The only digestive function the saliva seems to have is to act on starch by means of its digestive ferment, which is called ptyalin. This, under favorable conditions, quickly and readily changes cooked starch into sugar or some preliminary stage of the same. The newborn babe does not have this digestive ferment in its saliva; for until nature provides the child with teeth, it is unable to make use of solid food. The arrival of the first teeth is the signal for the appearance of small quantities of ptyalin in its saliva.
Quantity.— The quantity of saliva secreted in twenty-four hours has been variously estimated at from one to three pints. (See Kirk's Physiology, 351.) No doubt the excessive and abnormal stimulation of the salivary glands, due to the chewing of tobacco or gum, has a tendency to largely increase the quantity, much to the detriment of the quality.
How Stimulated.— The saliva is normally stimulated by dry foods and natural flavors. If food is not prepared in a tasteful and palatable manner, the saliva that is poured out is inferior in both quantity and quality.
How Hindered.— Actual laboratory experiments have demonstrated that drinking at meals greatly diminishes the quantity of saliva, and that the taking of such acids as vinegar, and some of the strong fruit acids, such as lemon, as well as the use of tea and coffee, practically destroy its activity.
Activity Ceases.— The saliva does not continue its activity in an acid medium. It was formerly supposed that there was sufficient quantity of acid gastric juice in the stomach to neutralize the saliva at the very beginning of the meal, but more recent experiments have demonstrated that the saliva continues its work in the stomach under normal conditions for half an hour or more before there is sufficient gastric juice poured out to entirely stop its action upon the starch.
GASTRIC JUICE
The digestive fluid of the stomach is called gastric juice. It acts upon the proteids, causing their small particles to swell and burst; also dissolving off the little proteid envelope that surrounds the small particles of fat. It is probable that it also has a certain action upon cane sugar, inverting, or changing it back, into glucose. One of the active agents of the gastric juice is hydrochloric acid, which serves the double purpose of killing germs in the stomach and supplying an acid medium without which pepsin can not act. In diseased conditions this acid is often either very deficient or practically absent, thus allowing the stomach to become a good breeding place for germs, and at the same time depriving the pepsin of its digestive power; or it may be present in such large quantities that it becomes irritating to the mucous membrane of the stomach, and lays the foundation for various digestive disturbances. The common use of pepsin is entirely uncalled
for, because it is rarely absent even under the most abnormal conditions. While the active digestive ferment of saliva is not present in the infant at birth, as nature does not provide it any starchy foods, pepsin is secreted in the infant's stomach from birth, so that it may be able to digest the proteids found in the milk. Another ferment present in the gastric juice is termed rennet, which has the faculty of curdling milk. When large quantities of milk are swallowed at once, this ferment is liable to produce large curds, which in a weak stomach may digest so slowly that decomposition may set in before the process is completed, producing the well-known condition called biliousness, for which the use of milk is so often responsible.
Quantity.— The quantity of gastric juice produced in the stomach in twenty-four hours varies from five to ten quarts. (See Kirk's Physiology, 351.)
How Stimulated.— The production of the gastric juice is encouraged by natural food flavors, digested starch, and the alkaline saliva, as well as by the presence of proteid food substances. (See Schafer's Physiology, 542.) This suggests the importance of eating starchy food so thoroughly cooked that the saliva can properly transform it, so that the loss of the stimulating property of the products of salivary digestion will not be experienced in the stomach.
How Hindered.— The stomach digestion is particularly susceptible to unfavorable influences. Abundant experience has demonstrated that the average person, when worried or in a depressed state of mind, is very likely to have his stomach digestion seriously interfered with. Recent laboratory experiments have shown that gastric juice acts only at a temperature very nearly the same as that of the body, so iced drinks and foods practically stop its activity until the stomach contents have had time to regain their normal temperature. But during this time the microbes have had abundant opportunity to proceed with their activity, and thus overwhelm, by their poisonous products, the already abused stomach glands.
Activity Ceases.— The activity of the gastric juice ceases very soon after it has been passed into the small intestine, where it meets with digestive juices poured out from the liver and pancreas, as these have an alkaline reaction, and thus quickly neutralize the acid gastric juice.
PANCREATIC JUICE
God has placed the pancreas just behind the stomach, apparently out of the way of danger, as it is one of the most important digestive organs found in the human body. One eminent authority has called it the digestive organ par excellence. (See Bunge's Physiological Chemistry, 178.) The pancreatic juice effects changes in all classes of foods, preparing them for absorption. It changes proteids into peptones. Instead of causing the proteid element to swell up, as in the case of the gastric juice, it dissolves it off from the outside, little by little. Its effect upon the proteids is due to a ferment called trypsin, which is present in the child even before birth. (See Schafer's Physiology, 336.) The pancreatic805juice also has a powerful digestive action upon starch. This is due to a ferment called amylopsin, which begins to appear in the infant about one month after birth. It has been found capable of converting forty thousand times its own weight of starch into maltose, or sugar. While the pancreas is pouring out a digestive juice into the intestines, to change starch into sugar, it is at the same time passing another secretion into the blood stream, which is carried to the muscles, and which enables them to utilize the sugar when it is brought to them. Serious disorders of the pancreas produce diabetes, a disease in which sugar accumulates in the blood. In many cases this is undoubtedly due to a failure of this particular secretion's being carried to the muscles, thereby enabling them to utilize the sugar brought to them by the blood stream. There is a beautiful spiritual lesson in this. While the Lord is putting it into our hearts and minds to go to help some one, the same Spirit is impressing that person's heart, preparing him to receive the truth we are about to bring. The pancreatic juice has another ferment, called steapsin, which possesses the power of splitting up a portion of the fats into glycerine and fatty acids; and these fatty acids, in coming in contact with the alkaline bile, form a soap which assists in emulsifying the remaining portion of the fats.
SPIRITUAL LESSON FROM THE PANCREATIC JUICE
While single food substances are digested by the saliva and gastric juice, the pancreatic juice is able to digest practically every food element. What the pancreatic juice is able to do for the body is a beautiful illustration of what faith will do for the soul. As it is possible for the pancreatic juice to digest all the elements of our physical food supply, so with faith “all things are possible.” Hope, trust, confidence, and courage are all useful factors in our moral equipment, but faith is the one thing essential. The just “live by faith.” Our courage may help us through difficulties, our confidence may cheer us in hours of darkness, our trust may uphold us in trial; but faith sustains us at all times, under all conditions, and in all places. Whether our spiritual food comes to us in the form of sunshine or shower, whether it comes to us in messages of love or mandates of sorrow, it makes little difference to living faith—the faith of Jesus; for as the pancreatic juice extracts the elements of nutrition from all food substances, so the Christian's faith is able to recognize and appropriate the elements of soul-nutrition from all the circumstances and experiences which a divine providence permits to overtake him.
Quantity.— Although far more effective in quality than any of the other digestive fluids, pancreatic juice is nevertheless the least in quantity. It has been estimated to be from five to six ounces in twenty-four hours.
How Hindered. It has been difficult to make the necessary observations to determine absolutely what conditions produce abnormal changes in the quality of the pancreatic juice, although there can be no doubt that the same general conditions that interfere with the activity of the saliva and gastric juice must act unfavorably upon the pancreatic secretion; for it partakes of the nature of both. The pancreatic juice is alkaline, and its activity continues to a greater or less extent through the entire length of the alimentary canal.
Copyrighted, 1900, by David Paulson and W. S. Sadler.
Entirely God’s Children
“WE are not God's children unless we are such entirely.”
Twenty-nine years ago the Lord repeated Isa. 58: 5-11, and said: “This is the special work now before us.”—“Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. II., page 34.
The language now is as follows: “We are years behind in our work.” “If we do not awake more generally and fully, then those who know not the truth for this time will advance before us, and block up our way.” “We have no time to lose. The end is near.” “Everything will be placed to obstruct our way, so that we shall not be able to do that which is possible to be done now.”
Twenty-nine years ago there was no system of co-operation among organized charities, and for six years after that, the field was free and waiting for private effort. In 1874 the first conference of organized charities convened in New York City, where only four States of the Union were represented. Now a system of co-operative charities is to be found in our own country, from Maine to California, and in nearly every other government, having an interconnection, which is so perfect in its workings as almost entirely to control public charity, and all the streams whereby supplies and money can be obtained for relief of distress.
The field has not only been entered, but so effectually possessed, by those who know not the truth, that we shall now never be able to accomplish more than a tittle of what the Lord desired we should do. We can not retrieve nor atone for the past, but the present is still left to us. It seems as if our first step should be to ascertain by a study of Isaiah 58 the Lord’s requirements.
Four lines of work are presented in this chapter: (1) Feeding the hungry; (2) caring for the outcasts; (3) clothing the destitute; (4) caring for our own poor and distressed.
Charity is a gift from God: it is love (1 John 4: 7), and is an exemplification and application of the second great commandment. 1 John 5: 3; Rom. 13: 10. The heathen know nothing of charity; for, as the basis of charity is love, and love is of God, the knowledge of God is a necessity before charity can possess the human heart.
“Bible charity is not sentimentalism, but love in active service.”—“Appeal to Ministers and Conference Officers,” page 31. The Lord intended that His people should be exponents of this fundamental gospel truth; but instead of occupying the leadership, they are still children in knowledge. “For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles [commandments] of God.” Heb. 5: 12.
Charity, like everything else connected with the government of God, is a science, and must be studied. The motive power in true charity is the love of God. Intelligent charity, therefore, will always aim at a permanent benefit.
Any benefit that accrues from intelligent charity will be the result of the action of the love of God; and this action being a spiritual influence upon the mind, the outcome of intelligent charity will always be a moral and spiritual reformation. Therefore any charity, the aim and outcome of which is less than this, is not “Christlike” or “Christian charity.”
Then again, intelligent charity must treat men and women as individuals, and not as classes, because the aim of true charity (the love of God) is salvation from sin, and salvation is an individual matter. State charity fails of accomplishing its aim and object—spiritual and moral reformation—because the State can not be actuated by the love of God, nor deal with unfortunates on any other than a business basis, and by police regulations.
True charity always reacts, and therefore develops character in both giver and receiver. Prov. 11: 25. So it is written: “The very simplest modes of work should be devised and set in operation among the churches. If members will co-operate with such a plan, and perseveringly carry it out, they will reap a rich reward; their experience will grow brighter, their ability will increase, and souls will be saved through their efforts.”—Review and Herald, Feb. 28, 1893.
Such charity must, of necessity, labor through a combination, or the combining, of natural, hygienic, and spiritual laws. Why?
First: every one, no matter apparently how hopelessly degraded, has rights, and true charity will always not only respect such rights, but labor to restore them to the individual. Chief among the rights to be regained are a proper life, purity, a hope in the gospel.
Second: a home is the great safeguard of social existence. Intelligent charity will seek, first of all, to create a healthful home, and to educate against the abuse of natural and hygienic law, as disease is directly traceable to carelessness and shiftlessness, which, with the poor, generally lead to drink, pauperism, and crime.
Intelligent charity, then, is that which begins the work in the homes of the poor, and this, of course, means visiting the homes, not in spasmodic or intermittent efforts, but a life-work of systematic visiting, an ingratiating one’s self into the hearts of the people, and by precept and example educating to higher and still higher physical, moral, and spiritual levels.
A charity that is unsystematized, or that considers only the day and the day’s needs; that aims at relieving simply the pressing necessities, and nothing more; that relieves the present need, only to leave the individual to beg again,—such charity may emulate the pity of the savage, or the liberality of the atheist, but does not represent the love of God—is not Christianity.
“More than he asked he gave, and deemed it mean
Only to help the poor to beg again!”
A charity that simply relieves the physical necessities, and does not educate, fails to meet the mind of God, as it degrades the recipient by making dependency, pauperism, a desirable condition, the pauper a pensioner.
The foundation, then, of true charity, is the restoration of lost rights, beginning with that of the home influence. To engage in such charity means consecration and devotion, which will broaden our conceptions of duty, create brotherly love, making us tender, pitiful, kind, able and willing to minister to one another’s necessities.
Caleb, the Type of Thoroughgoing Fidelity
CALEB is the man needed in our churches in these latter days. He is the type-man for thoroughgoing fidelity. He followed the Lord fully. What we want to make churches vigorous and successful is, not bustle, but business; not parade and puffery, but patience, prayer, and persevering work. We want the full following of Christ with the whole heart, for the whole time, and for the whole life campaign.—Cuyler.
PUT-OFF TOWN
Did you ever go to Put-Off Town,
Where the houses are old and tumble-down,
And everything tarries, and everything drags,
With dirty streets and people in rags?
On the street of Slow lives Old Man Wait,
And his two little boys named Linger and Late,
With unclean hands and tousled hair,
And a naughty little sister named Don't Care.
Grandmother Growl lives in this town,
With her two little daughters called Fret and Frown;
And Old Man Lazy lives all alone,
Around the corner, on Street Postpone.
Did you ever go to Put-Off Town
To play with the little girls, Fret and Frown,
Or go to the home of Old Man Wait,
And whistle for his boys to come to the gate—
To play all day in Tarry Street,
Leaving your errands for other feet?
To stop, or shirk, or linger, or frown,
Is the nearest way to this old town.
—Selected.
Every One Will Be Tested and Tried
“EVERY one will be tested and tried in the way that is most trying.”
Is It True, O Christ in Heaven?
“Is it true, O Christ in heaven,
That the highest suffer most?
That the strongest wander farthest,
And most hopelessly are lost?
Does the mark of rank in nature
Show capacity for pain?
Does the anguish of the singer
Make the sweetness of the strain?”
KATE LINDSAY, M. D
By Kate Lindsay
PLEDGE NO. 3: WHY IT IS NEEDED
KATE LINDSAY, M. D
We have seen that alcohol and tobacco are not foods; that neither contributes to the work of tissue construction; neither furnishes the body with either heating or working energy; both are poisons, and interfere seriously with the work of every organ of the body, and damage the mental and moral faculties, thus injuring and defiling the image of God.
Many thoughtful men and most women will agree that the anti-tobacco and anti-alcohol pledges are actual necessities. They do not use either drug themselves, and are ready to say that they see no excuse for their use by any one else. At the same time, these very persons are indulging in the use of tea and coffee, and very often in the use of some form of opium or other stupefying drug, to which they are as truly slaves as are rum or tobacco devotees.
Tea and coffee are almost universally used by both men and women in all civilized lands. Tea especially is the favorite stimulant of women. To appreciate what a hold this stimulant has on its victim, one needs but to notice the nervous actions and cranky temper of a habitual tea-toper when deprived of her accustomed stimulus, and then see her again, genial and pleasant, when, having drunk a cup of strong tea, her brain and nervous system are feeling the exciting effects of the poison.
Tea contains two harmful drugs—theine and tannin. The first-named is a powerful nerve stimulant, which for a time excites the brain and nervous system to undue activity, followed by a corresponding depression. It is often the cause of sleeplessness, and even insanity. In other cases it has been known to produce neuritis, an almost incurable nervous disease. The second is a powerful astringent, which, when taken in any great amount, hinders digestion, and destroys the digestive principles of the gastric juice. All forms of tea contain this drug, but green tea has more than twice as much as black tea. If tea is steeped a long time, or boiled down, the quantity of tannin it contains is increased. That is one reason why tea long steeped, looks dark colored.
Many women put the teapot on the fire in the morning, and keep adding a little fresh tea to it now and then, as they drink their favorite beverage. It is small wonder that they are cranky, sleepless, and nervous, and that they look old and wrinkled at forty, with skins the color of tanned leather. They are all the time taking into the body the same material used by the tanner to transform his hides into leather. Such persons have depraved appetites, often craving all sorts of unhealthful substances, such as raw rice, clay, slate pencils, and other indigestible substances.
Coffee contains a poison known as caffeine, similar in its effects to the theine of tea. It is a nerve poison, and is used to deaden pain, much the same as an opiate.
Many think that the worst enemy to the human race is alcohol, and next to it tobacco; but when we remember that it is only men who use these two drugs to any extent, while both men and women indulge in the use of tea and coffee; and when we also know that whatever injures women strikes more directly at the welfare of the race than does that which acts only against men, it is a difficult matter to say which is the greater evil,—the little brown jug or the teapots and coffeepots found in so many well-ordered homes of our land. The enemy whose coming is announced by the beating of drums and the sounding of trumpets is not so much a source of danger as he who invades the city in the guise of a friend. Learning all the secrets of its defense, and acquiring a knowledge of its weakest points, he strikes a fatal blow before the defending army is awakened to its danger.
From the brief facts stated above, it must be plain to earnest seekers after true temperance principles, that if there is need for pledges No. 1 and 2, there is just as much need for Pledge No. 3.
TEETOTAL PLEDGE
I do hereby solemnly affirm that, with the help of God, I will wholly abstain from the voluntary use, as a beverage, or in any equivalent manner, of alcohol, tea, coffee, and from the use of tobacco, opium, and all other narcotics and stimulants.
“CHRIST’S OBJECT LESSONS”
By Mrs. Geo. A. Irwin
MRS. GEO. A. IRWIN
“It is impossible for me to do anything with ‘Christ’s Object Lessons,’” declared one busy woman, as an effort was being made to get every member of the church to take six copies of the book, and sell them or give them away. “My hands are more than full of work, and I shall not try to do any more. Besides, I never canvassed or sold a book in my life, and I am sure I could not do it.”
A few days after expressing herself thus, she attended the monthly meeting held under the auspices of the Woman’s Gospel Work, at which the work with this book was the special theme. There were many interesting things said in regard to what some had done with the book, and what others were planning to do, and she went away feeling that she, too, would like a part in the blessing which others were getting.
As she neared her home, she saw two friends from a neighboring city approaching her house,—persons not in the truth, nor interested in it. She hastened to greet them and make them welcome, and then told them that she had been to a meeting where the plan of the book was discussed, and that she would begin her part at once by asking them if they would not like to aid in the effort in behalf of educational institutions by taking a copy. They examined the book, and each bought one for a Christmas gift.
That same evening this sister met a familiar friend, and spoke to her about the book. At first she did not wish it, but soon decided that it would make a nice Christmas present, and so bought a copy. Then, slipping a book under her shawl, our sister stepped into her grocer’s, and asked if he believed in exchange of business. It would have been very discourteous to have said No, so he soon became the possessor of a book.
This made four books sold within a few hours; and when we last saw this woman, she was enthusiastic, and felt sure of selling her two remaining books. And we believe that she will not stop when the sixth one is sold; for the more a person sells, the greater desire he has to sell the books.
The Lord himself has given us this plan, and all we have to do is to follow it out. There is a double blessing connected with this work; for the one receiving the book will get a great blessing from it, and the Lord will especially bless those who engage in selling it. We all come in touch with a few persons to whom it is comparatively easy to present the book,—those with whom we come in contact in daily business,—and we hope that every woman will sell at least one book, and so lessen the debt on our schools just that much. This is truly a definite line of Woman’s Gospel Work, so let us all take hold with heart and soul, and speedily bring about the grand results.
REQUESTS FOR PRAYER
A Christian worker, belonging to the Holiness denomination, requests prayer for herself. She is investigating the Sabbath truth, and has kept three Sabbaths the best she knows how.
Prayer is requested for a woman who has just begun to keep the Sabbath, and is having a hard fight with Satan. She was recently "healed," according to the directions of Christian science advocates, and she is perplexed to know just what is right.
A mother requests prayer for the conversion of a beloved son. She made a request for prayer in his behalf over a year ago, at which time he was away from her. He has now returned to her, but is unconverted, and she again requests prayer for him. Pray also for this mother, that she may know how to win her son for God.
A widowed sister requests prayer for her son, who is afflicted with a disease which causes him great suffering, and which the doctors say is incurable. It seems to affect his mind at times. He is not a Christian, and we know that many a mother will appreciate the burden of this sister's heart, and will join in prayer for her and her dear one.
“Please pray for my only brother, who has wandered far from Christ. He is only nineteen, and is easily influenced for wrong. He was once a Christian, but evil companions have led him away from Christ, yet he seems to wish to do right. Pray also for his parents, that they may have wisdom from God in dealing with him. I also request prayer for my husband's people, that they may be brought to see and accept the truth.”
NOTICE!
By Mrs. Geo. A. Irwin
In addition to the noontide hour of prayer, a few of the sisters in Battle Creek have arranged for a special prayer-meeting, to be held each Thursday afternoon at 4 o'clock, at which the letters containing special requests will be read, followed by consultation and prayer. We should be glad to have all the sisters remember this hour, and if they can not meet with us in person, to join us in prayerful thought. We suggest that sisters in other churches meet together in this way, if it seems advisable, bringing in local requests, and enlisting the interest of neighbors and friends, very few of whom will not be especially burdened for some dear one.
MRS. GEO. A. IRWIN.
READING CIRCLE STUDY
By Stephen N. Haskell
Eighth Chapter of Revelation
S. N. H.
The grandest event the universe of God will ever behold is the second coming of Christ to take His people to himself. It is to this event that the first verse of chapter eight brings us. Then, and then only, do the Scriptures speak of a time when there is silence in heaven. One-half hour, prophetic time, is seven days. The “one hundred and forty-four thousand” and the innumerable company enter the cloud together, and are seven days ascending to the sea of glass. See “Early Writings,” page 12.
Christ comes “in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels.” Luke 9: 26. He is escorted by every angel in glory. Matt. 25: 31. All of these have been ministering spirits to the saints in the earth. Heb. 1: 13, 14. “And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” Matt. 24: 31. God, seated upon His angelic throne (Ps. 18: 9, 10; Eze. 1: 26-28), comes with Christ. Titus 2: 13. He comes with twenty thousand chariots, even thousands of angels, and the Lord in the midst, as in Sinai. Ps. 68: 17. The scene upon Sinai, at the giving of the law, is the only event that compares with the second coming of Christ. “There, Christ and the Father, standing side by side upon the mount, with solemn majesty proclaimed the ten commandments, placing in the very center of the decalogue the Sabbath command.” “The Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; He shined forth from Mount Paran, and He came with ten thousands of saints: from His right hand went a fiery law for them. Yea, He loved His people; all His saints are in thy hand: and they sat down at thy feet; every one shall receive of thy words.” Deut. 33: 2, 3.
This is an object lesson of the time when “the glory of the celestial city streams from the gates ajar. Then there appears against the sky a hand holding two tables of stone folded together. Says the prophet, ‘The heavens shall declare His righteousness; for God is judge himself.’ That holy law, God’s righteousness, that amid thunder and flame was proclaimed from Sinai as the guide of life, is now revealed to men as the rule of judgment. The hand opens the tables, and there are seen the precepts of the decalogue, traced as with a pen of fire. The words are so plain that all can read them. Memory is aroused, the darkness of superstition and heresy is swept from every mind, and God’s ten words, brief, comprehensive, and authoritative, are presented to the view of all the inhabitants of the earth.”—“Great Controversy,” page 639. Ps. 98: 2; Isa. 51: 7; Ps. 119: 172. “And when the blessing is pronounced on those who have honored God by keeping His Sabbath holy, there is a mighty shout of victory.” It is thus God honors the remnant, the one hundred and forty-four thousand, who have kept His law, in the eyes of those who have triumphed over them.
As when Christ ascended with the wave sheaf, so now “there is the throne, and around it the rainbow of promise. There are cherubim and seraphim. The commanders of the angelic hosts, the sons of God, the representatives of the unfallen worlds, are assembled. The heavenly council, before which Lucifer had accused God and His Son, the representatives of those sinless realms over which Satan had thought to establish his dominion,—all are there to welcome the Redeemer,” with His triumphant throng, that innumerable company. Those who have been torn asunder by the ruthless hand of death have met in the air, around their great Deliverer. Some had been burned at the stake; others had perished in dungeons; others had been buried in the sea. Happy families, rent asunder by the cruel shafts of death, are now around Christ, united. Husbands and wives, parted in this life, and who slept in Jesus, now meet at the voice of Him who died for them. Oh, what a meeting that will be! Friends will recognize friends. All will unite in thanksgiving and praise to Him who died and rose again, and has now come to give them everlasting rest and peace. Pain is all over. The cruel monster death has no more power over them. “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 past away.” Rev. 21: 4. This is heavenly reunion. Together for seven successive days they are traveling to their glorious home. Reader, will you be there? These are some of the blessings found at the opening of the seventh seal.
The last act of Christ for them in His mediatorial work was to take the golden censer and offer His own righteousness, with the prayers of all the saints, upon the golden altar, which was before the throne. The smoke of the incense, “the righteousness of Christ” with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand. Vs. 3-5. At this time those who had been the subjects of labor are converted, as for some cause prayers for them could not be answered before. “Then I saw many embrace the message of the third angel, and unite their voice with those who had first given the warning, and they honored God by observing His sanctified rest-day.”—Spiritual Gifts, in “Early Writings,” pages 118, 115. Prayers of parents for children, and children for parents, will then be answered. Those who offered the prayers may be quiet in death; but the prayers are lodged on heaven’s altar, and will be answered before the censer is thrown down.
For an exposition of the sounding of the four trumpets in verses 5-13, the reader is referred to “The Seven Trumpets,” published at the Review Office, as it is impossible to present them here. They refer to the breaking up of the Roman Empire by the northern barbarians.
It was the Romans who put Christ to death upon the cross, and also brought upon God’s people every torture possible for human demons to bring upon man. A sure retribution follows wickedness, whether in nations or in individuals. The Roman Empire as it was is no more. The divided state of Rome is shown by the divided state of Europe. The symbolic language here used is a vivid description of what John saw in vision, and which met its fulfillment in those barbarians who showed no mercy to their enemies. Fire and destruction by land and by sea came upon that empire until it was destroyed. In A. D. 330 the capital was removed from Rome to Constantinople. Seven years later the empire was divided into three parts. This explains the expression “the third part,” which was one of these divisions. The first trumpet represented Alaric at the head of the Goths, in A. D. 395. The second trumpet referred to Genseric, whose warfare was by sea, and who on one occasion destroyed over eleven hundred war-vessels in one night, like a great burning mountain cast into the sea. The third trumpet referred to the destructive work of the Huns under Attila, which fell, like a burning lamp, upon the regions of the Alps, the fountains of waters. The fourth trumpet is indeed the death knell to the Roman government: emperors, or the sun; consuls, or the moon; and the senators, or the stars, are now in one-third part darkened, and the mistress of the world no longer sits in the proud city of the seven hills. But a more subtle power is soon to take her seat and wield a mightier scepter than had ever been in the hand of pagan Rome. The chapter closes with a special proclamation of woe to the world during the sounding of the three following trumpets.
BEREAN LIBRARY STUDY
Revelation 8; “Thoughts on the Revelation,” pages 452-468
DAILY READING FOR DECEMBER 23-29
Sunday, “Thoughts on the Revelation,” verses 1-6.
Monday, “ ” “ ” “ ” verse 7.
Tuesday, “ ” “ ” “ ” verses 8, 9.
Wednesday, “ ” “ ” “ ” “ ” 10, 11.
Thursday, “ ” “ ” “ ” “ ” 12, 13.
Friday, article on Reading Circle Study on this page.
QUESTIONS
1. What change took place in heaven when the seventh seal was opened?
2. Why was there silence? Give Scriptural proof that God and the angels had left heaven.
3. Why and where had they gone?
4. Has there been anything in the past that would compare with the grandeur of Christ’s coming?
5. Give Scriptural proof that the law of God will be seen in the heavens in connection with Christ’s coming?
6. How long are the saints ascending to heaven?
7. Where is the golden altar of verse 3? What was given the angel that stood at the altar?
8. What was done with the incense? What is the incense which is added to the prayer of faith in heaven?
9. When all the prayers had been offered, how did the angel signify that the work was finished?
10. What new line of prophecy opens with verse 6? Against what nation was the work under the first four trumpets especially directed?
11. Into what three parts was Europe divided?
12. What tribe led the work under the first trumpets? Who was their leader?
13. What part of Europe was represented by the “third part” of verse 7? Describe the devastation made under the first trumpet.
14. Which tribe led in the work under the second trumpet? Give name of leader.
15. Where did their leader establish his headquarters? What localities were especially ravaged by him?
16. What great destruction did he cause, which fitly represented a burning mountain cast into the sea?
17. Give the name of the tribe that led out in the work under the third trumpet, also their leader.
18. What part of Europe was affected by their raid? Which continued the longer, the second or the third trumpet?
19. What was represented by the third part of the sun, moon, and stars of verse 12? Give date when each were extinguished.
20. How were the last three trumpets announced?
NOTE.—Secure a map of the world, and in your private study carefully locate the work described under the first three trumpets, and you will have no difficulty in remembering them. Work at it until you can trace on the map the course of each general.
Love Despite Imperfections
“We should love and respect one another, notwithstanding the faults and imperfections that we can not help seeing.”