THE fact that people are sincere and earnest in their purposes, does not prove that they are correct in their motives. Inspiration has declared, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." And then, to show that this declaration is needed as a revelation to man, the question is asked, "Who can know it?" Without the aid of God's word and Spirit man can never know himself. It is scarcely less difficult for the heart to know itself than for the eye to see itself.
By many, sincerity is held to be as good as the truth—an acceptable substitute for the truth. But a person may be quite sincere and still quite selfish. Indeed, intensely selfish people are always sincere; but they never understand their motives. There is no evil more prevalent than self-deception. Earnest belief, or strong feeling, is, in the estimation of some, better religion than right doing, or obedience to the commandments of God.
We have no idea that they who projected the inquisition, or that which grew up into the inquisition, had any intention to war upon human rights. They intended to advance the cause of religion and the honor of God upon the earth. Their error was that they set out to serve God by a way of human devising, contrary to the method marked out in the Scriptures. God sent them forth as ambassadors; they chose rather to be legislators and executioners.
It is a common saying that, "History repeats itself." The Lord, by the prophet Isaiah (chapter 66), gives us a view of the religious world near the end of time. Verse 5 says:—
"Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name's sake, said, Let the Lord be glorified; but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed." Comp. verses 15, 16.
This indicates that another persecution shall arise before the Lord shall appear. That it will be against those who tremble at the word of God. That it will be—not against religion, but, professedly in the cause of religion; by those who affect to do it for the glory of God. That, though they say, let the Lord be glorified, they are moved against those who tremble at the word of the Lord. Evidently they will hold something else—their traditions—above the word of God.
So it was in the dark ages. Persecutors were zealous for the glory of God, and tenacious of tradition; but careless of the written word. What the Doctors of the church had said was of more worth to them than what Jehovah had said. Their bitterest persecutions, even to the burning of Christians, were "Acts of Faith." Theirs was truly and literally a burning zeal. Who were more faithful to religion than they? We doubt whether the followers of the present age will be able to excel them.
The Apostle Paul, in 2 Tim. 3:1-5, gives a similar view of the religious world of the last days. Though they have "the form of godliness," they will be boastful and proud, false accusers, and despisers of those that are good. We recognize no standard of goodness but that which is erected in God's word. It is obedience to God. Where is obedience to God to be found, if not among those who keep his commandments? In Eccl. 12:13, 14, we are informed that we are to keep his commandments because he will bring every work into Judgment. Of course his commandments are the rule of the Judgment, and the measure of acceptance with him. And it is known to everybody that the religious world are violently opposed to those who keep the commandments of God just as God gave them. If they can have the privilege of amending them, or putting a construction upon them which their words will never justify, then no objection will be raised. And so the most willful child will obey the order of his parents, if he is permitted to do it in his own way. But what kind of obedience is that? Can it be acceptable to God?
They who accuse their brethren of wrong, because they adhere closely to the commandments of Jehovah, are veritably "false accusers." In their accusations there is neither truth nor justice. While they profess to seek God's glory, they would do well to examine their motives to see if they are not seeking to have their own way; to see if their pleasure in having the law of the land to sustain them is not somewhat increased by their consciousness that the law of God, strictly construed, is against them.
Before we examine some other scriptures which speak of these last-day persecutions, we will further trace the parallel between the position taken by these last-day religionists and their prototypes of five to ten centuries ago. We are informed that the Protestant ministry that the law under which they are now acting is not a religious law, but merely a police regulation. And that may be the position assumed by a Court. But it is not a correct statement of the case. The law of California protects the first day of the week under the name of "the Christian Sabbath." But this phrase, in both its terms, both "Christian" and "Sabbath," gives it a religious character. Neither Judge nor minister can deny this. And we are told it is only "a police regulation," and not at all of a religious character. Never was there a more decided mixture of "church and State" than this. Never was there a more evident deception indulged or practiced than is contained in the pretext that it is only a police regulation, and does not affect the question of religion.
Again, what is the object of the ministers in their zeal to have the law enforced? Are they working in behalf of a mere "police regulation," or in the interests of their religious predilections? The State is doing the work; this is their plea. Are they helping it on for the sake of the State, or for the church. Why do they act as pastors, in concert? Do they think any are so blind as not to discern motives in this matter?
This excuse of a secular law or police regulation is a very flimsy one. It is known to every person who is informed upon the subject that Catholics deny that the church put to death who fell under the ban of the inquisition. The execution was performed by the civil authorities; the church not holding itself responsible. Indeed, the recommendation of the church was often to mercy. But who is deceived thereby? Was not the church using the secular power as an instrument to carry out its religious tenets and to persecute those who chose to stand closely by the word of God rather than popular traditions? And is not history repeating itself to-day? Are not the churches combining to secure an amendment to the Constitution of the United States by which they may use the arm of civil power to compel everybody in the land to observe their so-called Christian Sabbath? What is now being done in California is only a step taken in that direction.
In this land we have been accustomed to consider ourselves exempt from the worst troubles which befell the old world, because of the entire separation of church and State in our government. We have looked upon religious persecution as almost impossible here, because we have never seriously contemplated the possibility of a union of church and State. The dungeon, the rack, and the stake, were looked for as a matter of course where the State was so far controlled by ecclesiastics as to enact penalties for the observance or non-observance of religious duties, real or supposed. But what do we see to-day? We are fast approaching this very state of things. If the American people realized the snare into which they are walking they would enter a protest which would secure the equal rights of every American citizen, and leave the question of religious ordinances where they belong, in the field of theological discussion.
To show the entire fallacy of the position assumed by the religious advocates of Sunday it is necessary to examine the Sabbath commandment, and the claims of the pseudo-Christian Sabbath. This we must do very briefly. First, The commandment. This embraces four points, namely: (1.) The requirement. (2.) The prohibition. (3.) The permission. (4.) The reason.
1. The preceptive part of the commandment is: "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." Connected with this is the explanatory remark: "The Seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." This explanation is definite, and precludes all evasion. The "day of the Sabbath," literally, or the day of the rest—the Lord's rest—is the subject of this precept.
2. The prohibition. "In it thou shalt not do any work." The prohibition is also explicit. In it, the day of the Lord's rest, no work shall be done. To this day alone it refers.
3. The permission. This part, though permissive, is inseparable from the precept. "Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work." Some have taken the position that this also is preceptive. Be that as it may; no one can deny that it contains a divine grant to labor on the six days, excluding the seventh.
But we are told that it is no infringement on our rights if we are compelled to rest also on the first day, as it does not at all interfere with our resting on the seventh day. That appears plausible, but it is very deceptive. There are thousands of honest and industrious citizens of California who are compelled to use the closest economy to make their weekly wages supply the wants of their families. Forcibly deprive them of one-sixth of their earnings and they would thereby be deprived of the necessities of life. Many business men are barely able to keep their business in operation, who would become bankrupt if regularly deprived of one-sixth of their income. You concede our right to keep the seventh day "according to the commandment," Luke 23:56, as our conscience compels us to do. But do you not see that by forcibly depriving us of the God-given privilege of working six days, you are driving some into a state of destitution and suffering, or to a violation of their religious convictions by compelling them to work on the seventh day to support their families? Is it possible that California has an intelligent jurist or a thinking minister who cannot see that the law of the State does not interfere with your religion?
Forcible as this illustration is, it does not fully meet the case—the parallel is not complete—because for the keeping of the seventh day we have the commandment of God; for the keeping of the first day you have not. We give you the benefit of the supposition that you have never considered the subject in this light. But why have you not? Is it not because your neighbor, not yourself, has to suffer the injustice? Did it affect you as it does us, would you not very readily have made this application of it? Do you walk Christianly toward your neighbor when you bring his conscience to a test to which you would not be willing to have your own subjected? Please to put this upon a more reasonable basis. Say at once that your convictions are more sacred than ours, notwithstanding that we have the plain reading of the decalogue to sustain us; but do not deceive yourselves (you cannot so deceive us,) by saying that this law interferes with no man's religion. Do not present to the world the inconsistency shown by New Englanders more than a century ago, who declared it to be every man's right to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience,—with the practical proviso that his conscience did not lead him to be a Baptist or a Quaker!
4. The reason. As there is but one commandment in all the Bible for the observance of a weekly Sabbath (the fourth commandment of the decalogue), so there is but one reason in the Bible for the institution and sanctification of the Sabbath. This is given in the following words: "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 and hallowed it." The reason and the sanctification refer to the seventh day, and to no other. This is confirmed by Gen. 2:3, "And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made."
But our friends, knowing they can produce no other commandment, tell us that they keep the first day of the week in obedience to this. Will they allow us to plead that we obey the present law of California by keeping the seventh day? If not, why not? If keeping the first day is obedience to the law which commands to keep the seventh day, why is not the keeping of the seventh day obedience to the law which requires to keep the first day? Or is such caviling admissible only when the law of God is in question?547But, to make the fourth commandment justify the keeping of the first day, you must be able to read the commandment inserting therein the first day instead of the seventh. Then it will tell us that God created all things in six days and rested the first day. But that is not true. He did not rest the first day. He did not bless and sanctify the first day. Now if you cannot read the first day in the commandment without making it contradict the facts on which it is based, you surely cannot enforce the first day by the commandment. Justice Morrison, (in whose decision so great delight is taken at this time), as a jurist would admit this position, as it is always admitted by the teachings of the church of his choice. It is only Protestants that the inconsistent—yes, the absurd—claim is set up that you can enforce a certain thing by a law to which the terms of the law cannot possibly be made to apply.
We shall resume this subject next week, and examine the claims of the so-called "Christian Sabbath."
BRIEF COMMENTS.
MATT. 22:35-40. This text has often been offered in proof that the Sabbath is not binding in this dispensation. But where the proof is we cannot see. It has been called a new law, or the law of the New Testament, supposed to be distinct from the law of the Old Testament. But it is an Old Testament law. The first part is quoted from Deut. 6; the latter part from Lev. 19. Love to God and man is not at all peculiar to the New Testament.
Nor is there any intimation that this is substituted for the ten commandments; and we do not think that anybody really believes that it is, though they sometimes talk that way. To quote this Scripture as proof against the Sabbath is only proof that the opposers of the Sabbath are greatly straitened for evidence. Jesus said: "On these two commandments hang all the law." He did not say—These two commandments are all the law. What, then, is "all the law" which hangs on these? Let us examine. The first of these two is: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God." And the first four commandments of the decalogue directly relate to our duty to God our Creator. 1. Have no other gods before him. 2. Worship by no false method. 3. Reverence his holy name. 4. Honor his holy day. The second is: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor." And the last six precepts of the decalogue point out our duty to our fellow-man. 5. Honor thy parents. 6. Refrain from killing. 7. From adultery. 8. From stealing. 9 From bearing false witness against thy neighbor. 10. From coveting. Here we have "all the law" hanging on the two great commandments, Love God, and, Love thy neighbor. If the Sabbath were cut down, then all the law would not hang there. Jehovah said we shall honor him by keeping the Sabbath. Isa. 58:13. If we desecrate the Sabbath we dishonor him. But if we dishonor him our love to him cannot be complete. "This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments." 1 John 5:3.
Rom. 14:1-6. This text has also been cited against the Sabbath, and at first view the argument seems plausible. Yet in fact it is more remote from the subject than the one just noticed, for it does not refer to the Sabbath at all. Two points are plainly seen here: 1. That it refers to matters indifferent or ceremonial. 2. That limitations are implied in the statements. Dr. Edwards, in his "Sabbath Manual," very justly comments on it as follows:—
"But what day does he speak of? The Sabbath of the fourth commandment, associated by God inseparably with the moral laws? Read the connection. What is it? Is it, one man believeth he must worship Jehovah; another, who is weak, worshipeth idols! One believeth that he must not commit murder, adultery, or theft, and another thinks he may? Were those the laws about which they were contending, and with which were connected the days that he speaks of? No; about those laws there was no dispute."
"But, 'One believeth that he may eat all things' (which are nourishing, whether allowed in the ceremonial law, which regulated such things, or not); another, who is weak, eateth herbs.' . . . It was not the moral, but the ceremonial laws; and the days spoken of were those which were connected, not with the former, but with the latter."
Prof. Moses Stuart, in his Commentary on Romans, says:—
"Clement of Alexandria and Augustine interpret the chapter before us as having reference only to scrupulousness about meat that had actually been offered to idols, and not meat in general. But verse 2 seems to be opposed to this opinion. Accordingly, Chrysostom, Origen, Theodoret, Jerome, and most modern commentators suppose that there is reference to all kinds of meat sold in the public markets. . . . Verse 5 speaks of the distinction which those same persons made between days, out of respect to the laws of Moses and the customs of the Jews; comp. Col. 2:16. The Gentile part of the church would naturally feel no scruple in respect to such matters; and it would not be unnatural for them to look, at first with wonder, and afterwards with disdain, on the scrupulousness of their Jewish brethren respecting such external ordinances."
No one will dispute that the expression, "One believeth that he may eat all things," has a limitation. For every one knows that there are some things which cannot be eaten. It refers to those things which may be eaten, and so the phrase "every day" has a limitation when it refers to things secular or indifferent. For proof of this, see Ex. 16. The Lord gave the order to the people to gather manna, "a certain rate every day." But this "every day" included only those days in which it was lawful to attend to secular matters. Some of the people misunderstood or disregarded this distinction, and went out to gather manna on the Sabbath. But they found none in the field, and were sharply reproved by the Lord for thus profaning the seventh day which God had sanctified. Gen. 2:3.
OUR CHURCHES.
By John Norton Loughborough
BY ELD. S. N. HASKELL.
THE characters of those settling in the border states east of the Rocky mountains, and those in California bear a strong resemblance. They are usually of the enterprising class. They have had some definite object in coming to the western world to live. It has been in the pursuit of health, to better their financial condition, or because they are tired with the same routine of many generations. They thus break away from old associations, and seek some new country, and form new acquaintances. Whatever may be the motive that leads them to leave the home of their childhood they manifest different traits of character than those who occupy the old homestead where their fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers lived and died. To such the trees, shrubs, and the very rocks are endeared by former associations, and become additional ties to hold them where they are. For such to leave the home of their forefathers and seek a new country, thousands of miles distant, would give an aching heart this world could not relieve.
To become Christians and embrace the present truth does not always change the desire to find some different location to live. Many of the churches on the Pacific Coast are composed largely of this class. A company of believers is raised up and continues a few years, and sometimes but a few months, when some move away, until at last the church organization is no more.548
There are reasons why cities like San Francisco and Oakland are missionary fields, and the churches must be kept supplied with new recruits, which do not exist to the same extent in the country.
If our brethren felt to a greater degree the responsibility of keeping up the church organizations by their presence and personal influence, and realized that upon this depends the salvation of souls and the general prosperity of the cause, it would to some extent remedy the difficulty. The question of moving from a church where their numbers are few, should be one of serious consideration. It should not be one of personal interest simply to gratify selfish feelings, but the question should be, Will the move better glorify God, and advance the cause we have espoused? We are not our own but have been purchased by the precious blood of Christ, and have yielded ourselves to be his servants and serve him. There are therefore moral claims that we should recognize in our moves.
Our brethren and sisters should be instructed in the missionary work, to labor for the salvation of others. The missionary work is more than to simply give away a few tracts and papers; individual cases should be made especial subjects of the united prayer and personal labor of the church. The deepest sympathy should be felt on the part of the church for those whom they labor. And personal responsibility should be cultivated. This will give a spirit of rest and stability that will strengthen and build up the cause in the various localities where companies of our brethren live.
Again, when an interest is once awakened, and a few have been led to take their stand, they should not be left and a new field opened until they have become established in all points of present truth. If it is possibly consistent, a meeting-house should be built and paid for. This will give permanency to the work. Much is lost in leaving the work too soon. And if a meeting-house is built, the time for it is when the first interest is the highest, after a sufficient number have taken their stand to warrant it. God's building should not be left in debt. Better mortgage your homes, than the house dedicated to the worship of the Creator of the heavens and the earth. A public house of worship free from debt will have an influence to gather those of our faith as well as others.
Another consideration is that of selecting fields of labor. Our ministers, those of experience especially, should consider those churches that have become weakened by loss of members. Ten added to a healthy, working church, where they may be educated to labor, are worth more than twenty in a new field, left to themselves, without having been thoroughly converted.
If a large proportion of our ministerial labor were spent in our churches in California during this coming winter, bringing the members up upon the different features of our faith, and at the same time obtaining additions to the membership, it would be well. The members of our churches should second the efforts of the minister by proper missionary effort. There is no reason why the membership of the California Conference cannot be doubled this present Conference year. While the cause itself becomes far more permanent, by proper effort.
This is true missionary work; it is the work of the gospel. Better educate a hundred to labor for others than simply convert a hundred to theory, without a spirit of labor for others. God will second every wise and judicious effort to build up his cause on earth.
He will bless his ministers, and encourage the missionary workers. Let the new field be prepared by our missionary workers, with the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, and other reading matter, while our churches see that they come up individually upon every feature of our work, feeling a responsibility for each other, and we shall see of the salvation of God.
HUMILITY BEFORE GLORY.
By John Nevins Andrews
IF we read the Bible with attention and prayer, we will find that its biographies are wonderfully instructive. It never sanctions evil, and never excuses or hides it. Often, however, it gives an account of the good actions of men, without a word of praise, and of their bad actions without censure. But we must understand that this book contains the moral law which each may use in measuring the actions of men, and we should particularly observe that the actions of men are given in such a manner that the consequences of the good and of the bad appear at the end with astonishing clearness.
The wisdom of God in preparing men for glory by poverty and humiliation manifests itself in the records of their lives. Saul is an example of one who in private life was a man of good standing, and who, notwithstanding, when elevated to the throne, became wicked, arrogant, and cruel. He could not bear his high honor. If he had been for several years in the school of humiliation he would have been a very different king.
Solomon is another example of the incapacity of man to bear honors without having been raised in poverty and affliction. The sun mounting at once to its meridian, would well represent his coming to his throne. The sun was hidden by a disastrous eclipse, and perhaps, this eclipse obscured its setting. Let no man seek for honor before having been prepared by humility.
David is an example of a man who was raised in the school of poverty, of humility, and of affliction. God permitted him to suffer the injustice of Saul in order that he might hate such wickedness, and never deal in like manner when he himself should become king. It was certainly an education of inestimable value in preparing him for the throne. However, notwithstanding all this, he made an almost fatal fall when he was in prosperity. The case of David is as a light-house built near a dangerous rock. Notwithstanding all the education he had before received, he was almost lost when overwhelmed with prosperity. An humble position in life is much to be preferred to an elevated position, and is very much safer.
Joseph was by the providence of God lord of Egypt. But he was obliged first to be thrown into prison. He was sold as a slave, “whose feet they hurt with fetters; he was laid in iron; until the time that his word came; the word of the Lord tried him. The king sent and loosed him; even the ruler of the people, and let him go free. He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance; To bind his princes at his pleasure; and teach his senators wisdom.” Ps. 105:18-22.
This wisdom of God we see in the history of Joseph. He could never have done the work for which he had been raised to this high position, had he not first been made slave and afterwards put in irons in a prison.
Humility before glory. Those seeking honor which comes of God will pass their lives in the most profound humility before him. God lifts those who lower themselves, and he lowers those who elevate themselves. Those whom he will elevate will be seated with Christ on his throne; and those who will be abased by him will suffer everlasting reproach and dishonor.
J. N. A.
MANNER OF CHRIST'S COMING.
By E. J. Waggoner
BY E. J. WAGGONER.
It is most unfortunate that the tendency nowadays is almost entirely against a literal interpretation of the Scriptures. It seems difficult for people to understand that Christ and the apostles ever spoke in plain, simple language, such as one person would use in speaking to another. Whenever a passage is read, the first thought with many is, What hidden meaning is there in it? What lesson is conveyed? Any one who reads the popular Sunday-school comments will see this tendency conspicuously displayed. Now it is proper to search the Scriptures; and if there be a difficult text, it is right to find out its meaning, by comparing it with other texts; but there are some things that are so plain that any attempt at explanation only obscures the meaning. And this is the case with by far the greater part of the Bible.
It is true that there are parables, but these are readily distinguished from the direct, simple statements, and are usually either explained, or in such common use as to need no explanation. When Christ was on earth, one of the proofs of his divine mission was that the poor had the gospel preached unto them; consequently we should expect his teaching to be such as could be understood by poor people who have not had the advantages of an education. And this is the case. The Bible is a model of simplicity; it uses the language of the common people.
We have seen how very plain and direct the statements are in the Bible concerning the second coming of Christ. No believer in the Bible pretends to deny these statements, for to do so would be to deny the Bible. But there are very many who evade these statements, and virtually deny them, by claiming that Christ's second coming is spiritual. Some claim that Christ comes when a good man dies; and others claim that his coming is at conversion; while others still, carrying the latter idea out still further, claim that there will sometime in the future be a temporal millennium, when all men shall have been converted, and that Christ will then come and reign over his people spiritually, and that this is what is meant by the second coming of Christ.
Now the Bible is just as definite in regard to the manner of Christ's coming, as it is in regard to the fact of his coming. It plainly says that Christ will come personally and visibly. The texts which prove this will of course furnish additional evidence that Christ will certainly come.
And first it may be well to notice Heb. 9:28. "And unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation." Christ is to come the second time; but if the theory that he comes at death or conversion be correct, he would already have come many thousands of times.
Again, the time of Christ's ministry here on earth, of which we have a record in the New Testament, is conceded by all to be his first advent. But men had been converted previously to that time, and for thousands of years, good men had been dying. If Christ comes at conversion or at death, he must have come millions of times before his first advent. Any one can see the absurdity of those theories.
It is not denied that Christ has at different times in the world's history, met and conversed with certain of his devoted followers, nor that he is ever present with his people, by his Spirit; but nothing of this kind can be referred to in the texts under consideration.
It would, however, be manifestly inconsistent to refer to any one of these times as the second coming of Christ. One of them has no precedence over another. But there was one time when he was here in person, when he talked with thousands; and was seen by thousands more. At that time there was probably no nation on earth that did not know of him and his mighty works; and there has been no nation since then that has not heard of that wonderful event. Now at that time there said he was coming "again," and Paul, speaking of that first advent and its object, said he would come the "second time." Consistency, therefore, would demand that his second coming be also personal and visible, and no less conspicuous, nor less widely known than his first. And this we are positively told shall be the case: "Behold he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him." Rev. 1:7.
Again we read: "For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works." Matt. 16:27. Those who place the second coming of Christ at death, or at conversion, must have a very faint conception of the glory of the Father. When the Lord came down on Sinai, "the whole mount quaked greatly;" Ex. 19:18; and when the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle, even Moses was not able to enter. See Ex. 40:34, 35. The glory of a single angel, at the resurrection of Jesus, caused the Roman guard to fall as dead men. Matt. 28:4. What then will be the manifestation when he comes in his own glory, and that of the Father, and all the holy angels? This glory which will attend Christ's coming is thus described: "Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence; a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him." Ps. 50:3. Paul says that when Christ comes he will be "revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire." 2 Thess. 1:7, 8.
That this glory will be seen by all is proved by Rev. 1:7, already quoted, and by the words of our Saviour in Matt. 24:27: "For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." Any one who has seen the lightning flash across the sky in sheets so intensely bright that even the closed eyelid could not wholly shut out the impression, can appreciate to a faint degree the terror of that day. Of the effects of that glory, we learn in 2 Thess. 2:8: "And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming." The fire that David says shall "devour before him," is the glory of his presence.
Nothing further is needed to prove that the coming of the Lord will be nothing like the quiet of a death-bed scene, or the hour when an individual gives his heart to God. There are, however, a host of other texts on this point, no less strong than those already quoted. Two only will be given to show how literal and personal that coming is. The first is Acts 1:9-11: "And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." The second is 1 Thess. 4:16: "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first."
These texts speak for themselves. The language is clear and plain, and any one can understand them. And yet, who can realize the terrible scene which they foretell? The human mind cannot conceive of the awful grandeur of that hour when the Lord of Heaven and earth shall be revealed. Let each one, with the poet, ask himself the question:—
"How will my heart endure The terrors of that day, When earth and heaven, before the Judge, Astonished, shrink away!"
SEAMAN'S MISSION, SAN FRANCISCO.
By H. C. Palmer
If there is any work in the world ennobling in its character it is that of saving souls. How little we estimate the privilege of co-operating with the Maker of heaven and earth, the King of kings and Lord of lords. If ever there was a time when this message wanted earnest men and women it is now. There is one fact to which we can testify: the more time we give to missionary labor the happier we feel, and the more we are strengthened spiritually. In helping others we receive a blessing for ourselves when we are not expecting it.
We are thankful for the good we have seen accomplished through the ship mission. It is bringing a knowledge of us as a people before the world. We frequently meet officers and men, who have not visited this harbor before, but who have heard of our work from friends at home, or through ships that have been here. May our Heavenly Father give us of his Spirit that the results this year may be double what they were last.
I subjoin the results of labor since camp-meeting.
Ship D. The steward believes in the Seventh-day Sabbath, but does not see how he could keep it yet.
Ship M. and E. C. Captain is much interested, but is not a member of any church, and thinks Christianity means something more than mere profession. He promised to investigate and write.
Ship G. The steward, who is a God-fearing man, heard our views of Bible truths, and said he would thoroughly investigate and write to me.
Ship F-of D. The captain quite agrees with our views, which he heard for the first time. He was much impressed. I believe God will bless the efforts put forth in behalf of those on board this ship; for the sailmaker, a Scotchman, signed the temperance pledge. He came up to my house, and we investigated points of the truth together. He said he had no idea that the Bible was so plain. I gave him some extra reading matter. We want the prayers of God's people for the increase in this case.
Steamer F. The captain said we were right in our views of the immortality question; he also seemed liberally minded, and promised to examine his reading matter carefully. The boatswain of the same steamer seemed much impressed, and said, "I must be alone to examine this, and I shall write and let you know the result of my investigation." This is a hopeful case. Let us pray he may receive the light.
Ship E. The captain is much interested, and believes we are right on the Sabbath.
Ship C-of D. The captain knows we are right on the Sabbath and is eager for more knowledge. I will see him again this week.
Ship M. The captain says our papers are the most instructive and interesting reading he ever had on board his ship. I shall call at his residence. His wife is with him. I hope for good results from this visit.
Ship G. The captain donated a dollar to the mission.
Ship I. The mate of this ship said a gentleman in Liverpool, England, was not only keeping the Sabbath, but preaching it; and he got his knowledge from papers sent by our people. The mate is coming up to see me before he sails, and I shall report results to the SIGNS. He agrees with us on all points but the personality of Satan. I gave him "Ministration of Angels," but he had not quite read it, and he was not prepared with an opinion till he had done so.
Ship L. An apprentice on board this ship came to me and said that his father and all the family keep Sabbath on Saturday. I shall have more to report on this shortly. This comes of the Vigilant Missionary work.
Ship B. The captain, first and second mate, and steward seemed anxious to hear more of these truths. I hope to see them, and shall report results. They are all earnest religious men.
The Seaman's Mission has everything in good working order. Lately some alterations have been made. To insure more complete distribution than heretofore, four packages of tracts and papers are put on board each ship, and extra tracts for foreign readers. The Bibles which we obtain free from the Bible Society, are a great help to the work, and we cannot be too thankful for them.549Every missionary should be well supplied with the new tract, "Scripture References," for more can be done with it than with anything we have yet had. By means of this tract any individual can become thoroughly acquainted with the Bible evidence for the principal points of our faith.
Eld. Haskell furnished the mission with a book of small temperance pledge certificates, and I am sure they will be a great help in temperance work among the sailors, and this is a work that is much needed.
This important branch of missionary work requires earnestness and devotion; and when our Lord comes in the clouds of heaven, we shall then know the results. May all our efforts be with an eye single to the glory of God. H. C. PALMER.
Science and the Bible
A SKEPTICAL hearer once said to a Baptist minister: "How do you reconcile the teachings of the Bible with the latest conclusions of science?" "I haven't seen this morning's papers," naively replied the minister. "What are the latest conclusions of modern science?"