p. 527 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 33. (8/25/1887)

THE TRUTH FOUND.

By Ellet Joseph Waggoner

THE NATURE AND OBLIGATION OF THE SABBATH OF THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT.

BY ELD. J. H. WAGGONER.

THE title of this little book sufficiently explains its character. It contains more scriptural information in regard to the Sabbath than any other book of twice the size, and yet it is so simplified as to be easily comprehended. The author quotes the opinions of many learned men concerning the Sabbath, and their conflicting theories are strongly contrasted with the clear, straightforward teaching of the Bible. 64 pp. Price, 10 cents.

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SOUTH LANCASTER ACADEMY,

By Charles C. Ramsey

SOUTH LANCASTER, MASS.

AN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION OF INCREASING POPULARITY.

This school is located at South Lancaster, Worcester County, Mass., thirty-five miles from Boston, and was founded in 1882.

It is prosperous because operated on correct educational principles. Thorough instruction is given in all the common branches, and those of the usual high school and academic courses. There are also well-sustained Biblical and Normal Departments.

ITS SPECIAL FEATURES ARE,

1. A judicious discipline for the development of moral character. It is a safe place for the young.

2. Methods of teaching that aim at mental culture of a high type.

3. Instruction and practice in various kinds of manual labor and the use of tools.

4. Astonishingly low expenses. Fifteen dollars per school month pays all expense of tuition, board, lodging, washing, lights, fuel, etc. For catalogue or further information address, CHAS. C. RAMSEY, A. M., Principal.

CHRIST IN THE GOSPELS,

—OR—

The Life of our Lord in the Words of the Evangelists,

By James P. Cadman, A. M.

Is, as its Name Indicates, a Compilation in which the four Narratives of

THE LIFE OF CHRIST

ARE WOVEN INTO ONE CONNECTED STORY, MAKING A COMPLETE HARMONY OF THE GOSPELS IN THE EXACT LANGUAGE OF THE SCRIPTURES.

THE text is that of the Revised Version, and while every word in the four Gospels appears, the work is so arranged that the reader can tell at a glance the words used in each Gospel. Those who have tried to gather all the facts concerning some miracle, or other event, and at the same time properly locate and credit the various parts of the narrative, will appreciate this book, which is the very best of its kind and gives evidence of an immense amount of careful and painstaking labor.

The book is fully indexed so that any text or subject can be readily found; and the maps, notes, and diagrams which it contains are alone well worth the price of the volume. The following partial (less than half) TABLE OF CONTENTS will give an idea of the scope of the work:—

Index to chapter and verses; Life of Our Lord (333 pages); Index of persons, places, and subjects, with dictionary of proper names; Explanation of maps and diagrams; Map of the pathway of Jesus; Diagrams illustrating the principal events of crucifixion week.

This work is invaluable, and all who love the Bible should have a copy. It contains 394 pages, is well printed on good paper, and is neatly and substantially bound in cloth.

Price, post-paid, - - - - - - - - $1.50 With gilt edges, - - - - - - - - 2.00 Address, PACIFIC PRESS, Oakland, Cal.

BIBLE-READINGS.

By Ellet Joseph Waggoner

IN TWO NUMBERS EMBRACING A PORTION OF THE BIBLE COURSE AT HEALDSBURG COLLEGE. BY ELD. E. J. WAGGONER.

THESE Readings were prepared especially for the use of colporters and those who intend to conduct Bible-readings in missionary fields, and they present a connected chain of argument upon the fundamental doctrines of Present Truth.

NUMBER ONE contains 57 pages, embracing sixteen readings, as follows:—

	No. Ques.		No. Ques.
Daniel 2	93	The Law of God, No. 4	32
Daniel 7	93	“ “ “ 5	31
Daniel 8	60	Ephesians 2:15	26
Daniel 9	94	Romans 6:14	23
The Sanctuary	179	Romans 10:4	17
The Law of God, No. 1	30	Galatians 3:13	19
“ “ 2	31	Romans 3:20	10
“ “ 3	28	Tithing	99

NUMBER TWO contains 46 pages, embracing twenty-two readings, as follows:—

	No. Ques.		No. Ques.
The Sabbath, No. 1	51	2 Corinthians 5:8	18
“ 2	49	Luke 23:39-43	16
“ 3	42	1 Peter 3:18-20	10
Colossians 2:14-17	19	Luke 16:19-31	37
Psalms 118:24	13	Living Souls	14
Penalty of Transgression	10	Nature of Man	18
Sanctification	43	Punishment of the Wicked	70
Second Coming of Christ	64	Work of the Spirit, No. 1	47
The Resurrection	59	“ “ “ 2	51
Immortality	18	Church Membership	61
Philippians 1:23	5	Missionary Labor	52

Price for the Two, 50 Cents. Address, PACIFIC PRESS, Oakland, Cal.

THE HOME OF THE SAVED.

By John Norton Loughborough

BY ELD. J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.

THIS pamphlet gives the Bible evidence upon the interesting topic of the earth made new, as the inheritance of the saints. It contains 82 pages. Price, 10 cents.

Address, PACIFIC PRESS, Oakland, Cal.

NEW SUBSCRIPTION EDITION.

THE GREAT CONTROVERSY

BETWEEN CHRIST AND SATAN.

DURING THE CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION.

BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.

AUTHOR OF "THE LIFE OF CHRIST," "SKETCHES FROM THE LIFE OF PAUL," "BIBLE SANCTIFICATION," AND OTHER POPULAR WORKS.

THIS volume presents the most wonderful and intensely interesting history that has ever been written of the great conflict between Christianity and the Powers of Darkness, as illustrated in the lives of Christian martyrs and reformers on the one hand, and wicked men and persecuting powers on the other. Beginning with our Lord's great prophecy given while viewing Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, in which he outlines the history of the whole dispensation, it sketches the fulfillment. It pictures the siege and overthrow of Jerusalem, and the destruction of the Temple. It calls our attention to the bitter persecutions of the Christians in the first centuries, and notes the rise and growth of the Papacy. It gives a clear conception of the character and influence of the Waldenses, who, through centuries of persecution, maintained the purity of their faith, and by their missionary efforts prepared the nations of Europe for the Reformation.

Brief and life-like sketches are given of the works, the successes, and the persecutions of Wycliffe, Luther, Tyndale, Huss, Jerome, Knox, and other reformers and martyrs. Considerable space is given to the life, work, and influence of later reformers and great religious leaders such as George Whitefield, the Wesleys, and William Miller, and this is followed by chapters treating upon The Origin of Evil, The Agency of Evil Spirits, The Snares of Satan, Spiritualism, Character and Aims of the Papacy, The Coming Conflict, The Scriptures a Safeguard, Desolation of the Earth, and the Judgment.

The closing chapters give a vivid picture of the warfare of the church, her final redemption, and vividly describe the triumph of the people of God, the destruction of Satan and his followers, and the renewing of the earth, which ends the awful controversy between the Son of God and the Powers of Darkness. Earnest Christians of all classes and Creeds will find in it encouragement and instruction in the delineation of the struggle maintained by men raised up of God in each successive age to preserve the pure and true religion, and they will see that the world has been led to accept one after another of Satan's devices, until her teachers are corrupted with false doctrines and with infidelity.

The period of history covered by this volume, is one of the deepest interest to all classes of readers. The style of the author is clear, forcible, and often sublime, and, although simple enough in its statements to be understood and appreciated by a child, its eloquence calls forth the admiration of all.

Seventh Edition! Contains over 500 pages; 21 full page Illustrations and Steel Portrait of the Author; printed and bound in the very best style,

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MAN'S NATURE AND DESTINY.

By Uriah Smith

—OR— THE STATE OF THE DEAD, THE REWARD OF THE RIGHTEOUS, AND THE END OF THE WICKED. BY ELDER URIAH SMITH.

THIS work is a thorough canvass of the great question of a future life, the nature of man in the present life, and the condition of immortality from a logical and scriptural standpoint.

Every text in the Bible which has any possible bearing upon these points, is taken up and carefully explained, thus giving the most comprehensive view of the subject that has yet been presented.

"Man's Nature and Destiny" contains 444 pages, and is printed from clear, new plates, on heavy paper, and is attractively bound in green muslin, with gilt side and back titles. All orders will be promptly filled by mail or express. Price, $1.50.

Address, PACIFIC PRESS, Oakland, Cal.

THE AMERICAN SENTINEL.

By Editor

An Eight-page Monthly Journal.

Devoted to the defense of American Institutions, the preservation of the United States Constitution as it is, so far as regards religion or religious tests, and the

Maintenance of Human Rights,

Both civil and religious. It will ever be uncompromisingly opposed to anything tending toward a union of Church and State, either in name or in fact.

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BOGUS PIETY.

By Editor

A RECENT dispatch giving an account of a series of post-office robberies in a town in this State, by a man named Weston, whose evil deeds had just come to light, closed with these words: "Weston was a church member, and very pious." Now this is not true, and is never true in any similar case. The man was indeed a church member, but he was not pious. He may have had the appearance of piety, but he had not the real article. Pious men do not do such things. Moreover, the man who wrote that dispatch knew that the post-office thief was not pious, and every worldling knows that bank-defaulters, embezzlers, etc., are not pious men. They know that piety is not that kind of stuff, that Christianity calls for something better, and that Christians should act differently. And it is because they know this, that they never fail to mention that an erring man was a professed Christian. Such mention is always an unconscious and unintended tribute to the exalted character of true Christianity, because it shows that even the haters of Christianity know that evil deeds are inconsistent with it.

But someone may ask how we explain the sudden falls from piety and integrity that we so often see or hear about. We answer that such sudden falls are not so common as is supposed. But when they do occur, we can explain them just as we would explain the sudden fall of a building. If a building falls suddenly and without warning, and apparently without sufficient cause, we say at once that there was a defect in its construction; it never was sound. It stood for a time, and was apparently sound, but continued pressure made itself felt in the place that was weak. So a man who "suddenly falls" from piety, simply gives way under strong pressure upon some weak point. And as no building is any stronger than its weakest support, so no Christian character, however sound it may appear, is any stronger than the spot that has never been built up. So in reality even this was not a sudden fall from true piety, but from the semblance thereof.

In general, therefore, it may be set down as a fact that men do not fall suddenly into great sins. Solomon says that "the beginning of strife is as when one leteth out water;" the tiny stream soon makes for itself a larger opening, which gradually increases until a mighty torrent rushes through. So a little sin, covered up, a little defect cherished, brings condemnation to the individual at first, but the voice of conscience being repressed, he becomes hardened, possibly at last really unconscious of the fact that he is living a lie, and then detection is the only thing necessary to make the world say in derision, there is a specimen of a pious man, and others mourn over the "sudden fall" of one who was highly esteemed. They simply confound the detection with the fall, whereas the fall may have taken place years before. Then the cause of Christ has to suffer reproach, since people forget that it is really to the credit of Christianity that dishonest men put it on as a cloak for their ungodly deeds. They know that people do not look there for such things, and so they expect to escape without detection.

NOT "INFERRED" BUT BELIEVED.

The Christian Standard, in, an attempted, reasoning on the immortality of the soul, says:—

"When it is said that we do not read of the 'immortality of the soul,' in the Scriptures, the truth is spoken; but when it is inferred from this that there is nothing in man that remains in possession of conscious existence after death, the conclusion is not well drawn. The immortality of the angels is something not named in the Scriptures. Yet it would be most unsafe to infer that they are not to continue in possession of conscious being forever. That which is mortal is subject to death, as the human body as it now is; that which is immortal is not subject to death, as the immortal bodies of the redeemed, as they shall be."

But the unconsciousness of men in death is not "inferred" from the silence of Scripture on the subject of the "immortality of the soul." In fact it is not "inferred" from anything. It is the plain declaration of Scripture, and therefore, on the part of men who accept it, it is not an inference at all but is belief of the word of God. The Scriptures plainly state that "the dead know not anything," also "their love and their hatred and their envy" is "perished" (Eccl. 9:5); that when his breath goeth forth, "in that very day his thoughts perish" (Psalm 146:4); that "in death there is no remembrance of" God (Psalm 6:5); and that "the dead praise not the Lord" (Psalm 115:17): all these, and many more, scriptures show that at death men go to the place of silence and forgetfulness, and to accept such a view as the truth, is not inference but perfectly-founded faith.

"The immortality of the angels is something not named in the Scriptures," says the Standard. Now the Scriptures do say of those who shall be made immortal, that "Neither can they die any more, for [because] they are equal unto the angels." To be equal unto the angels exempts from death forever, and that is immortality. Therefore the immortality of the angels is named in the Scriptures. This is proved by the Standard itself. It says, "That which is immortal is not subject to death." And the Scriptures do certainly say that the angels cannot die, in that it is said that the redeemed cannot die any more because they are equal unto the angels. Therefore upon the Standard's own proposition the immortality of the angels is named in the Scriptures. Yet on the supposition that the Scriptures do not name the immortality of the angels, the Standard says, "It would be most unsafe to infer that they are not to continue in the possession of conscious being forever." But if the word of God should say of the angels, as it says of men, that while they live "they know that they shall die," but when dead they "know not anything," that their "thoughts" would then "perish," and they would remember not God, and "praise not the Lord," but would remain in silence and in the land of forgetfulness,—if the word of God should say all this of the angels, and much more to the same effect, it would not be unsafe to believe that they were not to continue in the possession of conscious being forever. And to believe so of men of whom all these things are said by the word of the Lord, is not only not unsafe, but is the only really safe thing to believe on that subject. This conclusion is well drawn.

Definitions of Life and Death

In the Forum for July Mr. Grant Allen says:—

"Life is merely one particular set of correlated movements, occurring, under the influence of solar radiation, in a certain group of material bodies on the surface of one small and unimportant planet, in a minor solar system, hidden away on the skirts of a galaxy in some lost corner of a boundless universe."

That is very exact. It is most satisfactorily definite. The corner of anything boundless is good, but when it is the corner of a boundless cosmos, and that, too, a lost corner, and the thing hidden away there besides, then the thought becomes grand. Now with that definition of life put the following definition of death, by the much admired Professor Drummond—he who was brought all the way from England to help Moody in his missionary training-school:—

"Death is lack of correspondence with the environment."

These two definitions match very well, each is the complement of the other. And both answer very well to the demands of the Spiritualistic sentimentalism that now passes for the Christian religion.

Speaking With Understanding

I HAD rather speak five words with my understanding, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.

An American Philosophy from Dante

By Editor

A correspondent, apparently editorial, of the Christian Union, says that "Professor Harris is the philosopher of the Concord School par excellence . . . and the opinion is frequently heard that we may yet have an American system of philosophy." But it seems that this "American system of philosophy" is embodied in the idea of probation after death. And Professor Harris in his par excellence "makes the idea of the cessation of probation annihilate both" Heaven and hell. Then says this admirer of the "philosopher par excellence :" "This view of Dr. Harris is fully elaborated in his essay on 'The Philosophic Structure of Dante's Divina Commedia.' I am not sure that this paper will not prove itself to be one of the most inspiring missionary tracts of the time." Well an American philosophy extracted from Dante's "Divina Commedia" may be a very inspiring thing, but it is absolutely certain that such inspiration will never lead men to God nor accomplish anything for Christ. Yet this wild nonsense is becoming very popular in the theological circle of which the Christian Union forms a part.

The Pope’s Claims for the Papacy

The Pope says that "not alone Italy," but "all other nations" "principally owe to the Papacy the civilization they enjoy." Yes, England and the United States, for instance, with Spain and Mexico, or the north of Ireland with the south, bear unmistakable evidence in the case. On a par with this is the statement in the same letter, that justice can never be done "if the Pope is not restored to his incontestable rights in the temporal sovereignty—rights founded upon the most legitimate and sacred of titles." The right founded upon the "Donation of Constantine" above all in legitimacy and sacredness, of course.

Immersion and Biblical Ignorance

By Editor

In the Christian Advocate of July 21, a certain Rev. J. W. Simpson says:—

"We admit immersion to be one mode of baptism, and yet can recall at present only four examples of it in the Scriptures. The first is the deluge; the second, that of Pharaoh's army; the third the case of a man, the leper, who was so exceedingly foul that we are not surprised that it took the whole of Jordan to cleanse him; and the fourth was that of a herd of swine which ran violently down a steep place into the sea and perished in the waters."

As a display of downright egotistical ignorance we have never seen that surpassed. Nor is that all. His reference to the swine as an example of baptism is contemptible, and his reference to the case of Naaman is basely irreverent.

Adventist Workers Arrive in New York

By Editor

Sisters E. G. White and M. K. White, Elders O. A. Olsen and D. T. Bourdeau, and others from Europe arrived safely at New York, August 11. Elder W. C. White will leave England for home about Sept. 1.