I do not wish to believe that the dead are conscious between death and the resurrection. That theory brings in so many unhappy features that I, with all my heart, thank Him who has said, “The dead know not anything.” Eccl. 9:5. He has assured us in his Word of their unconsciousness.
Those who find comfort in the belief that the dead are conscious and retain their faculties, have not considered all that it involves. Ever since my earliest memory, friends have been dropping out of my life. Like broken urns, they strew the pathway of the years. “God’s acre” holds them, and I mourn the loss. Some died Christians, but by far the greater number were pleasure-loving and unconverted. I do not wish to think that they are now in unutterable pain, that their nerves of feeling are quivering in untold agony; that while life is sweet to me, their condition is one of horror that would drive to insanity, of suffering that language can not tell or heart imagine.
The larger part of my friends were not Christians. Is not your experience the same? Go out into the graveyard, and visit the familiar mounds. Affection has chiseled their names on the marble. Love calls them up, one by one; but while fond memory fills the eyes with tears, you know, of the most of them, that they are now peacefully sleeping and unconscious, or that they are in torment. While you hope that your friends are in heaven, you think only of those that are saved, and forget the condition of the rest. Would you not rather that Christ should say of them, as he said of Lazarus, “Our friend . . . sleepeth”? John 11:11.
Have you thought of the real condition of even those who you hope are in heaven? In heaven joy is supreme. “In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore.” Ps. 16:11. My imagination shows me the battlements of heaven lined with the blessed, their beautiful eyes dark with the shadow of an infinite sorrow, as they look earthward. The mother who has toiled for her children until the vital cord was loosed, sees from on high her lessons forgotten, while neglect, degradation, and evil influences are ruining those for whom she gave her life. Other little ones suffer from cruelty and brutality, while the mother is in heaven, seeing it all. Such a condition can not be. The woes of earth would darken heaven if the dead were conscious, and knew what was taking place on earth. Thank God, this picture will never be realized.
I think that I have drawn the two pictures fairly,— the unsaved wild with anguish now, and without hope; the saved, with hearts aching with an anxious solicitude. How much better is God’s way! “He giveth his beloved sleep.” Ps. 127:2. Job speaks of those that are in their graves: “There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest.” Job 3:17.
Inspiration generally speaks of death as a sleep. Job is supposed to be the first book written by inspiration, and it speaks of death in these words: “They shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.” Job 14:12. The Lord said to Moses, “Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers.” Deut. 31:16. “And Solomon slept with his fathers.” 1 Kings 11:43. “And Rehoboam slept with his fathers.” 1 Kings 14:31. Daniel uses the same expression in chapter 12:2 of that book: “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake.” Read the New Testament account of the death of Stephen: “And when he had said this, he fell asleep.” Acts 7:60. Again we repeat the words of the Saviour: “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth.”
The fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians says much about the sleep of the dead and the resurrection. “But some are fallen asleep.” Verse 6. “Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.” Verse 18. “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept.” Verse 20. In verse 51 Paul speaks of the translation of the righteous: “Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.” “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.” 1 Thess. 4:13. Further proof is unnecessary. If it is not already plain, language can not teach it. At death, we, like Stephen, fall “asleep.”
What becomes of the mind, or intelligence? “In that very day his thoughts perish.” Ps. 146:4. “Their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished.” Eccl. 9:6. The preceding verse declares that “the dead know not anything.” When I walk in the quiet cemetery, I think, Of all who lie buried here, not one is suffering; they are sleeping till God shall awaken them in the resurrection. The psalmist says: “I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.” Ps. 17:15. Truly, God’s way is best.
Moline, Ill.
First Reason for Sabbath-Keeping
By S. B. Horton
S. B. HORTON
SEATED by the side of a pastor who observed the seventh day as the Sabbath, a stranger pleasantly accosted him in the following way: “Now, pastor, I have you just where I want you. I wish you to tell me why you, and the people you represent, observe Saturday instead of Sunday as the Sabbath.” The pastor, taking his Bible, opened to the twentieth chapter of Exodus, and read, beginning with the eighth verse:—
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man servant, nor thy maid servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.”
“There,” remarked the pastor, “that is the first reason I will give you why we keep the seventh day instead of the first: God in his law commands us to do so. And the second reason is —” and, suiting the action to the word, he began looking for another scripture, when he was interrupted by the stranger, who said: “Please let me take your Bible.” He read the commandment over several times to himself, and then remarked:—
“In one respect you remind me of an attorney I once knew who had a case to try in court. As frequently as the case was called, he would manage in some way to get it postponed. At last the patience of the court was exhausted, and he asked the attorney why he asked for postponement, saying he had had ample time to prepare his case, and the opposing parties were anxious for the trial. The attorney replied that there was an important witness that it was necessary for him to have whom he could not then obtain. The court earnestly inquired where the witness was, and why he did not have him there. The attorney replied that there were several reasons why he was not present: First, he was dead, and second — ‘Well, hold!’ said the judge; ‘if the man is dead, that is sufficient reason why he is not here. We do not care to hear your second reason.’”
“I ask you for your reasons for keeping the seventh day, or Saturday, for the Sabbath, and in reply you turn and read a law of God himself, spoken by his own voice, and chiseled by his own hand upon the granite quarried from the rock-ribbed side of Sinai. And now you propose to give me a second reason! My young friend, no man who believes God or God’s Word ever ought to ask for a second reason. Think of it! In the bosom of the only law that God ever gave his creatures, that law which is justly regarded not only as the law, but as the constitution from which all the legislation of God proceeded,—in that law he tells all his creatures to keep the seventh day, or Saturday, as the Sabbath. I repeat that no one who believes God or his Word can escape from your conclusion, and no second reason is admissible.”
It was afterward learned that the stranger was at the time a justice of a State supreme court, and he spoke as the jurist rather than as a theologian. His mind had been trained to logical reasoning and logical conclusions.
One lesson in this incident worth noting is that there is but one reason for the observance of the Sabbath of Jehovah, and that is because God has so commanded. Another lesson is that, while the letter of the law makes it plain that the Sabbath should be observed, still an experimental knowledge of the Lord of the Sabbath is required before it can be properly observed.
Washington, D. C.
Editorial
By Editor
“He made as though he would have gone further. But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us.” Luke 24: 28, 29.
“And he went in to tarry with them.” Their insistence brought the blessed Jesus, yet unrecognized, into their little home; and in a few moments they knew, to the overflowing joy of their hearts, that they had found the Saviour, who had been crucified, and that he lived again.
THE Saviour’s loving heart longs to share heaven’s blessedness with every soul. Here let the voice of Elder James White—now sleeping in Jesus—again give the exhortation to “let the Saviour in.” In the REVIEW of Sept. 3, 1857, in an appeal in behalf of the youth, and to parents to set the children an example of unworldliness and devotion, Elder White wrote:—
“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in.” Are you so deaf that you can not hear his lovely voice? Is your mind so blinded by the god of this world that you can not see that you have shut Jesus out? Is your heart so unfeeling that it will not yield and melt in view of this call to you from the soon-expected Saviour? If so, woeful indeed is your condition. Christ will not long stand at the door of thy heart and knock. Not much longer! His locks are wet with the dews of night. He spilled his blood for you. He wants to wash you clean. He desires to come in and live in you. He will make you free, pure, and happy. He will abide with you if you will turn out and keep out of your heart the love of this world. He will manifest his love and glory, to old and young, parents and children, if they will prepare the way of the Lord in their hearts and let him in. O, dear reader, let him in! let him in!
We solemnly believe that obedience to this message is the only hope of the church. A crisis is coming. A portion of the church—and God grant that it may be the largest portion—will rend their hearts and prepare them to receive Jesus Christ; while a portion will be spewed out of his mouth. The true testimony from the Word of God will show who will be wholly the Lord’s. It will manifest the heart. And are there any reasons why it should be withheld?—There is none. A delay when an alarm should be given may prove fatal to some. While there is hope, then, let the servants of God, in the language of the prophet, “cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.” Isa. 58: 1.
A Cry for Help in the Jungle
By W. A. S.
Wm. Butler, founder of the Methodist missions in India, was fleeing from Bareli, north India, with his wife and little ones. The terrifying news of the Sepoy mutiny at Meerut and then at Delhi had come, and no time was to be lost in getting to Naini Tal, a European hill station in the Himalaya Mountains. Native bearers were engaged to carry the doolees (palanquins,—a sort of box-like contrivance, hung on poles, supported by the carriers from their shoulders). In these rode Mrs. Butler, whose health was precarious, and the two children, with the baggage.
They had entered the Terai, a jungle region at the foot of the mountains, “reeking with malaria, and the haunt of tigers and elephants.” Dr. Butler, in his “Land of the Vedas,” says:—
The rank vegetation stood in places like high walls on either side. At midnight we reached that part of it where the bearers are changed. The other palanquins had their full complement of men; but, of the twenty-nine bearers for whom I paid, I could find only nine men, and one torch-bearer; and this, too, in such a place!
Darkness and tigers were around us; the other palanquins were starting one after another, each with its torch to frighten away the beasts, the bearers taking advantage of the rush to extort heavy bakshish.
Rendered desperate, Dr. Butler put the two children in one palanquin with Mrs. Butler. He ran after a man with a cart, who was disappearing up the road, and compelled him to turn his bullocks, and take on board the servant Ann, and the little baggage they were taking in their flight. Then the doctor turned to watch the bearers start on with Mrs. Butler and the children. But not one stirred:—
They were exhausted by extra work, and might have even fairly refused to carry two children with a lady; and to have taken either of them on the bullock-cart was impossible. Delay seemed ruinous to the only plan by which I could get them on at all. If the men refused the burden, and left, they would take with them, for their own protection, the only torch there was, which belonged to them, and we should have been left in darkness, exposed to the tigers and the deadly malaria. . . . It was an awful moment. For a few minutes my agony was unutterable; I thought I had done all I could, and now everything was on the brink of failure. I saw how “vain” was “the help of man,” and I turned aside into the dark jungle, took off my hat, and lifted my heart to God. If ever I prayed, I prayed then. I besought God in mercy to influence the hearts of these men, and decide for me in that solemn hour. I reminded him of the mercies that had hitherto followed us, and implored his interference in this emergency. My prayer did not last two minutes, but how much I prayed in that time! I put on my hat, returned to the light, and looked. I spoke not; I saw my men at once bend to the doolee; it rose, and off they went instantly, and they never stopped a moment, except kindly to push little Eddie in, when in his sleep he rolled so that his feet hung out.
On they went through the dark night, and on through the jungle, and out at last into the safety of the mountain passes.
Dr. Butler knew that it was the Lord’s own interference that had turned the hearts of those heathen coolies when he had exhausted every human resource in vain.
“God is the refuge of his saints,
When storms of sharp distress invade.”
W. A. S.
Spiritual Decadence
By William Warren Prescott
THERE are still left some who remember the former days when men trembled at the word of the Lord, and when there was a power in the preaching of the gospel which moved sinners to repentance. They note with a keen regret the change that has come during the present generation, and can not be easily persuaded that the new evangel is better than the old. Of this class was Dr. Arthur T. Pierson, whose clear and vigorous protests against the destructive teachings of the apostles of evolution appeared from time to time in the Missionary Review of the World, of which he was the editor in chief. We regret the loss to the cause of genuine Christianity that has come as the result of his recent death.
Among the current contributions to the discussion of this important question concerning the present standard of religious experience, is an article by Rev. G. A. Johnston Ross, printed in the Hibbert Journal for April, with the significant title, “The Cross: the Report of a Misgiving.” In the words of the Religious Weekly (Sept. 30, 1911) the writer of this article “emphasizes the misgiving which saddens so many Christians in regard to the deep cleavage existing between the representative Christian experience of the present hour and that of, say, thirty years ago.” Not content, however, with merely pointing out this condition, he seeks for the cause of the change, and finds it in the changed estimate of sin, and in the failure to proclaim the law of God as the detector of sin and the cross as the only way of deliverance from the penalty of sin. This view of the question gets to the very heart of the matter, as it involves the wide-spread denial of the efficacy of the death of Christ as an atonement for9sin. The fundamental importance of this analysis of the present apostasy in the religious world justifies the reprinting of an extract of some length from the article mentioned above:—
Meanwhile the fact remains that that which was the vital center of apostolic Christianity, the undeserving grace of God shown in the atoning death and the mediation of the Eternal Son, is not the vital center of much of the active religion of the day; that indeed the whole redemption idea is out of vogue, or accepted only in some altered sense; that the precipitate of much of the current Christian thinking is declaratory rather than redemptive, if I may put it thus; and they [“the older generation”] fear this because a gospel which is declaratory only will not last; men will tire of it. For “men see already with exasperating clearness what their duty is;” the trouble is that they need complete adjustment to the sources of power for the performance of duty.
If the defect were merely in theological statement, I am not sure that precisely the kind of people would be affected by this misgiving whom one sees affected by it. But the defect is felt to be more than theological; it is felt as a want of thoroughness in personal orientation and adjustment. The older generation began at the point of a grave concern as to personal status before a holy God; it wrestled with the awful facts of guilt and of the incredible consequences of sin; it wrought its way into some apprehension (sufficient for the purposes of an infinite relief and of grateful trust) of the almost incredible mystery of the bearing by the living God, in the person of his Son, of the whole problem of sin, its punishment and consequences. Out from this crisis of fear, of appal, of appeal for mercy, of wonder at the greatness of God's grace, of new trust and new love,—out from this it stepped into the new life in Christ, of joy in his fellowship and that of his people, and of delight in his service. But the younger generation appears to know little of “law work,” of the apprehension of the reality of guilt, of any really searching crisis of self-adjustment, of the lifting of self off the platform of self-trust onto the platform of abased dependence on a holy God, holiest of all in amazing, bleeding self-sacrifice. Hence to the older generation, the foundation of the religion of this hour seems insufficiently strong; men who are un-saved are, they would say, going into the work of saving others; young people of clean, high purpose are following an ideal Christ, but feel no need of his being set forth in his blood a propitiation for sin. And it is worthy of remark that the change is to be seen within evangelicalism itself. I began my ministry almost twenty years ago. I had come personally into a joyous religious life through the gate of such a crisis as I have described: and my personal religion was then, and it is now, founded on the cross. But, as a young minister, I felt the difficulty of preaching the cross; the impression of it was elusive, and I feared its vulgarization; what was to me real and vital at the time was the companionship of Jesus, and I preached that as best I could. I remember that at that time I had the honor of preaching for a minister of the older generation, one of the most eminent of our Scottish clergy. When I called on him, I found him preparing an address for the General Assembly of the church of which he was the presiding officer. He said to me, “I am writing about the changes in the evangelical outlook. We older evangelicals knew what Christ did for us on Calvary; but what precisely does this beautiful Apollo whom you younger men adore do for you?” The sting in this question lurked in the word Apollo. From that day to this I have never lost a misgiving lest there should be an infusion of paganism in the Jesus-cultus which neglects the cross; lest it should be a beautiful but pseudo-Christian devotion which, like the Mary-cultus, has certain unmistakably beautiful effects in the realm of self-discipline, and yet lacks the characteristically Christian element of conducting the abashed and contrite soul into the sin-scorching presence of the Supreme. . . . Now, no man can help feeling grave concern and alarm if he begins to suspect that vital elements are being left out of much of this generation's thought on such subjects as God and sin and the needs of men. For this vital element, whose absence is suspected, is the pride-destroying element; and it is no wonder if people are afraid of the future of a religion insufficiently ballasted by pride-destroying elements. For the whole history of religion makes clear that association with the things of God positively makes for human inflation and pride, except when central to this thought there has been such a pride-destroying conception as the cross.
The divine remedy for this evident spiritual decadence is found in that proclamation of the gospel which emphasizes the work of our great High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary as of essential value in coming into right relation with God in these closing hours of probation. This means that the threefold message of Revelation 14, with its clear light upon the atoning work of Christ, is just what is needed as the only efficacious antidote for the present apostasy. This message gives to the law of God its rightful place, emphasizes its condemnation of sin, and points out that release from the guilt of transgression of the law can come only through personal faith in the death, resurrection, and ministry of Jesus, the “merciful and faithful High Priest,” and that the evidence of righteousness by faith is exhibited in obedience to all the commandments of God. This is certainly the message for the hour. W. W. P.
Putting Darkness for Light
By C. M. S.
THE Word of God pronounces a woe upon the man who puts light for darkness and darkness for light. It is a very important matter, therefore, that those especially who occupy the position of religious instructors of the people should be very certain before pronouncing a curse as from God upon any of the important relations of life. To do otherwise is most certain at some time to place even those who have been long recognized as the spiritual leaders of the people under the frown of him whom they profess to represent.
In the London Standard of September 20, quite a full report is given of an address by the Bishop of Carlisle at the diocesan conference at Windermere, in which he declared that—
no greater curse had ever befallen mankind than that of supposing that one part of human life was secular and another sacred, or that the state had nothing to do with religion or religion with state affairs. In a pagan empire such distinctions were possible, but a Christian kingdom had but one citadel, although it had two swords. To regulate mundane and physical matters, whether they concerned eating and drinking, or the making of laws by Christian principles, was not to profane religion. Yet, as things were, Christ was left out of touch with the world. Had he any altar on the exchange or in the market? Unless religion produced character or conduct in us, it was only counterfeit. The age needed to be delivered from futile sermons and sacraments which did not uplift the receiver. The Bible never anywhere recognized a mere Sunday religion or mere temple worship.
The teachings of our Saviour himself indicate that, while there is a little truth in the above, the larger part is of a character which the Author of our salvation never sanctioned, always opposed, and which can not “uplift the receiver.” True religion does produce character; it alters the conduct of every soul who truly receives it. But the experience of centuries has demonstrated in cases impossible of computation that a religion supervised and enforced by the state is not of that nature. The man or woman who has truly received religion has received it as an invited guest, and not as a creature of the state billeted upon the household by order of the civil ruler.
It is true that the Christian kingdom has but one citadel; and that citadel is located where the Ruler of that kingdom is—where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
It is not true that the kingdom of Christ has two swords, the sword of the Spirit and the sword of the civil ruler. The words of our Lord to Peter verify this: “Put up again thy sword into its place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.” Matt. 26:52. While his doctrine would bring division, because light and darkness can not mingle, it was never his purpose to bring into the world a doctrine that would cause the people to perish or to lose their souls. But, by his own word, they would perish if they adopted and wielded the sword of steel. The professed church of Christ, forgetting the admonition of the Lord, has used that sword; and wherever she has done so, she has earned the just condemnation of both God and man, has made religion a formal thing to be flaunted by the characterless and the hypocrite, while10the truest and sincerest children of God have languished in vermin-infested prisons, have died under slow and most cruel torture, have expired on the hangman’s scaffold, under the headsman’s ax, or in the flames of the auto-da-fé. Religion, swinging that sword and panoplied in the trappings of the state, has been a misrepresenter of God, an oppressor of man, and a monster of unrestrained violence, wherever it has appeared on earth.
That religion should exist and be a power in the lives of men, it is not at all necessary that it should be a department of state. It is of the very nature of religion that it be free. If it is not free, it is not religion. If it is a department of state, regulated by the state, it is not free—it is not religion, and has no power to convict souls and mold the lives of men.
It is not true that the separation of church and state is a pagan idea or arrangement. The opposite is the fact. Every pagan government has joined some sort of religion to the functions of the state. Instance: Babylon, Egypt, and pagan Rome, with their religions under the dominance of the governing power. Christ brought a new idea into the conceptions of men, when he taught his followers to “render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” Mark 12: 17.
The record states that when they heard that, “they marveled.” Why should they have marveled?—Because the world had been drunk for centuries with the truly pagan idea—the wine of Babylon of old—that the state must administer the affairs of religion.
Now the basic idea of the Bishop of Carlisle is the very antithesis of truth. That basic idea is that “no greater curse had ever befallen mankind than that of supposing that one part of human life is secular and another sacred,” and “that the state has nothing to do with religion.” This is the opposite of truth, because it is the opposite of our Saviour’s teaching; and the facts of history show that the greatest curse the world has ever known rested upon it when religion and the state were one, and the self-styled vicar of Christ was the dictator absolute in the kingdoms of this world. Under the dominance of that curse, true religion was the perpetual food for flames until Christianity was hid in the wilderness and in dungeon cells, and only the hideous counterfeit dared to appear in public and to walk openly before men. That mockery, hypocrisy, and counterfeit could have been possible only under such a régime.
Neither is the separation of church and state the actuating cause of what the bishop terms in another portion of his address “mere Sunday religion or mere temple worship.” Nothing in this world has done so much to bring about mere Sunday religion and mere temple worship as the union of secular and sacred things in a state religion. Under that régime the individual who has religion because the state requires it, feels that he has done all that is required of him when he keeps Sunday as the law of the state requires, and goes to mass or other church service as that same power demands he shall do. The rest of the time he will generally do as he pleases, feeling that he has done all that is required of him. That makes a mockery of religion, and degrades the devotees of that system. There are living examples of such systems in operation, and living examples of the degradation of those who profess them. Under such a system will men curse their fellows with fearful oaths immediately after emerging from a magnificent church edifice where they had knelt before the altar, made the sign of the cross, and touched their foreheads with “holy water.” That is not religion, but it is what such a system produces wherever it is in vogue.
It means much to the world, and much to this people, that there is just now such an insistent demand on both sides of the Atlantic for a revival of that system of union of civil and religious things. Not until such a union is accomplished can that dragon voice thunder forth, and the death decree be pronounced upon those who will not worship the beast and his image, nor receive his seal upon them. But the agitation for such conditions as will make that possible is increasing in volume every day. C. M. S.
Clean Physical Living
By F. M. W.
CLEANLINESS is next to godliness. While this is not a statement of Scripture, the underlying principle of the statement is taught in the Word of God. The observance of the laws of nature is closely akin to the observance of God’s great moral law. A very close relationship exists between the law of one’s physical being and his state of mind and condition of heart. Carefulness in physical living will of itself bring to no one eternal salvation, but the disregard of health principles may so affect one’s spiritual life, and so change one’s attitude toward God, that he will fail of salvation at last.
There is one condition of salvation, and one only, given in the Scriptures of truth, and that is personal faith in the sacrifice and merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. But while Christ alone is the author of our salvation, there must be cooperation on the part of the human agent. Every individual must put himself into that attitude and relationship to Heaven where God can cleanse his heart from sin, where he can fill him with his own fulness, where he can work in and through him. He must place his own will on the side of God’s will; he must seek to the extent of his power to conform his life and his habits of life to the principles of right. Recognizing his body as designed to be the temple of the Holy Ghost, he will seek to bring his physical powers into such relationship to God that they can be used to the divine glory.
Says the apostle Paul: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” 1 Cor. 3: 16, 17. “Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” 1 Cor. 6: 18-20.
These scriptures teach that our bodies may be defiled, and that our own course of physical living may be such that God will be dishonored; and if we do not correct the evil of our ways, we shall eventually be destroyed.
God desires his people to be clean, morally and physically. The priests of old, when they entered into the sanctuary, were required to wash their bodies and to change their clothes. The camp of Israel was required to be kept clean by the removal of all refuse and the exclusion of every source of contamination. God is no less particular to-day. He who desires his body to become the temple of the Holy Spirit, who desires that Spirit to come in and take possession of his heart, will seek to make himself physically as well as morally clean. He will make a free and liberal use of nature’s great purifying agent, water, for both his body and his clothes. He will seek to bathe his lungs with the pure air of heaven, and not the stifling, vitiated air found in so many ill-ventilated homes. He will seek to eat for strength and not for drunkenness, building up the body that God has given him, by the use of pure, simple, wholesome food. He will keep his home and premises clean and sanitary. He will wear clothing for health and comfort, and not to minister to pride or fashion.
It is to be regretted that many of our people who once recognized the value of the principles of healthful living have fallen back in their experience. A consistent education on the question of healthful living needs to be given to our churches; parents need to study this11question as related to themselves and to their families. Much instruction has been imparted with reference to this question in its various relations. This instruction should be heeded. No narrow or biased view should be taken, no wild, erratic moves made. The subject should be studied broadly and deeply, and a consistent and sensible application made of the principles involved. All should realize that the subject embraces far more than the question of diet or dress. Some have made a mistake on this point. They have grasped but one detail of the question, usually that regarding diet, and in consequence have set up narrow standards, to which they have endeavored to rally their fellows, while many equally as important details were ignored.
In Romans 14, the apostle dwells upon the principle of judging our brother. While he speaks with particular reference to the Passover feast, which was to be eaten with bitter herbs, the principle applies equally to our judging our brother in other ways. “But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at naught thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling-block or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.”
Our relationship to others is twofold. We should be careful, as the apostle says, not to put a stumbling-block in the way of our brother by our course of conduct. We should make sure that by no course of ours, or liberty which we deem it our privilege to exercise, those who are weaker or less experienced will stumble, and fail of the glory of God. On the other hand, let us be quite as careful that we do not judge those who fail to meet our conception of duty, or measure up to the standard which we have set for ourselves. We may judge ourselves as strictly as we please, but let us be exceedingly lenient in our judgment of our brother.
It is entirely proper that we should present to others our experience, that we should consistently call their attention to principles which we believe to be right. We should do this not dogmatically nor in the spirit of censure. In seeking to advance reforms, let us be careful that we do not take a course that will make obnoxious and objectionable the very truth which we are trying to advance. The cause of reform has been injured oftentimes by injudicious methods on the part of its advocates. The most efficient way for us to advocate every right principle is to exemplify it in our course of conduct. The most effective preaching is the living exemplification of truth in the lives of the believers.
“Every one of us shall give account of himself to God.” God will hold every man responsible for the light which has been given him, but the work of judgment does not fall to us. Let God deal with every case, and let us show toward every one of our fellows the same spirit of mercy and charity that we hope the great Judge will manifest toward us in the day of final accounts. F. M. W.
Vegetarianism vs. Flesh Foods
By Francis McLellan Wilcox
THE LORD originally designed that mankind should subsist upon a vegetarian diet. Flesh food was entirely excluded from the dietary of our first parents. The Scriptures of truth indicate that God's original plan will eventually be carried out. Both revelation and science teach that the vegetable products are the foods best suited to the needs of the human family at the present time. The increase of disease, which has affected the brute creation as well as the human family, causes the eating of flesh food to be attended with danger and considerable risk. A vegetarian dietary meets every need; thousands can testify that it supplies needed strength and energy for the performance of the hardest physical and mental labor.
Personally, the writer of this article has been a strict vegetarian, so far as the use of any kind of flesh-meats is concerned, for fifteen years. Born of a consumptive family, he went down almost into a consumptive's grave using flesh foods. Through the blessing of God he came back to health and vigor on a diet which entirely excluded flesh foods. From the light given and from his study of the question, he believes that a vegetarian diet is far better than a mixed dietary. But he has never felt that he should take his experience and set it up as a standard by which to judge the religious experience of his brother. “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” Rom. 14:17.
Each one should study the question for himself, and not for his brethren. We have the right to be the censors of our own dietary, but not of our neighbor's table. Let each determine from the study of the Scriptures of truth, from the study of the “Testimonies for the Church,” from the study of science, and from his own experience the particular foods which are best suited to his needs, and which he himself should eat and place upon his own family table.
If in his study he shall find, as he doubtless will (for the instruction which has come to this people is clear and definite) that he should exclude flesh foods from his dietary, let him make the change without self-glorying, and without any spirit of censure or criticism for those who may not read their duty in the same way. The Jews of old were zealous for the outward forms of the law. They tithed mint and anise and cummin, but failed to exercise mercy and love toward their fellows. Let us judge our own course of conduct, but leave the Father above to deal with his own servants. He will call every man to account at last for the manner in which he has related himself to the light bestowed upon him.
“Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth. . . . Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth.”
Let each seek to live as he believes it to be his privilege and duty, determining the question not from caprice or desire, but from the instruction which he has received, and then exercise toward his brethren charity, allowing his life to bear witness to his profession. This course will commend itself to heaven and to men. F. M. W.