THIS little quarterly publication, especially designed as an auxiliary medium of conveying the truth in letter-writing, has, we believe, accomplished much good in this line. It can be enclosed in a No. 6 envelope without folding, and without additional postage, being only a leaflet of from four to sixteen pages. We recommend it as a very effective means of spreading the truth.
Thirty-six numbers of this library have already been issued, embracing a varied field of topics, from which one may choose according to what will be best adapted to each case. Among the latest issues we might mention the following:—
Scripture Answers to Worldly Objections
Seventh-Day Adventists and Their Work
The Hope Set Before Us
The True Church
Subscription price: 5 copies one year, 25 cents; 12 copies one year, 50 cents. Special price in quantities.
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SURE WORD OF PROPHECY. A study of the book of Daniel.
A concise study of this important prophetic portion of the Bible. Fully illustrated. Paper covers. 96 pages. Bible Students’ Library No. 131. Price, 10 cents.
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The Door Open for Church Reunion
Dr. C. A. BRIGGS, of Union Theological Seminary, with whom the Presbyterians have had so much trouble because of his well-known skeptical views of the Bible, now expresses “great admiration” for the present pope. He also says, “I have learned through my studies to look upon some of the Roman Catholic positions more favorably than I used to.” There are many nominal Protestants taking the same view of the matter; and for this reason he is justified in the following further statement: “I think that there are possibilities in the future of the re-union of the Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches. I think that the door is open for such a movement.” It is noticeable that as Protestants depart from the plain Word of God, in faith and practice, the more “liberal” they become toward the dogmas of the Roman Church. And at the present pace of the “higher criticism” the prediction of Dr. Briggs is not far from fulfilment.
A Significant Silence
A Significant Silence.—The Jews determined to put Christ to death because he did not keep the Sabbath day to suit their ideas of such observance (John 5:16); yet he did not so far depart from their traditions as to keep another day. After his ascension, there was the same anxiety to find causes of accusation and condemnation of the apostles as there had been for the condemnation of Christ. Yet there is not a single instance recorded of the disciples’ being charged with Sabbath breaking. How can we account for this, if they so far ignored the Jewish traditions as to keep another day for the Sabbath? On the contrary the Gentiles at Philippi charged Paul and Silas with being Jews, and said, “These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, and teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans.” The charges against the apostles would hardly have been made in that form if the apostles had been teaching that the “Jewish Sabbath” was “done away,” and the people were to keep the first day—the very day that the Romans observed as their chief holiday, the “venerable day of the sun.”
Many of the Jewish Christians held tenaciously to some of their former ceremonials, the rite of circumcision being a subject of much discussion. There was so much contention over this matter that a council was called at Jerusalem, at which there was “much disputing,” but there is no mention of the Sabbath question. In view of the Jewish prejudices, if there had been an attempt to bring about the observance of a different Sabbath day, it must needs have been a prominent feature of the apostles’ teaching, and would have called out as much or even more opposition than any other innovation. It would have been impossible to institute a new Sabbath without a great commotion even among the Jewish Christians, to say nothing of the indignation of unbelieving Jews, and persecution of disciples of Christ on this special account. If such was the case, the absolute silence of the Scriptures on the subject is remarkable, in view of the great importance of such a move.
Watch and Pray Always
“Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.”
Love and the Law
MEN go to great lengths to bring the preaching of the law into discredit and disfavor. They strive to belittle the Old Testament and the epistles that they may destroy a legal spirit, as they call it, and establish the reign of love. But love is law. Love without law is not love. God as a sovereign has established law in the natural and spiritual world. He administers law. Obedience is life with honor; disobedience is death with dishonor.—Christian Intelligencer.
The Anti-Saloon Campaign
As THIS paper goes to press, our city is the scene of the most enthusiastic temperance campaign since the great local option battle of 1874. In that year local option won, but was adjudged unconstitutional. Since then, however, we have adopted a new constitution, and under it local option prevails in some localities. The present issue is not for total prohibition of the liquor traffic, but for the prohibition of the saloon curse. In 1874 the Seventh-day Adventist tent, in which meetings were being held at the time, was used in the interest of the local option cause. Our people are also taking a lively interest in the present anti-saloon campaign, deeming it an opportune time for circulating temperance literature.
The Proposed Sunday Law for Washington
ANOTHER Congress has passed out, and the much-sought Sunday law for the District of Columbia is not yet forthcoming, has not even been reported by a committee of either house. There is one peculiar feature of the strong effort that has been made in behalf of this law, and that is, the pressure is mainly from outside the District. People at a distance are more solicitous to have the residents of the District compelled to keep Sunday in accordance with their ideas, than said residents are to be thus compelled. The Christian Endeavor national convention, held in Washington last summer, was supposed to have given a new impetus to the Sunday-law movement; but the influence has not yet been manifested in the form of the desired act. Petitions have been sent to Congress claiming to represent hundreds of thousands of people, but the actual signers probably would not number ten thousand. It is understood, however, that the effort will be renewed with increased vigor upon the incoming Congress.
Popular Religion and the Bible.
—Referring to Dr. Lyman Abbott’s levity over the book of Jonah, the Interior (Presbyterian) says:—
“The Congregational ministers of New York, and largely the religious press, are stirred up by Dr. Abbott’s exegesis of the book of Jonah. That is only a twig of the upas. They fail to perceive that he wields a much more dangerous influence on his popular platform of agnostic evolution. He is only one exponent of a great and all-pervading system of philosophy which is winning its way in the secular and scientific press, in literature generally, and in pulpits and churches, and which spiritually paralyzes every man and every church into which it finds entrance. We confess to surprise that they should rise up in excitement over the question whether the book of Jonah is an allegory or a history, while they look on in silence, or with approval, as he attacks the heart of all religion, the existence of the supernatural. Destroy faith in God, and we need not trouble ourselves about the fate of the details of that faith. They are gone, one and all, from the least to the greatest.”
Human Inventions and Biblical Truth
are gone, one and all, from the least to the greatest.
There is an abundance of machinery in operation in these last days purporting to be run in the interest of religious reform, and more new inventions in prospect; but the more these human ideas accumulate, the more the plain teachings of the Bible are ignored. “To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Isa. 8:20.
THE LAW FROM ADAM TO MOSES.
A LEAFLET comes to our table which purports to give convincing arguments that the law of Ten Commandments, and consequently the Sabbath of that law, was a special provision for the Jewish dispensation. One of the arguments adduced is this:—
“The Bible tells us there was no law from Adam to Moses. If there was no law till Moses, how could there be a Sabbath day?”
Christ would say to such an author, “Ye do err, not ‘knowing the Scriptures.’” That there was a Sabbath day is plainly stated in Gen. 2: 2, 3. But the assumption quoted above would also prove that there was no sin from Adam to Moses; “for where no law is, there is no transgression” (Rom. 4:15), and “sin is not imputed when there is no law” (chapter 5:13). It would also prove that there was no death from Adam to Moses, for death is the consequence of sin (chapter 6:23), and “sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3, 4). But there was sin and death during that time; “for until the law sin was in the world” (Rom. 5:13), and “death reigned from Adam to Moses” (verse 14). But the Bible does not “tell us there was no law from Adam to Moses.” We are told that the Gentiles (the heathen) “have not the law,” but this is simply because of their ignorance of its formal terms. Yet they have a limited knowledge of its principles; for when they “do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law [in specific form], are a law unto themselves; which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile [margin, “between themselves”] accusing or else excusing one another.” Chapter 2:14, 15. But why are the Gentiles ignorant concerning the law?—
“Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves; who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever.” Chapter 1:21-25.
The expression, “until the law,” refers to its formal repetition on Mount Sinai, and the writing of it on tables of stone to indicate its enduring nature. That the law and the Sabbath existed prior to this time is shown in the fact that the children of Israel were reminded of both when the manna was given to them, before they came to Sinai. See Exodus 16, entire chapter.
The Ideal Christian Character
A WRITER in the New York Observer gives this imaginary description of the man who can do the most good in a community:—
“He must be genial, warm-hearted, generous, cordial, sincere, possessed of a hearty laugh, a keen appreciation of a good joke, and yet earnest, helpful and unselfish.”
Such is said to be the “ideal man” who is “needed in almost every community.” There are good qualifications set forth here, but as an ideal to be set up in a Christian paper, the possession of “a hearty laugh and a keen appreciation of a good joke” rather lowers the standard. It surely does lower the standard set up in the Scriptures, wherein “foolish talking” and “jesting” are especially condemned. See Eph. 5:3-5; also the words of our Saviour, “I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.” Matt. 12:36.