Signs of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 4. (1/22/1902)

Signs of the Times

Jan 22, 1902

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 22, 1902

THE JOY OF GIVING.

By Ellen G. White

All day the people had been thronging the house where were Christ and His disciples. All day the Saviour had been teaching them. They had listened to His gracious words, so simple and so plain that they were as the balm of Gilead to their souls. The healing of His divine hand had brought health to the sick, and life to the dying. The day had seemed to them like heaven on earth, and they were utterly unconscious of how long it had been since they had eaten anything.

The sun was sinking in the west, and yet the people lingered. Jesus had labored all day long without food or rest. He was pale from weariness and hunger. But He could not withdraw from the multitude that pressed upon Him.

“His disciples came to Him, saying, This is a desert place, and the time is now past; send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves victuals. But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart; give ye them to eat. And they say unto Him, We have here but five loaves, and two fishes. He said, Bring them hither to Me. And He commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, He blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to His disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.”

In this parable is wrapped up a deep, spiritual lesson for God’s workers. Christ received from the Father; He imparted to the disciples; they imparted to the multitude; and the people to one another. So all who are united with Christ will receive from Him the bread of life, the heavenly food, and impart it to others.

In full reliance upon God, Jesus took the small store of loaves; and altho there was but a small supply for His own family of disciples, He did not invite them to eat, but began to distribute to them, bidding them serve the people. The food multiplied in His hands; and the hands of the disciples, reaching out to Christ, Himself the Bread of Life, were never empty. The little store was sufficient for all. After the wants of the people had been supplied, the fragments were gathered up, and Christ and His disciples ate of the precious, heaven-supplied food.

The disciples were the channel of communication between Christ and the people. This should be a great encouragement to His disciples to-day. Christ is the great Center, the Source of all strength. His disciples are to receive their supplies from Him. The most intelligent, the most spiritually minded, can bestow only as they receive. Of themselves they can supply nothing for the needs of the soul. We can impart only as we receive, and we can receive only as we impart. As we continue to impart, we shall continue to receive; and the more we impart, the more we shall receive.

“There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.” Mark that pool which receives the showers of heaven, but has no outlet. It is a blessing to no one, but in stagnant selfishness poisons the air around.

Now look at the stream flowing from the mountain side, refreshing the thirsty land through which it passes. What blessing it brings! One would think that in giving so liberally, it would exhaust its resources. But not so. It is a part of God’s great plan that the stream that gives shall never lack; and day by day and year by year it flows on its way, ever receiving and ever giving.

There is nothing, save the selfish heart of man, that lives unto itself. No bird that cleaves the air, no animal that moves upon the ground, but ministers to some other life. There is no leaf of the forest, or lowly blade of grass, but has its ministry. Every tree and shrub and leaf pours forth that element of life without which neither man nor animal could live; and man and animal in turn minister to the life of tree and shrub and leaf. The flowers breathe fragrance and unfold their beauty in blessing to the world. The ocean, itself the source of all our springs and fountains, receives the streams from every land, but takes to give.

The mists ascending from its bosom fall in showers to water the earth, that it may bring forth and bud.

The angels of glory find their joy in giving,—giving love and tireless watch-care to souls that are fallen and unholy; heavenly beings woo the hearts of men; they bring to this dark world light from the courts above; by gentle, patient ministry they move upon the human spirit, to bring the lost into a fellowship with Christ that is even closer than they themselves can know.

God desires us to give—cheerfully, willingly, gladly. None can keep His law without ministering to others. Happiness is the gift of God to him who, in the spirit of Christ, toils for the good of others.

There are many to whom life is a painful struggle. They feel their deficiencies, and are miserable and unbelieving; they think they have nothing for which to be grateful. Kind words, looks of sympathy, expressions of appreciation, would be to many a struggling, lonely one as the cup of cold water to a thirsty soul. A word of sympathy, an act of kindness, would lift burdens that rest heavily upon weary shoulders. And every word or deed of unselfish kindness is an expression of the love of Christ for lost humanity.

“Freely ye have received; freely give.”

“Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.” If upon your spirit the glory of the Lord has risen; if you have beheld His beauty who is the chiefest among ten thousand, and the One altogether lovely; if your soul has become radiant in the presence of His glory, to you is this word from the Master sent. Have you stood with Christ on the mount of transfiguration? Down in the plain there are souls enslaved by Satan; they are waiting for the word of faith and prayer to set them free.

The one who stands nearest to Christ will be he who on earth has drunk most deeply of the spirit of His self-sacrificing love,—love that “vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, . . . seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil,”—love that moves the disciple, as it moved our Lord, to live and labor and sacrifice, even unto death, for the saving of humanity.

MRS. E. G. WHITE.

THE LAME MAN HEALED.

By J. O. Corliss

The promise of power to witness for Christ was not intended to be confined to words of praise and exaltation for the Saviour. To witness for Him meant, to the early disciples, to copy His life and work. Without power to do this, to many the words of believers would have proved but empty sound. The mission of Christ’s followers has been, from the first, to reveal the contrast between the kingdom of heaven and the kingdoms of earth. This must not only be told in speech, but demonstrated in actions. So when the Saviour first sent out the twelve, He commanded them to preach as they went, and say, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” In order that those among whom the disciples went, might know the nature of the kingdom to which their attention was being called, its advocates were to “heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils.” Matt. 10: 5–8.

All this was to be done freely, because the power with which to do it had been freely bestowed. It was to be done as an incentive, not only to draw attention to the power of the truth presented, but to create a desire on the part of those suffering from the results of sin to become subjects of a better kingdom, one which gave promise of power to relieve them of every earthly ailment. Jesus Himself had thus shown the power of His kingdom, and it was fitting that, as His followers went ‘out to witness for Him,’ they too should be clothed with power to do as He had done, and would doubtless have done were He in their places.

That this was the Saviour’s intention is clearly revealed in His words and conduct toward the disciples immediately after His resurrection from the dead. He had previously said to them, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall He do also; and greater works [that is, a larger number] than these shall He do; because I go unto My Father.” John 14: 12. This statement is so broad as to cover every believer in Christ, and refers to those of every succeeding generation from that time forward. That more of these works have not been done since Christ returned to heaven than when He was on earth, shows that the power to do them has not been with professed believers in Him.

Yet by referring to the time cited in the previous paragraph, it will be seen that this is no fault of the Master’s. When He was about to leave the earth to return to His Father, He came to His disciples with the comforting words: “Peace be unto you; as My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.” John 20: 21. But the Father had sent Him with all the power of heaven, to speak freedom from sin and its results. Would He confer the same power on them? The record tells us that having revealed their mission to them, He then “breathed on them,” and said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost; whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.”

Of course this power could only obtain by their possessing the Holy Spirit, which never errs in judgment. But as much as this commission may have been misused to deceive men, it nevertheless stands as a promise of the power given to the followers of Christ. More than this, it was the basis of all the operations of the early disciples, as may be seen by reference to the Acts of the Apostles, chapters 5, 8, and 9. In these instances the apostle stood in the relation of the Lord’s representative to those with whom he had to do, and when he spoke by the direction of the Spirit, it was the word of God through him, and carried with it the power of God’s command.

The case of healing the lame man is after the same order. On this occasion, Peter and John were about entering the temple to pray, when this poor cripple, who had never had power to stand alone, looked up to them from his customary place beside the gate, to beg a small pittance. This was Peter’s opportunity. He knew what the poor mendicant needed most, and looking on him with pity born of the Spirit’s power, commanded his earnest attention, as tho he might receive the gift for which he had asked. Having secured the attention of the would-be recipient, Peter said, “Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.” Acts 3: 1–6.

Then, as tho it was the most natural thing to do, the apostle extended his hand to lift the lame man to his feet, and the miracle was completed. The ankle-bones, which had never before been fully matured, responded to the word of power through Peter, and instantly assumed their normal state. Upon this he immediately leaped about, and praised God before the assembling multitude. The people, knowing that he was the same man who had daily sat begging before the gate, were filled with wonder and amazement. Knowing nothing of the promise of power received by the apostles, they could not divine how their word could thus heal a man whom they knew to have been lame from his birth.

The attention of the people being thus centered on the two disciples, Peter took occasion to present the source of the power, the operation of which they had just witnessed. In a few words he told them that the God of their father Abraham had glorified His Son Jesus, whom they had denied and put to death; that He, being the “Prince of Life,” had been raised from the dead, and they, as His followers, were witnesses of Him, and through the use of His name, in faith of its power, had restored the man, whom they knew, to perfect soundness. Thus the act of healing, combined with the story of the gift of Heaven’s power in the person of Christ, was a testimony with telling effect.

How much more effective would be the preaching of to-day, were it accompanied with such proof of heavenly power. The church would not, as now, be open to the ridicule of its enemies, who make all its doings but the farcical work of hypocritical pretenders. Would that the situation were different, and that genuine Holy Ghost power could attend the work of the Gospel for our day.

J. O. CORLISS.

AN OBJECT-LESSON.

By Augusta W. Heald

WHILE riding one day with my husband along a quiet country road, we met an aged man, bent with rheumatism, and nearly blind. We stopped to speak with him, and noticed a peculiarly bent staff which he carried. He said, “A stone lodged upon the branch, causing it to grow crooked, and so form this perfect handle; try it, and see how good it is. A friend cut and polished it for me, and had it tipped with metal. It has supported my steps for many a year.”

This impressed me as a forcible object-lesson. I seemed to see the vigorous young tree, drawing nourishment and strength from the soil and the free air and the sunshine, rearing its leafy branches, and promising to vie with any tree in the forest. Then came the falling boulder from a dilapidated stone wall, and lodged upon the most promising branch, bending, and nearly breaking it. All the beautiful symmetry was marred; the tree was well-nigh ruined. But the wonderful plant-life adapted itself to its changed conditions. It reached up toward the sun as best it could, and the fibrous roots penetrated deeper into the earth. Years passed, and the maimed tree had grown above the stone, and become strong and enduring. While the flourishing young growth of the forest was cut down and consumed as fuel, this crooked tree was destined to long years of service to God and man, in supporting the tottering steps of old age and infirmity.

May we not from this learn a comforting lesson? The event which has seemingly spoiled the current of the individual life, cutting it off, setting it apart from its natural channels of usefulness, may, in God's overruling providence, become a blessing. This very experience may be a preparation for something higher, holier, and better than would have been attained under more prosperous circumstances.

We read of the blessed Saviour, “His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men;” but again we read:—

“The stone which the builders rejected Is become the head of the corner; This is the Lord's doing; It is marvelous in our eyes.”

AUGUSTA W. HEALD.

White Feet Before the Throne

You can not paddle in sin and go with white feet before the throne of God.—Count of Gersay.

Philosophy Leads Back to God

SMALL draughts of philosophy lead to atheism, but larger lead back to God.—Bacon.

The Fool Says There Is No God

“THE fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” Ps. 14:1.

THE MEMORIAL OF CREATION AND REDEMPTION.

By Ellet Joseph Waggoner

“THE works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. His work is honorable and glorious; and His righteousness endureth forever. He hath made His wonderful works to be remembered.” Ps. 111: 2-4. Literally, “He hath made a memorial for His wonderful works.” By what means has God made His wonderful works to be remembered?—By the Sabbath day; for when God had finished the heavens and the earth, and all their host, “He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made.” Gen. 2: 1-3.

The Sabbath was given to man to be a continual reminder of God’s wonderful works. Therefore He says: “I gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord which sanctify them.” Eze. 20:12.

It is so self-evident that the seventh day of the week, commonly called Saturday, is the Sabbath here spoken of, that we shall not here take time to dwell upon that. Sabbath means rest; it is God’s rest that we are to enter into;

and the seventh day is the Sabbath—the rest—of the Lord thy God. Nothing in time or eternity can ever change the fact that God created the heavens and the earth in six days, and rested on the seventh day; and therefore the Sabbath of the Lord can never be changed. Men may make another sabbath for themselves, as they have done; but this is but a part of the working whereby they have made other gods for themselves. Nevertheless there is really only one God, and only one Sabbath.

This seventh-day Sabbath is the sign and seal of redemption. Thus: It is the memorial of creation, but not of creation as it now appears. God did not rest from His labors until He “saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good.” The Sabbath commemorates a perfect, new creation.

The Sabbath and the New Man.

Now we have only to remember that that new creation which God surveyed and pronounced very good, included man. There was a new heaven and a new earth, and a new man. The Sabbath, therefore, is the sign that a perfect, new man has been created; and so it is the sign and seal of a new man in Christ; for “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.” The Gospel restores man to his original perfection, and the Sabbath is the assurance that God, who made a perfect man in the beginning, can still do it.

“We which have believed do enter into rest.” Heb. 4: 3. The rest here referred to is God’s rest, as the verse itself shows, and that is the Sabbath, the seventh day. See the commandment, and also the verses immediately following Heb. 4: 3. God spoke in a certain place on this wise: “And God did rest the seventh day from all His works. And in this place again, If they shall enter into My rest.” The Israelites that came out of Egypt “could not enter in because of unbelief.” Belief justifies, makes righteous. So we are not required to keep the Sabbath in order to become righteous, but Sabbath-keeping is the natural, inevitable result of perfect, complete redemption—the finished work of God. When we accept God as the Creator of all things, as our Creator, then we rest in His finished work, the work which was finished from the foundation of the world; and the sign that we do thus accept Him is the keeping of His rest—the seventh day. E. J. WAGGONER.

“The Letter that fell from Heaven”

By E. A. Axon

“A Sunday-Sabbath Forgery”

By E. A. Axon, Hon. LL.D., F.R.S.L. &c.

ARTICLE THREE.

VIII. A Translation of the Letter.

Prof. Thomas Powel, M. A., has printed a Welsh version of the “celestial letter” from a fifteenth MS. in the British Museum (Catt. MS. Titus D xxii.). In this the recipient of the letter is Peter of Antioch, and the letter, it is asserted, was found on the altar of Peter and Paul in Rome. It may be well to give the English of “Ebostol y Sul” as an example of the developed type:—

This is the cause why the wrath of God will come among you, and decay upon your labor, and upon what you may possess of goods, and that the people of the pagans will come to put your bodies in bondage and subjection. Because you do not keep the holy blessed Sunday there will multiply among you rapacious wolves and mad dogs, and they will plunge you in the depths of affliction, and I will turn away my face from you, and from your houses which your hands made. Every such evil as you have done against my holy church I will avenge, and I will deliver you into the power of aliens, and I will sink you as I formerly sank Sodom and Gomorrah, which the earth swallowed up for their sins. And whoever shall travel on the holy Sunday to any other place than to my church—for it is a house of prayer—or to pilgrimages of saints, or to visit the sick, or to bury the dead, or to make peace between enemies—whoso shall do any other work than these, as shaving off hair or beards, or shearing them, or washing heads or clothes, or baking bread, or other work forbidden by the church on the solemn day, Sunday, shall not receive from God spiritual blessing, day or night, but rather the curse which they have deserved unhappily, and I will send into their houses diseases unending, upon them and upon their children, and a plague upon their cattle. And whoever shall dispute on the Sunday, or shall deal treacherously, or engage in strife, or unseasonable matters, instead of praying with a devout will in my name and in my church, I will send them diverse losses manifestly, so that they shall fail.

Let all the unbelieving people hear, and hear, thou evil and unjust generation, that which thou wilt not believe willingly. Very short are thy days, and daily thy days and thy end hasten and draw nigh to thy end; and I am long-suffering with earthly sinners, to see if they will turn them to true penance and contrition and holy confession. Let all the people of the world hear, that from love to me they may not grow bold to swear to false oaths, or to dishonor my churches, or to commit thefts on the holy Sunday. For on that day the Lord rose from the dead to life, and ascended to heaven, and He is sitting on the right hand of God the Father Almighty, and from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. And in six days God made heaven and earth, and that which is in them, altogether; of creatures which are seen, and those which are not seen; and on the seventh day He rested from all His works, and so I will that you too rest from the worldly works, all, free and slave, and keep the Sunday from the evening of Saturday until the sunrise on Monday, or I will curse you before my Father which is in heaven, and you shall not reign with me nor with my angels in the kingdom of heaven most high. And unless you keep faith toward your sponsors, and keep Sunday regularly without labor, I will send tempests upon you and upon your crops, so that they will be endangered, and you will not get food without trouble.

Bring your tithes faithfully to my church with a devout will; and whosoever shall not bring faithfully the tithe of the good which God hath lent him, he shall have the wrath of God on his soul and on his body, and he shall not see eternal life in the place where he hopes to see it; but they shall hunger, for they are an unbelieving people, preparing for themselves infernal judgments; and I will not forgive them forever if they keep not my commandments. Whoever shall observe the holy Sunday, I will open for them the windows of heaven; I will multiply for them every good thing of the labor of their hands; and I will lengthen their years in this present world, in health and earthly gladness, and there shall be no anxious troubles among their people; and I will be their helper, and they shall be my adopted children. And know that I am the Lord, and that there is no Lord but me; for I will put away all evil and care from you. If there be a priest who will not declare this epistle to my people, either in a town, or in a church, or in a city, my wrath will fall on him forever. Let them declare to the people that they may believe in the solemn Sunday, and that they may merit the mercy of heaven; for God Himself sent this written admonition to sinners unto the altar of the church of Peter and Paul in Rome, to admonish them respecting the work of Sunday and holy day.

I am Peter of Antioch, who swear by the power of God, who created the heaven and the earth, and that which is therein, and created man in His own image and form; and by Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, who was crucified for us, and who will come to judge the quick and the dead; and by the Holy Ghost, and by the Trinity in Unity inseparable; and by the four evangelists, and by the twenty-four prophets, and by the twelve apostles, and by the blessed Virgin Mary, mother of Christ, and by the bodies of the saints, no man composed this epistle, but it was found upon the altar of Peter, the apostle, sent by Jesus Christ from heaven indeed.

IX. Other Manuscripts.

The Vatican contains an Arabic MS. of the year 1426, which professes to be a letter of St. Peter and St. Paul to St. Athanasius, patriarch of Alexandria, which was sent from heaven December 25, 746, to the church of the two saints at Rome, in the presence of 12,000 bishops, 700 priests, and 23,000 laymen. The object, as in other varying editions of the letter, is to enforce the observance of the Sunday.

There are two other Arabic MSS. of the same century in the Vatican. In one the “Epistola” is said to have fallen at Rome, and to be written on porphyritic marble.

There is a copy in a fifteenth-century Latin MS. in the British Museum (Add. MSS., b. 716, fols. 72, 73). It contains the text used by Eustace of Flaye, with some additions.

A Greek version of the “heavenly letter” appeared in the fifteenth century. In this it is stated that a stone fell from heaven at Bethlehem, and was so heavy that the patriarch Joannice alone, after three days and nights of prayer, was able to move it, and to take from it the letter which it contained. This epistle refers to a previous letter that had been sent without effect. The main stress of the document is on the observance of Sunday. In the epilogue Joannice is made to exhort the Christians to obtain a copy: “Buy it, and you will buy the kingdom of heaven.” Staphorst has printed a fifteenth-century Hamburg MS., which recommends abstinence on Thursday as well as the observance of Sunday. Dr. Walter W. Skeat has described in the “Modern Language Quarterly” for May, 1901, a fifteenth-century charm, written in the East Midland dialect. The opening words are:—

Here begynneth the copy of the wryth that the Angel brought from Hevene on-to Seint Leo the Pope of Rome, he to deliver it to Kynge Charlys that that tyme he went to the batayl ayens goddys enemys. And he seyd that it wolde save hym that beryth thys letter up-on hym from fir and water, and from thunder and leneyng, and from alle wyk-kyd spiritys, and from false fyndys, and from drechying and dremyng in a bodijs slepyng, and from alle maner of perelles, bothe on lande and on water.

Further virtues are ascribed to the charm, which then follows. Here the original purpose of the heavenly letter has been completely lost sight of, and it is used merely as the preface to an amulet.

X. Among the Syrians.

Toward the end of the sixteenth century the “heavenly letter” was in circulation among the Syrian Christians of Malabar. It was cited as authoritative, and it was also subjected to synodical condemnation. A Syriac MS., belonging to the Royal Asiatic Society, contains a fragment of a “letter received by Athanasius, A. D. 829.”

The Vatican has an Arabic version belonging to the sixteenth century. It is written in Syriac characters, and professes to have been received by the patriarch Athanasius, December 25, 1057.

XI. In the Seventeenth Century.

In 1694 there was printed at Cologne a “Wahrhafte abschrift des Himmelbriefs so Gott selbst geschrieben, und auf S. Michaelsborg in Bethania vor S. Michelis Bild hanget, auch niemand weiss woran er hanget. Er ist mit goldenen Buchstaben geschrieben.” The virtue of the “celestial letter” as an amulet is asserted: “He who has it in his house will be safe from harm by thunder, fire, and water. It is also recommended to pregnant women.”

There is an Icelandic version of the “heavenly letter,” belonging to the same century.

A Vatican MS. contains an Arabic edition, in which the year A.D. 1353 is erroneously given as the equivalent of the year of the Greek era 1042. The proper date would be A.D. 731.

Ewald describes an Ethiopic MS. at Tubingen, dated 1678, in which it is stated that a “Tomar” book came from heaven to Athanasius on Sunday, in Rome, in the year of the Greeks 1056. It fell in the church of St. Peter and St. Paul, where there were with Athanasius 120 priests, and a congregation numbering, with women and children, 230 souls. While they were praying, there came a darkness so that they could not discern each other’s features. Then the helpers of the arch-priest went forth, and saw the book floating between earth and heaven. They repeated this to him, but he delayed to go forth until he had completed the communion service. Then all went, and were joined by the people of the town, who came to the number of 10,700 souls. Robes were spread on the earth, and the letter fell on them and was read by the arch-priest. It is dated 1056, and mentions a previous letter of 1042. The main stress of the letter is, as in other versions, Sunday observance.

Assemanni mentions a MS. of 1678, which is evidently a Syriac version of the letter associated with the name of Athanasius. The date of the descent of the “celestial epistle” is given as A. D. 829.

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