Earlier text: THE CAUSE OF GOD AND CIVIL GOVERNMENTLIFE IN THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM.
By William Covert
Some plants grow in the air, having no apparent connection with the earth. All that the Spanish mosses require for subsistence is room to swing upon the limb of a tree. There they feed themselves upon what they gather from the air. Another air plant is the mistletoe. In size it is about equal to a potato plant. Its leaves are green and vigorous, its berries small and white. Any kind of tree, dead or alive, will do for the mistletoe to live upon. All it seems to want is room in some elevated place to fasten its roots and extend its branches. It thrives best near some river or body of water, and in a climate where the winters are not extremely cold. Air plants seem to represent a very selfish class among men. These plants are so exclusive that they want to be wholly by themselves. They try to get away from the touch of their neighbors, and would be as little used as possible. Hence they perch upon trees, to be out of reach. Their attitude says to other plants, “Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou.” Isa. 65:5. These are the Pharisees of the vegetable kingdom. There are plants which appear to grow out of the ground, and yet draw but little nourishment from it. The prophet uses them to represent the unbeliever, or one of little faith. These are they who put their trust in an arm of flesh. “Thus saith the Lord: Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.” Jer. 17:5, 6. Such plants subsist but little upon the food in the earth where they grow. Their nature is to gather in for themselves, out of their environments, all they can. That which they gather is stored away in self. They refuse to enrich the soil or to supply anything for the animal kingdom. They neither ripen into lavender nor harden into wood. Many among them are wholly devoid of foliage, but almost all are thickly set with thorns. The whole cactus family belong to this class. They are unpleasant to handle, and prove to be of little practical use in the world. The Scripture above quoted shows them to be emblematic of the curse which fell upon the earth because of sin. The man who trusts in himself, instead of drawing life from the Lord, is like the sand plants. His nature is to be unpleasant. He refuses to help others. He has a disposition like the nettle and the cactus. He is a thorn upon the bramble. Truly the members of the vegetable world have their counterpart in the characters found among different classes of men. There are multitudes of plants that grow in water. Some of their stems reach the surface to bloom. Others remain constantly submerged, and only breathe a little air which their fringe-like leaves are enabled to extract from the nether bubbles. Not a ray of sunshine do they gather to brighten their foliage. Deep down in the dark waters they get a little peep of day, but not enough to give them any cheerful appearance. They are gloomy specimens of life, but they have their parallel among the sad people of earth. Perhaps they are designed to constitute a dark, marine forest, as a hiding place for the smaller fish—those chased by the ocean sharks. The plants which grow in the shallow and fresh water of the lakes, get some air, and a good degree of light. Their foliage is quite green, and their blossoms, especially those of the lily, are beautiful. The measure of the stem which holds the water-lily bloom and foliage, corresponds in length with the depth of the water where they grow. If the water is ten feet deep, the stem will be ten feet long, so that the leaf and the blossom may rest on the surface. The bloom of the water-lily shuts up at night, and draws its head under water when it sleeps. Their stems are hollow, and bend like ropes. This arrangement conducts air to the root of the plant, and gracefully anchors the bloom to the spot where they grow. The lily of the lake grows with its feet in the mud, and with its surroundings impure; yet it puts nothing but the purest white and yellow into its flowers. In this respect it furnishes an excellent example for Christians to imitate. Our environment may be very unfavorable, yet the Lord provides for the robe of character to be whiter than snow. The plant growing in the water is suggestive of a life submerged with sorrow; and sleeping beneath the surface is suggestive of fear. In trouble, David wrote, “Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul. I sink in the deep mire, where there is no standing; I am come into the deep waters, where the floods overflow me.” “Let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters. Let not the waterflood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up.” Ps. 69:1, 2, 14, 15. The plant growing in a soil that is rich and watered well with dew and rain is typical of a correct life. Through these plants the physical bounties of heaven are prepared for the world. These are the agents which the Lord uses to supply the tables and fill the garners of men. The Christian’s trust in the Lord for righteousness and spiritual strength, is symbolized by the thrifty tree growing by the waters. “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.” Jer. 17:7, 8. The whole spiritual kingdom is most beautifully outlined in the natural world. The righteous are to “flourish like the palm tree.” They are to do well in spite of all difficulties. The roots of the palm extend to hidden springs of water, and the tree flourishes in many places where other vegetation can not grow. Christianity, like its Author, is “the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.” The wicked are represented by “the chaff,” the “tares” of the field, the “blight and the mildew;” while the people of God are compared to a “watered garden,” to the “good wheat,” and to a “fruitful field.” Ah, there is no escape from God’s presence! No hiding from His power! His works are everywhere visible, His strength everywhere applied. Heaven is not too high for the Lord to ascend. The nether world is not so low that its depths are hid from Him. The earth contains no place where the creature can hide. The night has no darkness to the eye of the Lord. How They Became Convinced
By James Blankenship
[Believing it would be of interest to our readers, the editor of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES has asked Sabbath-keeping ministers and evangelical workers to tell in a few words the scripture or scriptures, the truths and principles, which constrained them to accept the unpopular truth of the seventh-day Sabbath. These testimonies must not exceed 500 words. Let us hear from all.] In the winter of 1896, I met Brother Ebert, the first Seventh-day Adventist I ever saw. I had never heard of such a people before. He was reading his Bible, and was well able to give a reason for the hope that was in him. He told me he was a Seventh-day Adventist, and I asked him what that meant. He said he kept the seventh-day Sabbath, according to the commandment, and believed in the nearness of the coming of Christ. That to me was a blessed thought; but I returned home and did not give the subject much consideration for a while. Soon after this I was married, and in 1899 we moved to a neighborhood where there was a family of Sabbath-keepers. In September of the same year, Brethren Fellow and Collins conducted a series of meetings in a schoolhouse near us. I soon fell in love with the way they made the Scriptures explain themselves. When they took up the prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation, I became very much interested. I soon saw that Christ never changed the Sabbath (Matt. 5:17), but kept it (John 15:10; Luke 4:16). I saw that, according to 1 John 3:4, “sin is the transgression of the law.” The law says that “the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Ex. 20:8-11. Christ “did no sin” (1 Peter 2:22); therefore He could not change or break the Sabbath, nor teach men so (Matt. 5:19); “the man of sin,” “who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped” (2 Thess. 2:3-10), had only thought to “change times and laws” (Dan. 7:25). I began to keep the Sabbath at once, and find it a “delight” and “honorable.” Isa. 58:13. The good old SIGNS has been a very helpful companion ever since I accepted the blessed truth. That all Sabbath-keepers will do all they can to help to double its subscription list, is my prayer. “PEOPLE often speak of a trillion as a possible number. The fact is, not a trillion of seconds has elapsed since the creation of Adam; nor will that number have elapsed until February 1, in the year of our Lord 25,825, for in a trillion of seconds there are 31,687 years, 32 days, 1 hour, and 46 minutes and 40 seconds.” THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. NO. 2.
As we learned last week the church of Christ is not confined to one age or dispensation, but is contemporaneous with the Gospel. The church of Christ is continuous from the time she was espoused a chaste virgin to her Lord. When John saw her at the beginning of the Christian dispensation she had then for five centuries been travailing for the conquering Son. The very word rendered “church,” ekklesia, means those “regularly summoned” through all the ages, and it is so used in the Old Testament Greek Scriptures. The One who calls them is “the God of all grace.” 1 Peter 5:10. He calls through Jesus Christ, who thus writes: “Come unto Me.” “And the spirit and the bride say, Come.” All heaven is interested in the work of calling as well as all who have partaken of the spirit of heaven. All are called, yea, even all who have “sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Rom. 3:23. “I came not to call the righteous,” says Jesus, “but sinners.” “Even us whom He hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles.” Rom. 9:24. God calls all; He therefore certainly calls you, whoever you are. Before sin entered, there was none occasion to call us. But now He calls us out of the world, out of sin and darkness and woe and misery and death. “Who hath called you out of darkness” (1 Peter 2:9); “I have chosen you out of the world” (John 15:19); “Wherefore come out from among them [the unbelieving, the unrighteous, the children of darkness, the idolators], and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you” (2 Cor. 6:17); “Come out of her [Babylon], My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues” (Rev. 18:4). This does not mean that the called of God shall not mingle with the unbelieving, with the idolator, with the worldling; it is his work, his duty, his privilege, to remain in this world for a season, among the people of the world; but he is to be actuated by a different spirit, different aims, objects, purposes. This is shown by the means which God uses to call him out of the world, and the work and station to which He calls him. The voice which calls the sinner, the weary pilgrim of earth, is “the Gospel of God.” “He called you by our Gospel” (2 Thess. 2:14); and “called me by His grace” (Gal. 1:15), “the Gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24); God calls to repent, “and believe the Gospel” (Mark 1:15); and His Gospel ever testifies, “Repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21). How blessed is God’s wondrous invitation to a race of rebels. Not to take a certain definite name, not call ourselves the elect and all others reprobate, not to an ancient and superstitious creed, not to prescribe ritual or ceremony, not to a certain mountain or city or temple or tomb, not to a certain line of priests or succession of priests according to the flesh. It calls us all to better things. It calls us out of sin “to be saints” (Rom. 1:7); called out of the fellowship of the world, “unto the fellowship of His son Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Cor. 1:9). From the strife and unrest of sin, “God hath called us to peace” (1 Cor. 7:15); from bondage He has “called unto liberty” (Gal. 5:13); “not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness” (1 Thess. 4:7); “called us with an holy calling” (2 Tim. 1:9); “called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:7); called from the infamy of sin “unto His eternal glory” (ch. 5:10); “called you unto His kingdom and glory” (1 Thess. 2:12); and thus being separated from sin, and by His grace translating us “into the kingdom of His dear Son” (Col. 1:13), He calls us “sons and daughters” (2 Cor. 6:18), “sons of God” (1 John 3:2): “and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:17); “fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God” (Eph. 2:19); whose “citizenship is in heaven, from whence also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory, according to the working whereby He is able even to subject all things unto Himself” (Phil. 3:20, 21). He calls us to the keeping of the “commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. 14:12. This is the church of God, the called-out-ones by His Gospel unto Himself, separate from the world unto Himself; separate from sin unto holiness. Those who heed that call, the “regularly summoned” ones, according to God’s Word, in each age form the church for that age. Making the Call Effectual.
He who responds to that multiform call to the end makes his “calling and election sure.” But it inevitably follows that he who will not accept of God’s call, who will not let the Gospel of the grace of God work out the sin and work in the righteousness, can not be a citizen of God’s kingdom. He is not one of the called-out of God; he is not a member of the church of God. The church to which he belongs may be called by man, “The Church of God,” or “The Church of Christ,” or “The Church of the Apostles,” or “The Christian Church,” or “The Holy Catholic Church,” or the “Methodist” or “Baptist” or “Adventist Church;” the name of the church will not make him a citizen of heaven or a called-out one from the world; for a man may nominally belong to any ecclesiastical body, and yet be as much of the world as one who believes in no church whatever. It must also inevitably follow that he who once yielded to God’s call, but who turned from the path of right, and in time of trial preferred, and walked in, his own way and the way of the world instead of that of God, would by thus doing take himself out from among the called-out ones, the church, and become one of the world, wherever his name might be enrolled. And this is as true of a church or body of such persons as it is of the individual. “Many are called, but few are chosen,” because the many will not submit to God’s call. It means something to be called of God. No greater honor could come to the child of earth. No greater privilege and blessing could come to him than to be one of those “citizens” which the King of Heaven regularly summons. [In our next we will inquire as to the Head of the Church, the Gifts of the Church, and the Test of the Church]. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God.” Rev. 3:12. It was Christ who made this promise through His servant John. But what does it mean to be a pillar?—A pillar in a literal temple, or other building, is a substantial column placed in a position to support a weight, or burden. So the Lord’s promise to the overcomer is that he shall be made a burden-bearer in His house. Of itself a pillar is of no use, excepting, perhaps, for ornament; but in the Lord’s cause there is no recognized ornamentation but that of character, of worth. Isa. 52:7; 1 Peter 3:1-4. The pillar is of practical utility when it stands erect in support of a substantial structure. Again, a pillar that would hardly stand alone of itself, that would not bear a sudden jar, a gust of wind, or the push of a child, will not stand firmly and securely when placed in proper position under a massive burden. In the promise herein quoted the word “pillar” is used in a figurative sense, and our “Standard Dictionary” gives the following as one definition of the word: “Figuratively, one who, or that which, strongly supports a work or a cause; as a pillar of the church.” So one reward of the overcomer is to have a position of substantial burden-bearing. God is able to keep His children from falling (Jude 24), and He does it in the same way that a pillar is kept from falling, by holding it in place with a burden, by making them laborers together with Him. Christ was an overcomer all through His earthly life, and He was a pillar, a burden-bearer, a worker with His Father. He said, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” The real overcomer never will shirk the burden that comes to him; therefore he can be depended upon as a pillar. One who is too weak to stand under the burdens and trials that pertain to the church of God will not do for a pillar. To risk faulty material in the responsible position of a pillar in a great structure is not wise. The builder of the commonest kind of structure would not rest it upon unsound pillars. Architects are especially careful in this respect. And God is a wise architect; He chooses for pillars in His temple only such material as has been tested and tried, and has withstood the test; He chooses the overcomers for such important places. The one who overcomes the temptations that come to him daily, whose character is daily becoming whitened by contact with the Word of God, who is being strengthened by godly exercise of mind and body, is one who can be entrusted with pillars. He will always have plenty of work; for he can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens him (Phil. 4:13). God will keep him in place by the burdens that will be allowed to rest upon him. “He shall go no more out,” being “kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.” BABYLON'S “WISE MEN” TESTED.
“In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams; and his spirit was troubled, and his sleep went from him.” Dan. 2:1. Farther along in the chapter we learn that these dreams were instigated by the Lord. Nebuchadnezzar had been made the guardian of the children of Judah, because, through their apostasy, they had become unfitted for independent government in their own name. Wherever the Lord’s recognized people are, no matter what may be their spiritual condition, we may expect to see the hand of the Lord manifested in their behalf. Tho He chastens them, yet He loves them. Heb. 12:6-8. Therefore His spirit began to move upon Nebuchadnezzar in a way to call his attention to the One who had given him his power over the nations. Nebuchadnezzar had reigned two years conjointly with his father, and because of his prominence as commander of the armies of Babylon, and his otherwise active agency in the affairs of the kingdom, the Jewish records acknowledge him as king during that time. But the Babylonian records begin his reign with the death of his father. So this was the “second year” of his reign, according to the Babylonian record. Being a year after the young Jewish princes mentioned in the first chapter had finished their three years’ course in school, it would be his fourth year of practical rule over them. While the dream was designed to show Nebuchadnezzar what should come to pass in the history of the world’s kingdoms (verse 29), it incidently, and first of all, gave opportunity for demonstrating the ignorance and hollow pretension of the king’s “wise men.” This in turn would prepare his mind better to weigh the words of the Lord’s servant Daniel, through whom the Lord purposed further to instruct the king. The dreams so impressed the king’s mind that he determined to accept no mere guess-work as to their meaning. The “wise men” pretended to be able to explain dreams, but, in order to be sure of the right interpretation in this case, he imposed a new test of their ability in this respect. Aside from being an unusually shrewd man, there is no doubt that the king had found no little occasion to suspect that they were not infallible interpreters. “Then the king commanded to call the magicians, and the astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, for to show the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king. And the king said unto them, I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit was troubled to know the dream. Then spake the Chaldeans to the king in Syriac, O king, live forever; tell thy servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.” This was the old story with them; knowing the dream they could put any kind of fanciful interpretation to7 such as would be likely to please or flatter the king. That class of people are always artful in concocting interpretations of variant import, so that in any event they can be made to fit the thing to be interpreted. But the king had decided beforehand what to do. So he answered them, “The thing is gone from me.” What thing?—The margin of the American Revised Version says, “The word is gone forth from me.” The test to be enforced was, “If ye will not make known unto me the dream, with the interpretation thereof, ye shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill.” On the other hand, if they would tell the dream and its interpretation they should receive gifts and great honor. The “wise men” again pleaded with the king to tell them the dream, but he persistently refused, saying, “Ye would gain the time, because ye see the thing is gone from me.” Of course they would want to put off the time of their execution. Then the king repeats the “thing,” or word, that has gone forth from him, and tells them plainly why he is constrained to test them in this way: “If ye will not make known unto me the dream, there is but one decree for you; for ye have prepared lying and corrupt words to speak before me, till the time be changed; therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that ye can show me the interpretation.” The Chaldeans then argued that there was not a man upon the earth that could show the dream, and therefore no king or ruler ever had asked such a thing of any magician, or astrologer, or Chaldean. They said it was a rare thing that the king required, and none could show it to him “except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.” This was a plain acknowledgment that they could get no help from their gods. “For this cause the king was angry, and very furious, and . . . the decree [which had before been decided upon] went forth that the wise men should be slain. And they sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain.” Daniel did not get excited when the officer came after him; he “answered with wisdom,” and asked, “Why is the decree so hasty from the king?” Then Arioch explained the matter to Daniel, who evidently had not been called in with the other “wise men,” altho reckoned with them, when it came to the matter of executing them. But Daniel was permitted to go to the king, and ask for time, the very thing that the others had been refused; and time was granted him. There are two apparent reasons for this: 1. Daniel promised an interpretation of the dream without asking the king to tell what the dream was. 2. The Spirit of the Lord, that had prompted the king to put his “wise men” to the test, had moved him to test Daniel’s wisdom also. Evidently some soothing influence had temporized the king’s fury, at least as far as Daniel was concerned. THE LIGHT THAT WILL NOT FAIL.
In the midst of the grossest darkness of earth's history God holds out the promise of the greatest light. The closing days of this world are to be days of intense spiritual darkness. With every wind of doctrine blowing, the winds of strife at work in all quarters of the earth, and clouds of philosophic doubt fairly shutting out the sky, the true children of God will live by faith in the glow of a light which the world will not deign to recognize as light. Because the world has rejected the true light and turned to the philosophies of paganism for its teaching, God permits them to be deceived by the thing to which they have turned. They see darkness as light and light as darkness. The Saviour says: “If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” We are living in an age when knowledge is diffused more generally than in any preceding age; but the prince of darkness has used that diffusion of knowledge to serve his ends, and through his masterly deceptions has turned men's minds into myriads of channels that lead away from the truth of God and back to a deeper spiritual darkness than that from which the Reformation taught men to escape. It is greater because it is more hopeless, and because those deceived by it believe they are following greater light than has ever been known before. Nevertheless, God's true light will be shining even in these most trying times, for He says: “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of Jehovah is risen upon thee. For, behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples; but Jehovah will rise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee.” Isa. 60:1, 2. Those who are willing to throw every selfish desire to the winds, making every inclination subject to the will of God, seeking His glory only—these “shall see light in Thy light.” They will be more anxious for that light of truth than for anything this world has to offer. Christ is the light of the world, the light of His people, “the light of the world,” “the way, the truth, and the life;” and therefore this extraordinary outflow of light of which this scripture speaks is from Him. They who are His are commanded to “Arise,” and give it to the world. As we are living in the last days, we are living in the time when we may expect to see the true children of God giving heed to this command. But, as they give forth the light that is given them, Satan is busy confusing the minds of men and turning their feet into the channels of darkness which he has taught them to believe are highways of the greatest light. He is doing that to-day, and so is bringing darkness into the hearts of men, into the membership of the church, through skeptical criticism of the Word, and into the world through the infidelity and the example of a worldly church. That the scripture above quoted refers to the last days is shown by the closing verses of the same chapter. God's promise to His people in that trying time is a gracious one. He has light for those who seek Him, and He purposes to let His glory be revealed in and through them. Christ Himself is the Sun of Righteousness, and He tells us through the prophet Malachi: “Unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings.” Mal. 4:2. That also is spoken of the last days, and His arising in behalf of His people is equivalent to the statement in Dan. 12:1: “And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great Prince who standeth for the children of Thy people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time; and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.” They whose names have been found written in the book of God are they who have been following the light of God and have stood valiantly for His truth in spite of all the opposition of the enemy and his emissaries. Therefore, while the clouds of that fatal darkness are thickening in the world, let us follow the light of God. The night of sin is nearly ended; but the darkest portion of the night is just before the dawn, and we can not afford to be trusting in any light but the light of God. There is much at stake, and there is no other true light. 1543.—Book of Jasher Again.
In your issue of June 1 you refer to the book of Jasher as a lost book. I have in my possession a copy of said book, which is supposed to be the only original one now known. E. L. The authenticity of our friend's book truly rests upon a supposition. Among many of the learned Jewish rabbis there is no agreement as to the book, whether it is “the book of the law,” Deuteronomy, Samuel, or Judges. Some hold that it was lost at the captivity. There are four works extant, claiming to be the Book of Jasher, appearing respectively in 1394, 1544, 1625, and 1751. Of the last, Smith's Dictionary remarks: “A clumsy forgery in English, which first appeared in 1751, under the title of the ‘Book of Jasher,’ deserves notice solely for the unmerited success with which it was palmed off upon the public.” This is probably our friend's copy. Will he give us fuller particulars? When and where was it published, and by whom? Does strong drink in Deut. 14:26 mean fermented liquor? It doubtless includes that. It does not mean distilled liquor, as the process of distillation was not then known to the Hebrews. Even their strongest drinks were evidently mild compared with modern so-called “mild” or “soft” drinks. 1545.—Have We the True Seventh Day?
Please give the historical proof or reference which will establish a connection between the Sabbath that Christ kept and the Saturday of to-day, which will prove that Saturday is the identical day indicated by the Fourth Commandment. Of course, the calendar gives Saturday as the seventh day, and encyclopedias confirm it. But they have a good reason for it, which reason I would like very much to have. C. W. D. There are some things which, if we will take time to consider, are self-evident. (1) It is not an uncommon occurrence for an individual to lose count of the days of the week. It is a rare thing for an entire family to do so, yet we may hear or know of an instance or two in the course of a lifetime. But no one ever heard of a neighborhood losing the order of the days of the week or the day, much less a township losing the day, or a county, a province, or a state. If one should lose such reckoning the rest would immediately set him right. In the very nature of the case a change of the day is impossible unless there was concurrent agreement among the nations; but history records nothing of this kind. (2) It is a well-known fact, as a writer in the North British Review some years ago remarked, that Sunday is “the wild solar holiday of all pagan times.” Religion would hold the pagans to the day. Religion has also held many of the professed people of God to the observance of the day which comes just before the first day of the week. Whenever the Jews and other nations have come in contact, the seventh-day Sabbath and Sunday stood related in the week as they do now. (3) The late Rev. Wm. M. Jones, D.D., of London, an antiquarian, prepared by great research, large expense, and indefatigable labor, “A Chart of the Week, Showing the Unchanged Order of the Days and the True Position of the Sabbath, as Proved by the Combined Testimony of Ancient and Modern Languages.” This chart was completed in 1886. It gives in nine columns (a) the name of the language, when spoken, read, or used, (b) the name of the cluster of seven days called a week, (c–j) the names of each of the days in the original languages, the transliteration and translation into English in 160 ancient and modern languages and dialects; and 108 of these languages know the seventh day by the name of Sabbath or its equivalent, while the entire number bear testimony to the identity and order of the days of the ancient and modern week. That part dealing with European languages was compiled by the noted linguist Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte. (4) Astronomy and the testimony of the records of eclipses confirm the same, as does also the history of the Jewish people. These strong, obvious reasons, which might be greatly elaborated, furnish sufficient ground for the correctness of calendars and encyclopedias. 1546.—Discoverer of America.
Who discovered America? I heard it disputed that Columbus discovered America. It was said that he only discovered the West Indies. E. Q. R. Well, the West Indies are a part of America, spurs, so to speak, of the continent. By his discovery the continent was learned of, and the way opened for future explorers. Still Columbus was not the first who discovered America. The Chinese “Year Books” have records of exploring the west coast of America in the years A.D. 432, 464, 499. The first European on record who saw the shores of this continent was Bjarni, a Norwegian, in 995. Leif the Lucky, son of Eric, who planted a colony in Greenland in 983, returned with Bjarni in 1000. Newfoundland he named Flatland; Nova Scotia, Woodland; and New England, Vinland. In 1170 Madoc, a prince of Wales, probably visited this continent, and in 1380 Nicolo Zeno. Columbus was probably the next. 1547.—The Number Which Went Down to Egypt.
How do you harmonize Acts 7:14 with Gen. 46:27 concerning the number that went down to Egypt? E. M. The Septuagint, the Old Testament in Greek, translated from older Hebrew copies than any now known, has verse 27 as follows: “And the sons of Joseph, who were born to him in the land of Egypt, were nine souls; all the souls of the house of Jacob who came with Joseph unto Egypt, were seventy-five souls.” This includes all of Joseph's family, making seventy-five souls as in Acts 7:14. All are counted as going into Egypt because belonging to Jacob's family, and in Egypt because of that fact.