My laws?” Verse 25. Yes, they certainly knew of the law’s existence, but just as certainly failed to understand its holiness. And it was more than simply a coincidence that when God brought to His children a test of loyalty to His law, that test was the Sabbath. The great truth of all truths6 the character of which was so utterly hidden from the people, and which needed at once to be revealed, was that of God’s creative power as brought to view in the fourth commandment. The great Sinaitic announcement, with all its awful display of glory and power, was primarily to make known the Sabbath truth. And it may not be impertinent to say here that throughout the entire history of God’s dealings with mankind, the Sabbath has figured as the first and supreme test of devotion and integrity toward the divine government. In perfect harmony with the foregoing are the words of Nehemiah (Neh. 9: 13, 14): “Thou camest down also upon Mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments: and madest known unto them Thy holy Sabbath.” Of tremendous importance, then, is the truth of the Sabbath. Think of it, dear reader! Divinity came down to earth, came with the entire retinue of the heavenly hosts, to sweep away the cobwebs of unbelief and ignorance from the minds of God’s people, that with unclouded vision they might see and appreciate the purpose and power of that sacred command, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” Of course, it will not for a moment be supposed that the expression, “madest known,” refers to giving the Sabbath for the first time to the world. We have already seen that the Sabbath was known and was made a test before leaving Egypt; and that at the giving of the manna, thirty days before coming to Sinai, it was again prominently called to the attention of the chosen nation. But in what sense was the Sabbath specially made known? What was revealed to the people that they had not before seen? Ah, the creative power of Jehovah, the same power that operated in giving birth to the world in the beginning, was brought to bear upon the very life of the entire nation. They saw, they heard, they felt, they feared. And while in the midst of that all-pervading power and presence, which to them was a most awful manifestation, the people heard the word which summed up all that they were experiencing,—they heard the announcement that He who spoke and who demanded their allegiance was none other than the great Maker of heaven and earth, the filling and the essence of the fourth command. As the Sabbath commandment alone reveals God as the Creator, so it alone of all the ten is designed to keep man back from idolatry. He who truly keeps Sabbath to Jehovah, in honor of His creative power and work, is thereby utterly and forever held back from giving honor to anything to which that creative power has given existence. Creative power, God as creator, is the everlasting basis of Sabbath rest. Indeed, this is the glorious setting of the entire law of God. The great preamble to God’s ten words is, “I am Jehovah thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” Ex. 20:2. Creative power alone wrought the mighty deliverance from the iron furnace of Egypt; and because creative power had thus wrought, God asked that that power be remembered and constantly preserved in the life. It was the reason for a faithful observance of the entire law, and specifically, of the Sabbath. In after years, Moses made this plain when he said, “Remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched-out arm! therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day.” Deut. 5:15. To-day, dear reader, that reason still remains. God by His creative power, the power of recreation in Christ, is delivering from Egyptian sin and darkness. Ought we not to “remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy!” “Salvation by Works”
By C. A. Smith
A MEETING was held in San Jose, Cal., not long ago, which was convened at the invitation of the “First Spiritual Union to do honor to Dr. Geo. B. Warne, of Chicago, president of the National Spiritualist Association of the United States, and who is also one of the board of management of the Morris Pratt Institute, the Spiritualist college at Whitewater, Wis.” It is thus evident that the doctor is a recognized representative teacher among the Spiritualists, and his statements may be justly taken as rightly representing the belief of that people. Dr. Warne was the speaker of the evening at the meeting mentioned, and in his speech stated the “salient points of Spiritualism.” It would be interesting to notice all the points he gave, but it is not best to take the space to do so. However, there is one point to which we would call attention. The doctor stated that one of the “salient points” of Spiritualism is: “Salvation by works and not by blood of man or beast.” An open, frank statement, isn’t it? But it is entirely antagonistic to various statements of the Scripture. For instance, we read: “By grace are ye saved, . . . not of works.” Eph. 2:8, 9. In looking at the question from the Christian standpoint, one would think that any person really seeking salvation would gladly accept it as the gift of God’s grace instead of obtaining it by his own works; and especially so, when we consider that all the righteousness one’s works, apart from Jesus Christ, can give him is in God’s sight “as filthy rags.” Isa. 64:6. This being so, what kind of salvation can our own works bring us? “Salvation by works,”—ah, it leaves Jesus Christ out of the question, and makes man his own saviour! But, besides that of Jesus, “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:12. Of course, if they can gain salvation by their own works, they have indeed “whereof to glory,” and it is not of grace, for God owes it to them. Rom. 4:1-5. Then, too, what a wonderful preeminence it gives them over the people who are “saved by grace”! They are not capable of gaining it “by works.” Paul and all the apostles needed to be “saved by grace,” but the people this gentleman represents are to be saved “by works.” Yes, if they could gain salvation by this means, they would have “whereof to glory, but not before God,” for it will never be gained in that way. “By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.” Eph. 2:8, 9. Again, “But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” Verse 13. But the people represented by this man claim to receive no benefits from the “blood of man or beast.” Surely here is a teacher who has “counted the blood of the covenant . . . an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace.” Heb. 10:25. At the close of the book of Hebrews is this benediction: “God . . . through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will.” Heb. 13:20, 21. Truly, this is a fitting up to do good works that will be according to God’s will. What folly to trust to anything less! Religion Enough to Follow
THE fact that a person works quietly, without noise, without fame, never doing anything startling or sensational, may indicate greatness rather than smallness. It is easier to work amid cheers and huzzas than in lines of obscurity, where one never hears a commendation. A writer says: “One test of the religious life is in its willingness to occupy a subordinate place and to work faithfully in it.” The story is told of a young man who was president of a young people’s organization, and who greatly liked prominence. He had a genius for keeping always in the lime-light. As long as he could lead and be prominent he was happy, cheerful, enthusiastic, and interested. But when he was not in some conspicuous position he was not a comfortable man to get along with. One of his friends tersely described and characterized him thus: “He has plenty of religion to lead, but not enough to follow.” There always are good7people of this type. They work splendidly when they are in a conspicuous place, with others under them, but when they are second, or down somewhere in the ranks, they are of little use. It takes more grace to shine in the lowly places than in positions of prominence.—Sunday School Times. A Faithful Guide
By Mrs. L. L. Lansing
I'm traveling a lonely road,
One step before I can not see;
The distance I must journey on
Is not made known to me. But let the end be far or near,
Or let the storm come on apace,
It matters not, I have a Friend
Who leads me to a sheltered place. On His strong arm I lean for aid
When sorrow deep my soul has tried;
His presence brightens all the way;
He is a strong yet tender Guide. Then, Saviour, take my trembling hand,
And guide my faltering steps each day,
Till on fair Canaan’s shores I stand
To reign in peace and joy alway. The Progress of Sin
By Jeremy Taylor
I HAVE seen the little purls of a spring sweat through the bottom of a bank, and intenerate the stubborn pavement, till it hath made it fit for the impression of a child’s foot; and it was despised, like the descending pearls of a misty morning, till it had opened its way and made a stream large enough to carry away the ruins of the undermined strand, and to invade the neighboring gardens; but then the despised drops were grown into an artificial river, and an intolerable mischief. So are the first entrances of sin, stopped with the antidotes of a hearty prayer, and checked into sobriety by the eye of a reverend man, or the counsels of a single sermon; but when such beginnings are neglected, and our religion hath not in it so much philosophy as to think anything evil as long as we can endure it, they grow up to ulcers and pestilential evils; they destroy the soul by their abode, while at their first entry they might have been killed with the pressure of a little finger. He that hath passed many stages of a good life, to prevent his being tempted to a single sin, must be very careful that he never entertain his spirit with the remembrances of his past sin, nor amuse it with fantastic apprehensions of the present. When the Israelites fancied the sapidness and relish of the flesh-pots, they longed to taste and to return. So when a Libyan tiger, drawn from his wilder foragings, is shut up and taught to eat civil meat, and suffer the authority of a man, he sits down tamely in his prison, and pays to his keeper fear and reverence for his meat; but if he chance to come again and taste a draft of warm blood, he presently leaps into his natural cruelty. He scarce abstains from eating those hands that brought him discipline and food. The Pannonian bears, when they have clasped a dart in the region of their liver, wheel themselves upon the wound, and with anger and malicious revenge strike the deadly barb deeper, and can not be quit from the fatal steel, but, in flying, bear along that which themselves make the instrument of a more hasty death; so is every vicious person struck with a deadly wound, and his own hands force it into the entertainments of the heart; and because it is painful to draw it forth by a sharp and salutary repentance, he still rolls and turns upon his wound, and carries his death in his bowels, where it first entered by choice, and then dwelt by love, and at last shall finish the tragedy by divine judgments and unalterable decree. 1. Why are we to be sober and watchful? “Be sober, be watchful: your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” 1 Peter 5:8. 2. How is he to be resisted? “Whom withstand steadfast in your faith.” Verse 9. 3. How did Christ resist Satan? “And Jesus answered unto him, It is written.” “And Jesus answered, and said unto him, It is written.” “For it is written.” Thus three times Jesus answered from the word of God, meeting each temptation with an appropriate statement of the Scriptures. This is our example. 4. Our wrestling is against what? “Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Eph. 6:12. 5. What is our preparation for this contest? “Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” Verse 11. 6. How does Satan seek to hold men in bondage? “The god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, should not dawn upon them.” 2 Cor. 4:4. 7. What will Satan attempt to do? “According to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceit of unrighteousness for them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth.” 2 Thess. 2:9, 10. 8. Will God allow men their choice? “And for this cause [“because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved,” verse 10] God sendeth them a working of error, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” 2 Thess. 2:11, 12. 9. How can we know the false from the true? “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves. By their fruits ye shall know them.” Matt. 7:15, 16. 10. By what standard may we know them? “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Isa. 8:20. NOTE.—The references given above, with the exception of the last, are from the American Revised Version. The Earth Waxing Old
By John N. Quinn
“The earth shall wax old like a garment,” is a statement of Holy Writ which has a peculiar significance at the present time. Isa. 51:1. As you know, when a garment has been worn for some time, rents are of frequent occurrence. When a person becomes old, the limbs are feeble and tottering. Does not this account for the fearfully destructive earthquakes occurring so frequently in this generation? The following figures, which give a conservative estimate of the number of earthquakes which have occurred during the past 3,000 years, bear out the Bible idea of old age. When the earth was young, earthquakes were few; as it grows old, they increase; as the end is almost reached, their increase is very marked: | Date |
Earthquakes |
Average |
|---|
| B.C. 1700 to A.D. 96 |
16 |
1 in 112 years |
| A.D. 96 to 1850 |
204 |
1 in 8 years |
| A.D. 1850 to 1865 |
15 |
1 in 1 year |
| A.D. 1865 to 1868 |
15 |
5 in 1 year |
| A.D. 1885 |
97 |
97 in 1 year |
| A.D. 1886 |
104 |
104 in 1 year |
| A.D. 1907 |
2,000 |
2,000 in 1 year |
In the United States, during the last fourteen years, earthquakes have averaged 324 a year. If we wish to arouse a person who is asleep when danger threatens, we call; our call being unheeded, we shake him vigorously in our attempt to arouse him so he may escape the danger. God has been calling men to repentance; His call has been very largely unheeded; and now the earth is shaking in order to arouse men from sin’s lethargy, so they may escape the wrath to come. In Heb. 12:25-29, we are told that the earth’s shaking is proof of the existence of things which are not enduring, and the truth is self-evident that the greater the shaking, the nearer are we to the time when the temporal things will give place to the things that are eternal. The editor of the New York Witness writes: “It is not pleasant to recount the horrors that have come upon the human race; yet there are times when it is in order, and now appears to me to be the time.” Ambassador Reid, at a meeting of the Y. M. C. A., in London, said: “The present is a period of great unrest. Things which had been considered as absolutely fixed, and durable as the eternal hills, seem to be breaking up. On every side, beliefs, morals, social order, property, and business relations, and government, all seem to be crumbling. Thoughtful men look on the future with great apprehension.” Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. Open Thy Door and Let Him in
By Mrs. E. J. S. Keen
THE Saviour is longing to dwell with thee,
From sorrow and darkness to set thee free;
Heart so long burdened with pain and sin,
Open thy door and let Him in. Long thou hast wandered in anguish and grief,
Seeking and longing for help and relief;
Heart so long heavy with darkness within,
Open thy door and let Him in. Kind as the love of a true mother’s breast,
Safely He gathers His own to sweet rest;
Rouse you, O heart, from the slumber of sin,
Open thy door and let Him in. Soon the night cometh with terror and gloom;
Soon will the world meet its long-promised doom;
Welcome thy Saviour ere night doth begin,
Open thy door and let Him in. “Do not fear the power of the world. When a blind man runs against you in the street, you are not angry with him. You say that he is blind, poor man! or he would not have hurt you. So you may say of the world when they speak evil of you for Christ’s sake. They are blind.” THE Bible is a book of types. Of every disposition, of every character of good or evil, God has given us types in His holy word. Every one who in past ages gave himself in the fear of God for his fellow men, shadowed forth, however dimly, the coming Sacrifice and Saviour of the world. Every manifest judgment upon men or cities or nations, in consequence of their sin, prefigured the coming final judgment on the incorrigibly impenitent. The first children of Adam—Cain and Abel—were types of faith and love and obedience on the part of Abel, and unbelief and hatred and disobedience on the part of Cain. And the Abels and the Cains have blessed and cursed the earth ever since. The two sons of Isaac—Jacob and Esau—were types of men who have existed, and yet exist, everywhere, the one desiring the Lord’s blessing even tho he gets it by fraud, the other selling his birthright for a mess of pottage which perishes with the using. Jacob represents a religious class, Esau those who have no faith,—children of unbelief and disobedience. Jacob in his twofold characteristics is a type of two classes. As Jacob, the supplanter, acquiring Esau’s birthright by taking selfish advantage of his brother’s supposed need, and Esau’s blessing by fraud and deceit, he represents a class of religionists who hope by might or right, by hook or crook, by principle or policy, by right or expediency, to obtain the Lord’s blessing, which to them is largely a matter of place or position, of loaves and fishes, of the temporal instead of the spiritual. To obtain this they sacrifice principle, take the unholy suggestions of the faithless, and unite with the world and the state, only to be utterly disappointed at last. As Israel, the prevailer with God, he represents another class, who humble themselves before God, make full restitution of what they have taken, place all in the Lord’s hands, and wrestle long and earnestly if need be for the victory. To which class do you belong? Babylon, the city and tower built by man’s folly, which man named “Bab-il,” “the gate of God,” but which God named “Babylon,” “Confusion,” is a type of human substitution for God’s way, the type of all those schemes of men by which under a pretense of worshiping God men exalt themselves to God’s place by putting their own laws, traditions, and expediences in the place of God’s law, truth, and eternal principles of right. Every departure of the church to the world, every union of church and state, every persecution of human souls for disagreeing with human opinion set up as God, finds its prototype in Babylon of old. By her fornication she hath “made all the earth drunken; the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.” Jer. 51:7. “The daughter of Babylon” represents the apostate and corrupt church of all ages, the church united with the powers of the world, trusting to political and state power instead of to the mighty power of God. Jerusalem, the City of Peace, and “the daughter of Jerusalem,” represent the plan of God, and the people of God, of all ages, trusting in Him and in Him alone,—in her past often subverted, trodden down, despoiled, destroyed by enemies, yet through the power of God rising from her ashes, builded by His power, and finally triumphant. Reader, to which of the above individual types do you conform? With which of the above opposite systems are you allied or identified? The decision you make means life or death. How Christian Science Perverts the Gospel
By R.
EVERY man is given the privilege by the Lord Himself to believe or disbelieve, and therefore every person in the world should grant to every other person the privilege of believing or disbelieving as may seem best to him. At the same time every minister of the Gospel is commissioned by the Lord of the Gospel to “preach the word.” By claiming to believe and teach the word, he is bound by his profession to teach the pure word, and that only. Every minister of the Gospel, and every believer in the Gospel, has the responsibility, through his acceptance of the Gospel, to keep unsullied the sacred heritage of the pure word of God. And so as a believer in the Gospel, and as a minister of the Gospel, we protest against any perversion of the holy and pure word of the living God. Mrs. Eddy has had the presumption to change the wording of the great apostle, that apostle who was commissioned by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself to teach His Gospel. The change thus made is a revolutionizing one. Instead of quoting the scripture just as it is written, “We were reconciled to God by the death of His Son,” she makes it read, “We were reconciled to God by the [seeming] death of His Son.” According to this new teaching Christ did not die, He merely seemed to die. “His disciples believed Jesus to be dead while He was hidden in the sepulcher, whereas He was alive.”—“Science and Health,” chapter on “Atonement and Eucharist.” Paul bids us hope that we were reconciled by the death of Christ. Rom. 5:10. “Christ died for the ungodly.” Rom. 5:6. But Christian Science tells us that this is a mistake; Paul did not give the correct statement of the facts; Christ seemed to die for the ungodly. There is as great difference in statements here as between the two expressions, Yes and No. Paul tells us in many places that Christ died, and so often does he reiterate the fact, we are certain that it is his view of this one great central fact of the Gospel. He asserts that the death and resurrection of Christ are the two great central facts of the Gospel about which all the rest cluster. Now, if Christ only seemed to die, then He only seemed to be resurrected, and the whole Gospel is built around a great illusion, and this makes the Gospel itself nothing more nor less than a great delusion. But Paul is so certain that his presentation of the Gospel is the right one that he makes some startling statements concerning the one who teaches anything else. This is what he says: “There be some that trouble you, and would pervert the Gospel of Christ. But tho we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any preach any other Gospel unto you than ye have received, let him be accursed.” Gal. 1:7-9. In this the servant of God speaks with no uncertain language. It shows as plainly as words can where the person stands who perverts the Gospel as taught by Paul. He assures us twice over that the curse of God rests upon the individual who perverts the teachings of the Gospel, and makes them any whit other than he has shown them to be. Where does this place Christian Science? God’s word already quoted gives the answer. We have no desire to add anything. All we can do is to pity, and long and pray that it were otherwise. We would to God that there were no attempts these days to emend God’s word. We believe it needs no emendations. But the one who will dare to tamper with one inspired statement will dare to tamper with another. The person who sets himself or herself to correct Paul in one place will not hesitate to correct him in another. We have come to the time when the Bible for many is shred of any divine authority. It is held now that Paul and his conferees taught the best they knew, and that the present generation has advanced to a place where they know better. But so understood we have no ultimate divine authority; one teacher’s word is as good as another’s, and all of them together are but the babblings and cryings of babes in the night. O, it is a hopeless, demoralizing philosophy! God’s word stands sure. It is an absolute authority. It will judge all in the final day. If any man shall take away from its words, God shall take away his part out of the Book of Life, and out of the holy city. Rev. 22:19. This example of Christian Science’ perversion of the word of God is but one out of hundreds, but judged by this one alone, it is sufficient to show what the teaching is. We need not study another line of its pretensions, for this one high-handed emendation of the Scriptures is sufficient to show its whole spirit and tenor. Being so contrary to the Scriptures that its own founder and teacher recognized it, what is done?—Instead of abandoning the false teaching, or making Christian Science agree with the Bible, it reaches out its unauthorized hand to write words into the sacred text, so as to make the word agree with its own false ideas. Nowadays it seems a very small matter to many whether their teachings agree with the9Bible or not; but there is some fairness on the part of those who recognize that they are at variance with the Bible and yet make no attempts to bring the Bible, by twisting it, over to their statements. Whatever one teaches, he ought not to pervert the word of God. Held side by side with the Bible, Christian Science is unmasked; we are not deceived by its subterfuges; the word can not be changed to suit human notions. Let no one presume to emend God’s word. “What if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That Thou mightest be justified in Thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.” Rom. 3:3, 4. R. NOTWITHSTANDING the power and blessing of God which were manifest upon and through the Reformation churches, Protestantism was divided. The creed power held them in bonds of iron, suppressed growth and progress, and fostered enmity and tyranny. The early Reformers did not see all the light. The one great truth emphasized by them was “justification by faith through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Great errors were still retained and fostered, over which the great Protestant division of Christianity and the various denominations were divided. Among these were the following: 1. The immortality of the soul and the conscious state of the dead, a breeding-soil for Spiritism, Buddhism, Brahmanism, Christian Science, New Thought, and other antichristian cults and philosophies. 2. The eternal torment of the incorrigible wicked—a blot upon Christianity and an excuse for infidelity. 3. A wrong view of the priesthood and work of Christ, placing the atonement at the cross, having the tendency to divide Christendom between Calvinistic election on the one side, and Universalism on the other, both of which are erroneous. 4. With but few exceptions, a wrong view of the millennium—the majority resting in the conscience-soothing belief of a converted world. 5. Placing the reward of the dying at death in hell or in heaven, thus setting aside the necessity of the resurrection, the judgment, the second coming of Christ, and making null and void a multitude of clear, definite declarations and promises concerning the fate of the wicked and the eternal inheritance of the righteous. 6. A general disregard of the prophecies of God’s word, thus depriving the church and the world of the light which is so greatly needed in these last days. 7. A wrong conception of the dispensations, or of the changes which took place and were involved at the first advent. This led either to an awful antinomianism which set aside the government and law of God, or, at the least, made God a mutable law and sets one dispensation against the other—the Father against the Son. 8. This has been specially manifest over the question of the Sabbath, some holding to an abolition of God’s law and no Sabbath; some to a change of the Sabbath under perpetual law; and some to the authority of tradition only, upheld by the state. Out of this has grown a world-wide controversy, which has largely left the purely religious circles of discussion and has been transferred to legislative halls, and the demand for civil statute and enforcement. Out of this has grown intolerance and persecution. 9. Rejecting as obsolete the Sabbath, the memorial of God’s creative power, “illogical geology” has entered as a rival of the Genesis record and the Deluge. 10. Rejecting the creation record and the Sabbath as the memorial of that creation, the sign of the redemption and recreation in Christ Jesus, evolution in theory as also in practical life has largely set aside the new birth and instantaneous conversion. The above are awful statements, and yet every man who believes God’s word and has taken time to think upon it, knows that we have not misstated the matter. If so, will some one tell us where? This confusion of belief breeds confusion, and confusion in the symbolic language of the Bible is spelled “Babylon.” And yet God did not condemn this great Protestant Babylon. He knew all the travail by the way, all the dreary wilderness of the Dark Ages from which that church emerged. He blessed the Reformation church notwithstanding her errors. He desired to heal her. His own words by His own prophets are: “We would have healed Babylon.” What is the remedy? Listen: “And I saw another angel flying in mid heaven, having eternal good tidings to proclaim unto them that dwell on the earth, and unto every nation and tribe and tongue and people; and he saith with a great voice, Fear God, and give Him glory; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made the heaven and the earth and sea and fountains of waters.” Rev. 14:6, 7. That message began its work in 1844 and onward. If it had been received, how the errors held by the church would have melted away! God’s everlasting good tidings reveal the great fact that His plan in all the ages is one; His remedy for saving men the same. It is the “power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” That power is creative power; for the one distinguishing mark of the true God in contradistinction to all false gods, is creative power. He is the One that the message brings to view. We are not to fear men; not to fear anything that men may do, or any combinations of men; but to “fear God,” and “worship Him that made the heaven and the earth and sea and fountains of waters.” Faith in that simple message would have confirmed God’s word; disproved the theories of geology by the great Deluge to which every land in the world testifies. It would have disproved evolution; it would have shown man to be mortal. That message for the last days showing God’s impending judgment, would have revealed also the great rule of judgment,—the rule by which character will be determined, and in that very thing would have brought the divided churches together on the great law of God, honored by Him in its giving, honored by Christ in His living and in His dying. The fact that the message announces a judgment impending would have led to the study of prophecy, the light that shines in the darkness of this world, which reveals the dangers of the present and points forward to the transcendent glories of the future. That message would have set aside all human creed-power; the glory of man would have been laid in the dust; God’s word and God’s Spirit would alone have been exalted. Men would have learned by experience in faith in that message that God’s word is of itself sufficient to hold men, without binding them by the iron law of a creed written by dead hands. Believing in that Gospel, the utter futility of any power which the state could furnish would have been seen, all civil power would have been repudiated. The state would have been left to care for its own, and the church would have occupied her own sphere. And yet in that legitimate sphere of her own, the saving of souls, she would have had a tremendous indirect influence upon the state, which no direct influence can ever equal. That message believed would have regenerated souls; it would have placed church-membership where God placed it,—with the believer,—and His church would be composed of regenerated, recreated believers. That message received would have set before the world a church begotten of the word, born of the Spirit, nourished by His truth, and bound in the bundle of His life, going forth on her Master’s mission, “fair as the moon, clear as the sun, terrible as an army with banners.” [How this message has been regarded and the results we will consider in our next.] IT is not known that the Dead Sea has any outlet. It is continually taking in water from the surrounding country, but, so far as is known, does not give away any of its water again, except what passes off by evaporation. There is such a thing as Dead-Sea Christians. Such Christians are willing to take all the good things in this life that come their way; they choose to enjoy all the benefits derived from a profession of Christianity; but to help others, to help in ways that call for real and substantial sacrifice, they fail in doing. “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ,” is the advice that can not be ignored. To receive and not give out, is to get into the condition that will give us the same name as has been given to the sea; we shall not be merely Dead-Sea Christians, but dead Christians, and that is but to be a Christian in name only. Having a name to live, and yet dead; terrible condition, indeed, for those who claim to pattern after Him who went about daily doing good! Dead followers of the Prince of Life; what a contradiction of terms, what a contradiction of life! R.