WHEN the children of Israel were in Egypt, they were servants of the Egyptians. This being the case, they were subject to Egyptian law. While Joseph lived, they were under his immediate supervision, and were otherwise comparatively independent. Then they were faithful to the true God, and prospered in material things. They had possessions in the land of Goshen, "in the best of the land," and they "grew, and multiplied exceedingly." But after Joseph's death, Egyptian rule and Egyptian influence soon began to work apostasy in the ranks of God's people. They so far departed from the God of their fathers that they worshiped the gods of the Egyptians. Then the Lord gave them over to the rapacity of their idolatrous masters, in order that they might see the folly of their way, and be willing to return to Him. "And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor." Ex. 1:13.
"And it came to pass in process of time, that the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage." Ch. 2:23. Then the Lord appeared to Moses at the burning bush in Mount Horeb, and said to Him, "I have surely seen the affliction of My people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows." Ch. 3:7. And Moses was there commissioned to go and bring forth the Lord's people out of Egypt. He was to say to Pharaoh, "Thus saith the Lord, Let My people go, that they may serve Me." Ch. 8:1.
Moses was fearful that the Israelites themselves would not believe his message; because forty years before that time, when he was an acknowledged power in Egypt, they had not understood that he was to deliver them from their bondage. So the Lord gave him three signs which were to convince them that he had been commissioned by the Lord. And when Moses went to them accompanied by his brother, Aaron, and showed them the signs which the Lord had given him, "the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshiped." Ch. 4:31.
Delivered that They Might Serve.
The Israelites were eventually delivered by a mighty hand, and of the situation then the Lord says, "Unto Me the children of Israel are servants; they are My servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt." Lev. 25:55. And now that by faith they had crossed the Red Sea (Heb. 11:29), and were in the direct care and under the direct guidance of the God of Israel, they would naturally be expected to obey His commandments. On coming through the Red Sea, they celebrated their deliverance and the overthrow of their former masters, and then were led three days' journey into the wilderness, to a place called Marah. Here the water was bitter, and the people murmured because they had no water to drink. But the Lord showed Moses a certain tree, and when it was cut down and cast into the water, the water was healed.
Then the Lord made a conditional promise to the people. He said, "If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in His sight, and wilt give ear to His commandments, and keep all of His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians; for I am the Lord that healeth thee." Ex. 15:26. Being the descendants of Abraham, and partakers of the promises to him, it was meet that they follow in his footsteps; and he kept the commandments and statutes and laws of the Lord. Gen. 26:5.
Six weeks after their departure from their homes in Egypt, the people came to the wilderness of Sin. Here they bitterly murmured again, this time because of the lack of food; and they longed for the fleshpots of Egypt. Then the Lord said unto Moses, "Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in My law, or no." Ex. 16:4.
So we see that the law of God was in existence at that time, and He was proving His people in the matter of obedience. And the next thing revealed is the particular part of the law on which they were tested. The Sabbath, being the memorial of God's rest after creation, is the special mark or sign of the true God; and now that Israel had been delivered from the servitude of Egypt, would they really submit to the law of Him who had delivered them? Would they recognize His memorial, the neglect of which had so estranged them in Egypt? Note that the Lord did not at this time enact any law; the reference was solely to that which already existed.
The very first instruction in regard to proving them whether they would walk in His law or not, had reference to their gathering manna on the sixth day, and making preparation for the Sabbath. "It shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily." Verse 5. On the other days they were forbidden to keep any of the manna over until the morning; but it seems that some of them were afraid that the manna might fall in the morning, and they tried to keep over what they had not eaten of their abundant supply. Some of those who were weak in the faith, "left of it until the morning, and it bred worms and stank." Verse 20.
"And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man; and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord; take that which ye will bake to-day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade; and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein. And Moses said, Eat that to-day; for to-day is a Sabbath unto the Lord; to-day ye shall not find it in the field. Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none."
Still there were those who were slow to believe, disobedient in heart. There was a large "mixed multitude" in the camp who were the principal instigators of murmuring and rebellion.
"And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep My commandments and My laws? See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore He giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day."
Here began a Sabbath reformation. God had broken the Egyptian yoke from the necks of His people, and had brought them out where they could serve Him. He had brought them "out of darkness into His marvelous light." He had set them free, and that meant freedom to obey His law instead of Egyptian law. It was Christ who had liberated them, and "if the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." John 8:36. He had now restored to them "the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord," of which they had been deprived in Egypt by the "rigor" of their servitude, as a result of their own apostasy. It was not a new Sabbath day, for it is expressly called "the seventh day, which is the Sabbath." It was the same Sabbath day that was blessed and sanctified at creation; and the same that was emphasized when, a few weeks later, the whole law was rehearsed at Sinai. G.
"NOT A CREED."
In speaking of the new doctrinal statement of the Presbyterians, the Independent says:—
When we say that its adoption will remove a great stumbling-block and will be of substantial advantage to the church, we do not abandon our confidence that binding creeds should never be imposed on any church. But we have been distinctly told that this is not a creed by which to try the orthodoxy of anybody, but a mere statement of what is usually believed, for public information. And the Presbyterian Church, if it adopts this proposed revision, will really have no binding creed. The declaratory statements will have said No to what the confession says Yes; and the amended confession will be practically superseded by the brief statement, which itself is a statement and not a creed.
There is but one reason we can conceive why the Independent does not abandon its confidence in binding creeds, and that is that it has no confidence in God's Word. That church which holds to the Bible needs no creed. That Book, through the mighty power of its life, will hold all who believe. It is only when man chooses his own way in preference to God's way that he departs. And then it is better. Sometimes the few keep to the Word, while the many depart. The many stick to the creed, while the few go out. But departing from the creed and excommunication from "the church" may mean simple loyalty to God and His Book.
Question Corner
By Editor
1249.—Divinity of Christ.
Will you kindly inform through Question Corner as to the belief of intelligent Seventh-day Adventists regarding the divinity of Christ. Some claim He wholly divested Himself of divinity, being only a man, and further that He laid it aside forever, and would never again occupy the same position of glory as before His sacrifice and life on earth. E. F. G.
We do not know the understanding of the people above mentioned. We suppose they believe the Bible. We have no reason to think otherwise. Our querist has no doubt, evidently, as to Christ's pre-existence, in the form of God, made equal with God, Himself God. To save the fallen and the lost, this Being in purpose emptied Himself in the beginning. He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. All that was seen in His career afterward was but the carrying out of that great purpose. He became Jehovah's Angel or Messenger; He became man; He died on the cross; He was buried; He rose again; He ascended on high far above all principality and power, and every name that is named. He is coming again, to receive His own and reign forever. In all this career He is represented as being the Son of God. He is called by Himself the Son of Man; He is called by the Spirit the Son of God. See Matt. 11:27; 12:32, 40; 13:37, 41; 16:13-16; John 1:10-12, 14, 18; 5:20-27. These and a multitude of other texts show that while He was man He was also God, the only-begotten of the Father.
At the same time He never used His power of Deity to save Himself or help Himself, only by faith in God, as every soul can use it. But the mysterious union was there till He poured out His soul in death, and the great purpose to its uttermost bore fruit in deed. He went down to the very lowest that man can go—to death—that He might exalt man to the divine.
His sacrifice was an eternal one. He took human form; He will ever bear it; but He is not the less the Son of God. But the hiding of His power is in the humanity, the faithfulness, to the absolute right of which, the wounds in His hands are symbols. Hab. 3:4. But by His suffering He raised humanity to the throne of the Infinite, and forever by His sacrifice glorified the purchase of His blood.
The text and context would teach that there are times when the only safe thing to do at all is to glorify God in everything, and this is especially true as we near the end. Mourning and rejoicing over earthly things, business, social relations, marriage, must all be subject to God's claim upon us. We must use this world as not abusing it. He who makes marriage minister to the lust of lewdness, misses the object of marriage and the blessing of God in it.
A COMING CRISIS.
"Into the New and the Unknown."
AMONG the veteran editors and writers of to-day is John Swinton, who has served as chief of staff on the New York Times, New York Sun, is author of several books, and general writer for newspapers and magazines. Some months ago he had an article in the New York Herald, from which we present the following liberal excerpts, as particularly applicable at this time, especially in the fulfillment of the "more sure word of prophecy." It may be well to say that the humble student of that Word need not be uncertain as regards the future. These things now passing are not "new" in principle, and God's Word has long foretold them, as it has what lies beyond. Mr. Swinton says:—
We may have stormy times in our country before the twentieth century has gone far. We may see some apocalyptic illustrations of the workings of that industrial revolution which is now transforming our body politic into something new and strange, and which is bringing about organic changes in our republic, our commonwealth, and our social system, by means both visible and invisible, through agencies containing the promise and potency of a kind of development not to be foreseen.
We may yet see that gigantic modern power called capital, and those immeasurable latter-day forces grouped under the name of labor, engaged in performances of large interest and concern to the American people. Already there are signs and omens not to be disregarded, and more of them are coming in sight all the time as we whirl along. There are other things than the great labor revolts of our time, so numerous, so disquieting, so continuous, and so portentous, which prompts me to write these words. Those of the readers of the Herald who can recall the years that immediately preceded the election of Mr. Lincoln, will be able here to make comparisons of a suggestive character. They do not need to be told in how far the passions, the contentions, and the menaces of that portentous period resemble those that have come into existence of late years through the discord between the great wielders of capital and the millions of workers for wages, and through the ceaseless strain of both parties in the strenuous struggle. As forty years ago each party declared that it would never submit or yield, so now again the defiant words are heard in the contentious camp. . . . Let warning be taken while yet it may. And let it be said of the present writer in days to come, that he was an alarmist at the opening of the twentieth century, as was another man in the year 1859, when he wrote "The Impending Crisis," a crisis for slavery which came so unexpectedly in less than two years after Mr. Helper's book was printed.
The magnitude of the labor revolts that have broken out within a year has—
Never Been Paralleled
in any other time or country. I need not speak of those of the many building trades, the coal-miners, the machinists, the San Francisco unions, the factory hands, the clothiers, the steel workers, or a hundred lesser industries. By the estimate of an expert, who had kept count as nearly as possible, it would seem that not far from a million wage-workers have gone on strike during the last twelve months; and this, of course, signifies that a much greater number of other people have been disturbed or have suffered in consequence. No wonder that a foreign writer, in reviewing the situation, gives his essay such a headline as "The Industrial Anarchy in the United States."
The Importance, the Gravity,
the passionateness, and the significance of some of the strikes have been very great. They have affected business, trade, Wall Street, the markets, politics, and the daily life and welfare of large masses of our people. They have brought heavy losses to many of the parties concerned in them; they have rent many schemes and crippled many enterprises; they have caused bankruptcies; they have been the source of woes unnumbered; they have wrecked lives and broken hearts; have sent men and women to the poor-house, the mad-house, and the graveyard. Notwithstanding the magnitude and the multitude of the convulsing strikes, it is altogether likely that they will become yet greater, more numerous, and more convulsing as the industrial and financial powers advance in their development. The forces now in operation by which they are promoted are very sure to increase in strength and momentum as time goes on. A generation ago a few hundred men used to take part in a strike; some time afterward thousands of men would go out on a strike; now hundreds of thousands of men join a strike, and, moreover, a score of different trades in as many States sometimes back up one trade during a strike, while the great body of organized workers sympathize with the strikers, even if they do not enter into a sympathetic strike. . . .
The domination of unlicensed capitalism and the existence of labor unionism are at stake in these contests. It is to be remarked here that the many and great strikes of recent times have been almost wholly free from violence or riotous conduct on the part of the workmen, tho the militia have sometimes been called out in the name of the law, as at Buffalo and Troy. The strikes may be properly characterized as peaceful revolts. . . . Were this otherwise, the formidable labor revolts of our day would be a terror indeed—momentous project of men arming.
Armed Hosts Forming.
A short time ago, however, when the great strike of the steel-workers got under headway, the Herald startled the country by printing a despatch from West Virginia, that the first military company ever formed by a labor union had been organized at Wheeling by Crescent Lodge, Amalgamated Association. The interest in the original report, however, has not been diminished; for it is now known that the Crescent Lodge at Wheeling is not the only one that has taken the subject under consideration, and that other labor organizations in different parts of the country have done likewise. They claim that the right of the people to keep and bear arms is guaranteed by the Constitution, and that, as the workingmen are the bone and sinew of the country, the constitutional right can not be denied them. . . .
At this point it may be mentioned that a good number of trade-unions, especially of those in the Western States, have recently prohibited their members from joining the regular State militia, under pain of expulsion, and the reason given for this action is that the State troops are used in the interest of capitalism against the labor element, and in the suppression of justifiable strikes. It is a fact, nevertheless, that, at least in Pennsylvania and Illinois, the State militia have, on several occasions, suffered from the charge of being unduly sympathetic with labor in the case of a strike.
Before closing my remarks, I would make note of one thing that undoubtedly has an influence in disturbing the mind of the commonality in these times. I refer to the oft-repeated public reports of—
The Stupendous Incomes
of certain great trusts, flamboyant millionaires, banking institutions, big corporations, and stock speculators. . . . We had in August [1901] such figures of the dividends of the Standard Oil Company, and the revenues of the billion-dollar steel trust, and the earnings of at least one of our banks, and the incomes of some of our heavy investors or operators, as might well make humanity stagger. . . . Never before, in all time, did the golden stream, the millions and the billions, roll so rapidly as now, rolling into treasuries so vast that they could not be compassed in a day's march by all the labor-union in America. . . .
The news of the latest dividend of the billion-dollar trust was printed simultaneously with other news of strikes, more strikes, and yet other strikes. Can any one be surprised that even thoughtless people are led to indulge in thinking? I am asked to make a guess as to the outcome of all these big, passionate, and ominous labor revolts, which are constantly growing in magnitude, momentum, and force. I can't do it. I can not see how they are to be prevented or put down without a change of circumstances as great as to be unthinkable, or without a change in bodies of men who are beyond reason, or without some kind of change in the relation between capital and labor. It is possible . . . that it will work out all right in the end, regardless of the lesser movements of either of the belligerents. I can't tell, nor can Mr. Morgan. It would certainly be bad business to use the regular army or the State militia against masses of men striking for life. It would certainly be poor policy to carry government by injunction further than it can be enforced. It is surely folly to abuse and threaten organized capital at periods of storm and stress consequent upon an industrial and social transformation, when our country is passing out of the old into the new and the unknown.
ELEMENTS OF STRIFE.
By S.
MEN who have only labor to sell are naturally anxious to control the market. Men who have only stocks and dividends in sight are naturally anxious that nothing should interfere with the value of their stocks or the size and frequency of their dividends.
The first class see only starvation and distress for themselves and their families whenever the market price of their labor is forced down or threatened. The latter see only disaster to their business and their ambitions whenever the price of labor begins to rise.
So the issue is definite between the two classes; and as capital combines to strengthen itself against the demands of labor, so labor has begun in earnest to strengthen itself against the exactions of that class of combinations that would make capital of their necessities. This is the view-point from which each of these great powers looks at the other. Naturally each move of the one is watched by the other. There has been a rapid increase in the combinations of capital for its own interests, so that it could not only defend itself against its foes, but exact the greatest possible tribute from all who come within its power. The increase in the combinations of the labor forces have been none the less rapid or far-reaching.
This is the situation as it exists to-day. A few excerpts from editorial notes in a prominent labor journal (Appeal to Reason) will show how the labor leaders look upon the situation as the opposing forces are mobilizing for the fray:—
"The Corporation Auxiliary Co.," Chamber of Commerce Building, Cleveland, Ohio, is a corporation that advertises to spy on workingmen in the shops of large employers of labor, to keep the employer posted on the actions of the men regarding unions, Socialism, etc. Think of it, ye workingmen. When will you use your votes to make yourselves free from your masters? How much oppression will it require to wake you up? Vote for Socialists, and you will be your own employers, and can do without capitalists and their sweating, spying, degrading system of employment.
The railroads have notified some operators in the hard-coal fields of Pennsylvania who have granted the very reasonable demands of the miners, that the roads will not carry their coal to market. They are determined to beat the miners, and break up their unions and force them into just such slavery as they desire. Freedom?—Why, of course! America is the land of the free and the home of the brave!
The prospectus for the Merganthaler basket machine says that it will save $2,000,000 in wages alone each year over the present hand methods of making fruit baskets. Two million taken from labor and put into the bank accounts of the wealthy!
Morgan has given the king of England $500,000 worth of Spanish tapestry to use at the coronation. But he has not given the tens of thousands of wage-slaves in his industries anything, so far as heard from. When the workmen realize their conditions, they "won't do a thing" to the Morgans and the kings.
The situation in Chicago is fully as bad as in the coal districts. The laboring men in a score of trades are striking, and the process of organization goes on day and night. New labor organizations are forming,9and old ones are strengthening their membership. From a perusal of the labor journals, I am inclined to think that there has never been such a growth of labor unions in any two years as has been accomplished in the last six months. Labor is keeping pace with capital in organization.
The teamsters' strike in Chicago has assumed proportions that should teach the masters what may be expected when all the working people strike some of these days. If the teamsters in the employ of a packing-house can nearly paralyze the traffic of such a great city, . . . one might well shudder when the order for a general strike comes. The packers are determined to destroy the labor unions; but in that they will not succeed, for their action only tends to force men to combine.
Even more marked than the hundreds of Socialist papers that have arisen in the last year is the change in the tone of the labor press with their hundreds of papers and millions of readers. Nearly every one of them are advocating Socialism as the remedy that the laboring people must apply to get relief from their dependence on masters. The movement is gathering the force that will awaken the nation in the near future.
These are omens of the times, precursors of the terrible struggle for which these mighty forces are now in preparation. The words of Jesus are fulfilled, "Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth." While this inevitable struggle is pending, Nature herself is giving us premonitions of what she will do when we have fully entered upon the great day of the Lord. We are entering indeed upon perilous times, when only those who are safe in God will be safe at all. That refuge is provided, and they who flee to it will find a shelter which no earthquake, volcano, pestilence, flood, fire, or sword can penetrate. They who believe and know God's Word know that ere long these disasters in the earth, and these struggles between men and men and between nations and nations, will have an end. To that glorious time we look, and in that glorious consummation we have hope.
