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Signs of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 30.

Blessings of the Righteous
Earlier text: Blessings of the Righteous

The Church

By C. S. Longacre

V. The True Church in Prophecy

By C. S. Longacre
GOD who knows the end from the beginning, and who declares “from ancient times the things that are not yet done;” He who has minutely delineated the history of the nations of the world, has also outlined and unveiled the future history and experiences of the true church from the days of her birth to her final triumph. All this He has done for their edification and comfort.
Christ predicted much trouble and tribulation for His true followers. They were to be as sheep among wolves. The world was to hate them; but sadder still, their brethren were to apostatize and link arms with heathen Rome, and turn and persecute the faithful in the name of the Christian religion. A great schism was predicted—a great falling away—and this apostate church was to persecute the true church as Jezebel persecuted the true worshipers in the days of Elijah. Yea, all this was to be done in the name of Christ, as He Himself prophesied—“The time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.” John 16:2.

Papal Supremacy

In outlining the history of His true church, He said that they were to pass through “great tribulation,” such “as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” Matt. 24:21, 22. How many would have been the days of their persecution if those specified days had not been shortened? The answer is found in the book of Revelation. “And the woman [the church] fled into the wilderness
where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.” Rev. 12:6. This period was the exact number of years that antichrist was to reign supreme “over all kindreds and tongues, and nations” before he was to be “led into captivity.” He it was that was “to make war with the saints, and to overcome them” for “forty and two months,” or literally twelve hundred and sixty years. Rev. 13:5-10. The great Reformation of the Middle Ages shortened the Papacy’s reign of persecution of the chosen of God—“the elect.” The Papacy reigned supreme as the corrector of all heretics from the establishment of Justinian’s decree in 538 A.D. to the dethronement of the Roman hierarchy by the French Directory and French army under General Berthier in 1798, when the Papacy lost its temporal power. This deadly wound was to be healed, and the true church, “the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ,” were to experience another mighty conflict, just before the end of all earthly scenes, with the combined powers of apostasy and the “kings of the earth and their armies.”
During the reign of the Papacy in the days of “the great persecution” there were martyred myriads of the saints of God, as faithful citizens as the Roman Empire ever possessed, and for what? And they “were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God.” Rev. 20:4. The true church never persecutes. But the Roman church was the greatest persecutor that ever domineered over the consciences of men.
The future history of the church, both true and false was clearly set forth in the message of Christ in the book of Revelation “unto the churches,” in his seven epistles to “the seven churches,” or seven epochs of church transition. The true church is divided into seven distinct epochs and phases of history, covering the whole Christian dispensation. The false church is mentioned in this connection several times incidentally, as will appear in a later article. The following outline clearly presents these important periods, establishes the dates and characteristics of these specific church periods. The dates are all A.D., but generally only approximate.

The Seven Church Epochs

Begins Ends
31, Ephesus (purity or desirable) to ...100
100, Smyrna (sweet-smelling offering) to 323
323, Pergamos (perched on a pinnacle) to 538
538, Thyatira (sacrificed for contrition) to ...1529
1529, Sardis (that which remains) to ..1798
1798, Philadelphia (brotherly love) to ..1844
1844, Laodicea (judging of the people) to the end.

The First Church

The faith that was delivered to the saints by the Lord of heaven was a pure faith. The believers dwelt in union and harmony—a desirable state. As long as the apostles lived, down to the close of the first century, they contended for purity of doctrine and life.

Persecution by Rome

The second church suffered great persecution from the hands of the heathen world, and about 5,000,000 martyrs presented their lives a “sweet-smelling offering” unto the Lord. When Constantine was nominally converted to the Christian faith, the Christian church changed its headquarters from Jerusalem to Rome, and Constantine offered his throne of universal empire to the chief bishop of the waning church, just as Satan had offered it unsuccessfully to the real Head of the church just three centuries before. This time, however, the scheme carried, for the pope accepted the terms of the throne. “The dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.” Thus the church was seated “where Satan’s seat is,” and was clothed with authority to correct all heretics, and bring them into harmony with the established church. From thence, the true church had to flee “into the wilderness.”

Persecution by the Papacy

Two women (churches) are now seen, one on the throne, “where Satan’s seat is,” and the other “woman fled into the wilderness” for “a thousand two hundred and three-score” years. The one is a pure virgin, clothed with the glory of the sun and crowned with twelve stars; but the other is likened unto the wicked “Jezebel,” who seduced God’s people, and is called “a harlot” and “mother of harlots,” “having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication,” “and I saw the woman drunken with the blood of saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.” The pure woman is represented as fleeing into the wilderness to escape the unrelenting persecution of the threatening “Jezebel,”
who sits upon the seven-headed monster of the great apostasy power. Fifty million souls, according to reliable statistics, were “sacrificed for contrition,” for being a contrite people, as the name “Thyatira” signifies, during the reign of papal supremacy.
The Papacy reigned unmolested, and subjugated every opposing element with a tyrant’s hand until A.D. 1529, when Protestantism prevailed at the Diet of Spires through the protest of the princes of Germany. Thus the days of persecution were shortened, according to the Saviour’s prediction, and the elect were saved from utter destruction. Matt. 24:21, 22. The faithful who survived this exterminating process, whom God had preserved in the wilderness, but who were now given a new power and liberty, were called the Church of Sardis, signifying “that which remains.”

The Advent Movement

After the former church lost its spiritual power, the church of “brotherly love” was developed and called out by the great advent movement which culminated in A.D. 1844. After 1844, at the termination of the 2,300-year prophecy, the heavenly sanctuary was to be cleansed, the work of “judging the people” was to begin, as the word “Laodicea” signifies. Thus we are now living in the great antitypical day of atonement, or the investigation of the books before the heavenly tribunal when our sins will “be blotted out” or retained. The message to Laodicea describes the true condition of the last and true church before her “reproach” is taken away and she comes forth “a glorious church.” May this church accept the Lord’s counsel to her and triumph as an accepted bride with her glorious Lord.

The “Higher Powers” of Romans Thirteen

By Allen Moon

By Allen Moon
“Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.”
The exhortation of the first clause can relate to none other than the divine powers. The word of God furnishes no authority for designating any powers as “higher powers” save the powers that ordained all. On the contrary, both the Father and the Son are spoken of as, “higher than the highest,” “Most High,” “higher than the kings of the earth,” “higher than Agog,” etc.
The second clause assigns a reason for subjection to the divine or higher powers, and that is because all power emanates from the higher; therefore be subject. This is still further emphasized in the last clause of the verse: “The powers that be are ordained of God.”
Here we have mention of powers that are not higher powers, but those ordained by the higher or divine powers. It is needless to assert that the ordaining powers are higher than the powers ordained; this is evident. But when we learn from the word of God to locate the powers that were ordained, the matter will be clear.

The Powers Ordained

The primary meaning of “ordain” is to lay the foundation, to appoint, to settle.—Young. To appoint, to decree, to enact, to institute.—Webster. Illustrated as follows: “Let them be for lights as I ordain.”—Milton. In searching for that which fills the specification, we find a parallel text in Col. 1:16, where it is said: “For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him.” The word “powers” in this text is from the same original word Exousia, meaning privilege, authority, dominion, and is not the word from which comes might, force, strength, ability, etc. In this text the word “powers” is used as a synonym for “dominions” and “principalities,” and we must conclude that these expressions have a wider range than merely powers earthly.
So the powers that are ordained of God likewise are the powers—the dominions of the universe; for this is the only class of powers of which it can be said, they “were created by Him, and for Him.” And as “ordained” is only another word for “created,” it would not be doing violence to the text to read the last clause of Rom. 13:1. The powers that be are ordained of God, and for Him; for it is evident that the same powers are under consideration in both texts.
Again, we read of Christ (Ephesians 1), that the Father “set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion,” referring to that which He had created for Himself, but had laid aside until His mission to earth should be accomplished, when the Father was pleased to again exalt Him above all created things; and said, “Let all the angels of God worship Him,” and commissioned the apostle to exhort, “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers.”

The Dominion

Having identified the powers that were ordained of God, we may proceed with the texts following. In harmony with the foregoing, we must conclude that the dominion of earth is but one of the ordained dominions, so in the second verse of Romans thirteen the singular is used. “Whosoever therefore resisteth the power [by force of arms], resisteth the ordinance of God.” The dominion over men is the Lord’s, by right of creation, and He never conferred that on any being.
Man himself chose the dominion of another, and that one, a created being. The transfer of allegiance resulted in the establishment of human government, for man having severed the connection, by this act, between himself and creative power, had only to resort to human power as a protection against that which sin wrought. And instead of the created remaining under the dominion of his Creator, human governments exercise the dominion created by Christ, and for Him. This is an abuse of the dominion; nevertheless, whosoever resisteth the dominion, resisteth the ordinance of God.

Bearing the Sword

The time before Jesus was manifested, was sufficient for the people of God to be permitted to use the sword; but when He had accomplished the redemption of the dominion, He said: My kingdom is not of the earthly kind, therefore My servants can not fight. And since the sword is that by which man commits transgression, Jesus told His disciples (Luke 22) that two swords were enough to fulfil the prophecy of Isaiah, which says, “He was reckoned among the transgressors.” And when Peter used one of the swords, He said, “Put up again thy sword into his place, for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword;” and “they that [now] resist shall receive to themselves damnation.”
Those who have forsaken the Source of all power will resort to the sword, but Jesus said, “All power in heaven and in earth is given unto Me.” This power is at the disposal of His people; when they resort to the sword, they deny the power of the Redeemer. Henceforth Jesus has made the angels the reapers, and in the end of this world, “the Son of Man shall send forth His angels and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity. . . . Then shall the righteous shine forth in the kingdom of their Father.”

No Rival Dominion Acknowledged

Jesus called His disciples unto Him, and said: “Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you; but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister.” This reference to the exercise of authority clearly indicates that when the Lord, according to His word, has delivered man from the power of darkness, and has translated him into the kingdom of His dear Son, all rule, and dominion, and authority has ceased, except that of the Son; for all things were created by Him, and for Him. So Paul could write that He is head over all things to the church.
The Lord has never recognized the right of a rival to dominion. He has from the beginning exercised the right to invade the dominion of the usurper, to deliver such as will to return to allegiance to the Creator; and also to defend His people against unjust government. He said to Pharaoh, when Egypt exacted service of the people of God, “Let My people go, that they may serve Me.” In other words, He demanded an exemption for His people; and when the ruler refused, He delivered them. When they were in bondage again and had been removed from their own land, He demanded their restoration, and this time, instead of a man, the Lord sent an angel to the ruler, who remained until the monarch’s mind was changed, and he acceded to the demand, and restored Israel.
Thus God makes the nations serve His people, and they become His ministers to His people, in spite of the adversary. All the agencies of Heaven are at the disposal of the Son of God, to be used in the interest of the redeemed. The Holy Spirit, the angels, and even loyal men are the agencies used to move men in authority, in favor of the people of God; and when nations become so far removed as to be incapable of responding to these influences, they cease to exist as nations; they are condemned to overthrow. When God’s people depart from Him and commit evil, He withdraws His protection and leaves them to the power of government, and then “he beareth not the sword in vain.” And finally, “For this cause ye pay tribute also, for they are God’s ministers.”

God’s Rule on Earth

All that is good in government is of God. There is much that is evil, but not so much but that the Almighty can make it to do service for His people, as in the case of Cyrus. He made a servant of the man who never rendered voluntary allegiance to the God of heaven. The government of Cyrus has long since gone into oblivion. So with the nations of earth to-day. So long as they yield to the impressions of the Holy Spirit and permit the work of God to go forward to completion, they will remain; but to rise up against that work will be the signal for their being broken with the rod of iron.

Are Christians Not Under the Law?

By R.

1. Are Believers in Christ under the law?
“Sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” Rom. 6: 14.
NOTE.— The expression here “under the law,” is in the Greek hupo nomon, and means literally under the law, under its condemnation. The scripture therefore equivalently says that the believer is not under the condemnation of the law, but under the unmerited favor that comes through his faith in Christ.
2. Does “under the law” in the Scriptures ever mean anything else?
ANSWER.— There are a number of other scriptures which manifestly mean the same as the one above quoted, but there are two scriptures in which “under the law” occurs, which are from a different expression in the Greek. First, there is the expression en to nomo in Rom. 3: 19, meaning “in the law,” or “within the law,” subject to its scope, subject to its jurisdiction. The other, 1 Cor. 9: 21, in which ennomos occurs, meaning “within law,” or “subject to law, lawful.” “Within law to Christ,” one translation gives it. In both of the above scriptures, our version renders these Greek expressions “under the law.”
3. How many are bound by the law?
“We know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” Rom. 3: 19. “Before faith came, we were kept in ward under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterward be revealed.” Gal. 3: 23, R.V.
4. Why are men not justified?
“All have sinned.” Rom. 3: 23. “Jews and Gentiles . . . are all under sin.” Verse 9. “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified: . . . for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Verse 20.
NOTE.— Without Christ every man is a sinner, and condemned by the law as such. The law, in bringing knowledge of sin to the conscience, thereby condemns the conscience, and as the man of himself can not obey the law, he remains in this sinful, condemned condition, shut up under the condemnation of the law until faith comes to rescue him.
5. How is the believer justified?
“Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” “But now the righteousness of God without the law [not OBTAINED through the law] is manifested.” Verses 24, 21.
6. Does this righteousness ignore or transgress the law?
“Being witnessed by the law and the prophets.” Last of verse 21.
NOTE.— The law and the prophets witness to this righteousness, therefore it must be in conformity to them throughout.
7. How does this righteousness come?
“The righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.” Verse 22.
NOTE.— Christ’s life of obedience is imputed by faith to cover the life of the believer.
8. Does this permit him to transgress the law?
“Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey? . . . sin unto death, . . . obedience unto righteousness.” Rom. 6: 15, 16.
NOTE.— After having been freed from sin, from the condemnation of the law, by the grace of Christ, if we sin anew we become again the servants of sin and fall back under the condemnation of the law. The grace of Christ does not make one immune from transgression, neither does it put a premium on sin by condoning it.
9. What does God offer those who are under the law?
“When the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that He might redeem them which were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.” Gal. 4: 4, 5, R.V.
NOTE.— Christ was made to be sin in our behalf, “that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 2 Cor. 5: 21, R.V. By the favor of God through the work of Christ, we are removed from the condemnation of the law by faith, and set to the ever-after keeping of the law of God, else we fall again into sin and are in need as before of a Saviour. See Titus 2: 11-14; 1 John 2: 6; 5: 3. This adoption of sons is that of obedient sons. R.

Right Ideas of God Essential

By B.

THE idea of God is an old idea. It was born with the race. It still persists in all minds, no matter whether enlightened or degraded.
The cultured Greeks and Romans, the barbaric races of Asia, the savages of the American wilderness, the cannibals of the Pacific Islands, the black races of darkest Africa, or the civilized nations of our day,—with all these the idea of God has been universal. The records of history or of archeology do not reveal a people or a nation where the idea of God has not prevailed.
The question is not that men deny God or the idea of God, but rather in what form their idea takes shape. Men may believe in a god and still be degraded by their belief.
The first commandment declares: “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.” To have a wrong idea of God is to have in the mind a false god; for whatever any being is to us he is to us through our ideas of him. This fact is especially true of any one whom we have never seen.
Let us state the matter in another way: My idea of God is mentally my god. If my idea of God is wrong, then mine is a false god, and I transgress the commandment which forbids all other than the true God.
And I am not only a transgressor of the law but I become an idolater; for men always worship or serve their god, and to worship or serve a false god is idolatry.
But this is not the end of it. The consensus of human experience is that a man becomes like his god. The world was created and then set to be dominated by a man in the image of his Creator. And the idea that man is to be in the image of his god is so strong a law that a man who interchanges a false for the true God must do so in the face of the principle which will make him like that which he thus substitutes.
A man who holds the idea of a cruel god, inevitably will be cruel. He who believes in a god of force, will not be governed by the principle of love. He who denies the personality of God, will ere long find that he is losing out of his own life the great truth of his own personal responsibility.
Any attempt at degrading the idea of God, really degrades oneself. To seek to belittle our conception of Him, is really to belittle ourselves. The moment one sets limits to God, one has set limits to oneself and the retrograde process begins.
It is therefore of infinite importance for us to have right ideas of God. Nothing is of more importance. To know Him aright is life here and hereafter. To know some false god is not to know Him, and that means degradation and death.
But some may think since God is so great that some incorrect notions of Him are unavoidable.
God, it is true, is infinitely great and, of course, can not be fully known or understood by finite man. But while God can not be known absolutely, our knowledge of Him may be correct so far as it goes. And so, tho our knowledge may not be complete, it may be cleansed of all that is wrong or false.
God says we must have no other gods before Him. And what He declares we must do we know we can do. It is possible to have no other gods before Him. It is possible to know Him and Him only.
Then following the great law that a man is to be like his god, we shall be like Him and shall see Him as He is. No longer then shall we see through a glass darkly but face to face.
And that will be full knowledge.
Now we know as children. Then we shall know as adults. And in that complete knowledge, with the apostle Paul, we shall put away childish things.
Remember, however, that childish things need not necessarily be false, tho they are almost inevitably partial. And the partial things in that day are to be merged into the grandly complete.
Let us have, then, no wrong ideas of God. Let us have, as He says, no other gods before Him. Let us keep out the error now that we may know the full truth then.
B.

“Shineth More and More”

The revelation of God’s truth has been ever progressive. From the time that the Gospel was revealed to our first parents in Eden to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the revelation of God’s will became clearer and clearer, especially when His people were walking in the light.
This does not mean that any generation did not have light sufficient to guide and save every soul who desired God’s guidance and salvation. Out of every age and generation and land and clime the resurrection morning will bring trophies of the triumph of God’s grace,—witnesses to the sufficiency of the divine means to save.
But sin and wickedness develop. The arts of the enemy of souls counterfeit the true, deceive the people, lead them to trust in dead forms, and make of none effect the means of grace. Therefore “He giveth more grace.” Where sin abounds, grace is made to superabound; and “grace and truth” are twin factors in the redemption of humanity.
Abel had light sufficient. Enoch, Noah, and Abraham had more than Abel. The elaborate object-lesson of the sanctuary built by “Moses the man of God,” carried clearer lessons of truth than did the simple sacrifices of the Patriarchal Age. Clearer and clearer are the messages of the later prophets, till Daniel and Zechariah glow with light of the fuller revelation of the salvation and kingdom of the Promised One. “The path of the just is as the shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day.”
When Jesus came, the windows on high were opened, and floods of light and life and grace and glory were poured out upon the world. The dried skin bottles of dead formalism could not receive it, and remained with their fossils of truth. The old cloth of self-righteousness could not bear the shrinking, and rejected the new. The specter of the fear of man loomed large and hid the unfolding truth from other vision. But the simple souls who received that truth grew, expanded, and became “men wondered at,” aye, world-molders. It meant trial, isolation from former associates, persecution, to some, death; but it meant glorious victory and larger unfoldment of the glorious truth of the Gospel.
But not then was the whole truth unfolded. Personified Truth was forced to say even to the inner circle, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye can not bear them now;” and the Master died with the things unsaid. But on the Day of Pentecost, and later, how the truth shone out, reaching its climax in the effulgence of the glory of the Apocalypse!
The Dark Ages came with the hiding of the truth. God blessed the honest souls stumbling heavenward in the gloom, blessed them not because of the error they held, but in spite of it. He blessed them because of faith in Jesus as the Saviour, because faith and loyalty to little light.
Then dawned the Reformation based on the opening and unfolding word. Dark shadows of sin and error were dissipated, lurking dangers were disclosed, the thorn-bordered path of truth was revealed to the people who sat in darkness. It was their privilege and it would have been a great blessing, if the reformed churches in Germany, Switzerland, France, and England had gone on. Other darkness would have been dissipated, other errors would have faded away, fuller light would have come to the advancing church.
It is a sad thing that since the Reformation the advancing light of God’s truth has found so little encouragement in the great Reformation churches. Human creeds have closed the doors to its entrance. Cold formalism has frozen its living light when admitted into the fold. Yet to those Reformation churches God would have restored every down-trodden truth, God would have given every new unfoldment of the Gospel message.
When God’s professed people refuse to be beams of His ever unfolding truth, one of two things becomes necessary: either He must suffer His truth to be lost to the world, or He must call out or raise up others who will be loyal to advancing truth. He has ever waited long for a cold, formal church to accept and declare His truth. Under the stimulus of developing truth His church may sometimes do this. If she refuse, God is not straitened; He will choose other means, and His abundant blessing will accompany His revealed and revealing truth. Waiting too long, His people will ever lose blessing. Prompt to respond, they will reap God’s blessing in abundant measure.
In the closing days of Humanity’s tutelage and trial, when great issues are at stake, when subtle counterfeits multiply, God’s truth will unfold at times with startling rapidity. Blessed is the man who watches with ear attent to the voice of God, and heart in tune with eternal truth. Blessed is that church which will not be held by dead hands of men, howsoever honored and holy, but will hear the voice of the True Shepherd, and march to the music of eternal and unfolding verity.

How Long Will We Wait?

The Lord ever pleads with us to come to Him, the Author and Preserver of life, the Giver of all good, the eternal Saviour and King. By His kind providences, His created works, His holy word, His ministers of grace, and by His Holy Spirit—through all He pleads with every heart, “Come unto Me, and live;” “Turn ye, O turn ye, for why will ye die?” How long will you wait, dear soul? The danger is not in God’s goodness, but persistent refusals of His offered love will at last harden your own heart and benumb your own sensibilities till you will no longer recognize His voice nor care to hear. There is only the hope that perisheth elsewhere. Why hesitate about accepting God?

They Went Out from Us

By B.

PAPERS are sent to us from time to time giving the experience of different individuals with Seventh-day Adventists. It is not an uncommon thing, nor has it been through all the ages, for people who have been connected with churches and denominations to leave them. It has not been an uncommon thing for individuals to leave the church of God when that church stood at its very highest in spiritual attainments and in earnest zeal for the Master. It has not been uncommon for those who have thus left the church to say many evil things against it, but none of these facts, singly or together, militate against the truth of the word of God, or the integrity and progress of God's church.
There have been times through all the ages when the professed church of God has become so corrupt that the Lord has called out His faithful remnant who have left the larger body, and that remnant has gone on in the work of the Lord, but this calling out has always been in harmony with His word; and those who have yielded to the call have been those who have been steadfast in resisting corruption while in connection with the larger body. All true separation of this kind has always been marked by faithful adherence to God's word, and the faithful going forward in His work without emphasizing the defections and faults of others. That individual may always be questioned as to his sincerity of Christian motive when his chief stock in trade is in finding fault and criticizing those with whom he has had to do. The Christian life is not a negative life, and finding fault with others is a very poor food to nourish spirituality.
The church of God has always among it imperfect men; it has in its human wisdom made mistakes, but just as long as it cleaves to God's word, and listens to His voice, out of all the wilderness of mistakes and errors the Lord will lead it triumphantly. B.

Why Not Follow Jesus?

THE New York Observer has an article in a recent number, quoted also by the Christian Advocate, which contains the following just observation:
“The earthly life of Jesus in act and word may be looked upon as an interpretation of the Father’s will to men. In many cases divine law had become so entangled with and obscured by human traditions that it was no longer plainly understood. With keen discernment between true and false, Jesus pierced the meshes and tore away the veil.”
The writer tells us how Jesus used the Sabbath in deeds of mercy and healing, and truly says:
“There is an ever pressing need of bringing Jesus’ words and practise to bear on modern life. The danger now is not of Pharisaical burdens, observances, and restrictions; the pendulum has swung quite to the other extreme of too great laxity. Yet the Lord’s interpretation remains applicable and true to-day as it was then.”
Yet this is the interpretation which the Observer writer puts on “Jesus’ words and practise”:
“Many efforts are being made by Christian people to secure a Sunday which carries out Jesus’ interpretation of holy time. Canada has already put in force a law which is both stringent and kind.”
But Jesus did not regard Sunday as the Sabbath or as a holy day. He did not sanction its observance as such by word or practise. Not one word of the Master’s can be given in favor of Sunday observance.
He kept the Sabbath, the seventh day, the day just before the first day of the week, the day upon which He as Creator rested in the beginning, which He set apart and commanded man to observe, the day around which cluster the great events of God’s power, the fragrance of His goodness and love. This seventh-day Sabbath Jesus honored and kept. In this Sabbath agitation hear Him, follow Him. Take His interpretation, both in words and practise. If the Christian world did this, they would all be true Sabbath-keepers, and O, what blessings it would bring!

Christian Education in America

By R.

BISHOP JAMES A. McFAUL (Catholic) of Trenton says that Harvard, Yale, and Princeton are “undermining faith and teaching immorality.” He further has this to say:
“I would forbid young Catholics to go to institutions such as I believe these to be, where they will get no moral training; where they will associate with skeptics and agnostics and where, in the faculties, there is a strong inclination to find faults in and attack Christianity.”
And Cardinal Gibbons has something to say along the same line. He says:
“There is no doubt that there is a growing tendency to omit Christian training, both moral and theological, from American institutions of learning of all grades. This is to be deplored. I believe that a religious training is necessary to the proper development of the country’s youth. A well-rounded education is the greatest thing to be sought after, and an education which omits religion and religious training is not well rounded or complete.”
This is all perfectly true. There is in modern education a strong current setting away from not only religious principles and living, but also from morality itself. But when these two prominent Catholics as here speak of “moral training,” “Christian training,” and “religious training,” it is well known that they mean that which is moral, religious, or Christian from the Catholic standpoint. Religious training that is of the purest type from the Protestant view would be as deeply antagonistic to these men’s view as is the agnostic, or nearly so.
Religious training is as much more necessary to the equipment of life as the soul is finer and more valuable than the body or mind alone. An all-around education will fit body, mind, and spirit; and all three will be brought into conformity, not with the traditions of men, even tho hoary with age, but with the word of God. The moral impulse is the strongest impulse in the universe and he who lacks it has lost what is of greater value than worlds. And the religious impulse can be the highest only when begotten by the Spirit of God, which always acts in strict conformity to the behests of that blessed Book we call the Bible.
R.

Power of God

For untold years old Niagara roared and crashed and thundered, and the mist rose, and the rainbow spanned the forming gulf. All the energy was unused by man; the mighty power hurled the water to the bottom of the chasm and dashed it into white spray to seethe and writhe and run on adown its surging channel. At last came men who knew how to belt onto the whirling machinery of Niagara. They knew how to harness the magnificent giant for the doing of their work.
So it is in spiritual things. The power of God awaits—awaits unused. All power in heaven and earth awaits our demand and reception. There is enough and to spare. This mighty energy for heavenly uplift is constant; it is forever flowing out an unceasing tide of unmeasured force. Do you know how to put your life into movement through its impulse? Do you know how to belt onto the machinery of almighty force-for-good? Do you know how to yield to the far-flowing tides that drive the enginery of holiness? Christ teaches us how. He says to all, “Learn of Me.”

Religion Shown in Deeds of Mercy

By Ellen G. White

Our religion is to make itself known in deeds of mercy. When the spirit of unselfish labor for others characterizes our lives, there will be seen the outworkings of the love of God that will result in the conversion of heart and the transformation of life and character.—Mrs. E. G. White.
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