1. To what event and time does the close of the sixth trumpet bring us?—The passing of the independence of the Ottoman Empire into the hands of the powers, Aug. 11, 1840.
2. What indicates a short interval thereafter before the beginning of the seventh trumpet? Rev. 11: 14.
3. What events associated with the seventh trumpet fix the time of its beginning?—The beginning of the judgment ("the time of the dead, that they should be judged"), and the opening of the most holy in the heavenly temple. Verses 18, 19.
4. When did these events take place in heaven (Dan. 8: 14)?—At the close of the 2,300 years, in 1844. (See Lessons Four and Five for account of the 1844 Advent Movement.)
5. As the sounding of the sixth trumpet closed, what view was given the prophet? Rev. 10: 1. Note 1.
6. What did the angel have in his hand? What was his attitude? Verse 2. Note 2.
7. What was the first solemn burden of the message represented by the angel? Verse 6. Note 3.
8. What book dealing with prophetic time and the latter days was especially opened to the world in the Advent Movement of this period?—The book of Daniel.
9. What command had been given Daniel regarding the book of his prophecy? Dan. 12: 4.
10. In the vision of Revelation 10, what indicates the opening of Daniel's book of prophecy? Verses 2 (last part), 8. Note 4.
11. What disappointment came to those who first raised the cry of the ending of prophetic time?—They fully expected the Lord to come in 1844, and the time passed, and no coming One appeared.
12. What view in John's vision foreshadowed this bitter experience in the Advent Movement? Verses 9, 10; also verse 1, the cloud suggesting obscurity.
13. What view of truth had been obscured to their eyes?—They thought the cleansing of the sanctuary, at the close of the 2,300 years of Dan. 8: 14, to be Christ's second coming to cleanse the earth by fire, whereas it was the opening of His final ministry in the heavenly sanctuary.
14. Instead of the year 1844 marking the close of the Gospel message to men, what new commission was given to John as representing the church? Verse 11.
15. What was to come in the days of the sounding of the seventh trumpet, beginning in 1844? Verse 7.
1. The preaching of the Gospel is committed to men and not to angels. 2 Cor. 5: 19. Yet in the symbolism of Revelation angels are repeatedly used to represent evident activities in the church on earth in the preaching of Gospel messages to men. And there is something more than symbolism in this representation, as angels join as unseen helpers in the work of the church for the world. Heb. 1: 14. Wherever the servant of God on earth goes with the message, with him will angels go, and it may well be that to a mighty angel is committed the general oversight of this or that special movement; for the view we get of heaven shows order and system in the angelic hosts.
2. The attitude indicates the world-wide proclamation of his message by land and sea.
3. The time of the end had come, and the thoughts of men were to be directed to the second coming of Christ. The moment was at hand when the last sands of time were to run out from the last hour-glass of definite prophetic time. No longer would prophetic time-periods point the way in history toward the approaching end. The longest time-period in prophecy, the 2,300 days, or years, of Dan. 8: 14 (reaching from the commandment to restore Jerusalem, 457 B.C., to 1844), was now to close. The event was signalized by the great Advent proclamation sounded by land and sea to all the world in the years just preceding 1844.
4. The book of Daniel is the only prophetic book giving the specific time of the cleansing of the sanctuary, the finishing work of Christ's ministry. It is the only book that was declared shut and sealed to the time of the end. The words in Revelation 10 indicate a book that had been shut, which then was to be opened. The great Advent Movement was based on the opening of the prophecies, particularly of Daniel, to the understanding of men, for the time was at hand. The preaching of these prophecies stirred the world in the 1844 times.
5. The mystery of God is the Gospel. When its work is finished, and Christ closes His ministry for sin, it is evident that all who will be saved at His coming will have allowed grace to finish its work in the heart. To the believer living at the close of probation, the finishing of the mystery means a preparing of the soul for translation to heaven,—the life to be pure, clean, unselfish, holy, every evil disposition overcome.
"Then, O my Lord, prepare
My soul for that grand day.
O, wash me in Thy precious blood,
And take my sins away."
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Sundown or Midnight, Which?
By Editor
Does the Sabbath begin at sun down or at midnight? This question with many others is answered in the little work entitled, "Scripture References."
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CAN THE SOUL DIE?
By Editor
Some startling statements and scriptural conclusions on this subject will be found in the little work entitled, "Scripture References." It is well worth a careful examination. . . . . . . . . . . .
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SUGGESTIONS
From Our Book and Periodical Department
TWO BOOKS FOR YOUNG MEN
THE following quotation is from the preface of "TESTIMONIES FOR THE CHURCH," Volume 8:—
"But few are familiar with the testimonies—the instructions, the warnings, and the great encouragements—given during the last fifteen years to the leading men in our conferences and institutions. For this reason it is now necessary to publish many of these testimonies for the benefit of all the church, and especially for the guidance of our younger ministers, physicians, conference officers, and managers of institutions. These young men must come forward in large numbers to bear the burdens of the work; they will be called to pass over the same ground, and to meet the same problems and difficulties, as did those to whom the messages of instruction were first given; therefore the counsels addressed to the pioneers in the work are now published for the guidance and encouragement of these younger co-laborers."
We are pleased to say that the young men are eagerly securing and studying it. As an indication of such interest we might add that, although it has been published a little over two months, the first edition of five thousand has been sold, and another edition is being called for. We would suggest to young men the advisability of purchasing the thin paper, limp leather edition, the price of which is $1.25.
LIVES OF GREAT MEN
Young men are always interested in how successful men succeeded. They want to know what temptations they met, how they overcame them; the difficulties they encountered, and how they used them as stepping stones to still greater things. The book "EDUCATION" takes up, among other important things, the lives of such prominent Bible characters as Joseph, Daniel, Jacob, Elijah, Solomon, and others. In connection with this there is an exceedingly interesting chapter on "Business Principles and Methods." There are also chapters devoted to the Master Teacher and illustrations of His methods of work.
The writer of this notice has read both "TESTIMONIES FOR THE CHURCH" Volume 8, and "EDUCATION," and feels to earnestly recommend them to every young man who is desirous of making the most of his opportunities. The price of "EDUCATION" in full leather binding is $2.00.
Of Interest to Church Officers
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The Industrial Conflict in the Light of Revelation
This series of articles by Prof. G. W. Rine, which is now appearing in the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, is attracting considerable attention. A limited number of extra copies of the issue of May 18th, which contained the first in the series, have been printed, and so long as possible all orders will be commenced with that number. It is a series well calculated to interest even those who have already taken their stand on one side or the other of the problem. It certainly presents a rare opportunity to our readers to solicit subscriptions for the paper. The series will run about three months. The subscription price will be 40 cents for that time.
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The Sum of the Matter
By Editor
The Sum of the Matter.—It seems to us that the Sabbath question is very easily settled if one will submit it to the Word of God. Certainly the Lord instituted the Sabbath. Gen. 2:1-3. He commanded it with nine other unchangeable moral precepts. Ex. 20:1-17. He declares that "all His commandments are sure;" that "they stand fast forever and ever." Ps. 111:7, 8. Jesus Christ, in whose heart was God's law (Ps. 40:7, 8), declared that He came not to destroy the law, and that one jot or one tittle should not pass from the law (Matt. 5:17-20; Luke 16:17). Moreover, He kept all God's law, as declared by Himself and others (John 15:10; 1 Peter 2:22); and that in all His obedience we are to follow, to walk as He walked (John 21:22; 1 John 2:6). He who would obey God and follow Christ will keep the Sabbath commanded of God. To what other conclusion could we come?
Not our feeling of what is right and true, is the guide, but God's Word. Feeling may be wrong; experience may be false. Satan may counterfeit to a mind seeking prominence, the very anointing of the Spirit. How may we be saved from delusion?—Seek, with a heart to do, God's will in His Word. Let self be crucified. Let feeling, opinion, and experience be proved liars; yea, let His Word be true.
Not a Book of Definitions.
The Bible is not a book of precise definitions; life can not be limited by mere words of men. For instance: Heb. 11:1—"Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen"—is frequently quoted as a definition of faith; but at the most it is but a definition of faith in its future aspect, its forward look.
The context of Heb. 11:1 refers to disappointed ones (Heb. 10:32-39), and the exhortation is to hope, to let faith bring the future here. But faith is more than this; it is absolute submission to God in the constantly unfolding present; it is receiving and accepting all the wondrous gifts of grace through Jesus Christ now; it is taking God's Word for just what the Word says; it is appropriating the power of His Word to all present needs. Faith is all this and more. It must be exercised to be known.
Publication and Bible Version Notice
By Editor
We send no papers from this office to individuals without pay in advance. When persons receive copies without ordering them, they are sent by other parties, and we can give no information in regard to them. Persons thus receiving copies of the "Signs" are not indebted to the office, and will not be called upon to pay for them. Please read the papers you may receive, and hand them to your friends to read.
Our authority is the Bible, the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. When the Common (King James) Version, the Revised Version, or the American Standard Revised Version is used, quotations will not be designated in reference. Any Bible quotation in this paper, therefore, differing from the Common Version, unless otherwise indicated, will be from one of the two revised versions, usually the American Standard.
CONTAINED IN THIS NUMBER.
Poetry.
Watered of God, LLEWELLYN A. MORRISON . . . . . 2
God's World . . . . . 10
Waiting . . . . . 12
General.
The Sowing and the Reaping, C. M. SNOW . . . . . 1
The Touch of Faith, MRS. E. G. WHITE . . . . . 2
Isaiah 65:20, LESLIE LITTELL . . . . . 3
Greed and Its Fruits, G. W. RINE . . . . . 3
Search the Scriptures, F. D. STARR . . . . . 4
To Whom Does the Sabbath Belong? T. L. WATERS . . . . . 5
How They Became Convinced (A Sabbath Symposium) . . . . . 5
Editorial.—Conditions not Deeds—Wisdom—Exalting Man above His Maker—Our Personal Accountability—Death—Access to the Tree of Life . . . . . 6, 7
Question Corner—Nos. 1310-1313 . . . . . 7
Outlook.—Sunday-Law Movement in Canada—The Impure Vision—A Faith-Killing Combination . . . . . 8, 9
The Home.—Gentleness and Tenderness in the Home, MRS. L. D. AVERY-STUTTLE—A Knight of the Slums—"Livable" . . . . . 10, 11
Missions.—The Outlook in Persia—In German East Africa—The Opportunity of Protestantism—A Chinese School . . . . . 12, 13
International Sabbath-school Lesson, The Early Advent Movement . . . . . 14
International Sunday-school Lesson, Christ Crucified . . . . . 14
Publishers . . . . . 15
Erratum
By Editor
Erratum.—In the SIGNS of May 18, page 4, middle column, last line but one, the types made Professor Rine say, "unrighteousness" instead of "righteousness," which he meant to say, and which he did say in his copy. Work and righteousness are inseparable.
Danger Omens
Danger Omens.—William H. Van Allen, rector of the Church of the Advent, Boston, Mass., in a sermon preached before the annual convention of the General Society of the Daughters of the Revolution, expressed regret that the one branch of Congress was overshadowed by corporations, and declared that "signs of anarchy, tyranny, and conspiracy are breeding, and may at any moment cause trouble." And he speaks truly.
What Is the Fruit?
Are you Christ's? Has He changed your heart? Then from the good heart will come good thoughts. From the Christ-life within will come the deeds of Christ. Gal. 2:20. The fruit will be "in all goodness and righteousness and truth." Eph. 5:9. It will be "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." Gal. 5:22, 23. Where before the heart hated God's law (Rom. 8:7), it now loves it (1 John 5:3), and fulfils it in all its blessed righteousness (Rom. 8:4). The belief of the saved man is "unto righteousness." Rom. 10:10. His faith is the "faith which worketh by love." Gal. 5:6. His love is that which keeps the commandments of God; "and His commandments are not grievous." 1 John 5:3. Reader, seek Christ for this change, and let Him live in you His life. So shall your life bear good fruit, and you will know Christ, as He desires to be known to all, "THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS." Jer. 23:6.
Love Thine Enemies
By Editor
"Love Thine Enemies."—One of our readers writes: "I despise and hate Catholics; they all go to hell when they die. They defy the Lord when living, and ought not to expect any mercy when dead." Now we are sure if this friend believes the Bible, he will not wish to hold such sentiments as the above. Jesus tells us that we should even love our enemies. Matt. 5:44. We should forgive as we hope to be forgiven. We should ask God to extend mercy to others as we hope for it ourselves. Catholicism is another thing. There may be, and doubtless are, good Christians in the Roman Catholic Church. They are not Christians because of Catholicism, but in spite of it. They may be ignorant of many things; they may be transgressing ignorantly; but their heart is to do God's will, and they live according to the best light they have. Always discriminate between the sin and the sinner. God hates sin, but He loves the sinner, and gave His Son that the sinner might be saved. We have nothing but the kindest feeling toward all peoples of whatever name or persuasion. Love your enemies.
Mysteries
By Editor
Mysteries.—Some one asks us what we think of the Magazine of Mysteries. Nothing. It is a mixture of Hinduism, Buddhism, Hypnotism, Spiritualism, and New Thought, in which it is trying to mingle Christianity. Its scheme of saving men leaves Christ the Saviour outside. Its teachings are based on the old Edenic falsehood, "Ye shall not surely die; . . . ye shall be as God." "Death," says this magazine, "is as natural and as good as life." It is more natural to the sinner; but there is no good in it. According to the Bible it is an "enemy," not a friend. Here is another sentiment from the same paper: "You can not die. You can not be lost. You must always exist." Of course, it is argued that you are a part of God, and God can not die. But a better authority tells us that "the soul that sinneth, it shall die;" and that man by nature is "separate from Christ, . . . having no hope and without God in the world;" "alienated from the life of God." Eph. 2:11, 12; 4:18.
Errata
By Editor
Errata.—In the article on “Re-arrangement of the Stars,” which appeared in our issue of April 27, there were four errors in scripture references, as follows: Ps. 115:10 should have been Ps. 115:16; Job 31-33 should have been Job 38:31-33; Job 38:34 should have been Job 38:33; and Phil. 2:5 should have been Phil. 2:9-11. It is but just to say that all save the second of these mistakes were in the author's manuscript.
The Bible Sabbath
The Bible Sabbath.—The only authority for a holy Sabbath of rest which Christians have is the Bible. If this be not true, then it is not, according to Protestant Christianity, of any worth, and "not to be received as an article of faith." But if the Bible is authority for any Sabbath at all, it is for the true Sabbath, and that is the seventh day. France, in her infidelity, set apart a tenth part of the time instead of the seventh. This the Christian world called blasphemy. The Roman Catholic Church, by tradition, changed the day from the seventh to the first. Now what is this? Is it not as much an evil to do the second as the first? Has mortal man any more right to change the day than the proportion of time? Jesus says of the Sabbath law, "It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail."
Right Is Might
Right is Might is the motto of the Christian. He can, therefore, afford to wait. He knows right will triumph, if not in this world, in the world to come. Like truth, with which right is inseparably connected, the eternal years of God belong to right. When the Christian sees wrong triumph, therefore, while righteously indignant, and beyond his power to help, he can leave it all with God, knowing that it will be well and rightly adjusted at last. "The Judge of all the earth" will do just and right. "Might is right" is doomed to eternal defeat. "Right is might" is reserved unto eternal triumph. Reader, which principle is moulding your life?
What Is Its Area?
It is well sometimes to take in the length of a thing as well as its breadth. There are many views and paths in these days which seem to be exceeding broad and liberal, but how long are they? They give our unbridled selfishness room wideways, but for how long? The way of right and duty and truth and God seems to our frozen, selfish sight narrow, but it ends only with eternity. It is broader than it seems, even "exceeding broad," and it is infinitely long. But taking it the way it seems, would it not be well to pause and compute the area of the paths or fields waiting our choice?
The Importance of Truth
It is the spirit of the age to make light of truth. If a man is making a great flurry in Christian or semi-religious or philanthropic work, men are prone to look upon vital errors which he holds as of no account. They treat them lightly, or laugh them off, and yet they may be such as to vitiate all his work, and bring glory to man instead of to God. Truth, all truth, is important. "Buy the truth, and sell it not."
Present Loyalty to God
That we have been in the service of God for years is no decisive evidence that we are to-day. We do not know how many centuries Lucifer led the hosts of God before he became the adversary. For three years Judas was treasurer among the disciples, and to almost the last, considered loyal; if not why such a position? The real test of loyalty is not past service, but present living connection with God.
Calling Names
Calling Names.—There is no argument in calling names. Because one does not agree with you is no evidence that he is a traitor or an anarchist. A man who calls names may have heard of a good argument, but he does not know it. It is natural to use the best argument one has; and the use of hard names to describe an opponent shows that the user is using his best.
Definitions Follow Reality
One does not need to know the dictionary definition of Spiritualism to be a spiritualist. One does not need to have ever seen a dictionary definition of pantheism to be a pantheist. A man need never know what a lexicographer says of atheism to be an atheist. All the things came first, the definitions came later.
