BUILDING a bridge across the Niagara River below the Falls was once thought to be impossible. The banks of the river, as we all know, are very high and steep, the distance across nearly an eighth of a mile; and the river here boils and foams so that no boat can stand the fury of the torrent a moment. Sinking piles and building arches was quite out of the question. Yet a bridge was built—a wire suspension bridge, so called because it had to be hung or suspended by cables driven into huge blocks of granite on each bank. The cables were made of twisted wire. The bridge looked like a spider’s thread.
But would the cables hold? That had to be tried. How frightened the spectators were when the engineer drove the first carriage over! The bridge quivered to the horse’s tread. When he reached the middle, might not the weight snap it in two? Might not the horses grow restive, frightened? A terrible leap would that be into the raging water two hundred and fifty feet underneath! But he crossed in safety. The bridge stood the trial. Then it had to be tried by storms. Might not a heavy gale wrench the cables from their fastenings? Gales and storms beat against it, and it stood. Might not rust eat off the wires? Time would tell; and time proved that the bridge could be relied on. “I am afraid to trust it, it looks so slender,” said one of our party, shrinking back, when we visited the Falls a year afterward. “It has been tried,” said the guide; “there is no danger;” and we crossed in safety.
A new steamboat has to be tried before passengers and freight can be trusted on board. A new railroad has its trial trips before it is thrown open to the public. A few years ago, at the opening of a railroad in Missouri, a train of cars filled with people, many of them gentlemen invited by the directors, set out from St. Louis on a trial trip. On swept the train. The party were in high spirits, when in an instant— crash, crash! Timbers split, joists snapped, one terrible plunge, and down went the cars through a breaking bridge into the river below, a heap of ruins. That bridge had been trusted before it had been tried.
We usually do not trust anything until it is tried. Boys dare not skate across a river until they have tried the new ice. The swing just put up on the tree is not deemed safe for the children until the rope is tried. A tried friend is a friend worth having.
The Bible tells us of something that is tried. “The word of the Lord is tried.” Its declarations are tried. It declares that “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Its promises are tried. “Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out.” John Bunyan, the wild tinker boy, went and found it so; John Newton, the swearing slave captain, went and found it so. And how many all over the world are ready to witness, this day, that they went to the Son of God, and found him a very precious Saviour from their sins.
“The word of the Lord is tried.” But are its threatenings to be relied on? Yes; when it says, “Be not deceived; neither thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, shall inherit the kingdom of God.” Judas found it so, when it says, “The wrath of God cometh on the disobedient.” Poor king Saul found it so, when it says, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” You must experience the happy change before you can enjoy the blessings of the kingdom.
“The word of God is tried.” And then what? “He is a buckler to all who trust in him;” he is a sure friend. Ps. 30. In him are safety and protection from the sad effects of sin in this world, and its dreadful consequences in hell hereafter.—Sel.
Holy Days.
By A. P. Lawton
“ONE man esteemeth one day above another; another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.” Rom. 14:5.
We often have to meet this, as sufficient to silence all claim to a definite day as a Sabbath. As some from different nations embraced the apostle’s teachings, they, as a matter of course, brought each their traditions, feasts, holy days, and new moon, all of which had no more reference to the Sabbath of the ten commandments, written with God’s own finger on tables of stone, than Easter, Lent, Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Washington’s birthday. They not only had their festivals, but a particular day for their observance. These were classed together. The apostle cautioned them, lest they should be diverted from his lessons of truth, which he so much wished to impress upon their minds, and dispute about those things which were not essentially in the way. He knew their prejudices, and when they did not interfere with the commands of God, and the gospel of Christ, they should not be introduced to hinder and prejudice the truth.
They would naturally assume less proportions and lose all appreciable weight, as the people became interested in the glad news of salvation through Christ. The apostle wished to elevate their minds to these important truths which should not be clogged by non-essentials. Jesus said he came not to destroy the law or prophets, but to fulfill. If Christ had no commission to alter or abolish any part of the law of God, neither dare I.
A. P. LAWTON.
West Winfield, N. Y.
Work for All.
By A. M. L.
THE duty of individual effort in the missionary work has been so clearly laid out and established that perhaps nothing more need be said to stir up our minds. And yet it seems that some of us are too apt to give its trials, burdens, and sacrifices, to others. We are in danger of not feeling our individual responsibility. We think others feel the burden, and that it is unnecessary for us so weak and incapacitated to do anything; that, if we do try, we shall make mistakes that will injure the cause and place ourselves and it in a wrong light before others.
All around us darkness is prevailing, and who is to dispel it? Should we altogether hold our peace? Even the very stones would cry out were there no other agency to carry the truth. It would be well for each one to ask himself or herself, Have I a mission? and, if I have, what is it? Is it possible for me to exercise any influence in this direction? and next, am I doing all I can to fulfill this mission? I do not see that even one who professes present truth is excused from some kind of labor in the great harvest field. Does the Lord excuse us? or does he require that, as it has been freely communicated to us, in like manner we should spread it for others’ good, either by our example, by distributing publications, or giving of our means that the plan of the mission work may be carried on?
It is a work of free-will offering, as was the building of the tabernacle in the wilderness, or the temple of Solomon. Each will be moved to give or withhold such talents as they have at their disposal just as they feel its importance. Those who can do seemingly but a little, like the widow giving her mite, may be the very ones who will receive the greatest reward. It is accepted of us according to what we have. We are not responsible for talents we do not possess, but for just that which we do possess. The Lord holds us answerable for what we can do with his divine aid and no more. The message will go impelled by love to God, and to our neighbor, and by no other motive power existing. Anything done from a selfish feeling will not do. We must get the genuine motive power to accomplish our work, and to answer our responsibilities, and then humbly go forward in the name of the Lord. The gates of hell even, cannot prevail against his word and work.
A. M. L.
Sampling Religion.
The Rev. J. J. Lewis, of South Boston, preached a sermon on Sunday evening in the Young Men's Christian Union Hall to a large audience on “Sampling Religion.” He referred in the first place to the well-nigh universal practice among the ladies of sampling dry goods, oftentimes without any special or important purpose in so doing, the great cost to the firm, the great trouble to salesmen and the uselessness to the samplers themselves of the practice. Studying the subject, we see that the practice is by no means confined to the dry goods line. It is everywhere, and nowhere more prominent than in religions. Three classes of religious samplers are noted:—
First, Those who, having no stated place of attending church, are at Music Hall to-day, at Park street on next Sunday, at the Rev. Mr. Hale's the following Sunday, and so on.
Secondly, Those who have a regular place of worship, yet go semi-occasionally, i. e., when it is not too stormy to go out, or too fair to stay in-doors—when it is neither too hot nor too cold; those who go when they have got new, nice clothes, or to see the new and nice clothes of others.
Thirdly, Those who go perhaps constantly, but who do nothing more than sample the sermon, take no part in the church work, no interest in the benevolent, fraternal, Christian matters of the community. These are all samplers and need not expect to work up out of the samples they get a fitting, comely, serviceable robe of life any more than those who sample dry goods out of the little bits the clerks cut for them can make a suitable drawing-dress. All should not sample, but purchase, what they want and what they must have or go naked. The full pattern of life's robe wrought up out of prayer and practice, hearing and doing, must be bought by love and sacrifice and made up in the work-rooms of daily life.
PRESIDENT GRANT ON PROFANITY.
The Washington Evening Star has the following:—“On Friday, before leaving for Long Branch, the President dropped in to see a well-known citizen of Washington. During his stay the daughter of the gentleman referred to remarked that she had heard a pleasant thing about him (the President). The President inquired to what she referred. ‘I have been told by an officer who served with you in the army,’ said she, ‘that he had been with you under many trying circumstances, and that in no single instance, no matter what the provocation, had he ever known you to make use of profane language. I was delighted to hear this, especially in view of the fact that profanity is said to be the rule, and not the exception, among army officers. Will you excuse me, Mr. President, if I inquire if what I heard is true.’ ‘It is, I believe,’ modestly replied the President; ‘I have always regarded profane language as unnecessary, to say the least, and as I am a man of few words I have never been able to understand the necessity for useless expressions of the character referred to.’”
CHEER HIM.—
At a fire in a large city, while the upper stories of a lofty dwelling were wrapped in smoke and the lower stories all aglow with flame, a piercing shriek told the startled firemen that there was one in the building in peril. A ladder was quickly reared, and diving through the flames and smoke until it touched the heated walls, when a brave young fireman rushed up the rounds on his errand of mercy. Stifled by the smoke, he stopped, and seemed about to descend. The crowd was in agony, as a life seemed lost, for every moment of hesitation seemed an age. While this shivering fear seized every beholder, a voice from the crowd pealed out, “Cheer him! Cheer him!” and a wild hurrah burst from the excited spectators. As the cheer reached the fireman, he started upward through the curling smoke, and in a few moments was seen coming down the ladder with a child in his arms. That cheer did the work. How much we can do to help the brave ones who are struggling with temptation, almost fainting in their efforts to do good to others. Don’t find fault with your brother in his trial, but “Cheer him.” Give him a word that shall urge him on his way, and if you can’t help him in any other way, give him a cheer.
Does He Understand Us?
By T. S.
A WRITER in the Sabbath Recorder of June 4, 1874, deprecates our promulgation of the Advent doctrine. A few expressions will sufficiently indicate his views and feelings in reference to the matter. He says:—
“Among the soul-ruining errors of the times and the professed Christian world, materialism assumes a prominent place.”
“Many persons believe in the personal reign of Christ on earth previous to the Judgment, and they are strong Sabbatarians and make all manner of sacrifices to sustain and propagate their views. As to their speculation in reference to the second advent, and personal reign of Christ for a thousand years, they will do no harm as mere opinions. When presented as special items of faith, and absorb the mind to enthusiasm, to the neglect of the great theme of salvation by Christ’s death, resurrection, and intercession, it is about time to lift up the voice against them. It is a matter of no account comparatively whether Christ come and reign in person or not, for the salvation offered to man has nothing to do with it—if men believe it, it will do them no good—if they reject it, no harm can come from it; for it is not among the conditions of salvation. On the other hand, if it is going to strike at the immortality of the soul and the Christian’s hope of direct blessedness after death, let us take the alarm, and protest against such fatal heresy.”
“Suppose in connection with the second advent doctrines, the true Sabbath is promoted; balance one against the other, and see which has the most weight.”
“It is true every lover of the Sabbath of the Lord wants it made known and embraced, but not at the sacrifice of all other truths. If all men become Sabbatarians and neglect the saving truths of the gospel, what will it avail? Paul said in view of the Judgment, ‘By the terror of the Lord we persuade men;’ but will they be persuaded with annihilation before them? We may expect men to sin on with such a hope entertained. It is a fearful thing to present such an inducement.”
The evils here charged upon Adventism are serious ones, and if it is guilty of them, the choler of our friend is none too bitter. But do these evils result from the proclamation of the Advent doctrine? Did the writer of the foregoing extracts make his statements from actual observation, or reliable information? Does he understand the facts in the case? or is the whole field of his vision discolored and distorted by the goggles of misconception and prejudice through which he views it?
We infer that he is not well informed in regard to our belief, from what he says about Christ’s reigning personally on the earth previous to the Judgment. We know of no S. D. Adventist who holds such a view. We have been acquainted, almost from its very commencement, with that movement which unites the doctrine of the advent and the Sabbath, and we ask where the effects here charged upon it are to be found. Has it caused the “great theme of salvation” by Christ’s death, resurrection, and intercession to be overlooked? If so, when? where? and by whom? Is it ignored by our preachers? Is it left out of the faith of our people? Is it passed by in silence in our books or periodicals? On this point we are willing to compare notes even with the able organ of his own denomination. What companies of Sabbath-keeping Adventists, or what individuals among them, are neglecting the “saving truths of the gospel,” in consequence of their views of prophecy? If they can be found, let them be specified, and their cases be held up as warnings to others; but if they cannot be found, then let the very ink blush that records such insinuations against them. Certainly, if there is any doctrine calculated to lead men to seek Christ till they know that by compliance with the “saving truths of the gospel,” they are accepted of him, it is the doctrine that he is soon coming to reckon with his servants.
By materialism this writer means the view that the dead are unconscious, and that the wicked are to be finally destroyed. This he calls a soul-ruining error. Will he show us some who have been ruined by it. What is the kind of ruin which it works? What particular phase of iniquity do they exhibit who have been led away by it?
On the other hand, we can point to a delusion which has ruined more millions of the human family than any other evil in the same length of time that has ever afflicted the human race. And that is spiritualism. And what is the foundation of spiritualism? Its foundation and superstructure, head and body, bone and sinew, is this doctrine of the immortality of the soul which our friend thinks such a lovely and blessed doctrine. Take away this, and the soul of that whole system of evil is gone, and men have an effectual safeguard against it.
But what has he to guard himself against it? If departed spirits can communicate with the living, who shall say that they do not do it, and hence that spiritualism, in its fundamental fact, is not true? While men are in the flesh, it is their duty to labor for the benefit of their fellow-men. God and Christ and angels are interested in the same work. But do Christians as soon as they leave this state of existence become such disembodied embodiments of selfishness that they seek only their own enjoyment in the spirit world, and think no more of their friends on earth? If the dead, having the power to communicate and give us the benefit of their experience in the spirit world, will not do it, then are they deserving of the execration of the living. Let no man hug to his bosom the doctrine through which spiritualism has ruined its millions, and then talk to us about that being a soul-ruining error which is the only antidote against its damning influence.
Another of his statements is, if anything, still more surprising; namely, “It is a matter of no account comparatively whether Christ come and reign in person or not, for the salvation offered to man has nothing to do with it.”
Paul, in 1 Cor. 15, makes the resurrection of the dead to depend on the resurrection of Christ. Christ has been raised from the dead, therefore the dead will be raised. But if this does not take place, he says, “Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.” Verse 18.
Yes, PERISHED! Does our friend hear? Without a resurrection of the dead, then, there can be no future life for our race. And what causes the resurrection itself to take place? The second appearing of Christ; for it is by the voice of the Son of God, at the moment of his revelation in the clouds of heaven, that the dead are called forth. John 5: 28, 29; 1 Thess. 4: 16.
As the Bible presents it, then, the matter stands thus: If Christ does not come, there will be no resurrection of the dead; and if there is no resurrection of the dead, then even those who have fallen asleep in Christ are perished, and can have no future existence; and if there is no future existence for us, there is of course no salvation. Yet, we are in the most positive language assured that the salvation offered to man has nothing to do with Christ’s coming! Shade of blind Bartimæus! Who hath sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? No, we will not say born blind; for we believe it is his theological training that has wrought all this mischief with his spiritual eyesight.
“Will they be persuaded,” he asks, “with annihilation before them? We may expect men to sin on with such a hope entertained. It is a fearful thing to present such an inducement.” A new mark of astonishment needs to be invented for such declarations as these. The celebrated Alger, in his “Doctrine of a Future Life,” pp. 652–661, makes many good remarks on this point. We give one extract. Though not holding with us as to the future destruction of the wicked, he nevertheless could not tolerate such sophistry as this even on his side of the question. He says:—
“It has often been argued that with the denial of a retributive life beyond the grave, all restraints are taken off from the passions, free course given to every impulse. Chateaubriand says bluntly, There can be no morality if there be no future state.
. . . What bible of Moloch had he been studying to form, for the time, so horrid a theory of the happiest life, and to put so degrading an estimate upon human nature? Is man’s will a starved wolf, only held back by the triple chain of fear of death, Satan, and hell, from tearing forth with ravenous bounds to flesh the fangs of his desires in bleeding virtue and innocence? Does the greatest satisfaction man is capable of here, the highest blessedness he can attain to, consist in drunkenness, gluttony, dishonesty, violence, and impiety? If he had the appetite of a tiger or a vulture,—then thus to wallow in the offal of vice, dive into the carrion of sensuality, abandon himself to reveling in carnivorous crime, might be his instinct and his happiness.”
Pertinent as are these remarks, our view is infinitely better than the one here supposed; for we do not deny a retribution beyond the grave, and that too of a most fearful nature, to a life of sin here. But as we have said before, we say again, This is a matter that can be easily tested. If the doctrine of destruction leads men to throw off restraint and plunge into sin, show us some that have been so affected by it. Let even one man be found who from a life of comparative rectitude is now giving himself up to iniquity and crime, because, forsooth, he has become persuaded that there is no immortality out of Christ, and that those who sin shall finally be put out of existence in the lake of fire, which is the second death. Or show us one who even makes this an excuse for not taking an active interest in religious things. The first instance of this kind is yet to be produced; and we say, Let those who would fain make so much of this point, now produce an instance of this kind or forever after hold their peace.
It is the justness and certainty of punishment, rather than its severity, that restrains men. The mother who screams at her boy that she will “skin him alive,” which he knows she will never do, has no government compared with her whose threatening is more moderate and the punishment certain. So with the relation sustained to the government of God. The idea of eternal torture for the wrongs of this brief mortal life, makes the crime and the punishment so disproportionate that men cannot accept it; for, as Bishop Newton remarks, Though they may imagine it, they “can never seriously believe it, nor reconcile it to God, and goodness.” This doctrine of eternal misery is what makes infidels. Of this, the reader can satisfy himself by conversing with skeptics of any grade.
There is terror enough in the retribution which the Bible reveals to persuade any who will be influenced thereby. Our friend refers to the expressions found therein, the damnation of hell,
the undying worm, the quenchless fire, weeping and gnashing of teeth, torment in flame, vengeance of eternal fire, second death, and lake of fire and brimstone; and he asks, “Are these figures?” To which he answers, “Yes. What then must the reality be?” If these are figures, men may imagine the reality to be something more tolerable. But we answer, No; these are not figures, but the dread reality itself; more dreadful than any sane man would brave for all the imagined pleasures of a lifetime of sin. But they are the agents of complete and utter extinction.
The Sabbath truth is one of transcendent interest and importance, first, because it takes hold of our practice, and shows us, every week, as observers or transgressors of God’s law; and secondly, because in it is involved the honor of God. Isa. 58: 13. But when men esteem the doctrine of the immortality of the soul of so much more consequence than the Sabbath that they would prefer that the Sabbath should not be taught, and that men should live on in disobedience to the law of God, rather than that this dogma should be contradicted, they have yet something to learn before the truth can prosper very extensively in their hands.
T. S.
Pardon without Conviction.
By Joseph Harvey Waggoner
SEVENTH-DAY Adventists have always argued that pardon without conviction is a nullity; and that, therefore, a gospel or remedial system based on the abolition of the law would be subversive of justice. Lately we have had the subject illustrated before us, and a judicial decision given in regard to it, such as we never expected to see.
The office of governor has been claimed by two persons in Louisiana, each endeavoring to discharge the duties of the office in spite of the other. Several persons were arrested for crime, and while awaiting trial, one of the would-be governors, to magnify his office and to prove his authority, issued a pardon to the criminals. When the matter was brought before the court, it was readily decided that the pardon was without effect, as the persons had not yet been convicted by process of law, and were not yet subjects of pardon.
This decision was not only reasonable, but unavoidable; and it seems a marvel that any one claiming the office of governor should be so ignorant as not to see that his pretended pardon was no better than a farce.
But if we are astonished at his course, what shall we think of that large number of preachers who proclaim pardon in the gospel on the very same principle? They forestall conviction by proclaiming the abolition of the law, and then offer pardon to those who, as they claim, are beyond the jurisdiction of the law!
Paul says that Jesus Christ was set forth as a propitiation to the end that God may be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. Rom. 3 : 23–26. If the principles of justice shall be regarded in the high court of Heaven, and who dare say they will not? all these claims of pardon, based on a denial of the authority of law, will be thrown out as illegal, and a nullity.
It is much to be feared that in that day when every work is brought into judgment, when Jesus the Son of God is judge, and God’s law the rule of judgment, see Rom. 2 : 12, 16, many decisions rendered on earth will be reversed. And many, very many pardons offered by those who disregard the claims of the law and of justice will be set aside as invalid. See Matt. 7 : 21–23.
Now justice calls, and mercy lingers. Soon mercy will be withdrawn, and justice be meted out to the fullest extent. To stand in that day,13we must “honor all the name” of God—in his justice and his mercy—by “keeping the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”
J. H. WAGGONER.
Those which Sleep in Jesus.
By John Nevins Andrews
“BUT I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” 1 Thess. 4: 13–18.
These words have a most decisive bearing upon the subject under consideration. They were written for the purpose of giving instruction on the state of the dead. Moreover they relate to all the righteous dead. It is also to be noticed that they were written for the express purpose of comforting those who mourn the loss of friends.
1. The first great fact which Paul recognizes and affirms is that our dead friends are asleep. But they “sleep in Jesus,” for they are “the dead in Christ.”
2. Those which sleep in Jesus, God will bring with him even as he brought Jesus from the dead. Heb. 13 : 20. This does not mean that Jesus will bring these persons from Heaven unless the souls of the dead sleep in Heaven! But God does not come to our earth. He sends his Son to bring the saints to him. They are asleep in the dust. Dan. 12 : 2.
3. The manner in which Christ brings the saints to glory is that he descends from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God. And at the sound of the trumpet, those who are asleep, awake to immortality in an instant of time. Then the living are changed in like manner, and all being made alive are caught up together to meet Christ in the air.
Having stated this great fact that the sleeping ones shall thus awaken, and with the living shall be caught up to meet Christ, he then says: “And so shall we ever be with the Lord.” This reveals the only way that the saints can ever be with Christ. It is by the resurrection and the change to immortality, and these are at the advent of Christ.
5. This is Paul's comfort concerning the saints that are under the power of death. They are asleep, but they shall awake to immortality when Christ comes again. “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” Such was Paul's doctrine concerning the state of man in death. The dead who die in the Lord rest from their labor in quiet sleep. The time of that rest is to them only a moment, and then they awake in the likeness of Christ. It is not till after the sounding of the seventh angel that the time comes to reward the prophets and all the servants of God. Rev. 11 : 18. J. N. A.
Overdone.
By T. S.
Bro. J. E. Titus has just placed in possession of this Office a series of what are called spirit photographs, representing the sitter as in an ordinary picture, and in the background, with more or less distinctness, ghostly visages that purport to be the figures of attending spirits. These pictures were taken about a year since, in the village of Leslie, Mich., where he resides. He witnessed the operation of one of them, by which he assured himself that the impressions were made on the plate in the camera, and not by any manipulation of the operator afterward.
But it seems to us that in these experiments the devil has overshot the mark; for if any one wants evidence of the diabolical nature of spiritualism, he has but to look at the Satanic countenances that appear in the background of these pictures. No real face that we have ever beheld, though almost every trace of humanity had been battered out of it by debauchery and crime, could equal in hideousness some of them. If such are the denizens of the spirit world, the fewer of them we have about us the better. In viewing them, one can but feel expressly thankful for the promise which reads, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” T. S.
Why Will this Cause Succeed ?
By Roswell F. Cottrell
BECAUSE it is the truth of God, founded on his word, which he has magnified above all his name. Heaven and earth shall sooner perish than that one tittle of that word shall fail. Prophecy has promised the very work we now see being done. The remnant of his people—those who are alive and remain to the coming of the Lord—will keep the commandments of God. The time has come for this last message. This is why the Sabbath question is interesting the people everywhere, and the agitation is continually increasing. The hand of the Lord is in the work. This is that which was written by the prophet: “Here are they that keep the commandments of God.”
The question has been asked among S. D. Baptists why it is that S. D. Adventists are successful in gaining converts to the Sabbath, notwithstanding the fact that they preach it in connection with other very unpopular doctrines. The answer is, These other unpopular doctrines are also true; and when men begin to reform and bear the cross of unpopular truth, they may just as well make a clean sweep of their errors at once. This, honest souls will do when their errors are made manifest by the light of the word of God.
The doctrine of the advent of Christ at hand is unpopular; but signs and prophecies fulfilled attest its truth. And when the prophecies of Daniel and John are set before the people, and the fulfillment traced to the present time, the papacy is seen to be the great Antichrist, and the change of the law of God is clearly seen to be the work of Antichrist. Then, when this is clearly seen, the warning message of Rev. 14:9-12, has a force in it to bring honest souls, who desire to have the truth, to the keeping of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. The Sabbath has been so long trodden under foot by the Christian world that something is needed to arouse the people upon the subject. God foresaw this and promised a special message for this very time; and he is now graciously fulfilling his promise. It is the predicted change of God's law by the papacy, and its restoration by this last message, that gives power to the truth to move the people to action. Therefore the unpopular truth that the coming of the Lord is at hand, and consequently that the time has come for the last warning to be given to the world, is itself the special means which God has provided to arouse honest souls and lead them to see and embrace the Sabbath of the Lord and leave that institution of the papacy which stands in opposition to it, and which is uniformly set forth by Catholic writers as the mark or sign of the power of the Roman church to change the institutions of God and bind the consciences of men.
And S. D. Baptists will never be as successful as they might be in turning men to the Sabbath till they preach it in connection with these prophecies, which point out so clearly its change by the papacy and its restoration by the last warning message of probationary time. Ardent lovers of the truth among them have labored earnestly to stir them up by emulation to renewed zeal in the Sabbath cause, and have succeeded in a measure in reviving the spirit of aggressive labor in the cause; but this is only the effect of the work which the Lord is doing in fulfillment of what he promised in prophecy. God lives, and is fulfilling his word. This is the reason of this agitation. And this agitation will bring the matter to a test. They that will be successful must preach the testing message of the word of God. None can do this but Adventists; for none can preach the final message of probation as present truth and not believe that the work of mercy is about to close and the day of wrath is about to open.
While we teach the perpetuity and immutability of the moral law and the true Sabbath of the Lord, we warn the people of an “irrepressible conflict” that awaits us, when the image of the beast shall enforce his own worship on pain of death, a prominent part of which will consist in receiving the mark of the first beast, i. e., the papacy—keeping the institution which this changer of times and laws has put in the place of the Sabbath. Rev. 13:11-17. For nearly a quarter of a century we have been teaching that the United States is the two-horned beast, and consequently that here the image will be formed—that ecclesiastical authority would demand, and get the control of the civil law, so as to be able to enforce the keeping of the pago-papal Sunday upon all as the “Christian Sabbath.” Twenty-three years has this exposition of the prophecy been in print in the ADVENT REVIEW AND HERALD OF THE SABBATH; and during this period this view has been believed and taught by the whole body of S. D. Adventists.
It was simply faith in the prophecy as the word of God that led us to take this position, and to proclaim it abroad during these past years. But what do we see now? We see demonstrative proof that this position is correct; and consequently that the time has come when the message of warning which we are preaching should be preached, Rev. 14:9-12, showing that this work is of God and not of men. We see the “National Association” pushing forward their scheme and urging their demand for a “religious amendment” of the National Constitution, so that “all Christian institutions, laws, and usages, shall be placed upon an undeniable legal basis in the fundamental law of our nation.” Prominent among these institutions, laws, and usages, is the observance of what is called “our American Christian Sabbath.” When this amendment is obtained, the image of the beast will be formed with power to enforce the mark. And, aside from the prophecy that assures us that it will be done, their prospect of success is bright and rapidly increasing in splendor. All observant and reasonable men can now see that the “religious amendment” is likely to prove a success. And the success of this movement is demonstrating the truth of our position on prophecy, and consequently proving the advent movement of the present day to be divine—from Heaven and not of men.
This constitutes one of the strongest arguments to move the people to action in restoring God’s law and Sabbath. No one can fail to see the force of this argument when fairly presented to the mind. And S. D. Baptists will never be as successful as they might be till they take up this argument and use it; and when they do this, they will inevitably be Adventists. God’s people must be one. We have the evidence of Scripture that those of them who are found alive at the second advent will be united in the last message, keeping the commandments of God. To be a S. D. Baptist is all right as far as it goes. But those who do the work which God designs they should for the restoration of his Sabbath will use the arguments which he has furnished in his prophetic word, and, as an unavoidable consequence, they will be surnamed Adventists. Lord, hasten thy work and save thy people!
R. F. COTTRELL.