“What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God.” Thus spoke the shipmaster to Jonah when he went down in the side of the ship, and found the prophet asleep. How many there are to-day who, like Jonah, are asleep in the ship. The tempests of life may roll, but they are asleep, drifting with the tide, and blown about by the wind. Some day they will wake up to the fact that they are face to face with destruction. If they do not arise, and call upon their God, before it is too late, they will go down with the ship.
“I saw that the remnant were not prepared for what is coming upon the earth. Stupidity, like lethargy, seemed to hang upon the minds of most of those who profess to believe that we are having the last message. My accompanying angel cried out with awful solemnity, ‘Get ready! get ready! get ready! for the fierce anger of the Lord is soon to come. His wrath is to be poured out, unmixed with mercy, and ye are not ready. Rend the heart, and not the garment.’”—Early Writings, page 119.
“I saw that God’s people are on enchanted ground, and that some have lost nearly all sense of the shortness of time and the worth of the soul. Pride has crept in among Sabbath-keepers,—pride of dress and appearance. Said the angel, ‘Sabbath-keepers will have to die to self, die to pride and approbation.’”—Id., page 120.
Christ said to his disciples, when he found them asleep in the garden: “Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.” Three times he found them sleeping, and three times he admonished them to watch and pray. At last he came to them, and said, “Sleep on now, and take your rest.” The wrath of the Almighty is hastening on apace, and soon it will fall upon the earth. God bids us now to watch and pray, to shake off the lethargy that is creeping over us, and to call upon him as we have never done before. How sad will be the words, when all efforts to arouse us have been in vain, “Sleep on now, and take your rest”!
“Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments. . . . Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck. . . . The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.” “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.”
Paul, too, raised the cry to the slumbering people of God: “Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”
We are in the shaking time, and all that can be shaken will be shaken. If our feet are planted firmly on the Rock of Ages, if we are awake to the times in which we are living, we shall not be shaken out. It takes wide-awake Christians to keep pace with the message, to live it, and to teach it.
“It is no small thing to be a Christian, and to be owned and approved of God. The Lord had shown me some who profess the present truth, whose lives do not correspond with their profession. They have the standard of piety altogether too low, and they come far short of Bible holiness. Some engage in vain and unbecoming conversation, and others give way to self. We must not expect to please ourselves, live and act like the world, have its pleasures, enjoy the company of those of the world, and reign with Christ in glory.” Every Christian must awake out of sleep, watch and pray, and have on the whole armor of God if he expects to join the throng around the great white throne. It will take the meekness of Moses, the chasteness of Joseph, the patience of Job, the firmness of Daniel, and the lowliness of Christ to pass through the trial.
The end is very near. There is danger that we may become like the unfaithful servant, who says in his heart, “My Lord delayeth his coming.” If we give way to spiritual slumber, and become drunk with the cares of this life, the day of vengeance will take us unaware. But to the faithful, “to him that overcometh,” the Master says, “will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.” Then shall we reign with Christ forever, throughout the endless ages to come.
“Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. . . . Let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. . . . See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men. Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything giving thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things. Hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Nashville, Tenn.
Sound an Alarm
By Worthie Harris Holden
WORTHIE HARRIS HOLDEN
STEALTHILY the night approaches
While the sun is sinking low;
All unheard the shadows lengthen,
All unseen the day-beams go;
For the world knows not its danger,
As the shades of night fall fast.
It is sleeping, fondly dreaming
That all dire alarm is past.
'Tis the lull of earthly treasure,
And the hope of power or fame,
That are lullabies for conscience
Lest it fear its Maker's name.
And the souls at ease in Zion,
Half asleep as night draws nigh,
In the drowse of selfish stupor,
Fail to give the watchman's cry.
Wake! Arouse! Gird swift thine
armor.
Thou shalt perish ere thou know!
Soon the hosts of sin will triumph,
Bringing thee eternal woe.
Cry alarm, and look not backward,
Lest thou, lingering, seal thy doom!
Speed, ere sets the day of mercy
For earth's night of endless gloom!
Portland, Ore.
The Minister’s Choice of Noble Subjects
RUSKIN was right when he declared that true greatness of style consists chiefest of all in the choice of noble subjects; that is, “of subjects which involve wide interests and profound passions, as opposed to those which involve narrow interests and slight passions.” This is a truth worthy to be given a prominent place in the mind of the minister of the gospel.—Presbyterian of the South.
Courage to Do Right
“He that is afraid to do right is a coward; he that is afraid to do wrong is a hero.”
Profession and Possession
By F. M. W.
PROFESSION does not necessarily imply possession. There are many make-believes in the world. On every side we find imitations and imitators. This is true even in the great church of Christ; there are many who profess to be Christians who are not such in reality. Their names are on the church-books, they are enrolled in the record of membership as members of the church of Christ; but by their lives and daily experience they disprove the genuineness of their profession.
The apostle Paul thus exhorts the believers in Corinth: “We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.” Formally they had received the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and professed allegiance to it. The burden of their teacher’s heart now is that this grace shall work out in their lives its great purpose; that the gospel shall not be held in mere form, but that its power shall be felt and experienced.
The effect this grace was designed to have upon the believers is expressed by this same apostle in his epistle to Titus:—
“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”
This grace, or gospel, of God teaches both a negative and a positive truth,—the truth of self-denial, of putting off, of laying aside, of surrender, and then in the place of the things thus given up, the putting on of soberness, righteousness, and godliness.
The gospel of Christ can accomplish this for the believer only as that gospel is received into the inmost heart, and is welcomed in the life as the most precious portion. Only as we come to hate sin and love righteousness shall we reap the fruits of righteousness in our lives. The gospel must not only be held in form, but it must also be received in love.
The second epistle to the church at Thessalonica brings to view a class of persons who “received not a love of the truth, that they might be saved.” “For this cause,” says the apostle, “God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” It is the privilege of the believer to have his life so transformed by the grace of God that he shall find pleasure in righteousness. The service of God becomes a joy in his life. That service may involve toil and trial and darkness, even persecution and death; but he goes joyfully to his labor, with the love of the Master as the inspiration of all his service.
In the trying times before the church of God in these last days, we need this close connection with Heaven. No theory of the truth will save us, no formal profession will enable us to stand. We must gain an experience in God which will bring us into the secret of his presence, into that fulness and joy of communion which will hold us in the hour of darkness.
Job says: “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.” Job’s experience brought him nearer to God. He had known God largely in a theoretical sense, he had heard of him and known about him; but now he had so entered into communion with him that he saw him. He laid hold upon him. The divine life had entered into him. The result of that revelation to the patriarch was to lead him to abhor himself and repent in dust and ashes.
This revelation of God to us will lead us to recognize, as never before, the exceeding sinfulness of sin. The nearer we come to God, the less worthiness we shall see in ourselves, the less merit in our own efforts, and the more we shall be entranced with the beauty of righteousness, and the more its power will take hold upon our experience. This revelation of God in the beauty of his character will come to us as the result of full surrender of self; by our removing from the door of our hearts all rubbish of sin which would prevent his entrance; by our opening the door wide, and bidding him to come in and take full and complete possession; by casting down every idol, and enthroning him as the supreme object of our affections.
For this complete consecration, for this infilling of power, for this fulness and sweetness of communion, for this precious possession as the true complement of profession, we need to pray. Earnest, prevailing prayer, which pleads God’s promises and knows no denial; simple, trusting faith, which takes the Word and appropriates its power to daily and practical needs,—this experience is for every disciple. This is the heritage of God’s sons and daughters. Let us live up to this high privilege in Christ Jesus.
F. M. W.
Notes on the Friedensau Council
By William Ambrose Spicer
In addition to the regular report of the biennial council in Europe, we may give a few miscellaneous notes further, which are sure to be of interest to those who watch the onward progress of the message.
Twenty Years
To be in the great gathering of believers—numbering about three thousand—representing well-organized conferences spread over Europe, and to see the evidences of sturdy strength in our work in the land of the German Reformation, one could scarcely realize that all this had grown up within a score of years; that just twenty years ago the first little mission was organized in Germany.
In the opening meeting of the council, reference was made to a report printed in the REVIEW of June 27, 1893, in which Elder L. R. Conradi wrote:—
It was exactly two years ago [in 1891, twenty years ago] that the German mission was organized and presented at your last General Conference. So thus while South Africa appeals to you as the youngest child of the sisterhood of conferences and expects your tender care, we as one of the newest mission fields call for your tenderest care. It seems strange that the great cradle of the Reformation, whence the great truth of justification by faith spread with lightning speed all over the world centuries ago, should have been so far behind in this last great movement; but while the providences of God are at times mysterious, we know they are for the best; and we are glad and thank God that while we are so far behind in time, yet we are, with the help of God, catching up a little in rapidity of growth.
Seventeen years ago the light of the Sabbath was kindled again in central Germany from God’s ever-burning lamp of truth, and some forty embraced it and came in harmony with us when Elders Andrews and Erzenberger visited them; yet not until 1889 was the work taken up here. The two small churches but few miles apart, had increased to five in 1891 [when the German Mission was organized], and now we have seven, one being on the border of Denmark, in the north, while another is in the extreme south, on the very border of Bulgaria, and the membership has increased from forty in 1889 to 220 at the present date, doubling itself during the last eighteen months. Besides we have about thirty scattered Sabbath-keepers, making 250 in all. About half our membership, 106, is in the city of Hamburg-Altona.
Twenty years have swiftly passed,—years of steady preaching of the third8angel’s message, by voice and literature,—and now in the two German union conferences is a body of about twelve thousand earnest believers, reaching forward to push the work into every unentered region. In that report of twenty years ago, plea was made in behalf of the peoples beyond the borders of Germany. Elder Conradi wrote:—
It is not only the sixty-five millions of Germans in these countries we are pleading for, but the millions of Hungarians, Bohemians, Poles, etc., under German rule and accessible through the German language as in no other way. Yes and more than two thirds of all the Jews in the world are in these countries, and all of them, be it in Holland, Bohemia, Poland, Hungary, or the farthest end of Russia, speak the German jargon and read it. Then there are the German colonies in Africa and Australasia, and the Russian empire, extending its influence clear across Asia, all along China, knocking at the very door of India and reaching into Asia Minor. This is the great field before us.
So twenty years ago, with faith in God, and helped by gifts and a few laborers from America, a little band went into the field; and wondrously the Lord has witnessed by his Spirit to the preaching of the Word.
Difficulties
The way has often been beset with difficulties. In fact, year after year some portions of the field were worked with the laws and the local government seeking to block the way. But the truth of God has won victories all the time, and sooner or later the barred gates have usually given way. And in the last two years, where has the truth made, perhaps, the greatest gains in numbers received, in proportion to the laborers? Where have we grown most rapidly?—In the most difficult field of all, in Russia.
This shows how the power of God is the strength of the third angel’s message.
In a subcommittee meeting one day, at the council, mention was made of difficulties. “Difficulties!” said Elder K. A. Reifschneider, of the Caucasus; “if any one wants to avoid difficulties, he should keep out of Russia. We are accustomed to difficulties, from childhood up.”
But where the need abounds, there divine help much more abounds.
Greetings From Japan
In behalf of our Japanese brethren, Elder T. H. Okohira, of Tokio, sent a message of greeting to the council, which is a greeting to all our brethren. The original, in Japanese characters, is a beautiful document. From the translation we quote:—
Representing the Japanese people who believe in the third angel’s message in the far East, I present to you their hearty salutation, and we send up our earnest prayers to the Heavenly Father, asking that during your council our good Lord may richly bless you all. . . .
Dear brethren, we desire at this opportunity to express our appreciation of what you have done for us, giving us “this gospel of the kingdom,” which “shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”
Dear brethren, “of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.” O, I thank God for this, and that in his great mercy he has already accepted many souls in this spiritually benighted land!
As a result of your last General Conference, Elder I. H. Evans was sent over as a general man in the great Oriental field, and his frequent visits to this field have been a great encouragement to us in various ways. Also a year ago you spared Elder F. H. De Vinney as our new superintendent. Indeed, we are glad and thankful that you could spare such an experienced man for us; so our work is progressing more and more. We have now three tents which you have sent us. We are thankful for these gifts, and now we are earnestly proclaiming the blessed message day and night to the people. . . .
However, dear brethren, while we have good reason to praise the Lord for what he has done for this field, yet we feel very anxious for the extension of the work. We very much need permanent quarters where we can build up our school, sanitarium, and publishing interests. We have been making some efforts in these lines, but lack of suitable buildings has hindered progress. So we earnestly pray to the Lord, and leave these requests with you and with the Lord, who will direct you by his good Spirit how to act on this appeal. “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, Amen.”
The needs of the growing work in the far East especially call us to hasten on with the $300,000 Fund for the providing of facilities.
What a view we get of the expanding work of God as we review the widespread interests pressing for attention wherever the brethren gather in general council. The Lord is leading us out into all the world, that he may bring us in to give us the inheritance promised.
What we see in the older fields, which were appealing for help twenty years ago, but which now are towers of help and strength to the work, should encourage us to throw resources into the newer and still unworked fields.
W. A. S.
The National Reform Institute
By C. M. S.
A Change of Policy
The character of the program being carried out at the National Reform Institute this year is decidedly different from those which it has carried out in previous years. It is held at the same place, Winona Lake, Ind., and covers the two weeks beginning August 7. Dr. J. S. Martin, the general superintendent, is in charge; but of the speakers who have been prominent in these institutes in the past none are on the program, save the superintendent.
In past years the burden of the addresses has been what we would term political Christianity,—saving the nation by remodeling the Constitution so as to place Christian laws, rules, and usages on “an undeniable legal basis in the fundamental law of the land;” bringing in the kingdom of Christ by political means; setting up a national standard of religion, and bringing all other religions into harmony with it by force of law and penalty; etc.
This year, during the first half of the institute practically nothing has been presented of that nature. The themes dwelt upon have had to do, first, with the problem of receiving and properly assimilating the thousands of immigrants who annually come to our shores, and, second, with the progress of Christianity in heathen lands and the attitude of the nations toward it. The nations represented in these addresses are China, India, Arabia, Turkey, Persia, the Philippines, Japan, and the Greek Catholic countries. The discussion upon both these themes has been interesting, because, in the main, it has been conducted by those who have had to do with the problems they have discussed.
In every address presented by these experienced missionaries, their recitation of experiences and conditions has condemned the principles for which the National Reform Association stands. For instance, in the address of Dr. Charles L. Baer on India, this statement was made: ‘The attitude of the British government to all these religions is the attitude of a Christian government; that is, it is neutral.’ This is strikingly different from the attitude of the National Reform Association toward other religions. Its attitude is this: ‘Let the government simply set up the moral law, and acknowledge God’s authority behind it, and lay its hand on any religion that does not conform to it.’ If the attitude of the British government in India is the attitude of a Christian government, how must we designate the attitude of the National Reform Association, which is the very opposite of that?
Dr. Baer also made this statement, which is strikingly out of harmony with National Reform principles: ‘While the British government has never sought to disguise the fact that it is religious, yet that government has never thought it wise to enforce its religion upon the people.’ That, too, is a Christian attitude; for the moment force is used in religion, that moment the kingdom of darkness begins to masquerade in the garb of the kingdom of light, and the result produced is not Christianity, but baptized paganism. The key-note of paganism is religion by force of compulsion; that of Christianity, religion by the force of conviction. And when National Reformism9is worked out, it will not be upon the lines on which the British government is operating in India, but rather upon the lines on which Roman Catholicism is operating in South America and elsewhere, and Greek Catholicism is operating in Greece and Russia.
Rev. V. Losa, in an address upon ‘Why the Immigrant Is Here,’ stated that he was often asked whether it was worth while to work among those immigrants who already have a type of Christianity when they come here. His reply was that, ‘spiritually, those people are as thoroughly in darkness as the people of China or Africa or any other place; and even Protestants who come from those lands [Austria and Germany] are nothing more than mere formalists, and have to be converted here, and whether they are Lutherans or Reformed. They are mere formalists, with no spiritual knowledge—they have never been converted.’
This is a striking statement, and strikingly illustrates the baleful results of such a policy as that proposed by the National Reform Association. For centuries those countries have had in force just such a régime as that which the National Reform Association proposes to establish here—a union of religion and the state. It led to formalism there, to formal profession without conversion, a form of Christianity without the power, a shell without the substance. It produced ‘Christians’ who needed to come for conversion to a country where there is no union of religion and the state. This ought to demonstrate to the officials of the organization that their movement is one which is bound to produce the same deplorable religious conditions which exist in Bohemia, Galicia, Croatia, and other European provinces where religion and the state are united.
In previous institutes the lecturers have relegated individual work to a second place, and have put the securing of ‘Christian’ legislation in the forefront, and that is the present attitude of the association; but in answer to a question of the superintendent as to how the Christianizing of these foreigners could be brought about, the speaker replied: ‘You must individualize; it is an individual problem.’ That is true. Individual hearts must be touched by the gospel, and each soul must respond individually and for itself. But this is not National Reformism, which proposes to ‘save’ the people by having the nations, as such, make formal recognition of God, and begin to enact laws to control the religious practises of the people.
In the discussion on August 10 over the question of teaching religion in the public schools, the fact was brought to light that in the Netherlands each denomination is permitted to have its religious teachers visit the public schools regularly, and teach the children in the faith to which they belong. Dr. Martin objected to this arrangement for America, as it would, to his mind, be the teaching of sectarianism in the public schools, and set forth thus the attitude of his association upon this question: ‘I am thoroughly persuaded that there is no rational reason why the state or nation itself, in its own institutions, and through its regularly employed instructors, should not impart to its own youth that instruction which is in keeping with its own life, and which is absolutely essential to the maintenance of its own life and character. I would not compel any child to believe; but I would teach what is in accordance with the nature and character of the institution.’
That means, though in very guarded language, the teaching of a national religious creed in the public schools of the country, at the expense of the general taxpayer. It would be a creed that the most powerful religious force or federation of forces in the country would formulate, and the children of all denominations must listen to this creed without regard to the wishes of parents or children. Nothing more un-American or unchristian in policy or result could be proposed as a solution of the question of how to bring the people of this nation to the feet of Christ. To let the preachers of each denomination teach the children belonging to their respective churches would be sectarianism, and could not be tolerated; but for the state to make a creed of its own—to institute another sect, or enforce the creed of some one sect upon all—that would not be sectarianism. Truly, great is logic!
Dr. V. Losa, in his address upon ‘How the Immigrant Is to Become a Safe Citizen,’ emphasized again the pre-eminent importance of individual effort upon the part of the missionary among the immigrants. There was no hint of the possibility of bringing about the desired conditions by legal enactment, and yet the spiritual teaching of that man among his immigrant countrymen was followed by civilization. ‘Their souls have to be opened first,’ said he, ‘and then civilization follows very quickly.’
It was a characteristic of each address given by Dr. Losa, and by the speakers who had labored in foreign countries, that the conditions which they found, the only methods of work which they found effective, and the remedies which they suggested for those conditions, emphatically contradicted the fundamental hypotheses of the National Reform Association. The conditions which it is seeking to bring about here are the very conditions which have made necessary real Christian missionary work among foreign nations and among foreigners in America. The principles which that association advocates for America are the principles whose outworking so seriously handicaps the work of the missionaries of the cross in foreign lands.
The program for the remainder of the institute has in it more of the real National Reform propaganda, and will set forth what it is expected to accomplish at the next World’s Christian Citizenship Conference.