FEBRUARY 6: Review the book of Exodus. It is a history of rebellion and forgiveness, of murmurings and mercy. It may be divided into four sections: Slavery, salvation, Sinai, service. Mark these divisions in your Bible.
FEBRUARY 7: Study the different offerings mentioned till they are clearly defined in your mind.
FEBRUARY 8: Prepare a table showing the five kinds of offerings (burnt, meal, peace, sin, trespass) showing (1) purpose of; (2) manner of.
FEBRUARY 9: Make a list of prohibitions of the use of strong drink found elsewhere in the Bible.
FEBRUARY 10: Study the restrictions given in regard to food.
FEBRUARY 11: Read what the Bible Dictionary says about lepers and leprosy.
FEBRUARY 12: Note how often and how minutely the thought is brought out that God is particular about details.
Civilization of the Ancient World
“A few years ago hostile critics declared that the account of the making of the tabernacle and its structure could not be true, as the times were too primitive to admit of it; but now through research we have ample evidence of the great skill in such matters long before the exodus. Fine linen was used in many ways. The whole process of working gold is depicted in the tombs of Beni-Hassan as early as the twelfth dynasty. A remarkable collection of exquisitely wrought jewelry (now in the Bulak museum) was found in the tomb of Queen Ahotep of the eighth dynasty.” — Henry T. Sell.
Leviticus
This name is given to the third book of the Bible because it deals chiefly with the Levites and the priests, and their services and duties in connection with the sanctuary and its worship. It also sets forth the duties of the people in regard to worship, offerings, and sacrifices.
“Leviticus opens with an account of the laws which governed the offerings and ritual of the Lord’s house. Henceforth God is not to dwell apart from, but with, his people; not on a lonely mountain top, but in the tent which has been set up for him. There must be a suitable and proper approach to God. This book contains the laws of approach to the holy God by a sinful yet chosen people. We have in Leviticus what is known as the priests’ code. The contents are purely legislative, and the laws enacted are civil, ceremonial, moral, religious and sanitary. Those which receive the most attention are the religious and ceremonial. A large part of the book is occupied with instructions for the service of the sanctuary. The only historical portions are the accounts of the consecration of the priests and the death of Nadab and Abihu (chapters 8-10); also the punishment of the blasphemer (chap. 24:10-14).”
Do not make the mistake of thinking that because this is a book of ancient laws and rites and ceremonies, therefore it is unimportant, and may be lightly passed over. Read carefully chapter 16, dealing with the cleansing of the sanctuary; note what is said concerning tale-bearing, acceptable offerings, the sacredness of the tithe, etc.; especially notice how often, and in how many ways, the duty of loving our neighbor is enjoined.
Holiness
The great theme of Leviticus is holiness,—a holy God, a holy priesthood, a holy people. “The holiness of God shines like a white, fearful light upon the whole book. It is in contrast with that holiness that the sin of man is seen and understood. . . . Leviticus speaks forevermore of the awfulness of sin in the light of the holiness of God, of the plenteous redemption springing from the love of God, of the possibility of holiness of life, created by communion with God.”
The Key to the Hieroglyphics of Ancient Egypt
A little over a hundred years ago, the world’s knowledge of Bible times began to be increased. In 1799, as one result of Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign, the Rosetta Stone (so named because it was unearthed near Rosetta, at the mouth of the Nile) was discovered. This stone was of black granite, three feet nine inches high, two feet four and one-half inches wide, and eleven inches thick. It is thought to have been originally several inches higher, and to have had a rounded top.
The smooth face of the stone was divided into three parts, one above another. On each of these appeared an inscription,—the upper one resembling the hieroglyphics seen everywhere on monuments and obelisks in Egypt; the middle section covered with another kind of script; and the lower written in Greek. This last “was readily readable, and told the story of the stone. It was set up in 195 B. C., in honor of Ptolemy Epiphanes,” and recited various creditable deeds attributed to him. It was at once assumed that the other two inscriptions were a repetition of this story, and the value of the stone was immediately recognized. After making copies of the writings, the stone was carefully packed and sent to England. It is now one of the treasures in the British Museum.
In 1818, after years of painstaking study, a French scholar succeeded in deciphering the remaining inscriptions of the Rosetta Stone, and in so doing “unlocked the old door to the civilization of the Nile Valley. . . . The stately obelisks and majestic columns were still as the tomb, but their story now rings through the enlightened nations of the earth. Their designers and builders perished thousands of years ago, and their kings lie silent in their tombs or in our museums; but their testimony abides, unchallenged, chiseled in imperishable rocks.”
In the great mass of material yielded by the Nile Valley since the discovery of the Rosetta Stone and the deciphering of its inscriptions, the Christian world finds abundant “testimony to the accuracy of the records and hints of the Old Testament regarding the character of the ancient Egyptians.”
Missionary Volunteer Department
M. E. Kern General and N. Am. Div. Secretary
C. L. Brunson Assistant Secretary
Meade MacGuire N. Am. Div. Field Secretary
Educational Department
By Frederick Griggs; W. E. Howell
FREDERICK GRIGGS - - General Secretary
W. E. HOWELL - N. Am. Div. Asst. Secretary
NOTICES AND APPOINTMENTS
By Chas. Thompson; W. H. Edwards
Northern Union Conference
The seventh biennial session of the Northern Union Conference will begin Feb. 2, 1916, at 9:30 A. M., at the Pence Auditorium, Minneapolis, Minn., and will continue till the seventh. At this session officers will be chosen, amendments to the constitution will be made, and such other business transacted as may be proper to come before the meeting.
CHAS. THOMPSON, President.
W. H. EDWARDS, Secretary.
Some “Good Seed”
After examining it carefully from cover to cover, an observer referring to the Signs of the Times Magazine for March, said: “It is filled with the message.”
What prompted the above remark, do you suppose? Here are titles of articles that he saw; they may suggest the same thought to you:—
Will the Wicked Burn Eternally?
Life and Death as the Bible Presents It.
Sabbath That was Made for Man.,
After the War.
Christian Europe.
Christianity in Its Battle with Rome.
But One Source of Immortality.
Secret of a Victorious Experience.
God Works and So do We.
Reconciled and Free.
Abraham and His Monumental Wills.
Cooperation in the Home.
Invalids for Want of Nerve.
The March number of the Signs Magazine is “good seed.” Is there not some “good ground?” in your neighborhood, where this seed can be sown to advantage? People are interested in these questions, and a dime, the price of a copy, is nothing compared with the precious light on even a single topic. You can buy these magazines in quantities at 4 cents and 5 cents a copy, you know. That is, 5 to 40 copies can be had for 5 cents a copy, and 50 or more can be had for 4 cents a copy.
Don’t allow the cold, wintry weather to lessen your missionary activities. Get a supply of magazines and be ready to go out on the bright days at least. It will do you good in two ways—physically and spiritually. Remember, these are the reading months of the year.
Orders for the magazine should be sent through your tract society.
Northern Union Conference Association
By Chas. Thompson; W. H. Edwards
The Northern Union Conference Association will convene at 10:30 A. M., Wednesday, Feb. 2, 1916, at the Pence Auditorium, Minneapolis, Minn., for the transaction of such business as may properly come before the meeting.
CHAS. THOMPSON, President.
W. H. EDWARDS, Secretary.
Boulder-Colorado-Sanitarium Association
By R. A. Underwood; E. J. Baker
NOTICE is hereby given that a meeting of the Boulder-Colorado Sanitarium Association will be held at College View, Nebr., in conjunction with the regular biennial session of the Central Union Conference Association of Seventh-day Adventists, Feb. 8-14, 1916.
The constituency, or membership, of this association consists of the board of trustees and the regularly elected delegates to the biennial session of the Central Union Conference.
This meeting is called for the purpose of electing officers and a board of trustees for the ensuing two years, and for the transaction of such other business as may properly come before the meeting.
R. A. UNDERWOOD, President.
E. J. BAKER, Secretary.
Central Union Conference Association
By R. A. Underwood; F. F. Byington
THE legal meeting of the Central Union Conference Association of Seventh-day Adventists will convene in the tabernacle at College View, in connection with the Central Union Conference, and will hold its first meeting at 10:45 A. M., on Tuesday, Feb. 8, 1916, for the transaction of such business as may come before the constituent body, which is composed of the delegates of the Central Union Conference. R. A. Underwood, Chairman. F. F. Byington, Secretary.
North Pacific Union Conference Association
By C. W. Flaiz; S. J. Lashier
THE NORTH PACIFIC UNION CONFERENCE ASSOCIATION is hereby called to convene in its biennial session at College Place, Wash., Feb. 21, 1916, at 11 A. M.
Officers will be elected, and such other business transacted as may need attention.
C. W. Flaiz, President.
S. J. Lashier, Secretary.
North Pacific Union Conference
By C. W. Flaiz; S. J. Lashier
The fifth biennial session of the North Pacific Union Conference will be held at College Place, Wash., Feb. 17-23, 1916. Officers will be elected, and such other business transacted as may properly come before the meeting. The first service will be held at 7:45 p. m., Thursday, Feb. 17, 1916. It is expected that every delegate will be in his place at that time. Each local conference is entitled to one delegate, aside from the president, without regard to numbers, and to an additional delegate for each two hundred of its membership.
C. W. FLAIZ, President.
S. J. LASHIER, Secretary.
Western Canadian Union Conference
By H. S. Shaw; F. L. Hommel
THE fourth biennial session of the Western Canadian Union Conference is appointed to convene at Calgary, Feb. 24 to March 2, 1916, for the purpose of electing officers for the ensuing union conference term, and the transaction of such other business as may properly come before the conference for consideration.
In connection with this meeting will be held a ministerial institute and a colporteurs’ convention. Instruction will be given in Sabbath school, home missionary, and young people’s work. Church officers will also find many things to help them during the session.
This will be perhaps one of the most important meetings ever held by Seventh-day Adventists in Western Canada. Since our last gathering of this nature, many grave happenings have overtaken the world, and at this time our country is engaged in the awful struggle into which the nations of the earth are being plunged. This meeting will mean more to those who attend than it could mean in an ordinary time. We expect a large attendance.
H. S. SHAW, President.
F. L. HOMMEL, Secretary.
Publications Wanted
By Editor
THE persons named below desire late, clean copies of our publications, sent postpaid, for use in missionary work. In sending publications care should be exercised to select only such as are free from soil and disfigurement. We have been credibly informed that some who oppose this movement and the truths which it represents answer these requests for literature, and are sending to our brethren and sisters in various parts of the country tracts and papers representing their opposition. Our workers should be careful not to confound this literature with our denominational publications, and thus unwittingly become agents in sending out matter not printed in the interests of the cause of truth.
Mrs. Nellie Anderson, Sanders, Idaho.
Ralph E. Bliss, Willett, N. Y. Signs of the Times.
Mrs. W. H. Dickinson, Bay Road, Amherst, Mass. Continuous supply.
J. H. Downes, Y. M. C. A., Cornhill, London, E. C., England. Continual supply.
T. Z. Andrews, Orting, Wash. Watchman, Signs, weekly and monthly, and Life and Health.
C. E. White, 2407 Hyde St., Nashville, Tenn. Signs of the Times, weekly, Instructor, Liberty, Little Friend.
Mrs. A. Alderman, R. F. D. 3, Youngstown, Ohio. Liberty, Signs of the Times, Watchman, and Life and Health.
Vincent D. O’Connor, Gateswood, Ala. Continuous supply of Watchman, Liberty, Signs of the Times, and Life and Health.
The March Issue of Life and Health
By Editor
During the month of March, with its probable bad weather, everybody needs such a faithful health mentor as “Life and Health.” The value of the new March issue, just off the press, may be estimated from the following list of topics treated in this issue:—
The Effects of Breathing Vitiated Air
Nervous Prostration, or Neurasthenia
The Cause of Neurasthenia
Symptoms of Neurasthenia
Treatment of Neurasthenia
Health Possibilities
California Climate for the Invalid
The Cause of Motor Car Accidents
The Use and Abuse of Sugar
Diet for Nursing Mothers
Dietary Observations in India
Simple Measures for Relief of Pain
Backache in Neurasthenics
The On-Coming Cold
Cooking Processes
Is the Moderate Drinker a Menace?
Agreeable Food Poisoning
Sugar and the Heart
Criminal Carnivors
The Abused Stomach
Sour-Milk Therapy
How to Blow the Nose
Prevention of Blindness
The Cause, or a Cause, of Pellagra
College Athletics
Pneumonia and the Grip
The Antecedents of the Prohibition Movement
Items of Interest
Medical Missionary Work in Many Fields
Questions and Answers on Boils
Catarrh of the Stomach
Prolapsed Stomach
Human Standards
Pneumonia
Peroxide for Indigestion
The Stomach and Catarrh
Current Comments and a large number of
Important Health News Notes
This one number is worth more than the yearly subscription price of $1.00. Send for sample copy, or better, order 25 at 5 cents a copy, or 50 at 4 cents a copy.
The Instructor Temperance Annual
Impressively Portrays the Destructiveness of the LIQUOR TRAFFIC
RAINING
Whisky-Barrel Bombs, a thousand times more destructive than all the bombs of the European war. It makes an appeal for humanity, and declares war against
The Liquor Balaam Cursing the Land for Gain
Liberty Bell Cracked
But the Liberty Magazine still contends for the principles that caused the cracking of the old bell; and it has many friends everywhere, and strong support from those who still have the spirit of our forefathers, manifested in the following letter:—
Editors of Liberty Magazine.
By chance, on a train in Idaho, I picked up the Liberty Magazine, which I had not seen or heard of previously. I am so infused with its teachings that I send you six cents in stamps for a copy of the first quarter of 1916. The old Liberty Bell is cracked, and from the present outlook the principles of our forefathers are being set aside and derided. I hope, in God, you may continue this publication in behalf of religious freedom. Anything I may be able to do in this direction will be cheerfully done.
[Signed]
REV. J. S. FERRIS,
Box 6,
Rye Valley, Oregon.
Reinforcements for the Mission Fields
In writing to the Mission Board office concerning the appointment of a son and a daughter to the mission fields, one father speaks for himself and his wife: “We are glad to know that they are going, and would gladly see the same burden rest upon other of our children, even though it took them to the ends of the earth. We deem it just a surer way to a more certain final meeting in the beautiful home soon to come.” It is in this spirit that the Lord's work in this needy world is to be finished. We thank God for the faithful, believing fathers and mothers in Israel who are toiling to keep the gifts flowing into the mission treasury, and who are giving sons and daughters for the service of the Lord.
The last number of the Eastern Tidings contains an article from Elder J. S. James, expressing the rejoicing of our workers in India over the arrival of reinforcements for the colporteur work. These workers went from Australia, and the party consisted of Brother and Sister Charles Stafford and child, and Brethren H. A. Skinner and R. A. Thrift. In this party also were Brother and Sister Eric Hare, who have gone to Burma in response to the long-standing appeal to carry the message to the Karens.
Mission News from Jamaica and China
SENDING TO THE REVIEW a notice of the death of Sister Van Deusen, Elder E. C. Boger, president of the Jamaica Conference, adds: “We just returned from a two-hundred-and-fifty-mile trip to the western end of the island, where we dedicated two of our churches. We had the privilege of having Elder and Mrs. Haysmer with us, and had a very pleasant time. The year 1915 has been one of our good years in baptisms. I believe there were over 217 baptized in our conference during the past year. We hope to come even higher this year. There have been many things to hold us back: we had a hurricane, and then another hurricane, and floods which washed away several of our concrete bridges; all of these things have helped to hold back the work. This year the prospects look very good, especially along the financial line. Of course you know we are in a belligerent country, and war bears down heavy upon us; still we are of good courage, and ask you to pray for us.”
ELDER S. A. NAGEL speaks of an interesting experience he had some time ago when returning from China to the States. In crossing the ocean he and one lady were the only missionaries on board. He says: “I made friends with all the passengers and held numerous Bible readings. I spoke three times on Sunday, and as there was a good interest, and I was requested to do so, I held a Bible class twice a day—at 10 A. M. and 1:15 P. M. All the best passengers attended, and some of the ship’s officers. A number promised to buy the list of books I gave them, and carry on the studies. I look for results from the seed sown.”
A Colporteur for Cuba
In response to a call from the Cuban Mission for colporteurs, Brother Forrest Washburn, of Philadelphia, Pa., sailed from New York January 20, for Havana.
Progress in Porto Rico
ANOTHER good word comes from Porto Rico. Elder William Steele, the superintendent, writes: “At our meeting in August we reported eighty-five church members. Since then more than forty-five have signed the covenant. These have not yet been baptized, but we believe they have taken their stand to hold on.” With the progress of the truth no little opposition has been awakened, but all these things attend progress everywhere.
The Review and Herald Constituency Meeting
By Editor
WE believe that the report of the Review and Herald constituency meeting as published in this number will be read with interest. A most encouraging gain was shown by this association during 1915. As we have remarked before in these columns, it is most cheering indeed to realize that we have come to a time when our leading publishing houses, in place of consuming all their earnings in the payment of debts or interest, can devote them to the forwarding of the work in needy fields. We hope that our publishing associations may become strong factors in the forward movement for the world-wide proclamation of this message.
A Banner Year for Foreign Missions
By Editor
The report from Elder W. T. Knox, treasurer of the General Conference, on pages 6 and 7, ought to bring joy to the heart of every reader. The year 1915 has proved the banner year in our offerings to foreign missions. The Lord blessed his people with liberal hearts, so that the full amount asked by the Mission Board was realized. It is gratifying to note the large amount which was turned back to conferences to apply on institutional indebtedness. Our churches did well last year, but they may do even better this year. The suggestion made by Brother Knox that conference officers begin their efforts early in the year in promoting these mission funds should be heeded. Let us stand shoulder to shoulder, and unitedly labor for the advancement of the cause of God in the earth.
Washington Sanitarium and College Reports
LAST week there were held in Takoma Park the constituency meetings of the Washington (D. C.) Sanitarium Association, and the Washington Missionary College Association. There were present from outside Takoma Park, Prof. B. F. Machlan, principal of the South Lancaster Academy; Elder W. H. Branson, president of the Southeastern Union Conference; and the presidents of the many conferences composing the Columbia Union Conference. These brethren all brought a good report of the work in their fields. The Sanitarium and College rendered most encouraging reports, the Sanitarium showing a net gain of over $8,000 for the year, and the College a net gain of over $4,000. The Lord is abundantly blessing these institutions, and the future holds bright promise of even greater success. Reports of these constituency meetings will be given later in the REVIEW.
Pacific Coast Educational Fund Completed
A LETTER from Prof. M. E. Cady, secretary of the Educational Department of the Pacific Union Conference, to the Educational Department of the North American Division, brings the good news that our brethren on the Pacific Coast have been enabled fully to complete the raising of the One-hundred-and-fifty-thousand-dollar Fund for the relief of their educational institutions, and the promotion of this line of work. Brother Cady says: “Just as our labors in this campaign for the relief of our schools are ended (Friday, December 31), the Sabbath of rest comes, ushering in the new year. We feel that God has greatly blessed the campaign now closed, and to him we ascribe all the success that has attended this effort.”
An Isolated Sister’s Week of Prayer
FROM an isolated sister in Montana comes this word of courage: “Many years I have kept the week of prayer alone, so far as association with those of like precious faith is concerned, but God is always near. In his presence we may abide. No matter how hard the battle goes, though sorrow and trouble and distress come in like a flood, we may look to our heavenly Father for unerring wisdom, for strength that quiets every tumult, and for confidence in the final outcome. The week of prayer just passed held in store for me many blessings as it sounded forth the call for every believer to come up on higher ground. May there be in the year to come a quickening of the spirit of heart-love for souls, and victory over sin through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
