p. 9 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 12. (3/22/1905)

EVOLUTION AND GEOLOGY

By George McCready Price

XVI. EXTINCT SPECIES.

BEFORE continuing further this examination of the primary facts in Geology, I pause a moment to get our bearings regarding the relation of this subject to those special truths of the Bible due to the world at the present time.

I have been showing the folly of the Evolution doctrine, by removing its supposed foundation in Geology; for Evolution depends upon Geology, and the prime postulate of Geology is that there has been a succession in the life upon the globe. But, as this notion has been shown to be without a vestige of support in nature, the foundation for every possible scheme of Evolution is thus removed once and forever.

It may be that for many of my readers the language and arguments of this phase of science are unfamiliar, and hence not easily comprehended. But I do not know any good reason why this should always be so, or why this subject of Geology is not as interesting in itself and as important in its bearings on the truth for this time as, say, any phase of ancient history, a subject which has been much discussed and is fairly understood by most of us. For surely no doctrinal error is more widespread among the educated classes, none has been more firmly fixed in solid "facts," than this idea of science having proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that life has been on our globe for long, long ages, and has come about gradually in a successive order from the low to the high. But I think that without boasting I can say that the arguments already set forth in these studies (with those to follow) put this idea utterly out of court as a scientific proposition, for any person capable of appreciating the evidence. Hence, in view of the universality of the belief in this geological myth, and in view of the other fact that these articles completely expose the groundlessness of such a notion, I think I can with some reasonableness appeal to my readers to study this subject until they master it, even tho it should take some intellectual effort to do so. The effort will be well repaid.

An Important Study.

But the reason why this subject is so unfamiliar is quite evident. There are, it is true, numerous books published professing to refute the Evolution doctrine, but neither in the English nor any other language (so far as I am aware) is there a shred of argument along these lines directed against the successive ages of Geology. Hence, tho the believers in the Evolution theory are familiar with the terms and arguments of Geology, the believers in Creation, as told in Genesis, are not thus familiar with them, because they have never taken pains to study a subject so replete with fancy and so barren of useful facts, as they regarded it. But now, with Geology seen to be, not the friend and ally of Evolution, but the only means of successfully refuting it, I feel sure that all intelligent Bible students will take an unwonted interest in this science.

We all need to become firmly grounded in the absolute truth of the # Literal Week of Creation, because only thus can we really get a firm hold upon the Sabbath. As a well-known author said:

The assumption that the events of the first week required thousands upon thousands of years, strikes directly at the foundation of the fourth commandment. It represents the Creator as commanding men to observe the week of literal days in commemoration of vast, indefinite periods. This is unlike His method of dealing with His creatures. It makes indefinite and obscure that which He has made very plain. It is infidelity in its most insidious, and hence, most dangerous, form; its real character is so disguised that it is held and taught by many who profess to believe the Bible.—"Patriarchs and Prophets," p. 111.

In our future studies of Geology we shall find every additional fact acquired, or principle mastered, to be only another proof of the reality of the Deluge, and thus also (indirectly) of the reality of a literal Creation. Hence, I feel sure that we will all take up this study of Geology with renewed interest, and that ere long, to the believers in the fourth commandment at least, it will be the best understood and most interesting of all the sciences.

A Matter of Consistency.

We may now proceed with our subject where we left it last week. Let us test the scientific value of this assumed life-succession by another very simple question. In "Eocene times," so they tell us, England was a land of palms. In fact at this time, cycads, gourds, proteads (like the Australian shrubs and trees), the fig, cinnamon, screw-pine, and various species of acacias and palms, abounded in England and western Europe; while turtles, monkeys, and huge mammals like some that still luxuriate in sub-tropical and warmly-temperate regions, were equally abundant. Then again, in the Pleistocene deposits of the same countries, we find various species of elephant and rhinoceros, with a hippopotamus, lion, and hyena identical with species now living in the tropics, "altho," as Dana says, "these modern kinds are dwarfs in comparison." Now how are we to prove that these various forms of animal life did not exist together in these countries at the same time as the trees and plants before mentioned? Lions and monkeys, hippopotamuses and hyenas, with elephants and rhinoceroses, now live beneath the palms, acacias, and other tropical plants represented in the Eocene and Miocene beds. What is there to hinder us from believing that they all lived there together in that olden time? Surely it would be the very irony of scientific fate if forms now so closely connected in life should in death be so divided. Or, to present it in another form, why should we be asked to believe that these acacias, cinnamons, palms, etc., lived and died ages or millions of years before the lions, elephants, rhinoceroses, and hippopotamuses came on the stage to enjoy their shade; and then, after these unnumbered ages had dragged their slow length along and vanished into the dim past, and all these semitropical plants had shifted to the tropics or been turned into lignite, these lions, elephants, and hippopotamuses came into existence in these same localities, when no such plants existed anywhere in Europe? Surely they ought to give us some pretty substantial reasons for such a violation of the "observed uniformity of nature." Geologists generally boast that they have outgrown the crude ideas of the earlier years when they spoke of "ages" of limestone making or of sandstone making; but it seems that they have not yet attained to that broad view of the essential unity of nature where the flora and fauna of our world are seen to be just as indissolvably connected with each other. For nature could as easily be persuaded to produce for a whole age nothing in the shape of rock but limestone or conglomerate, as to accommodate her powers to such an unbalanced state of affairs as is spoken of above.

But in considering our question as to why the Eocene plants and the Pleistocene animals may not be considered as living contemporaneously together, I think I can imagine the answer that will be given. It is the sole shadow of an argument that I have ever seen put forth to defend such an idea, and moreover, it is, I think, the only defense possible. They will say that all the animals of these "early" Tertiary beds are extinct species, also very many of the plants; while the hyena, lion, hippopotamus, etc., of the Pleistocene are

Identical with the Living Species,

and some are beginning to think the mammoth (E. primigenus) possibly the direct ancestor of its nearest surviving relative, the Asiatic elephant (E. indicus). This being so important a point and having such a vital connection with the whole question of the life-succession idea, I may be allowed to go into the subject somewhat at length, even at the risk of appearing technical to the ordinary reader.

The Testimony of the Fossils.

We all know that these Tertiary and Pleistocene deposits so much resemble one another in everything except their fossils, and occur generally in such detached and fragmentary beds, holding no relations of superstition to one another, that Charles Lyell devised the plan of distinguishing them from one another and arranging them in the accustomed order of time by their relative percentages of extinct and living mollusca. With only slight changes Lyell's divisions are now distinguished on the following basis as given by Dana:

Eocene period: no species or less than 5 per cent. living.
Miocene period: 20 to 40 per cent. living.
Pliocene period: more than half the species living."—"Manual," p. 880.

In the still more "modern" post-Tertiary or Pleistocene the plants and invertebrates "are, with a rare exception, living species, while the mammals are nearly all extinct."—Id., p. 997.

In the words of Dr. David Page, a well-known Scottish Geologist: As there is often no perceptible mineral distinction between many clays, sands, and gravels, it is only by their imbedded fossils that geologists can determine their Tertiary or post-Tertiary character."—"Introductory Text-Book of Geology," p. 189.

An Unsafe Hypothesis.

Now to say that a set of beds, ninety-five per cent. of whose fossils belong to extinct species and only five per cent. are now living, must be vastly older than another set of beds where these percentages are absolutely reversed, i. e. where the species are nearly all living, seems at first thought an eminently reasonable idea,

and we immediately begin to imagine how long it must have taken for these exceedingly numerous and apparently vigorous species to wear out and become extinct in the traditional way by the merciless struggle for existence with forms more "fit" to survive. But it is hardly necessary to point out how all this presupposes Uniformity, a doctrine which we have found to be not only a point-blank denial of the Biblical Deluge, but even from the scientific standpoint a problem to be investigated and decided according to the evidence of the rocks, not a thing to be taken for granted previous to all investigation. But it then occurs to us that the same methods of reasoning would make the sub-fossil remains of the bison (B. americanus) on the Western prairies almost infinitely older than those of the lion, hippopotamus, etc., in the Pleistocene beds of Europe; for (except for some few specimens artificially preserved and which may be ignored in this connection) the bison is to-day absolutely extinct, while the Pleistocene mammals are still abundant in the tropics and show no signs of surrender in the struggle for existence. Similar comparisons might be made with the great wingless birds of Madagascar, Mauritius, and New Zealand, all tending to show that the mere fact of certain species being extinct, and others being now alive, is no trustworthy guide in determining the relative age of their remains, until we first find out how they happened to become extinct.

Test Question for Geologists.

Query: Will the geologists please give us a reasonable explanation of how the lion, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, and elephant shifted from England to the tropics? Or will they explain how the mammoth and rhinoceros got caught in the merciless frost of northern Siberia so suddenly that their flesh has remained untainted all these years, and is now, whenever exposed, greedily devoured by the dogs and wolves?

"Beeches, oaks, palms, poplars, walnuts, limes, magnolias, hazel, holly, black thorn, logwood, hawthorn, ivy, vines, and many evergreens, besides numerous conifers, among which was the Sequoia, allied to the gigantic Wellingtonia of California," all grew at one time in Spitzbergen, Iceland, and Greenland, and even within eleven degrees of the pole. Baron Toll and all the more recent investigators agree that the mammoth, rhinoceros, and other animals preserved in the ice of Siberia lived where we now find their remains, or in 75° north latitude, and Flower and Lydekker say that "the further north the more numerous do they become" ("Mammals, Living and Extinct," p. 430); while Dana says that "the encasing in ice of huge elephants, and the perfect preservation of the flesh, shows that the cold finally became suddenly extreme, as of a single winter’s night, and knew no relenting afterward."—"Manual," p. 1007. (Professor Dana has italicized the word "suddenly.")

If they can explain this sudden change of climate over half the world or so, without violating their uniformitarian creed, it may not be overpresumptuous in us to suggest that perhaps this same cause, whatever it was, was competent to bring about a good many other changes, and the extinction of numerous other species which they so often tell us must imply the lapse of untold ages of time. The economizing of energy is worth considering in such cases; on this point I may have something more to say in the sequel. The principle I wish to insist on here is that the mere fact of certain species being alive, and others extinct, gives no clue whatever as to the relative age of their remains, until we first ascertain why, how, and when this extinction was brought about. Ignoring for the present the Biblical information regarding the Deluge, we shall presently see that there is ample scientific evidence that a sudden and radical change in the climate of the northern regions (the whole world in fact) has occurred since man was upon it; but no allowance, so far as I know, has ever been made for this as a powerful cause of extermination of all forms of life. But in the utter absence of any such explanation as to how and when, the presence of ten, fifty, or a hundred per cent. of extinct forms in a set of beds is manifestly of no scientific value in determining age. It would be just as reasonable and as scientifically accurate to try to arrange the books of the Greek and Latin classics in chronological order according to the percentage of their words which have survived into the English language.

(Continued next week.)

John the Beloved

By Ellen G. White

JOHN THE BELOVED. NO. 2.

BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.

O UT of a heart overflowing with love and gratitude, John bore witness of Christ as a risen Saviour, and no power could stay his words. To please the Jews, the Romans had crucified Christ, and now, to please them still further, they sought to place John where his voice could not be heard by Jew or Gentile. Thinking to silence him forever, they cast him into a caldron of boiling oil. But his voice was not silenced. As the words were spoken, "So perish all who believe in Jesus of Nazareth," John declared, "My Master patiently submitted to all that Satan and his angels could devise to humiliate and torture Him. He gave His life to save the world. He died that we might live. I am honored in being permitted to suffer for His sake. I am a weak, sinful man. Christ was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. He had no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth." The faithful servant was preserved as were the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace. John was removed from the caldron by the very ones who had cast him in.

Again the enemies of truth sought to silence the voice of the faithful witness. John was banished to the Isle of Patmos. Here, they thought, he could no longer trouble Israel, and he must finally die of hardship and distress.

To outward appearances the enemies of truth were triumphing; but God’s hand was moving unseen in the darkness. The Lord permitted His servant to be placed where Christ could give him a more wonderful revelation of Himself than He had ever yet received; where he could receive most precious enlightenment of the churches. He permitted him to be placed in solitude, that his ear and heart might be more fully prepared to hear and receive the revelations that he was to be given. The man who exiled John was not released from responsibility in the matter. But he became an instrument in the hands of God to carry out His eternal purpose; and the very effort to extinguish light placed the truth in bold relief.

John was deprived of the companionship of his brethren, but no man could deprive him of the companionship of Christ. A great light was to shine from Christ to His servant. The Lord watched over His banished disciple, and gave him a wonderful revelation of Himself. Richly favored was this beloved disciple. With the other disciples he had walked and talked with Jesus, learning of Him and feasting on His words. His head had often rested on his Saviour’s bosom. But he must see Him also in Patmos. God and Christ and the heavenly host were John’s companions on the lonely island, and from them he received instruction of infinite importance. There he wrote out the visions and revelations he received of God, telling of the things that would take place in the closing scenes of this earth’s history. When his voice could no longer witness to the truth, the messages given him in Patmos were to go forth as a lamp that burneth. From them men and women were to learn the purposes of God, not concerning the Jewish nation merely, but concerning every nation upon the earth.

Of Christ’s appearance to him, John writes: "I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day; and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last; and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches."

"And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and His eyes were as a flame of fire; and His feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and His voice as the sound of many waters. And He had in His right hand seven stars; and out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword; and His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength."

"And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. And He laid His right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last; I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forevermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter."

The appearance of Christ to John should be to us an evidence that we have a risen Christ. It should give living power to the church. At times dark clouds surround God’s people. It seems as if oppression and persecution would destroy them. But it is at such times they are given the most precious lessons. Christ often enters prisons, and reveals Himself to His chosen ones. He is with them at the stake. As in the darkest night the stars shine brightest, so the most brilliant beams of God’s glory are revealed in the deepest gloom. The darker the sky, the clearer and more impressive are the rays of the Sun of Righteousness.

CONSOLATION.

By M. Elisabeth Burns-Howell

BY M. ELISABETH BURNS-HOWELL.

UNTO those who sit in sorrow, God has sent this precious word: Not an earnest prayer or impulse of the heart ascends unheard. He who rides upon the tempest, heeds the sparrow when it falls, And with mercies crowns the humblest, when before the throne he calls.

THE SABBATH

By L. A. Phippeny

BY L. A. PHIPPENY

APOSTASY AND SABBATH REFORM.

NO. 2.

In our study two weeks ago a few facts were briefly referred to, showing how the Sunday gradually came into the church and became an established institution a few hundred years after Christ. The name Sunday, or "day of the sun," belonged to the first day of the week from ancient times, as it was on this day that special feasts were celebrated in honor of the sun-gods of the pagans.

A Deep Purpose of the Enemy.

There was no accident in the introduction of sun-worship, nor in the selection of the day when these special feasts were to be observed. The careful student of the Word of God will discern in this worship the working of the one in whom sin originated, and who has from the beginnings of sin, exalted himself to be above the true God. This exaltation of self above God was what was done by Lucifer when he departed from the only right way. And as the principles of sin were spread in the human family, and the knowledge of God obliterated, other gods were suggested by the enemy, the chief one, under various names, being the sun, because of its beneficent influence upon the earth.

The design of the enemy has always been to deceive, and in accomplishing the deception he often introduces very beautiful theories and plausible reasons, weaving in truth wherever it can be made to assist in his endeavors. It was not difficult to satisfy men led into error that the sun represented all good to mankind. It was light and warmth and a blessing, and it was only a step to suggesting a certain day, recurring regularly, upon which to give honor to the god of light. What more natural than to suggest the day upon which light was commanded to appear in the beginning? Why this suggestion?—It was to thwart the Creator's designs for His creatures. It was a deliberate purpose to lead the minds of men away from the ordinances that told of the true God, by destroying, if possible, those ordinances, or substituting an ordinance devised by the enemy himself. It was an effort to pervert entirely God's everlasting covenant with the earth and with all the worlds, and to establish another reign. The ordinance particularly aimed at was the Sabbath, for this was the memorial of the creative work; the sign of all good, the sign of the Creator Himself, since it contained His name as defining who He is. And to the extent of Satan's success as opposed to the work of God in the earth, to that extent have men's minds been blinded and confused relative to the true God and His purposes.

And it was not accident or a mere circumstance that led to the gradual introduction of Sunday, with an added signification, into the church. The way was all prepared by one wiser than Constantine for grafting the Sunday onto Christianity in the confused condition of his times. It was but a step from the purely pagan idea of the god of light to the Sun of Righteousness when the religious idea, as pertaining to the resurrection of Christ, began to be attached to the day. And this latter idea is that which has appealed to the mass of Christians through the ages since, with exceptions as noted last week.

Sunday Institution Unchristian.

Not only is such an idea not upheld by the Bible, as has been shown by our studies, but the institution of Sunday must be seen to be wholly repugnant to the principles underlying God's revealed truth. Not that the words or the thought conveyed in the words "sun of righteousness," are not good and true; not that one scintilla of meaning is subtracted from all the significance of the mission of our Saviour and His resurrection by repudiating the Sunday. The Sunday institution must be repudiated because of its origin and the object of its origin. Shall honor be given primarily to Satan, the instigator of all enmity against our Saviour, even in a worthy endeavor to honor the Saviour? Let such be far from any one who has spiritual discernment to understand the truth! We may and should give all honor to the Saviour, and that honor which we delight to give to Him is truly the honor bestowed by keeping the Sabbath, the sign of redemption, the sign of soul-rest from sin, the sign of His graces within the soul. Hence the urgent need of a reform, the need of a careful scrutiny of the way in which we are walking, that God and Christ may be honored, and not the adversary.

Displeasing in the Eyes of God.

The picture is not at all overdrawn in the words just preceding. The evil of sun worship in ancient times was held to be an exceedingly obnoxious thing by the Lord. It was classed as an abomination—not an ordinary abomination, but the greatest abomination that could be committed. Read the eighth chapter of Ezekiel, with special reference to the fifteenth and sixteenth verses: "O son of man, . . . turn ye yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these [those mentioned before]. And he brought me into the inner court of the Lord's house; and, behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the East; and they worshiped the sun toward the East." Why was this such an abomination?—Because the Lord, the true God, was utterly contemned, the temple dedicated to Him was profaned by His professed followers, and the ordinances of divine worship were polluted. Another god was honored before Him. This was primarily Satan, the "god of this world," the prince that still works in the children of disobedience. The worship of the sun was toward the East, while the worship of the Lord was toward the West, as defined for Israel when the tabernacle was built, the intention of this difference being to teach, even in a form, the most absolute contrast between the true and the false worships.

The question may naturally arise, Why have not these facts been more clearly discerned through the centuries of the Christian dispensation, and why have not honest souls in far greater numbers observed the seventh-day Sabbath? Two answers are patent: First, the influence of ages of teaching, custom, and tradition; second, the message of Sabbath reform was not due until the present generation of mankind. In the time of Christ no argument was necessary as to which day of the week was the Sabbath, because only the one Sabbath was recognized, altho there was decided instruction by the Saviour Himself as to what constituted true Sabbath-keeping. Then the great apostasy developed, and it has been running its course. Then the call of God in the Reformation of the sixteenth century opened the way for the light to begin to shine in the midst of darkness, and in the final work of preparing the world for the second coming of the Lord, the fullest light of the Gospel is due to shine to all nations.

A Definite Call to This Generation.

In the great message referred to in Revelation 14, the apostle, in visions of the last days, saw "another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come; and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." The implication in this call is that men have been losing sight of God, and have forgotten that the judgment is coming. The affairs and cares of this life, the attainment of riches, the search after pleasure, and the multitude of pursuits that attract men in the latter days, have absorbed the attention and driven from the mind thoughts of God and eternal things. Other gods and idols have taken the place of the God of heaven.

Is it not a significant thing that the words of the message calling attention to the true God and His worship, are the words of the Sabbath commandment? There is no accident in the wording of this message, we may be assured. The world is losing sight of God in spite of the abundant light shed abroad in these latter days. Other gods than the true God are being worshiped. It is also to the last days and to the identical topic before us, that the words of the Lord, through the prophet Isaiah, apply: "The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant." Isa. 24:5. In the call to worship the true God is the utmost significance as concerns the Sabbath and the Sunday. The call is a direct summons for mankind to abandon the false and return to the true, "for the hour of His judgment is come."

Questions of Infinite Importance.

The time has fully arrived for a decided reformation on this point. The message is now going, as the reader must know. And if he has observed with ordinary care, he must have seen that the conflict is on between the principles involved. Shall the issue result in a victory for the God of heaven, or in a victory for the adversary? Shall the worship of the true God be restored in the hearts of men, or will a false god be honored? Shall the ordinances established by the Creator in the everlasting covenant be respected by His children, or will another ordinance, substituted by Satan, be preferred by mankind? Shall the Lord of heaven be honored, through the Sabbath, as the One who made heaven and earth and the sea, or shall the arch-enemy be exalted above Him in a counterfeit Sabbath? Shall the truth prevail, or shall superstition and error and tradition gain the day? Shall we not fear the God of heaven, and tremble at His word in humility and loving obedience?

The Lord called for a reform in the time of Isaiah, and the promise to Israel then is the promise of a spiritual Israel to-day: "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and

call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." Isa. 58:13, 14. Let us heed the call.

HOW TO OBTAIN A BLESSING FROM THE SABBATH.

By A. W. Judson

BY A. W. JUDSON.

IN Mark 2:27, 28, we read that "the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath; therefore the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath." The Son of Man is our Lord, because He created us, and He is Lord of the Sabbath, because He created it; for in John 1:3 we read that "all things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made." He is not only the creator of this world and all things that are therein, but "by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by Him and for Him." Col. 1:16.

When God created the Sabbath He placed His blessing in it; for we read in Gen. 2:3 that "God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made." Nowhere in the Bible is it said that He ever placed His blessing in any other day. No man can dig gold out of a mine in which there is no gold, and it is certainly just as true that no one can receive the Sabbath blessing from a day in which such blessing never has been placed.

As the Lord made the Sabbath, and placed His blessing in it for man, that is, for Adam, it belongs to all of his posterity; so that whosoever will seek it in the right way will find it. But how can we receive the blessing that the Lord has placed in the Sabbath? We often hear people say, If I lived in a community where everybody kept the seventh day, I would keep it. But they could not obtain the blessing that way; for, instead of seeking to obtain a blessing from the Sabbath, they would be seeking a blessing for being like the people around them. And, in seeking to be like the people around them, they would not be seeking to be like the One who said, "Follow Me;" for when we take our eyes off the true Pattern to follow any man, even tho he be a Christian, he will, through the weakness of the flesh, be likely to make mistakes and lead us away from God.

When our Saviour created the Sabbath, He was a spiritual Being, so the blessing that He placed in it was a spiritual blessing. Then all those who seek for that blessing must worship Him in spirit and in truth, on the day which He has blessed. Merely refraining from work on that day will not bring the blessing; "but if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raiseth up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you." Rom. 8:11.

In Matt. 12:10-13; Luke 13:10-13; 14:1-5; John 9:14; and in other places, we are told just how our Saviour kept the Sabbath after He became the Son of Man; and if the Spirit of God dwell in us, it will cause us to keep the Sabbath according to His example. Then we will delight ourselves in the Lord, according to Isa. 58:14. Then we will understand the truth of the statements found in Eze. 20:12, 20 and Ex. 31:13, 17, that the Sabbath is a sign between God and His people, that we may know that He is the Lord, our God, and that as His power created all things, it is sufficient to recreate us, and make us new creatures in Christ Jesus.

Dear reader, will you not believe His promise (Matt. 7:7), "Seek, and ye shall find," and then seek for His blessing in the Sabbath according to His Word, and accept it, and know by it that the God you worship is the One that created the heavens and the earth? Then you will have peace and joy that you can not obtain in any other way.

Yuba, Wis.

THE NEW LEAF.

By Walter E. Gillis

BY WALTER E. GILLIS.

Of all unhappy mental and physical conditions, it is a state of vacillating Christian experience. Can it be possible that we must go through this life, after a happy experience at conversion, in a deplorable state of uncertainty and die in despair because the harvest brings nothing but leaves? Dear reader, such was never the intention of our Redeemer, who is reproached and dishonored by so many such examples of Christian (?) living.

These sufferers from nervous Christianity are always turning over new leaves, and more especially as Christmas and the New Year approaches. This proceeding is well illustrated by the experience of an engineer, who was daily turning over a new leaf in his note book because of the soiled condition of the old one; but never considering it worth while to wash his hands, the new one very soon became equally well soiled and offensive to the eye. The difficulty is we so often forget or neglect to wash our hands. We read God's promise of cleansing from sin and fail to grasp the latent power in it. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9. "As many as received Him, to them gave He POWER to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name." John 1:12. Have we confessed our sins? Have we believed? Then appropriate the power. Heaven will empty itself if need be to supply your demands. It is God's purpose that we shall never fall, and He has revealed the way to attain this happy condition. 2 Peter 1:5-11. Is there no royal road? — No. It must ever come by the way of "tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope," and so shall we not be ashamed. If we would attain the crown, our life must ever be characterized by aggressive warfare against sin. A passive Christian is abominable in God's sight. "So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of My mouth." Rev. 3:16.

But there is another side to the Christian career; it is the phase so seldom earnestly sought; tho often sighed for. It is to this experience we should all be hastening. The Saviour has given us the key to the treasure house, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." Matt. 5:6.

Have you ever thirsted and hungered for water and bread so long that you would sacrifice everything on earth for a drop of water, a morsel of bread? When you got the drop, or the morsel, were you satisfied?—No, indeed; you would not be satisfied until you were filled. Is it not here we find the secret of our failure? We are too easily satisfied with spiritual food. The drops of blessing appease our too-feeble appetite; we do not seek long and earnestly for the showers. It is no wonder the Saviour utters that mournful complaint, "O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear Me, and keep all My commandments always." Deut. 5:29.

"Be filled with the Spirit" (Eph. 5:18) is the command of the Lord to us, and to those who long to be filled He says, "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." Ps. 81:10. How easy! Have you faith as a grain of mustard seed?

Listen, here is a beautiful illustration and promise. It was fulfilled to Christ; it is for us. God's promises are all yea and amen in Christ Jesus to usward. 2 Cor. 1:20. "The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary; He wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned." Isa. 50:4.

Here is a wonderful promise fulfilled to Christ, and through Him still advanced to us for acceptance. Just consider its worth. It says that the Lord would awaken him morning by morning and teach Him wisdom for the day.

Yes, I hear some one say, that is all very well when you consider to whom the promise first applies, but it is too much to suppose that we can ever claim or receive it.

Well, let us follow the matter a little further. The promise must needs have been fulfilled to Christ. Scan the record of His life and note the manner of fulfilment. "And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, He went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed." Mark 1:35. In the early morning hours when most men prefer to sleep, the Saviour bowed Himself to earth, His form wet with dew, and prayed. Was this a royal road?—No, no! But the Son of Man came as man to do as man must do, and in childlike faith claimed the promises of God and received their face value upon demand. What does He say to you and me?—"Ask, and ye shall receive." Not ye may receive, but "YE SHALL."

Have you ever retired to rest with the prayer on your lips that the Lord would fulfil His promise by awakening you early that you might arise and in the fulness of your heart offer praise and thanksgiving to Him? And did you then, with your Bible in your hand, claim the promise of counsel for the day just dawning? Try it; and thus will the new leaf be ever clean and writ upon with promises fulfilled in fruit garnered for the kingdom.

Mountain View, Cal.

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