The three miracles referred to in this lesson illustrate the power of the word over disease, over evil spirits, and over the elements, and convey important instruction to us, bearing upon our Christian experience. We are sick with sin (Isa. 1:5, 6), "but it is the will of God to cleanse us from sin, to make us his children, and to enable us to live a holy life." The power is in his word (John 15:3) to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9), and God desires to say to each one, "Be thou clean" (Mark 1:41). We are to believe that he is "able to do this" (Matt. 9:28), and, as of old, so he says to-day, "According to your faith be it unto you" (verse 29, compare with Mark 5:34; 10:52, etc.). The result of disease finally is death, as sin ends in the second death (James 1:15; Rom. 6:23), and Satan has power over death (Heb. 2:14). He is the prince of this world (John 12:31), but Christ has overcome the world (John 16:33), meeting the temptations of Satan with the word of God (read Matt. 4:1-11), which is the sword of the Spirit (Eph. 6:17). Faith in the same power gives us the same victory (1 John 5:4). Lazarus came forth from the grave in response to the word of Christ (John 11:43, 44), though bound hand and foot; but the same authority said, "Loose him." So we who were dead have been made alive (Eph. 2:1), and set free from the power of sin (John 8:34-36), and all who are in their graves will be brought forth by the power of the same word (John 5:28, 29). Christ has given peace to his followers (John 14:27), but the wicked know not of this peace (Isa. 57:20, 21). When the storms of life arise, his word will bring a calm, as it did upon the lake. Christ's power over the elements is further shown by his walking upon the water. When he said to Peter, "Come" (Matt. 14:29), he gave him his word to walk upon, and it sustained him so long as he did not doubt. The word of God placed the earth here (Heb. 11:3); it is upheld by the same word (Heb. 1:2), and by the same it will be renewed (Heb. 12:26, 27). Then the same word, "Come," which upheld Peter, will be spoken to the saints (Matt. 25:34), and they will meet the Lord in the air (1 Thess. 4:17). All the miracles were recorded for a purpose (John 20:31), and should lead to unshaken confidence in the power of God's word manifested in salvation.
SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS.
1. How can the miracles which Satan will have power to perform be distinguished from those wrought by the power of God's word?
2. What relation have "Faith Cures," "Christian Science," etc., to this subject?
3. How will the present treatment of God's word by eminent men prepare the people for the "false revivals" of the last days?
CONTENTS OF THIS NUMBER
By Editor
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CONTENTS OF THIS NUMBER.
Editorial.—Notes and Comments—The Power and Methods of the Gospel—Characteristic Interpretation and Spirit...177, 178
Doctrinal.—The Flying Threefold Message, Rev. 14: 6-12 (poetry)—The Three Messages of Rev. 14: 6-14 (No. 4, Application and Fulfillment of the Second)—The Christian's Citizenship—Study of the Bible, Its Importance and Benefits, No. 4 (concluded)—The Witness of the Holy Spirit—Trapped...179-182
Miscellaneous.—My Journal (poetry)—The Outpouring of the Spirit—Our Obligation to Improve Our Talents—Don't Press the Influential Ones—Selfishness—Rome and the Papacy...182-185
The Home Circle.—Nobody's Darling (poetry)—Spare the Rod—Children in Church—The Brakeman's Christmas Story—The Influence of the Mother...185, 186
Health and Temperance.—A Temperance Story—Tobacco—Results of Prohibition—What Is Man?—Oatmeal Bags for the Bath...186, 187
Mission Fields.—Scatter Seed (poetry)—Rome and the South American Republics—Romanism, Heathenism...187, 188
Our Work and Workers.—The Manliest Man (poetry)—Spiritual Life—Field Notes...189
International S. S. Lessons.—Dedicating the Temple (Lesson 6, February 5)—The Power of God's Word, Continued (Lesson 6, February 4)...190
News and Notes.—Religious—Secular...191
Editorial.—Various Notes and Comments—Question Corner (72. Beginning the Day at Midnight—73. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost—74. Hope for Backsliders)...192
JESUS said, "Render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and to God the things that are God's." According to this rule to whom does Sunday belong? Who has the right to exact its observance of us?
ASSEMBLYMAN BOYCE, of San Francisco, has introduced into the California Legislature a bill to provide a rest of one day in seven for every laborer, without specifying what day it shall be. We hope to present the full text of the bill next week. It is said that at an early date a new Sunday law will be proposed.
OUR HOME CIRCLE department presents this week a large variety of small dishes of seasonable food, picked up from various sources. Too great variety at meals is generally not good, but we think that our readers will find no clashing in this respect. We wish to make our home department a means of blessing to all classes.
AFTER this week the two departments Home Circle and Health and Temperance will be merged into one, under the name of Home and Health. We shall have just as much to say on temperance as in the past, but, as true temperance should always be found in the home, and as it is intimately connected with health, the new department will be a highly proper place to discuss temperance in its various phases. Such changes as are here proposed are generally made at the beginning of a volume, but we believe that the change is an improvement, and as it can well be made now, it is well to make it now.
WE wish we were able to give our readers an account of the hearing on the Duborrow bill for the Sunday closing of the World's Fair. The latest news we have is that the committee will report on the bills sometime this week. We earnestly hope that the only consistent measure, the absolute repeal of all Sunday legislation, will be reported by the committee, and we earnestly wish that Congress will act consistently by repealing such legislation. It may be too much to expect in view of the enormous pressure brought upon Congressmen by our ecclesiastical politicians for closing the World's Fair. We will give the matter to our readers as soon as possible. In the meantime let them pray that all this agitation may work for the spread of the truth of God and the enlightening of those in darkness.
IT does not matter at all as regards the truth of God which they bear to the world, whether Seventh-day Adventists number 10,000 or 10,000,000; but we mention it as an item worthy of note that the Rev. W. F. Crafts gives the number in his book, published in 1892, as less than 18,000, when they were at that time about double that number. A letter of inquiry would easily have obtained him the information. But in this earth truth does not depend upon majorities.
ON another page will be found a brief account of the last service, a memorial service, with the crew and missionaries who go with the brig-schooner Pitcairn on her second cruise. While it is sad to part from those we love, it is cheering indeed to send out those who are consecrated to God. Few ships there are that sail the sea which have a Christian missionary crew. The Pitcairn sailed Tuesday morning, January 17. May God go with them and give them many souls for their hire. A description and cut of the new ship will be given in our next.
IF those ministers and religious organizations that are laboring so hard to close the World's Fair on Sunday would put forth the same amount of labor for the salvation of souls by preaching the truth as it is in Jesus, they would make a thousand times more Sabbath keepers than can be produced by a civil law. The converts of civil law are like converts in jail. They do not do because they cannot. But the converts of Jesus Christ cannot do because they will not. There is a vast difference between the two; but the former is the gospel of all those who seek to further religion by legal means, while the latter is the gospel of Christ. Reader, in which gospel do you believe?
The Probable Truth in the Matter.—The Christian Statesman refers to the "American Sabbath Union" meeting of some time since in Chicago, the resolutions of which in favor of Sunday laws were voted down, and as the meeting was packed by Seventh-day Adventists. We were not there, but we venture to say that the Seventh-day Adventists of Chicago made no attempt whatever to "pack" the meeting. They are willing to hear both sides of the question, and doubtless attended the nearest meeting held by the Sunday people that night. When the resolutions were put, they voted against them, as everyone present had a right to do, and they and others who did not favor Sunday laws outvoted the friends of Sunday. That is doubtless the truth of the matter. It was just such an affair as the above that occurred a few years ago. Mr. Crafts' resolutions were voted down in a mass meeting of his own calling in the First Congregational Church of this city, but there was not the slightest effort made by Seventh-day Adventists to pack the house, not so much as an invitation to attend, and quite a number opposed to all Sunday laws did not vote at all. Sabbath Union mass meetings, according to our observations, have been meetings without the mass. It is easier to get representative votes of great churches signed by the pastor, but taken perhaps at some prayer meeting when only from a dozen to a score were present. But as regards all moral questions, majorities count nothing with those who love truth, whatever effect they have upon the Sunday-law people.
THE following we clip from a late number of the New York Voice, and notice it, not so much because it is important, but to correct a current error:—
Mother Shipton, or Evan Preece, was a prophetess of South Wales, who lived some three hundred years ago. Her predictions were generally in verse, and in many of them came true, as in the cases of the deaths of Cardinal Woolsey, Lord Percy, and others, that her prophecy that the end of the world shall come in 1881, was widely accepted and the year 1881 looked forward to by many with fear and dread.
The writer, in company with Elder J. H. Durland, now of Oakland, Cal., visited the British Museum Library in 1884, and, as a matter of curiosity, asked to see the works of "Mother Shipton." They were placed in our hands, old, yellow, faded, bearing all the marks of genuineness. In one of the books was the noted prophecy in couplets, but the last two lines,—
"The world unto an end will come
In eighteen hundred eighty-one,"
were wanting. "Mother Shipton" never said it. They were the words of an Englishman of the present century.
OUR QUESTION CORNER.
By Editor
[From time to time we will reply under this head, if deemed advisable, to such candid inquiries on scriptural topics or moral questions as may be sent us. Questions which minister strife to no profit to our readers will not be answered here. Correspondents wishing a reply to their questions must give their full name and address, not for publication unless they wish, but as an evidence of good faith on their part, and to give us opportunity to reply by letter if deemed best. It is always well to inclose stamp. The questions will be numbered continuously.]
72. BEGINNING THE DAY AT MIDNIGHT.
By A. J. G.
When was the day first reckoned as beginning at midnight?
It came to us through the Romans, though just at what time they thus began this, we do not know. It probably arose first from the custom of dividing the night into four watches. Hipparchus, a Greek astronomer, who lived in the second century before Christ, followed this method. Astronomers now begin the day at noon. The ancient Greeks began theirs at sunset, as the Bible puts it. Hesiod, the oldest Greek poet, in speaking of a period of time, places night first, as does the Bible. Our English sevennight and fortnight do the same thing. Dr. Hales (chronology, vol. 1, page 16) says: "The inconveniences resulting from a variable beginning of the civil day . . . induced several ancient nations, the Egyptians (according to Pliny), the Ansonians, the most ancient inhabitants of Italy, the Roman Pontifices, Hipparchus, the Grecian astronomer, and the Chinese astronomers of Cathai and Oighur, etc., to reckon their civil day from midnight to midnight, . . . and this usage has been adopted by most of the modern nations of Europe." But the very earliest traditions accord with the truth of the Scripture.
73. FATHER, SON, AND HOLY SPIRIT.
By Editor
What is your idea about the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost being three in one?
SUBSCRIBER.
It matters very little what our idea is in the matter. What does the Bible teach? should be the question with us all. Christ says "I and my Father are one," and prays that his disciples may be one as he and his Father are one. John 10:30; 17:11, 21. The unity is one we may apprehend, though not comprehend. "The Bible Doctrine of the Trinity," No. 90 of the Bible Students' Library, price two cents (Pacific Press, Oakland, Cal.), will give you some good thoughts and suggestions on the matter.
74. HOPE FOR BACKSLIDERS.
By Editor
Will you be so kind as to give the evidence in the Scriptures of the chance for a backslider's being reclaimed after the crucifixion or ascension of Christ? And should they be baptized again? MRS. S. T.
We have considerably condensed our correspondent's questions, who seems to be troubled over Heb. 6:4-7. That text has no reference to the time of the crucifixion, but to what the crucifixion does for one. God is always the same, after the crucifixion as before. The text simply teaches what Heb. 10:26-29 and other scriptures teach, that when a man willfully rejects all the means ordained of God to save him, his case is hopeless; there is no way to reach him. He has closed his heart to the grace of God, and God will not force anyone. There is always hope for the backslider as long as he longs to be freed from sin and willingly submits to God's will. Read 1 John 2:1. James 4:1-10 was written for backsliders; so also was Rev. 2:5, 14-16; 3:1-3, 14-21. As to whether a backslider should be rebaptized or not depends on the extent of the backsliding. If they have become dead in trespasses and sins, and through Christ are brought to life, we do not know why the marriage symbol of the believer with Christ should not be renewed. Much more might be said, but this states it in brief. God's mercy is over all, and there is always hope for the greatest sinner if he will but choose God and his ways.
THE TALENTS
By M. C. Wilcox
By M. C. Wilcox. A brief essay on "The Parable of the Talents," showing that the talents represent the various gifts of the Spirit which God bestows as he will upon those who are consecrated to him, with the duties and blessed privileges involved therein. Bible Students' Library, No. 77; 16 pp., price 2 cents.