From the momentous facts revealed to us in the subject of the sanctuary, it is made plain that the moment of greatest interest to the world and the Church, at the present hour, is the time when our great High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary enters upon the closing portion of His ministration in the most holy place. Then the incomparable scene of Dan. 7:9, 10, opens, and all heaven adjusts itself to the closing up of the great controversy between sin and righteousness. Men ought to know, and their first desire, it would seem, would be to know, when that period, in which are involved all the hopes and interests of mankind, begins. A question of the first magnitude then, is—
Have we any means whereby we may ascertain the time when this takes place? As the question should rivet all attention, so the answer should thrill every heart. The answer is, We have the means; the time is revealed. “Whoso readeth, let him understand.” A living prophecy will bear repeating over and over again. It will never grow old till we enter upon the fruition of its promises in the kingdom of God.
To this question of surpassing interest, one great line of prophecy is wholly devoted. It is stated in words with which the Bible student has long been familiar, but which still glow with the same hope as at the time of its first announcement: “Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” Dan. 8:14. When the word of God states that a thing shall be done, it will be done; and the record is given that we may know the time.
The sanctuary of the Bible is virtually one, existing first, as the type, in the Mosaic dispensation,—the tabernacle of Moses, in the wilderness; and, secondly, as the antitype,—the sanctuary in heaven, in the present period, or dispensation, of the gospel scheme. We have only to locate the twenty-three hundred days, ascertain when they began, and particularly when they end, to ascertain to what sanctuary, typical or antitypical, the prophecy applies, and which one is to be cleansed at that time. Finding from the time argument that the days have already ended, new interest is added to the subject.
To this question, then, we now turn our attention: Where do the twenty-three hundred days, at the termination of which the cleansing of the sanctuary takes place, begin and end? The statement concerning the twenty-three hundred days is made in connection with a prophecy of paramount interest to the people of God. One angel was heard by Daniel addressing another, and asking him: “How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden underfoot? And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.”
The prophecy, as an examination of the chapter will show, spans the duration of three great kingdoms,—Medo-Persia, Grecia, and Rome,—which are explained in the latter part of the chapter; but nothing further is there said in regard to that important period of time, the twenty-three hundred days. In chapter 9, however, the subject is renewed. The same angel—Gabriel—appears, to give Daniel an understanding of what he did not understand at the close of chapter 8. He refers him to the vision at the beginning, the vision of chapter 8, taking up the time and devoting himself to that, as recorded in verses 20–27. In now causing Daniel to understand the vision, Gabriel was but carrying out the instructions he had received, as recorded in chapter 8:16. He tells Daniel that seventy weeks are cut off (from the twenty-three hundred days), the word “determined,” in verse 24, being from a word which means to “cut off.” Then the angel tells him where the seventy weeks were to begin: “Know therefore and understand,” he says (verse 25), “that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week He shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,” etc.
Here we have the seventy weeks (seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks, and one week) subdivided to mark the separate events by which the application of the prophecy can be determined without danger of mistake. The seventy weeks are, therefore, the beginning part of the twenty-three hundred days; for the angel came to explain the days; and the first thing to do in explaining the period is to tell where it begins. Where the seventy weeks begin, therefore, the twenty-three hundred days begin,—from the going forth of a commandment, or decree, to restore and to build Jerusalem.
The date of this vision was B. C. 538. The Jews were captives in Babylon. The dominion of that kingdom had then just passed over to the Medes and Persians; for it was in the first year of Darius that this vision was given. Dan. 9:1. Two years afterward, in the year 536 B. C., the decree of Cyrus was issued (Ezra 1:1–4), for as many of the Jews as were so disposed to return to Jerusalem and build the temple of the Lord, thus beginning a series of movements which finally resulted in the full re-establishment of the Jewish nation in their own land. The prophecy says to restore, as well as to build; and that can mean nothing less than the full re-establishment of the religious and political polity of that people as a nation. The decree of Cyrus, which provided for only the building of the temple, was too limited to fulfill the prophecy; but it began the fulfillment.
The Jews being hindered in their work by their adversaries (Ezra 4:7, 21), the decree of Cyrus was re-affirmed by a subsequent king named Darius (Ezra 6:1–12), B. C. 519; but this, like that of Cyrus, was too limited to meet all the specifications of the prophecy; for this provided only for the building of the temple, not for the restoring of the nation.
At length, in the seventh year of King Ataxerxes Longimanus, a decree was issued by him to Ezra the priest, as recorded in Ezra 7, as broad and ample as could be given without granting the nation entire independence. Here was the command in full, according to the record, to restore and build Jerusalem; and the seventy weeks could not begin until this point was reached; but from this point they must date; for here the specifications of the prophecy were fully met.
The question now is, then, to determine in what year the seventh year of Ataxerxes Longimanus fell: and this, fortunately, can be clearly ascertained, as it is one of the best-established dates in all history. It was B. C. 457.
Before looking at the intermediate dates referred to, let it be noticed that the time we are now considering is symbolical, or what is called prophetic, time; and when time is used symbolically in the Scriptures, a short period is taken to represent a longer one. The rule given is that a “day” stands for a “year.” Num. 14:34; Eze. 4:6. Aside from the eminent authorities who have adopted this method of the application of time, which is called “the year-day principle,” the events of the prophecy itself demonstrate that this is the right method of application; for the prophecy has been indisputably fulfilled on this very scale.
Thus we have in the prophecy forty-nine years allotted to the building of the wall or the restoration of the city. Dating this period from 457 B. C., seven weeks, or forty-nine days, allotted to the building of the wall, that is, forty-nine years, would reach to 408 B. C.; and in that year, the fifteenth of Darius Nothus, the last act of the reformation by Nehemiah completed the re-establishment of the Jewish society in Jerusalem. See “Prideaux’s Connexions.”
Then there were to be sixty-two weeks, that is, four hundred and thirty-four years, to the Messiah the Prince. The word “Messiah” means the “anointed one;” and the expression refers to Christ, and applies to Him when He was anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power to preach the gospel. This took place at His baptism. Acts 10:37, 38; Luke 4:18. This period would terminate in A. D. 27; and in that very year Christ was baptized and entered upon His ministry. Mark 1:10, margin. As He began to preach, He prefaced His message with the solemn declaration, “The time is fulfilled.”
The statement in Luke 3:1 further confirms this date for the beginning of Christ’s ministry. Christ was six months younger than John. Luke 1:36. They both, of course, entered upon their ministry at the age fixed by the law of the Jewish priesthood, that is, at thirty years; and it is expressly declared of Christ that He was about thirty years of age when He began to preach. Luke 3:23. John would begin his work six months before Christ, and Luke tells us when John began his work. It was in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Cæsar. Luke 3:1. This date is doubtless to be reckoned from the time when Tiberius was associated with his stepfather, Augustus, on the Roman throne, which was in August, A. D. 12. This would bring the close of Tiberius’s fifteenth year in August, A. D. 27. John must, therefore, have begun his ministry as early as the spring of that year, which brings the beginning of Christ’s ministry, of course, six months later, in the autumn of the same year, A. D. 27. The ministry of Christ was three years and a half in length, as is indicated by John’s record of the four Passovers which He attended, and he has presumably mentioned them all. John 2:13; 5:1; 6:4; 13:1. At the last of these Passovers Christ was crucified; and this was in the spring, the time to which the Passover was fixed. But according to the prophecy, Christ was to cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease in the midst, or middle, of this week. Dan. 9:27. The terms “sacrifice” and “oblation” doubtless refer to the typical offerings and services of the Jewish system; and these Christ did cause effectually to cease, by dying as the antitype of them all. Thirteen competent authorities (see “Looking unto Jesus,” pages 191–194) place the crucifixion of Christ in the spring of A. D. 31; that being the middle of the seventieth of the seventy weeks, it is easy to find the end of the whole period of the seventy weeks, this testing division of the twenty-three hundred days. Remember that these weeks are weeks of years. The beginning12of the seventieth week was at the baptism of Christ, in A. D. 27. Three and one-half years from that point brought us to the middle of the week in the spring of A. D. 31, to the crucifixion, where Christ, by that act, caused the sacrifice and oblation to cease. Three and one-half years more bring us to A. D. 34, which was the end of the seventy weeks. And this date is sufficiently marked by the martyrdom of Stephen (Acts 8:1, margin), the conversion of Paul the next year (Acts 9:1, margin), and the turning of the apostles, soon afterward, to the Gentiles. Acts 13:46. The seventy weeks ending in A. D. 34, the remaining eighteen hundred and ten years of the twenty-three hundred would end in 1844. Then the cleansing of the sanctuary began. Thus all these dates are set like great iron pillars, immovably fixed, along our pathway, and we are now shown to be in the all-important prophetic era of the Third Angel’s Message.
U. S.
NEWS AND NOTES
— California will appropriate $200,000 every two years to the State University.
— William M. Jenkins has been appointed governor of Oklahoma Territory.
— Niles, Mich., and vicinity are being flooded with counterfeit five-dollar gold pieces.
— Peace negotiations between Lord Kitchener and the Boer generals have been renewed.
— Mt. Vesuvius is again in active eruption, and “trains to Naples are crowded with sightseers.”
— North African dispatches state that “Mad Mullah, with 40,000 followers, is again threatening trouble.”
— Westminster Abbey is crumbling, owing to fumes from the potteries at Lambeth. One of its columns has just fallen.
— A trust has just been formed, to fight the great steel trust of the country. The new combine will erect a $50,000,000 plant at Sault Ste. Marie, this State.
— In view of improved conditions in the Philippines, General Miles has recommended to Secretary Root “that the strength of the army be limited to 76,000,—one soldier to every 1,000 of population.”
— Floods are doing great damage to farms in Kansas.
— Mr. Steyn has been re-elected president of the Orange Free State.
— In Shanghai, China, there are six daily native papers, and one weekly.
— Peter the Great, of Russia, was six feet eight and one-half inches in height.
— A new Chilian cabinet has been formed, with Auguste Owego Luco as foreign minister.
— The British are becoming seriously alarmed over the defenseless condition of British India.
— Friedrich Franz IV assumed rule over the duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin on the 9th inst.
— Of a total of 392 cases of bubonic plague at Cape Town, South Africa, 152 have proved fatal.
— The largest beet sugar plant in the world is to be located in the Arkansas River valley, Colorado.
— The Standard Oil Company copper syndicate has absorbed the mines of Senator Clarke, of Montana.
— About eight per cent of the marriages contracted in the United States end in the divorce court.
— The Filipino Generals Morres and Morales have surrendered, after defeat, to the United States troops.
— The exhibition of Count Tolstoi’s portrait at Moscow has been prohibited by the Russian government.
— Owing to the flood in Pittsburg and vicinity, 50,000 men are thrown out of employment. Loss, $3,000,000.
— George Q. Cannon, head of the Mormon Church for over twenty years, died the 12th inst., at Monterey, Cal.
— President McKinley began his tour of this continent, in a special train, the 29th inst. The trip will last seven weeks.
— Farmers throughout the South are planting all available land to cotton, as the prospects for good returns are excellent.
— Minister Conger has arrived, from China. There is talk of his resigning. He may be asked to become governor of Iowa.
— The Boers recently captured a coal and cattle train near Molteno, Cape Colony. De Wet, with a few followers, is near Kroonstad.
— The closing down of the cotton-mills in Lawrence and Fall River, Mass., for a short time, throws 23,000 workmen out of employment.
— Sir Thomas Lipton’s yacht “Shamrock II,” which is to challenge America’s cup, was launched the 20th inst., at Dumbarton, Scotland.
— In China a French and German force of 1,400 men are ready to fight General Liu. The Chinese troops have retired over the Shan-Si River.
— The National Biscuit Company is urging its employees to take preferred stock in the company, that they may have a voice in its management.
— The socialists in Spain have decided to celebrate May-day with a general strike; but “the anarchists have refused to co-operate with them.”
— It is reported from New Guinea that two missionaries of the London Missionary Society and a number of native Christians have been killed.
— The Postmaster-General of the United States has issued an order permitting all mail-carriers to wear shirt-waists during the summer months.
— Benjamin O. Davis, of Washington, D. C., is to become a lieutenant in the regular army. He is “the first negro private soldier to rise from the ranks.”
— An exchange states that “a temperance restaurant conducted by Christian Endeavorers in Paris is said to have a daily patronage of about 700 working men.”
— By a recent decision of the United States Supreme Court rejecting the Estancia land grant, 500,000 acres of land in New Mexico will be thrown open to public entry.
— Tommy Atkins (any British soldier) will be obliged to get along without American beef, since the British government has excluded all beef except home-bred from its army contracts.
— Of the 4,500,000 inhabitants of the new commonwealth of Australia, 3,726,480 “claim to belong to one or another of the churches”; namely, 1,462,740 Anglicans, 811,730 Roman Catholics, 454,870 Methodists, 395,490 Presbyterians, 86,140 Baptists, 84,380 Congregationalists.”13
— American capital is developing most of Canada’s industries. The Dominion papers are protesting against existing conditions making this necessary.
— Gen. Alexander C. McClurg, head of the publishing firm of A. C. McClurg and Company, died of Bright’s disease, at St. Augustine, Fla., the 15th inst., at the age of sixty-seven years.
— The American Woolen Company’s mills at Syracuse, N. Y., employing 1,200 hands, have been closed because “the weavers object to the order obliging them to instruct beginners.”
— Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, chancellor of the British exchequer, has warned England that “to continue the war means financial ruin,” the Boer war having already cost the English over $700,000,000.
— Dispatches state that Boer agents in this country have been inoculating the mules shipped from New Orleans, for the British in South Africa. As the result of this, many of the animals have died at sea.
— The West Indies and Central America receive $8,000,000 each year for the bananas sent to the United States; while the island of Jamaica alone sends to this country over 4,000,000 bunches per annum, worth, at wholesale, $1,500,000.
— Aguinaldo has been removed to a private residence in Manila, the guard over him having been reduced. On the occasion of Aguinaldo’s manifesto to his own people, General MacArthur released 1,000 Filipino prisoners, who had taken the oath of allegiance to the United States.
— The mayor and members of the city council of New Orleans, La., recently received a proposition from the managers of the gambling houses of that city, “offering to donate to the city a sum amounting to about $44,000 per annum, for the privilege of conducting gaming houses under city license.”
— The British Naval Department has decided to build five submarine boats for the English navy. Each boat will measure over sixty-three feet in length, and will be propelled by a gasoline engine. The surface speed will be nine knots an hour, and the speed, when submerged, seven knots an hour.
— In 1899, 45,303 sparrows were killed in Clinton County, Mich., hunters receiving on an average seventy-five dollars a month. Last year the bounty paid each month for the killing of these innocent creatures was ninety-four dollars. Are not even the English sparrows entitled to a small portion of the crops which they help to protect?
— Dispatches state that the Cuban delegates from the Cuban Constitutional Convention have arrived in Washington, D. C. They have “held conferences with the President and Secretary Root, who convinced them of the wisdom of the Cuban convention accepting the conditions imposed by Congress.” They were given a state dinner.
— Teodoro Sandico is said to be the successor of Aguinaldo at the head of the Filipinos in the field. A Filipino in Washington, Rafael del Pan Fontela, states that “the war will be steadily waged under his leadership. Sandico is a mechanical engineer by profession, and a man of high education.” He has traveled through Europe and America, and speaks fluently Spanish, two or three Filipino dialects, French, and English.
— At its last session Congress passed an act fixing the boundary line between Virginia and Tennessee “in the middle of the main street of Bristol, Tenn. There is a car line in the street, and passengers on opposite sides of a car now ride in different States. The marriage of minors, forbidden in Virginia, may be performed on the south side of a car. A Virginia criminal on the south side of the street is safe from arrest, should he so insist, until requisition papers can be obtained from Tennessee.”
— Maitre Labori, the able lawyer who defended Captain Dreyfus, and who was shot by enemies of the latter, is to be editor-in-chief of a fortnightly French magazine to be supported by a portion of the fortune of Professor Novel, the Norwegian inventor who left $500,000 “for the promotion of liberal ideas throughout the world.” Two other similar fortnightly magazines are to be supported in like manner, one in England and the other in Germany.
— The Literary Digest states that “the national congress of the Disciples of Christ, lately held at Lexington, appointed a committee of seven to take charge of a movement in behalf of an international confederation of religious denominations. According to this scheme, the different religious bodies are to retain their own creeds, but will be auxiliary to an international congress, and will affiliate with all other churches on a common platform. The ultimate aim is to create one international Church.” But that is exactly what Rome is endeavoring to create.
The Relief of the Schools
A BROTHER in Keene, Tex., agreed to sell two hundred copies of “Christ’s Object Lessons.” In four days he disposed of sixty books.
One of the members of the — church, a busy housewife, reports fifteen orders for “Christ’s Object Lessons” as the result of her first week’s work.
A prominent member of the Methodist Church, in Iowa, a very busy man, has sold eighteen copies of “Christ’s Object Lessons.” This is three times the share of each Seventh-day Adventist.
A brother in Massachusetts, who works nine hours a day at his trade, takes the time in going to and from work, the noon hour and evenings, to canvass for “Christ’s Object Lessons,” and in two weeks has given thirty-two exhibitions and taken thirty orders.
One sister made fourteen canvasses and sold thirteen books. This was done in about three hours. Another member, a brother, made seven canvasses and sold six books, one evening’s work.
… My wife’s sister is very bitter against us, and so is her husband, but my wife managed to sell her a book, and she is now agent for it, and has sold two copies. People of the world say it is a grand book, and no household should be without it.
“Let each member in each family in each church make determined efforts to deny self.” This is spoken concerning the sale of Christ’s Object Lessons, and relief for the schools. The Lord wants all to engage in it. It means much more than simply whether we will sell a few books or not, just as we choose. It means that “any member in any family in any church” who fails to help to the utmost of his ability just now, will bring God’s displeasure upon him. “Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty.” Judges 5:23.
After presenting the work for “Christ’s Object Lessons,” one brother promised to do all he could, although he is teaching school. There are also two more who will do something. One sister in — said she could not do anything, but after reading two chapters in the book, she decided to try. The first day she was out about one hour, and sold one copy; the next day, in about an hour and a half, she sold two. I spent the next Sabbath and Sunday at —. One good old brother said he thought all I came for was money. On Sunday, after the situation had been placed before them, this brother asked how many of the young people would sell books. Those present, seven in all, responded. He then handed me the price of forty copies.
Prof. E. A. Sutherland,Battle Creek, Mich.
DEAR BROTHER: I am enjoying my work here very much, although we lack many things in our school. I have just sent for some books for the children, for which I will pay; as the people here are poor.
I think the children have done quite well in selling the Signs of the Times; for residences are several miles apart. There is a logging camp a short distance from here, but we were not able to sell any papers there, as we had expected. The children met some rebuffs, but are not discouraged.
I have sent for ten copies of “Christ’s Object Lessons,” to sell here.
I have learned many things since I began teaching; in fact, I think I am learning as well as my children.
I will soon send Professor Magan some money I owe the college.
MY DEAR BROTHER: I received the “Tests” you sent, and am pleased with them. Shall use them in my work. There are some excellent points one can use, and I find the people in my district generally give a ready response. Some are doing well and making good sales. One thing I find,—this work is bringing more life into the churches than has anything else with which I have had any experience.
I will do what I can for the large fund. Will put in some time working for the book this next week. Have just finished making the rounds of the churches, and expect to go around again and help them sell what they have on hand, and order more.
In one church an aged woman said she would buy a book, but she couldn’t sell any. We told her she could reach persons whom no one else could, and finally she said she would do all she could. In a short time she sold three copies, which greatly pleased her. One brother delivered thirty, and found all anxious to receive them. A sister sold ten copies in one half-day, and she a busy farmer’s wife. One family sold fourteen to those who came to the home.
I was sorry indeed to find you could not come here, for Brother — had a good route picked for you. I hope this will find you well, and that you will be here later.
I am of good courage in this work, and want to put my whole energy into it.
How the Aged Work for “Christ’s Object Lessons”
While I was at our State camp-meeting, I bought some of the books, “Christ’s Object Lessons.” Since that, my wife and I have gone out into the city visiting. We sold four books right away, without any trouble. I am going to send for more books soon, and we will do the best we can. I am sixty years old, and I never canvassed any, but I believe we can sell the books. We enjoy visiting our friends throughout the city and selling the book. We can not go to more than two or three places a day. The people are glad to see us come, as we are generally acquainted with them, so we have a good visit.
NOTES FROM THE ANGLO-CHINESE ACADEMY OF HONOLULU
By William E. Howell
At the end of the first half year of our school term, cards of standing—both in studies and in deportment and diligence—were issued to the boys in all the grades, as the parents are quite anxious to know the progress and behavior of their sons. One young man felt quite dissatisfied with his markings, compared with those of others, and came to me with his grievances. Being of rather frank make-up, he said, “Plenty boys not satisfied with their grades, but they jist keep still; but I must come speak to you. Other boys, suppose not satisfied, just ask God to help them, and say nothing; but I can’t do that way, I must come speak you.”
Yesterday one of the home boys had the toothache, and came for permission to go home to ask his father what was best to do. I asked if he had a cavity in the troublesome tooth, to which he replied, “Yes, one hole in it. I think before, I eat too much sweet things, because I don’t know; suppose I know, I don’t do that.” Just the day before, in his beginning physiology lesson, he had read that too many sweets caused injury to the teeth, and he felt quite capable of diagnosing his own case. This boy just started in the first reader last July. He is now studying first physiology, the second book in Bell’s language series, and the life of Christ in the Gospels.
We have occasional evidence of the quiet working of the Holy Spirit on some boys’ hearts in a manner of which the following case is an illustration: A boy of seventeen, who entered school the latter part of September, able to speak scarcely a word of English, of a very diffident and reserved turn of mind, is now in the third reader. Although it has been quite difficult for him to acquire correct enunciation and ability to converse in English, he surprised his teacher the other day by repeating from memory the first five beatitudes. His class is just getting started in a study of the life of Christ. This incident alone would not count for so much, were it not for the fact that about the same time he was observed to go alone into the chapel some time before morning worship, and sing in a quiet way from his book, “Christ in Song.” The next day after this, while the boys were holding a meeting in the assembly room, he brought his Sabbath-school lesson book along, and studied it during the preliminaries of the meeting and at times during its progress.
Allusion has been made, in these notes, to a young man in our school and home who has accepted Christ, and is keeping all His commandments. Some time ago this young man’s Bible class had a written review on the fall of man and the plan of salvation, the study on which had been based on “Early Writings.” Here are the questions asked, with the answers in his own words:—
Question.— What was the feeling in heaven when man fell?
Answer.— Sorrow filled heaven when it was realized that man was forever lost.
Q.— How did Jesus show his sympathy and sorrow?
A.— Jesus had an expression of sympathy, sorrow, and belovedness on His face as He realized that man was lost. He went to intercede with the Father, and offered His life as a ransom for man.
Q.— What way was found for man to obtain pardon?
A.— There was a way to be saved for lost man. He told the angels that He would give His life for man and come down to the world to die an ignominious death, that through the merits of His blood and obedience to the law of God they may obtain pardon.
Q.— Tell what Jesus should suffer.
A.— Jesus said He would come down to the earth and humble himself as a man, and suffer almost every cruelty that Satan could inspire wicked men to inflict. He said He would suffer not only bodily agony, but mental also.
Q.— What would make His mental agony so great?
A.— His mental agony was so great because the weight of the sin of the whole world was on Him.
Q.— What did the angels offer?
A.— The angels prostrated themselves before Jesus, and they offered their lives.
Q.— Why could not an angel’s life pay the debt?
A.— An angel’s life was not valuable enough to pay the debt, but the Son’s life would be accepted by the Father as a ransom for men.
Q.— What part should angels have in the plan of salvation?
A.— Jesus told the angels that they would have a part in the plan of salvation, and at different times strengthen Him and the “subjects of grace” when they were in need.
Q.— What was a struggle with the Father?
A.— It was even a struggle with God whether to let guilty men perish or to let His beloved Son to die for them.
Q.— What caused Satan and his angels to rejoice?
A.— Satan rejoiced because he could pull down the Son of God by man’s fall. He has fallen from heaven, and cause others to fall with him.
Q.— What should cause us to rejoice?
A.— We rejoice because God has decided to let His Son to die for man, and not let us perish. We also rejoice, because we can have salvation through our Saviour’s death, and that the plan has succeeded.
Q.— Describe Satan as he is now.
A.— Satan still bears a kingly form. His face was filled with anxiety, care, unhappiness, deceit, and every evil. His forehead begins from his brow to recede. His eyes are cunning, sly, and full of penetration. He wears a smile in his face, as he makes sure of his victim; as he gets hold of it, the smile grows horrible.
This young man’s name is Young Charm. He is of medium stature, with large eyes, frank, open face, erect figure, brimful of vivacity and restless energy. He is a general favorite among the boys, and a leader in all their games. He is foremost in all his studies, and loves his Bible most of all. Aside from his class work in the latter, he studies much for the love of it, and may be found early every morning before worship, and often after evening study, in his schoolroom, alone with his Bible and his God. He is eager for more truth, and is constantly inquiring on passages he finds in private study. He sometimes comes with a statement something like this: “I want to study some prophecy.” When asked, “What prophecy would you like to study?” he replies, “Some prophecy not fulfilled yet.” He has started on a systematic study of Revelation, with the assistance of a teacher.
He has a teachable spirit and a tender conscience. One day at Chinese New-year, coming in from a walk, he asked; “What does the Bible say about foods offered to idols?” Being asked why he wished to know that, he said he saw the Chinese offering food to their idols, and then eating it themselves. We went over passages in the New and Old Testaments on the subject, and he seemed satisfied. About the same time Dr. Kellogg’s two articles in Good Health on flesh-eating from a Biblical standpoint, reached us, and Ah Charm read them both. From that time on, he could not force himself to eat flesh of any kind; “for,” said he, “even fish are strangled.” He ate nothing but rice and vegetables for several days, till finally he and a schoolmate whom he had been carrying along with him in his study as fast as he himself understood, asked permission to board themselves on a healthful diet. So we fitted up a room for them in our own house, and for more than a month they have been subsisting on a hygienic diet, doing all their own work, with such assistance and instruction as we can give them. They are enjoying14it much, and say they do not wish to return to the old diet.
When the idea was first conceived, however, Ah Charm was so characteristically enthusiastic over it that he wanted to carry all the boys in the home along with him. So he talked it up among them of his own accord, and reported that most of the boys wanted to change to a more healthful diet. It being suggested that if that was the case, it might be well to circulate a petition to that effect, and give the boys an opportunity to express themselves in writing, he went to work, and before night had the signature of every boy in the home, except two, to a petition headed, “Want to live on health foods. No meats.” Our teachers considered the petition carefully, but, much to their embarrassment, found it impracticable to meet the demand with the help we have. But the boy did his part thoroughly and well, and won one boy completely to health principles, and they both discarded flesh food before they started in to board themselves. Their pictures, taken on the date of writing, are on the preceding page. The one to the left is Young Charm. W. E. HOWELL.
