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Review and Herald, Vol. 93, No. 63.

COMPENSATION

Review and Herald

Dec 21, 1916

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 21, 1916

COMPENSATION

By Pearl Waggoner Howard

PEARL WAGGONER HOWARD
Going at the Master’s bidding Far beyond the trackless foam, Leaving native land behind us, Bidding long farewell to home, There’s a sweet and glad assurance Fills our hearts with joy and praise; ’Tis his word: “Lo, I am with you, Will be with you all the days.”
Not alone he bids his servants Follow out his great command; Not alone he bids them labor, In their own small strength to stand. But there’s blessed compensation For the strong commission, “Go.” ’Tis the word: “I’m with you always, Through all changing scenes below.”
It is blessed to be treading In the path the Master trod; It is glorious to be chosen As ambassadors for God. But wherever he may send us, It is best of all to know That the promise, “I am with you,” Follows the command to go.

News and Miscellany

Notes and clippings from the daily and weekly press
— Miss Jeannette Rankin, Republican, of Missoula, Mont., is the first woman to be elected to Congress.
— A new naval station has been completed at Chollas Heights, Cal. Over 70,000 feet of wire were used in the aerial system, which is arranged in three steel towers, each 600 feet high. The entire structure cost about $300,000.
— Many people will be interested to know that the midget who became the bride of Gen. Tom Thumb, fifty-three years ago, is still living in Middleboro, Mass., and passed her seventy-fifth birthday, October 31. She is now the wife of Count Magri, who is just a trifle taller than she.
— According to an article appearing in a London magazine, Orville Wright, the American aeroplane inventor, has presented all his patents to the English government. These patents are worth millions of dollars; now every English manufacturer has a right to use them as often as he chooses.
— The repairing and rebuilding of the Alaska Northern Railway is being satisfactorily carried out, it is reported. About 600 men are now working on it, and it costs the government $50,000 a month for wages alone. The work consists mainly of building bridges, eliminating high trestles with fills, and reducing grades.
— Congress reconvened December 4 for a three months’ session, with a calendar overcrowded with general legislation, facing railroad reforms and the high cost of living as new issues, and confronted with unprecedented estimates aggregating $1,654,819,654 to meet expenditures of the government for the fiscal year 1918.
— Temperance forces throughout the country will rejoice in the success of prohibition in four additional States as a result of the recent election. Michigan, Nebraska, Montana, and South Dakota have been added to the prohibition list, making twenty-three States, or almost one half of the Union, now in the dry column.
— Representative-elect O. D. Bleakley, of Franklin, Pa., arrived in Washington on the evening of November 21, in his own aeroplane, and earned the distinction of being the first Congressman to make his entrée to the national capital under such novel circumstances. He came from Philadelphia, making the trip in a little less than three hours.
— Before a crowd which filled Plaza McKinley, the open space in front of the Ayuntamiento, seat of the central government in the Philippines, the first Filipino congress was inaugurated on October 16. Nearly 20,000 people saw the first session of the first wholly elective national legislature the Philippines have ever had,—a session made possible by the passage at the last session of Congress of the Philippine bill.
— Last year the United States bought more than $1,000,000,000 worth of merchandise from tropical countries. There were brought into American ports more than $300,000,000 worth of sugar, $160,000,000 worth of rubber, $125,000,000 in raw silk, $115,000,000 in coffee, $60,000,000 in fibers, $40,000,000 in fruits and nuts, $40,000,000 in cotton, $35,000,000 worth of cacao, while the remainder of the $1,000,000,000 imports included a very large variety of items.
— Nearly three hundred years ago John Endicott, colonial governor of Massachusetts, planted a pear tree which a friend had sent him from England. For years he cared for it, and it grew famous for its delicious fruit. Today the tree is still bearing luxuriantly; it yielded about three thousand pears this season. Washington, Lincoln, Webster, and many other great men have tasted its fruit, and on one occasion a quantity of it was shipped to the royal palace in London.
— BERLIN: “Polish provinces occupied by troops of the central powers,” says the Overseas News Agency, “were the scene today [November 5] of a great and momentous historic event. Germany and Austria-Hungary by joint action proclaimed Warsaw and Lublin the kingdom of Poland, and reëstablished the right of the Polish nation to control its own destinies, to live an independent national life, and to govern itself by chosen representatives of the nation.”
— A movement has been launched by the World’s Court League, of which Hon. William H. Taft is honorary president, to organize an international council, with a view to calling a third Hague conference, perhaps before the close of the war. In the latter event, the conference would be prepared to act as a medium for peace proposals. After the war it would act as a permanent international council of conciliation for formulating and codifying new rules of international law.
— A copy of the New Testament, which is said to be one of the oldest now extant, has been brought to Portland by A. J. Eyth, formerly of New York. It has been in the possession of his family three hundred and fifty years, and was an old book when it came to them. The pages consist of palm leaf, engraved or written on in Egyptian Arabic. Mr. Eyth’s ancestors were missionaries, and one of them obtained this book in Egypt. Since then it has been handed down from father to son.
— Dr. Hipolito Irigoyen was recently inaugurated president of Argentina. He showed a decidedly democratic spirit, for while he is very wealthy and an educated man, he proposed to ride to the capitol for his inauguration in a street car, paying his own fare, and to wear his ordinary street clothes. His friends persuaded him to modify his plans far enough to wear a frock coat and to ride in a public taxicab. He took the oath of office, refused to make a speech, and was driven through the streets in a modern stage coach. His annual salary is $31,600, which, as he did with his former salary as professor of civic instruction in Buenos Aires Normal School, he turns over to the united charities of the city.
— The Russians are far ahead of the rest of the world in the use they make of sunflowers. One million acres are planted by them every year. The seeds are eaten as we eat peanuts, only always raw. A very nutritious bread is made from the seed ground to flour. Large quantities of unrefined yellow oil are used in illumination. Candles and soap are made from it. The “cake” left after the oil is extracted makes fine food for the Russian cattle. Silk is made of the fibers of the stalks, which are fine, silky, and very strong.
— The first resignations from the diplomatic corps, which are expected to be the forerunners of others as a consequence of President Wilson’s reëlection and the closing of his first term, were announced recently. Dr. Henry van Dyke, minister to the Netherlands, has resigned, and probably will be succeeded by John W. Garrett, of Baltimore, formerly minister to Argentina. Dr. van Dyke, it was explained, has been concerned over his health for some time, and also desired to return to his literary work after being abroad nearly four years.
— The fighting front, reckoning the battle alignment in all the theaters of war, extends in length about 2,500 miles, or more than two thirds the distance from Liverpool to New York. Fighting is continuous and violent on about a sixth of this 2,500 miles of front. The Roumanian western front is nearly 700 miles long, or 160 miles longer than the front on which the French, British, and Belgian armies are fighting. The density of troops in the various theaters of war ranges from 6,000 to 2,000 men a mile. The densest concentration in any war theater is on the Somme.
— The old blacksmith shop which inspired Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to write that famous poem, “The Village Blacksmith,” was torn down May 24 of this year. This old shop was located on Swan Street, Medford, Mass., and had been occupied for more than forty years by Henry Francis Moore, who was the blacksmith hero of Longfellow’s poem. A modern structure is to be erected on the site of this famous shop. When the old building was torn down, hundreds of men, women, and children went to the place to obtain souvenirs. Horseshoes and horseshoe nails were especially sought, and practically every scrap of old iron of this kind was carried away.
— Attorney-General Gregory has authorized the following formal announcement: “The Department of Justice is investigating the recent abnormal and suspicious increases in the prices of various necessaries of life, especially coal. Wherever any such increase is found to have been due to conspiracy or other unlawful action, the department will invoke against the offenders the severest penalties which the law prescribes.” Three separate investigations into the abnormally high prices of commodities, it was said at the department, are in progress, with a view of criminal prosecution of persons or corporations responsible for the increase in the prices of milk, bread, and coal. The Interstate Commerce Commission also is conducting an inquiry into the alleged shortage of coal cars, which middlemen claim is responsible for the rise in the price of coal.

Sundial Christians

By G. R. T.

It is said that in Spain there is a sundial that has this motto engraved upon it: “I mark only the bright hours.”
This it seems would be an appropriate motto for all Christians. Despondency and gloom and the constant remembrance of unpleasant things in the experience of ourselves and of others do no good. Why mark in our memory the shadows of life, and fail to remember the bright things by the way? Why hang in the hall of memory the things which cause the heart to ache, and forget the blessings and things which cause us to be glad?
Every Christian should have a graveyard where he buries all the unpleasant memories,—hatred, alienation, old grudges, and every other thing that darkens the soul and grieves the heart. The admonition of the great apostle is always in place: “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Phil. 4: 8.
These are the things to hang in memory’s hall. Like the sundial, let us “mark only the bright hours.”
G. R. T.

Constantinople Promised to Russia

By F. M. W.

ONE has only to recognize the striking manner in which Turkey holds the center of interest among the nations engaged in the great European war, to recognize why the ultimate fate of this nation should be made the climax of the long prophecy of Daniel II. In view of the fostering care which Great Britain has exercised over the Ottoman Empire for many years, virtually constituting herself the guardian of Ottoman autonomy; and the covetous desire with which for many years Russia has looked upon Constantinople as affording a warm-water port of entry and egress, many have been led to wonder how these apparent differences would be reconciled, and what disposition would be made of the Turkish possessions in Europe.
A marked change has been noticeable in the last two or three years in the attitude of the English press regarding this question. Whereas before the war English papers were outspoken in their convictions that in event of the dissolution of Turkey, Constantinople should come under British control, latterly these same journals have expressed the conviction that this city on the Bosporus, with its commercial advantages, naturally and geographically belongs to the Russian Empire.
It has been believed for some time, particularly since the beginning of the great conflict, that some secret understanding existed whereby Russia was assured of her coveted prize. This question evidently is now set at rest by a statement made by the Russian premier at the opening of the Duma, December 3. A dispatch from London to the New York Times of December 4 states:—
“An event surpassing in far-reaching importance the actual military operations of the war, comes today in the public announcement of the new Russian premier, that by an agreement concluded in 1915, and subsequently adhered to by Italy, the Allies definitely established Russia’s right to Constantinople and the strait. The existence of this agreement has been for a long time alleged, but never before was it thus publicly and formally admitted.”
The premier’s statement follows:—
“For more than a thousand years Russia has been reaching southward toward a free outlet on the open sea. This age-long dream, cherished in the hearts of the Russian people, is now ready for realization. . . .”
“From the beginning of the war, wishing to spare human lives and suffering, we and our allies did our utmost to restrain Turkey from mad participation in hostilities. Turkey received formal assurances guaranteeing her, in exchange for neutrality, the integrity of her territory and independence, and also conferring on her certain privileges and advantages. These efforts were in vain. Turkey surreptitiously attacked us, and thus sealed her own doom.
“We then concluded an agreement with our allies, which establishes in the most definite manner the right of Russia to the straits and Constantinople. Russians should know for what they are shedding blood, and in accord with our allies, announcement of this agreement is made today from this tribune. Absolute agreement on this point is firmly established among the Allies, and there is no doubt that after she has obtained sovereign possession of a free passage into the Mediterranean, Russia will grant freedom of navigation for the Roumanian flag, which now, not for the first time, floats in battle side by side with the flag of Russia.”
This agreement on the part of the entente powers will be carried out, provided they achieve their designs in the present conflict. Many authorities question, however, if the Turkish Empire would fare any better in event of victory on the part of the central empires. For years, it is argued, Germany has desired a free and open communication from the Balkans to the rich provinces of Asia. And for long years she has been developing Turkish territory, commerce, and industry in line with the achievements of her national purposes. In event of victory, Germany would continue to pursue this definite purpose. It is altogether probable, we are told, that Turkey would be subjugated to the state of vassalage if she did not entirely lose her autonomy as an independent state. Speaking of this in the Independent for Dec. 7, 1914, Dr. Bernhard Dernberg makes the following statement regarding German purposes:—
“Germany has been for about thirty-five years the associate of Turkey in developing Turkish territory, commerce, and industry. She has acquired the Oriental railways and built the Anatolian and Bagdad lines. She has established harbors and shipping companies, and engaged in mining and very extensive irrigation works. She must be left with a free hand to go on with this commercial development as far as she can arrange with the sovereign power of the Porte and without outside interference. This would mean a recognized sphere of influence from the Persian Gulf to the Dardanelles.”
Mr. Vahan Cardashian, in the New York Tribune of Dec. 1, 1916, speaks regarding the purposes of Germany with respect to Turkey, and what Turkey might expect from Germany in event of German victory:—
“The important fact must be recognized that, even with the best intentions, the German cannot collaborate with the Turk, the possession of whose empire is the principal object of Germany’s ambition, because of irreconcilable racial temperamental differences, if not moral, and of the low moral standard of the Turk, without taking into consideration the absolute economic insufficiency of the Turk, which alone would naturally place him in a position of servitude and vassalage to the German, who will be wholly depended upon to nurse, support, and develop him. It is furthermore reasonable to believe that even before the comparative accomplishment of the Turk’s development, which would make of him an efficient and humane administrator and governor,—qualities heretofore not found or even suggested in the Turk’s character,—the German would overwhelm him in numbers, and establish over him physical superiority as he has mental superiority. These are clearly revealed in the German character, the record and the direction of the national activities of Germany, and the undisputed control she now holds over the conduct of the affairs of these states. The success of the German arms will, therefore, make of these states German dependencies and vassals.”
Hence, from whatever angle the Turkish question is viewed, whether in its relation to the side of the entente Allies or that of the central empires, publicists are forced to the conclusion, in the words of Mr. Cardashian, that “the Turk must go.”
This indeed is the prediction of the inspired penman. This power, under the designation of “the king of the north,” is represented as finally setting up its seat of government in Jerusalem. In this place the prophecy declares that this nation shall come to its end. How many turns of the political kaleidoscope it will take to bring this about, we cannot tell. How long after the capital of the Turkish government is removed from Constantinople before it reaches its end, the prophecy does not indicate. It is possible that the government may be moved from place to place before its final stand at Jerusalem.
In close connection with the final Turkish overthrow the prophecy declares that Christ will stand up to take his kingdom; the end of probationary time will be reached; the judgments of God as represented in the seven last plagues will be poured out upon a wicked world. With interest we should watch the development of political events in their fulfilment of prophecy; and to those who desire a knowledge of the meaning of these things, these political changes should be pointed out as a fulfilment of the prophetic word, as signs of the imminence of the coming of the Lord.
F. M. W.

Our Eternal Home

By G. B. T.

To all there come weary days and dark hours. There come times in our experience when the load seems heavier than we can carry. The trail of the serpent is seen all about us, and the marks of the curse are everywhere. Discouragements press in on the soul, and like one of old, we are sometimes tempted to believe that, after all, we have cleansed our hearts in vain. We have labored long and hard; and in our weakness, broken in both strength and spirit, we are tempted to feel that life has been a failure, and our work is unappreciated.
In these dark hours it is well to let our minds reflect on the exceeding great and precious promises of the Lord, which he has made to those who put their trust in him. There is a place of final rest for the weary, a home for the worn pilgrim, where he can bask in the eternal beauties of Paradise, and through countless ages enjoy Eden restored.
"I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." Rev. 21: 3, 4.
We are not continually to remember our shortcomings and failures, and lament the fact that we could have done better. We are admonished to look up; to forget the things that are behind, and press forward, with the hand of faith extended to grasp the prize. We ought to think of home, and of the final rest, when the clouds will all have been swept away. Nothing else can so rejoice the heart as thoughts of the home which the Lord has prepared for them who love him. When weighed down with care, and suffering perhaps under affliction, think of home, the real home of the redeemed. It will indeed be Eden restored.
"Transported with joy, he [Adam] beholds the trees that were once his delight,—the very trees whose fruit he himself had gathered in the days of his innocence and joy. He sees the vines that his own hands have trained, the very flowers that he once loved to care for. His mind grasps the reality of the scene; he comprehends that this is indeed Eden restored, more lovely now than when he was banished from it. The Saviour leads him to the tree of life, and plucks the glorious fruit, and bids him eat. He looks about him, and beholds a multitude of his family redeemed, standing in the Paradise of God. Then he casts his glittering crown at the feet of Jesus, and, falling upon his breast, embraces the Redeemer. He touches the golden harp, and the vaults of heaven echo the triumphant song, 'Worthy, worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and lives again!' The family of Adam take up the strain, and cast their crowns at the Saviour's feet as they bow before him in adoration."
The thought of home has cheered the soldier in the trenches, and buoyed up the spirits of pilgrims bivouacked on the battle field of life. We never forget the scenes and associations of our childhood home. Though there may be things that are not pleasant to recall, yet the early recollections stir all the best emotions of the heart.
"When Lafayette last visited this country, the people gave him a royal reception. A fleet of vessels went out to meet him, the band played 'Hail to the Chief,' and the national music of France; and it is told that he was unmoved.
"As he came ashore, land and water trembled with the power of artillery. Old soldiers saluted him as they shouted his welcome, and he was still unmoved. With waving banners and under triumphal arches, he was taken to Castle Garden, where most of the great men of the nation were gathered together to give him greeting; and he was still not moved.
"But when he had taken his seat in the great amphitheater, and when the curtain was lifted, he saw before him a perfect representation of the place in France where he was born and brought up; and when he saw the old home so filled with the tender memories, the home where his father and mother had lived and died, it is said that the great man was touched, and bowing his face in his hands he wept like a child."
We must not allow the sight of material things to shut from our vision the home, eternal in the heavens, and the joys which await the faithful at God's right hand. The things we see are temporal; only the things which are not seen, except by faith, are eternal and enduring.
G. B. T.

Of Francis Bampfield, Early English Sabbatarian Witness

By W. A. S.

J. N. ANDREWS, in his “History of the Sabbath,” gives an account of the work of Francis Bampfield, a Sabbath-keeping preacher of England, and of his death in Newgate Prison, London, where he was held for his loyalty to the Sabbath of the Lord his God. Some further particulars may be gathered from the history of English nonconformity in those days of steadfast witnessing in the face of a persecuting church establishment.
In Calamy’s “Nonconformists’ Memorial,” it is said of Francis Bampfield:—
“He was one of the most celebrated preachers in the west of England, and extremely admired by his hearers, till he fell into the Sabbatarian notion, of which he was a zealous asserter.”—Vol. II, p. 152.
Some particulars of Bampfield’s life are given in an old London work, Wilson’s “History of Dissenting Churches.” We are told that he was born in Devonshire, in 1614. Educated at Oxford, he entered the ministry of the Church of England. He had a small private annuity, and chose to give away to the needy the stipend that came to him as ministerial salary. He was made prebendary of Exeter Cathedral in 1641. He was a Bible Protestant, and felt that the Established Church needed reforming. When the Act of Uniformity was enacted, requiring all ministers to follow the ritualistic liturgy of a new prayer book, he left the church, in 1662, along with more than two thousand others. Wilson says:—
“Soon after his ejectment he was apprehended and imprisoned for worshiping God in his own family.”—Vol. II, p. 586.
After his release he became, like so many others of those heroic days, a wandering herald of the gospel, teaching and preaching, with the law ever in pursuit. He was again arrested, and spent eight years in Dorchester jail. The history says:—
“In the prison he preached almost every day, and success attending his labors, he gathered a church there. Upon his discharge in 1675, he went about preaching the gospel in several counties. But for this crime he was soon apprehended again, in Wiltshire, and imprisoned at Salisbury.”—Id., p. 588.
It was during these years in prison that his attention was called to the subject of baptism, and he accepted Baptist principles. Then while still in prison the Sabbath truth came to him, and he began to obey. He had turned from the way of worldly honor and high preferment in the state establishment, to follow his Master. The Word of God was his guide. As it taught baptism, he became a Baptist. When he saw that it taught the perpetuity of the Sabbath, he followed Christ’s steps in this way also. He was a man who loved God and the truth.
On his release from prison, he went to London, finding refuge for a time in that great wilderness of people. He gathered a church of Sabbath keepers, meeting in Pinner’s Hall, near the Bank of England. It was from this hall that he was taken by the officers, on Sabbath, Feb. 17, 1682, and put on trial. He was sentenced to forfeiture of all his goods—little enough—and to remain prisoner for life in Newgate Prison. When the recorder was to pronounce sentence, Bampfield and some friends essayed to speak; but, says the record, “there was a great outcry, ‘Away with them! put them away from the bar! we will not hear them!’”
From his prison, however, Bampfield issued published testimonies in behalf of the Sabbath truth. Literally to the end, this energetic and gifted man of God bore his witness, suffering all things, enduring all things, that the cause of God might be advanced and souls won to the way of righteousness. What an inspiration to faithfulness comes to us from the lives of these witnesses to the light of Sabbath reform in the dark times of religious persecution.
Approaching seventy years of age, and worn with a life of privation, Bampfield was unable long to endure the rigors of imprisonment in Newgate. Within a year he succumbed, dying on Sabbath, Feb. 16, 1683. He was buried in Goswell Street, London, his body being followed to the grave by “a very great company of factious and schismatical people,” one old record tells us. It shows in what esteem this man of God was held by many. W. A. S.

Note and Comment

By Editor

Regrettable Inconsistency

How strange it is that intelligent men can argue for a stricter observance of the first day of the week as a holy day, and quote the fourth commandment of the decalogue in support of their claims. We were impressed with this in reading an editorial in the Christian Observer of August 30, under the heading, “Remember the Sabbath Day to Keep It Holy.” Says the editor of this journal:—
“The churches must lay a larger emphasis upon the sacred duty defined in the fourth commandment. As some one has said, ‘The churches must solve the problem of Sabbath desecration, or Sabbath desecration will dissolve many of our churches.’”
“Pastors face a great responsibility in this matter. If the duty of Sabbath observance is rarely mentioned from the pulpit, the people will in time conclude that it is not a vital and urgent duty. Young people especially should be instructed fully as to the origin of the Sabbath, its perpetual obligation, and God’s demands for its right observance. ‘The Sabbath was made for man’—for his spiritual, moral, mental, and physical good. Jesus declared that he is Lord of the Sabbath. His will with regard to the observance of the day must guide us in the performance of this duty.”
It is not evident from this statement that the editor has in mind the first day of the weekly cycle. This, however, is made apparent later in the article by a quotation from the pen of Mr. W. J. Bryan, who testifies to his belief in the fourth commandment, says it is not necessary for him to explain why God put the fourth commandment in the decalogue, and sums up his argument with this statement: “Sunday is our only day to develop the soul. Shall we give it up? —Not if the Christian church does its duty. . . . You must either obey the commandment or reject the Book. If the Bible commands a thing, it must be obeyed. The Bible sets apart this day.”
This argument presents indeed a strange, and we may add, a regrettable, inconsistency. Men may be able to quote the Bible for every occasion, and to illustrate their ideas by incidents and figures drawn from the Sacred Volume, but be utterly incapable of comprehending the significance of its teaching. And yet we cannot charge such men with dishonesty. They believe, doubtless, as they have been taught. They have never stopped to consider the logic of their own arguments. Many are now observing in all good conscience the first day of the week as the Sabbath of the Lord who will begin the observance of the true Sabbath when once their attention is called to the real teaching of the Word with reference to this question.

The Drift Romeward

EVIDENCES have not been lacking for many years of the drift Romeward existing in the Protestant Episcopal Church. An additional proof of this tendency was seen in a recent general convention of that church. For the first time in its history it authorized the saying of prayers for the dead. Says the Evening Star (Washington, D. C.) of October 26:—
“The house of deputies adopted, for the first time in the history of the church, a prayer for the dead. This action also is subject to the concurrence of the house of bishops. Heretofore, it was said, such prayers have been confined to the ritual of the Roman Catholic Church. Leaders of the convention said the changing sentiment is a direct result of the great death toll in Europe.
“Two prayers for the dead were submitted in the prayer book commission’s report, one being recommitted to the commission and the other adopted. The committee also approved proposals to include in the prayer book, for the first time, a blessing for graves and a special funeral office for children.”
It is difficult to understand how the large death toll of Europe at the present time necessitated this departure from the custom of the church, and it is still more difficult to understand by what process of reasoning it could be demonstrated that these proposed prayers will benefit those who have gone down in death. The Scriptures of truth plainly declare that the dead know not anything; they have no knowledge of the things which take place on this earth. Eccl. 9: 5, 6. Their account in the books of heaven was closed at their death. They have no power to do good or evil; to choose Christ as their Saviour or to reject him. Of what value, then, can be prayers in their behalf after they have passed into a state of unconsciousness?
Are the prayers for the purpose of expiating the wrath of God or of changing his attitude toward those who have gone down in death? The judgment of God is not based upon caprice, nor is it an expression of vindictiveness. All his ways are righteousness, and every decision will be based upon equity and justice. The great Judge can be neither bought nor bribed. Zeph. 1:18. Every man in the character in which he died must stand before the judgment bar. And whatever the decree rendered, we know it will be the only decree which could have been given in harmony with the principles of God’s eternal love and justice.

Seed Thoughts on Tithe Paying

By Albert E. Place

ALBERT E. PLACE
The Sabbath, as originally given in Eden, was instituted to show: (1) That God is the Creator of all things; (2) that he has a right to a definite, specific portion of the time furnished to man.
The Sabbath command is a divine evidence that God required this recognition on the part of his creatures. Before sin entered, this divine right and command was based on the one fact that God was the creator and giver of all time. After sin entered, the Sabbath still remained as a sign of creation, and in addition it became a sign of God’s power and promise to re-create. “It [the seed] . . . shall bruise thy [the serpent’s] head.” “I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify them.”
As Jesus is the only sanctifier, and his the only “name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved,” the Edenic Sabbath became the sign of all the re-creative, or redemptive, work of “the Seed,” from Eden to Eden.
If it was necessary, right, and reasonable to recognize the Sabbath in sinless Eden from the standpoint of creation alone, was it not far more clearly right and necessary after God had given it as a sign of redemption? Could the right, reason, or necessity ever change unless God should change the Seed, or the Redeemer, or the plan for sanctification?
The tree “in the midst of the garden,” was used to show God’s right to property; and not only this, but also to a definite, specific portion of all the property created and given to man.
To heed God’s command, This one tree is mine; do not touch it, would mean that man recognized the divine right to the specified portion, and to more if God should further specify. This divine right was also based upon the one fact that God was Creator.
If it was right and necessary, on the basis of the original creation alone, that man should recognize God’s right to this definite, specific portion of property, was it not more so in the light of redemption through the Seed?
Abraham recognized these principles, as shown by his meeting with Melchizedek. He gave to Abraham the bread and wine of the Melchizedek priesthood. Abraham saw Christ’s day and “was glad.” John 8:56. Abraham paid “tithes of all” to Melchizedek, clearly showing that Abraham, “the father of the faithful,” recognized that the paying belongs to the Melchizedek priesthood as truly and properly as it ever did to the Aaronic. Paul emphasizes this by showing that Jesus Christ, the Mediator of the New Testament, the Seed and Redeemer promised in Eden, is “a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” Heb. 6:20.
Therefore, whether man will recognize it or not, the Bible Sabbath and the tithe, representing specific portions of time and property, are divine principles of Edenic origin, purity, and power; and they stand together as signs between God and his redeemed children; and the souls who, in the face of the creative, redemptive power and love of God, do not recognize and apply these great tests of character, would themselves fall if placed in a sinless Eden.
As the Edenic Sabbath has been forsaken for a false day, so has the tithe been forsaken for a false system by which to support God’s work in the earth. In the Dark Ages it degenerated into paying money as penance, for indulgences, for masses for the dead, etc. Since the days of the Reformers even to this time, it has been church socials, festivals, and other money-making affairs. But as the reformation embraces God’s true Sabbath, the divine sign of both creation and redemption, his people, “Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (not Jews according to the flesh), meet the true Melchizedek and High Priest of the new covenant. They eat at his table the unleavened bread and drink the unfermented wine, and then, as did their father Abraham, they pay to the Melchizedek priesthood “tithes of all.”
San José, Cal.

“Where Art Thou?”

W. R. UCHTMANN
No doubt Adam had not only a set time to worship God, but also a place where he met his Maker every morning and evening. The whole trend of the Bible seems to bear this out. It must have been a blessed hour for Adam and Eve, spent alone with God day after day, a blessed hour for both God and man. But one evening when God appeared as usual, man was in hiding from his best and truest friend. “God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?”
This pathetic question has been re-echoing through this world ever since. Here is a church building, dedicated to the worship of God. Forty members meet there every Sabbath and every mid-week. Every member, whether young or old, looks forward in happy anticipation to the time of meeting with God and with one another. But on a certain Sabbath day Brother B and his wife are absent, and will not every member ask, “Brother B. where art thou?” God is the author of this question, and he will ask it every time some one is absent from public worship or from the family altar.
Have you ever seen a father at church, anxiously looking for some one to enter? What question do you read on his worried face? It is, Son, daughter, where art thou? If you have not thus watched for your child, you cannot fully appreciate this father's feelings. If you have been through this experience, you can have just a faint idea of the love of God, who all through the ages has said, “Where art thou?”
And why should we be absent from the place where we can both receive and give the greatest of all blessings? We give God the worship he requires. Read carefully John 4:23. “Bless the Lord, O my soul!” We can make God happy by true worship; and as a consequence we are happy. This is the highest attainment man can reach.
Our message is almost closing, and with it closes probation. Have we friends or relatives out of the ark of safety? Let us go and with a heart full of God's love say to each of them, “Where art thou?”
Bridgeport, Conn.
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