Review and Herald, Vol. 93, No. 60.
Ten Reasons Why Every Seventh-day Adventist Should Read the “Review”Page 1
Earlier text: Ten Reasons Why Every Seventh-day Adventist Should Read the “Review”Workers with Christ
By Ellen G. White
(From the REVIEW of Jan. 19, 1886.) A GREAT work has been committed to the followers of Christ. Every one may do something to strengthen and build up the church, and to enlighten those who are in darkness. But there must be a feeling of individual responsibility. Each must seek to maintain a close connection with God, that he may have strength to aid and counsel others. “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” The heart in which his Spirit dwells, will be a channel of light to others. It cannot be otherwise. Those who do not preserve a living connection with God themselves, will have little interest in the salvation of others. They have no light from heaven to reflect to the world. If these careless, irresponsible ones could see the fearful results of their course, they would be alarmed. Every one of us is exerting an influence upon some other soul; and we shall each be held accountable for the effect of that influence. Words and actions have a telling power, and the long hereafter will show the results of our life here. Yet how few consider these things! The members of the church listen to the word of God, spoken by his servant, and then one goes to his farm, another to his merchandise; and by their absorbing interest in the affairs of this life, they declare that eternal things are of secondary importance to them. We should prayerfully study the Word of God, and ponder it in our hearts, and we shall be better prepared to obey it in our lives. We must each have an experience for ourselves. The work of our salvation lies between God and our own souls. Though all nations are to pass in judgment before him, yet he will examine the case of each individual with as close and searching scrutiny as if there were not another being on earth. At the final day, we shall be approved or condemned according to our works. The Judge of all the earth will render a just decision. He will not be bribed: he cannot be deceived. He who made man, and whose are the worlds and all the treasures they contain—he it is who weighs character in the balance of eternal justice. . . . The young, as well as those of more advanced age, are accountable to God for their time, their influence, and their opportunities. They have their fate in their own hands. They may rise to any height of moral excellence, or they may sink to the lowest level of depravity. There is no election but one’s own by which any may perish. Every person is a free moral agent, deciding his own future by his daily life. What course, then, is it wisest for us, as rational beings, to pursue? Shall we live as becometh candidates for eternity, or shall we fail to fulfil the great end of our creation? . . . We may be assailed by powerful temptations, for we have a powerful, cunning foe; but these temptations are never irresistible. He who struggles against them in the strength of Christ, will overcome; but God will never deliver those who will not strive to free themselves. The Christian must be watchful against sins of the flesh, watchful against sins of the mind. Says the apostle, “Gird up the loins of your mind.” The thoughts and feelings must be restrained with a firm hand, lest they lead us into sin. How many have become the willing slaves of vice, their physical and mental powers enervated, their souls debased, because impure thoughts were allowed to dwell in the mind, and to stain the soul. “Unto the pure all things are pure.” To those who are pure in heart, all the duties and lawful pursuits of life are pure; while to those whose heart and conscience are defiled, all things are impure. Another sin of the mind is that of extolling and deifying human reason, to the neglect of divine revelation. Here, too, we must gird up the loins of the mind. We are living in an age when the minds of men are ever on the stretch for something new. Rightly directed, and kept within proper limits, this desire is commendable. God has given us in his created works enough to excite thought and stimulate investigation. He does not desire men to be less acute, less inquiring, or less intelligent. But with all our aspirations, and in all our researches, we should remember that arrogance is not greatness, nor is conceit knowledge. Human pride is an evidence not of strength, but of weakness. It reveals not wisdom, but folly. To exalt reason unduly is to abase it. To place the human in rivalry with the divine, is to make it contemptible. How can man be just with God? This is the one great question that most concerns mankind. Can human reasoning find an answer?—No; revelation alone can solve this all-important problem, can shed light upon the pathway of man’s life. What folly, then, to turn from the great Source of light, the Sun of Righteousness, to follow the feeble and uncertain light of human wisdom!7 Every individual has a soul to save or to lose. Each has a case pending at the bar of God. Each must meet the great Judge face to face. How important, then, that every mind contemplate often the solemn scene when the judgment shall sit and the books be opened, when, with Daniel, every individual must stand in his lot at the end of the days. Oh, that Christ’s followers might realize that it is not houses and lands, bank stock or wheat fields, or even life itself, that is now at stake, but souls for whom Christ died! We should ever remember that the men and women whom we daily meet are judgment bound: They will stand before the great white throne, to testify against us if we are unfaithful to duty, if our example shall lead them away from the truth and from Christ, or to bear witness that our fidelity has encouraged them in the path of righteousness. These souls will either live to offer praise to God and the Lamb through ceaseless ages, or they will perish with the wicked. Christ suffered and died that they might enjoy a blissful eternity. What sacrifices are we willing to make for their salvation? An Arithmetic Lesson
By T. H. Jeys
Do you remember the old school days? Can you recall the explanations and analyses? And do you think the exercises of the mathematics class have no reference to life's great problems? Let us consider an arithmetic lesson which touches one of the vital problems of Christian life:— TEACHER: Class in decimal fractions, take your places. T. PAYER, you may recite first. Please solve this problem, and announce your result: A man has a farm of forty acres, on which he raises wheat, 15 bushels to the acre, which he sells at $1 a bushel. He pays $60 for fertilizer and $40 for hired help; what should his tithe be? T. PAYER: Forty acres of land yielding 15 bushels of wheat an acre would make a total yield of 600 bushels. This, at one dollar a bushel, would give $600. His income is $600, less the expense and hired help. This equals $100. Six hundred dollars less $100 equals $500. The tithe of $500 equals $50. Therefore he should pay $50 tithe. TEACHER: Your reasoning and answer are correct. T. DODGER, you may recite. What should be the tithe of a man who runs a grocery store, and does a $4,000 business during the year? T. DODGER: A man who thus deals, loses much by bad debts and accounts, his money is tied up in his business, and he can't tell what he should pay. He should simply pay tithe on what he can spare, or not at all. TEACHER: Dodger, your reasoning and answer are both wrong. They show that you have not yet got hold of the real principle of tithe paying. You may go to your seat and study your lesson, I. N. DIFFERENT may now recite. What would be your answer to the question? I. N. DIFFERENT: Why, I don't think it will make any great amount of difference. If a man does the best he can, that is all he can do. TEACHER: I see that you, too, have wasted your time. You and Dodger have doubtless been sitting together, and you have been studying how to avoid the necessity of tithe paying, rather than seeking the truth with reference to it. You, too, may pass to your seat. B. F. AITHFUL, you may answer the question. B. F. AITHFUL: The man should average his per cent of profit. If he sells on an average of twenty-per-cent gain, he has gained 20 per cent of $4,000, or $800. Therefore he should pay one tenth of $800, or $80. TEACHER: You are right. That student who says he doesn't know what the tithe should be, shows that he has not got his lesson. X. P. DITIOUS, you may quickly tell what is a man's income who pays $2.50 tithe a year. X. P. DITIOUS: If he pays an honest tithe, $2.50 will be one tenth of his whole income. If $2.50 is one tenth, ten tenths will be ten times $2.50, or $25. TEACHER: Correctly answered. I see that Q. U. EARY'S hand is up. Did you wish to ask a question? Q. U. EARY: Yes; how can it be possible for a man to live and support a family on $25? Is there not room for supposing that the man has failed to pay a full tithe? TEACHER: A very just observation. But you will notice that the answer was, “If he pays an honest tithe.” I. N. DIFFERENT: [Aside in a whisper to Dodger] I wish the teacher would pass over this subject. I'm in a hurry to get to interest, or taxes, or profit and loss. I don't see any use in spending so much time on this. DODGER: [Also in a whisper] Yes, I'm sick of hearing all this long talk and analysis. I don't see what good will come of it anyway. TEACHER: [Noticing the dark looks and disorderly conduct] If you would each spend more time in diligent study of the lesson, you would soon be more proficient in your recitations. [To the entire class] This is a subject of the greatest importance. Upon its proper understanding depends a proper doing; and thereupon hangs either the enjoyment or the loss of the greatest blessings. See that you diligently prepare your minds to know the truth, for thus only can you make real advancement. If you neglect this matter, you run a very great risk of a dismal failure in the final examination. I will now give you a problem in profit and loss to study over until the next recitation: “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” The Two Covenants
By C. J. Buhalts
Do we understand the old covenant to be the old law, and the new covenant to be the new law?—No; the law is the basis upon which the covenants were made. The law existed first, and the covenant is an agreement to keep the law. The law was spoken, and the people said, “All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient.” Ex. 20: 2-17; 24: 7. Then the agreement, contract, or covenant, was written, and was sealed with blood. Ex. 24: 7, 8. In Hebrews we read: “Finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt.” Chap. 8: 8, 9. The new covenant is a new agreement, based upon better promises to keep the law,—on God’s promises, instead of man’s. It is not a new law, but a new covenant to keep the law. It is the same law, for God said it was to stand fast forever. God, instead of breaking the law or altering it, writes it in the heart. “This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: and they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.” Heb. 8: 10, 11. So the difference between the old and the new covenant in relation to the law, is that the old covenant rested upon the people’s promise to keep the8 law, which of themselves they were unable to do; whereas the new covenant is based upon better promises, in that God writes his law in the heart of the Christian so that he can keep it. It is not written on tables of stone, but in the heart. “Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.” 2 Cor. 3: 3. This is far from abolishing the law. It is made surer than before. To accept Christ by faith does not make the law void. Rom. 3:31. Paul says the law is holy, just, good, and spiritual. Rom. 7:12, 14. The difficulty is not with the law, but with the unconverted, carnal heart. When one accepts Christ, and allows the law to be written in his heart, he is then a doer of the law, and “the doers of the law shall be justified.” Rom. 2:13. Freedom’s Song
By N. W. Vincent
OUR Saviour, ’tis to thee,
Who died to make us free,
To thee we sing.
We seek thy love-lit face,
O boundless is thy grace!
Just, equal, all thy ways,
Our Life, our King. Omnipotent thy hand—
Rule thou in ev’ry land:
Thee we adore.
Uplift the sad and poor;
When tried, help us endure;
Make our salvation sure
Forevermore. Suprême on land and sea,
Our Prince and glory be,
Our joy and song.
In tempest and in calm,
Our shield from sin and harm;
Beneath us be thy arm,
So kind and strong. Thy gospel we receive,
Thy promises believe.
Thy word is true.
With thee in sweet accord,
We shed thy light abroad,
Come soon with thy reward,
Our home make new. Called to Serve and Suffer
You came into the world to serve your brethren, not to lord it over them; you are called to work and to suffer, not to gossip and take your ease. This world is a furnace in which men are tried like gold.—Thomas à Kempis. What Constitutes a Christian?
By C. P. Whitford
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” Rom. 6:1, 2. The apostle Paul answers this question in verse 14: “Sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” These scriptures and many others we might cite lead us to ask the question, What constitutes a Christian? A real, genuine Bible Christian is an individual whose profession and life correspond with the teachings and with the example of Christ. A Christian will live the same life in kind that Christ lived. He lives the life that Christ lived because he loves that kind of life. A person who does not like the principles lived out in the life of Christ, does not like Christ, and therefore is not a Christian. He may belong to the church; may outwardly keep the Sabbath, and observe all the ten commandments in form; but if the law of God has not been written in his heart so that he has a real love for every principle contained therein, it would not be safe to take him into the kingdom. “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” Col. 3:1-3. This scripture teaches that the Christian is dead. Sometimes we hear professed Christians say, “I am exceedingly sensitive, and oftentimes I get very angry.” Are dead people sensitive? “How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” Col. 3:3. You may say all the good things you can think of over the grave of a dead person, and there is no response. He will not be exalted by words of commendation. You may say all the bad things you can think of, and there is no response. So it is in the case of the Christian. Gal. 2:20. In many scriptures we are taught that the Christian is dead to sin, and dead to the world. It may be of interest to speak of some things a dead person will not do: A dead man will not get angry and abuse his wife and children; he will not be offended when men do not speak well of him. There are many people who call themselves Christians, in whose lives the Christian graces do not appear. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance characterize the life of a Bible Christian. Gal. 5:22, 23. “Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” Isa. 57:15. The humble heart in which dwells the spirit of Christ has no desire to make a display by wearing costly apparel, but chooses “the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.” I Peter 3:3, 4. Does the Bible mean what it says when it speaks of the Christian as being “dead”?—Yes, it means just what it says, and we shall find it so when we come to meet our life's record in the judgment. It is sad to see that some do not seem to believe what the Bible says on this point, but go right on patterning after the fashions of the world. Let us all ask ourselves the following questions: Am I dead? Has the world lost its charms for me? Do I love God more than I do the things of this life? Am I converted to God, or to a theory of the truth? Am I ready now to meet the record of my life in the judgment? Am I dead? If we find that we are not dead to sin, what must we do?—Make the experience portrayed in Col. 3:5, 12-16, and ours. To mortify means to die. If we are not dead and want to die, the thing for us to do is to will to do God's will; and it is his will that we should die to sin and become alive to him; and when we have reached this place in our Christian experience, the sins we have mentioned will not appear in our lives. The Family Altar
By Meade Mac Guire
“The parents of little Willie were not Christians, but they were respectable people. His mother taught him the Lord’s Prayer. She also taught him, ‘Now I lay me down to sleep.’ Then the boy would repeat after his mother, ‘God bless papa. God bless mamma. God bless Willie, and make me a good little boy.’” “One evening as he was kissing his mother good night, he looked up into her face, and said: ‘Do you pray, mamma?’ ‘No, darling.’ ‘Does papa pray?’ ‘I never heard him pray.’ ‘Why do you make me pray?’ ‘That you may be good.’ ‘Don’t you want to be good, mamma?’ ‘Oh, yes; I want to be good.’ ‘Then why don’t you pray, and papa pray?’ ‘We’ve got out of the spirit, I guess.’ ‘Well, mamma, maybe God will hear my prayer. But don’t you think you and papa are expecting too much of a little boy like me? Do you believe that God wants me to do all the praying for this whole family? Seems to me you and papa might help a little.’” Much has been said and written on this important subject of family prayer, and yet how many homes there are where it is still neglected! Many professedly Christian homes are even worse off than the one in the story; for they not only do not have family worship, but they do not know whether or not their children pray. How sad it is that any parent should not heed the solemn injunctions concerning this matter found in the Bible and the Testimonies! “If ever there was a time when every house should be a house of prayer, it is now.” “In every family there should be a fixed time for morning and evening worship. How appropriate it is for parents to gather their children about them before the fast is broken, to thank the heavenly Father for his protection during the night, and to ask him for his help and guidance and watchcare during the day! How fitting, also, when evening comes, for parents and children to gather once more before him, and thank him for the blessings of the day that is past.”—“Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. VII, pp. 42, 43. How many children are hungry for just this kind of help in the home! A little girl was left with her grandparents for several weeks. They were a devout old couple, and their morning and evening prayers made a deep impression9 upon the child’s mind. Finally the mother returned, expecting to find her little girl lonely and eager to go home. But she was surprised and somewhat hurt to find that the child did not care to go. “Why, Nellie,” said the mother, “don’t you love papa and mamma any more?” “Oh, yes; of course I do,” she replied, “but you know, mamma, we haven’t any God at our house, and I love to stay in a home where they have a God.” Amid the deadly perils to which children today are constantly exposed, what a comfort it is to know that we can provide a protection for them! “By sincere, earnest prayer parents should make a hedge about their children. They should pray with full faith that God will abide with them, and that holy angels will guard them and their children from Satan’s cruel power.”—Ib. Sometimes parents say they are so pressed with work they cannot get time for family worship. Here are some questions such people may well consider: Could you not manage to have worship if you knew that as a result of its omission some member of your family would be very sick? or that you would suffer heavy financial loss? or if the law of the land commanded you to do so? or if you received one hundred dollars every day it was faithfully performed? Let us remember that the issues dependent upon family devotion are more important than mere temporal matters. They are of eternal interest. Will not all parents connected with this message give their children the help and protection of having “God in their home”? We naturally associate the thought of drawing water from a well with the “old oaken bucket” of our childhood days. The water of life, however, which we may obtain by searching the Scriptures, need not be drawn to the surface by a silver bucket, moss covered from very age, iron bound by creeds and traditions; but, responsive to the touch of faith, the water of life springs forth in copious streams, like the waters of Meribah, to quench the thirst of perishing souls. When the Scriptures are committed to memory, the well is transferred from the printed page to the memory and heart of the individual, and becomes the source of ever-flowing streams of salvation. Health and Healing
By David Paulson
God’s attitude toward this question is stated in 3 John 2, R. V.: “I pray that in all things thou mayest prosper and be in health.” I know some, especially those who are sick, will say, “I can’t understand it.” They should remember that the Bible cannot be studied as any other book. Miners do not go down in a mine and dig up silver in large chunks; they discover a vein of ore and then keep following that vein. So the way to get harmony out of Bible study is to trace a certain vein of truth all through it. That is the great secret of making Bible study interesting. It is hard work, but it is worth while. If God’s thought for his children is health, then what about all this sickness and misery? God is not to blame for it, although he often succeeds in working great good out of it. “He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.” Lam. 3: 33. On the contrary, he not only forgives iniquities, but heals diseases. Ps. 103: 3. I can set a broken leg, but God has to unite it. I can create favorable conditions for the cure of gastric ulcer, but God must heal the ulcer. I can wash and apply certain remedies to wounds, but God has to heal them. God is not only the world’s great healer, but also the great maintainer of health. We can coöperate with him, remain inert, or work squarely against him. Different Remedial Measures
God recognizes different methods of coöperation in the sickroom. When Hezekiah was on his deathbed, he prayed earnestly to the Lord, and Isaiah prescribed a fig poultice. Isa. 38: 21. In that instance both prayer and external remedies were used. There is another class of invalids who need something more than prayers and poultices. They will never recover until they begin to do something for somebody else, instead of trying to have others do everything for them. Some people have the invalid habit, just as others have the morphine habit; and they will never feel well until they become interested in others who are worse off than they themselves are; until they begin to deal their bread to the hungry, to bring the outcast poor to their own houses, and when they see the naked, cover him. I know a good woman who lost her only child. She put the child’s little stockings away in the bureau drawer, and every day or two she cultivated neurasthenia by taking those little stockings out, looking at them, and then having a good cry. One day she saw a little child on the street with no stockings and scarcely any shoes. Then God told her to put those stockings on the poor child’s feet. She obeyed, and a great peace came into her heart. There are many of our sacred relics that could be better turned to some equally good use. One day Napoleon went into a church that contained twelve silver statues of the apostles. Napoleon observed them and asked, “What are those things?” He was told, “Why, those are the twelve apostles.” He said, “Well, take them down, send them to the mint, run them into money, and let them go around doing good as their Master did.” There was a woman who used to go out every day to her husband’s grave to weep. She was rapidly falling into a decline. But her sister died and left a four-year-old child for her to care for, and then she had no time to go out to weep on any one’s grave. In three months’ time she was perfectly well. That child saved the woman’s life. The instruction in Isaiah 58 does not set broken legs; neither will it cure headaches that are caused by eyestrain. It will not remove gastric ulcer that is due to vicious eating. It is Christian psychotherapy mingled with practical good sense that thousands of sick people need, and they will never be permanently well until they discover that fact. Then, and not till then, will their health “spring forth speedily.” Isa. 58: 8. One day Christ met a blind man. In that particular instance he did not heal him by a word or by a touch. He made a clay ointment, and then commanded the man to go and bathe in a certain pool, and following this second treatment, his sight was restored. John 9: 6, 7. Christ could certainly have healed him without the ointment or the bath, but he used these remedies so that no faint-hearted person could ever have any good reason for believing that God was opposed to the use of suitable, simple remedial measures. In 1 Tim. 5: 23 we have some wonderfully interesting instruction. Paul, the greatest evangelist in the history of the Christian church, advised Timothy, the young missionary, “Drink no longer water only, but use a little wine for the sake of thy stomach, and thy frequent maladies.”—Conybeare and Howson’s Version. Paul had been up in the third heaven, and had received more divine instruction than perhaps any man since Christ’s day, and yet he did not suggest special prayers for Timothy’s spells of indigestion. Instead, he advised fruit juice, thus showing that there are certain cases that need regulation of diet rather than any spiritual or physical measures. The Greatest Remedy of All
We are still working the same vein of truth; each case is not a contradiction of the others. It is the same ore; it just glistens with a little different color; and now the end of our search is in sight, and last but not least, we dig out this beautiful and inspiring truth: “Is any among you suffering? let him pray. Is any cheerful? let him sing praise.” James 5: 13, R. V. Some people prefer to complain when they suffer, rather than to pray. Others, when they are feeling good, would rather indulge in foolishness than praise God. Furthermore, “Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.” In the old time when any one was set aside for a holy work, he was anointed with oil. When the sick man is willing to pay the price of such a dedication of his life, it is appropriate to have him anointed with oil; otherwise it is a mockery. “The prayer of faith”—not the prayer of presumption. There is a vast difference between the two: the prayer of faith is in harmony with all God’s known requirements; the prayer of presumption pays no attention to his requirements. I have been called to unite with others in prayer for the sick, and when I wanted to know whether the patient was ready to give up tobacco, dispense with the juicy beefsteaks that had helped to create the disorder, the tea and coffee that had wrecked the nerves; whether he was willing to have his stuffy bedroom ventilated, he became impatient. But the Bible says, “He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer [not only is not answered, but what is worse] shall be abomination.” Prov. 28: 9.10 So reform always goes hand in hand with the prayer of faith. What then? “The prayer of faith shall save the sick.” The most important thing is to get saved. I know many healthy people who are not saved, and I am glad to say that I also know a goodly number of sick people who are thoroughly saved. The most important thing that can happen to a sick man in answer to prayer is to have his soul saved; then, if necessary, he can get along with a sick body. Infirmities Sometimes a Greater Blessing Than Health
But that is not all: “The Lord shall raise him up.” That may be instantly, or it may be gradually, or it may not be until over in the next world. I hear some one ask, “Do you mean to say that there are some cases—even after such prayer, if we have faith enough—whom God is not pleased to restore instantly?”—Precisely so. Paul had a serious trouble. He said it was a veritable messenger of Satan to buffet him. Did you ever have a wretched trouble which always came upon you when you wanted to do something—a miserable sick headache, for instance? Paul had something worse than that. In our English translation it is called a thorn in the flesh, but the original thought suggests being impaled. That is the way criminals were sometimes killed. A stake was driven through them and into the earth, and they were left to die by degrees. Think of Paul doing his wonderful evangelistic work with such a misery! It so burdened him that he specially asked the Lord three times for its removal so he would not be handicapped in this wretched way. Did God remove it?—By no means. He permitted it to remain to prevent Paul’s being spoiled by self-exaltation as so many wonderful preachers in our day have been spoiled. He merely comforted him by saying, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness [“infirmity,” Young’s translation].” 2 Cor. 12: 9. When Paul realized the mission of his infirmity, he said, as we may say, “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” In view of this, we ought always to pray, “Not my will, but thine, be done.” We need not hesitate to avail ourselves of nature’s remedies in connection with our earnest prayers; but after we have done all that we can, if the Lord does not deliver us from our infirmities we ought cheerfully to say, Most gladly will I glory in my infirmity. I believe if we coöperate intelligently with God in the restoration of health, making use of such opportunities as are within our reach, discarding such things as the Lord has shown us are wrong, that God will give us all the health that he sees in his infinite wisdom we shall make good use of in this life; and he will bless to our good and to the good of his work whatever infirmities he permits us to retain, just as he did in Paul’s case; in other words, he will make them work together for our good. Standing by the Minister
By Ernest Lloyd
Soon after the death of a hard-working minister, some friends called on the bereaved widow to express their sympathy. They spoke warmly of the loving deeds performed by the pastor, and tried to tell how much he would be missed. Through her tears, the good woman thanked them, and then exclaimed, “Oh, why did you not tell him of these things while he was alive?” Ah, how slow we are to speak the word of approval and encouragement! We seem to forget that our ministers and workers need and appreciate words of sincere commendation; and more than mere words—some one to come along and help them lift a bit, some one who can help do things. Let me emphasize some of the things we can all do to assist our ministers, and thus coöperate in building up the church of God. We can all help our ministers by not criticizing them. “We would not think of going to others with criticisms of our parents or brothers and sisters. If there is anything we dislike in those we love, we may tell them so, if it will help them; but we never tell any one else. And the same rule of family honor ought to include our ministers.” We should never listen to or repeat one word of gossip or criticism regarding them. “We can pray for the minister in his work, in the presentation of his sermons while he is preaching to us, in his special public efforts, in his work among the homes, in his own discovery of truth, for his own soul and for ours. We can render him invaluable help by prayer. Even if by reason of sickness or inability we can do nothing else to help him, we can in this way do more, perhaps, than in any other way.” We can help to prepare people to be won to Christ and his service. We can talk with them and get them ready for the minister’s message and appeals. We can provide them with our literature. The influence of the silent messengers cannot be overestimated. Perhaps, by God’s grace, we can win individuals to the Master, and bring them to our minister for reception into the church. Be assured that in so doing we shall share the minister’s reward. Remember, the minister is not to be the only Christian worker in the church. He is the leader of others in the work of soul-winning; but we are “workers together.” “We can be on hand promptly, with as many others as we can bring, at the church services and prayer meetings. Being there in the spirit of love and prayer is in itself a great work. It is the accomplishment of something. It is a positive coöperation. Whoever brings a true and open soul to a gathering of Christians, helps them all to see the truth more clearly, and to draw nearer to the minister.” We can help by never refusing to do what we are asked to do, and by not waiting or neglecting to do what we ought to do and what we can at least help in doing. If we are called upon for any service, we can help by saying at once, “Of course I shall be glad to do it.” We can help by giving what we can to the work of the church. It may not be much, but it cannot be less than a little; and it is the collection of the many littles that makes the much. The church is accomplishing great things today, not through the large gifts of the few, but through the moderate gifts of the many. Let no one lightly esteem the influence of small means. Every stone is essential to the strength and symmetry of the bridge. Some of the most important stones in a structure are often quite out of sight. Thus many obscure members are the real strength and power of a church. Let us fill our niche faithfully and gladly, no matter how small or obscure that niche may be. “I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do much, but I can do something.” Whoever will say that and act upon it, will be a real assistant to the minister, and a builder of the kingdom. Why the Sabbath Cannot Be Changed
By F. N. Saterlee
A FACT cannot be changed, or altered. Now what is a fact? The word “fact” is taken from the Latin word factum, which means, a thing done, or made; retrospective. To illustrate: A man may build a house; that house may be destroyed by fire or storm, but that does not change the fact that that house was once built. A man may go to a certain place and immediately return, yet his returning does not change the fact that he went. A man may tell me something and then deny it, yet his denying it does not change the fact that he said it. So the seventh day became the Sabbath; and how so? “In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore [for this reason] the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Ex. 20:11. The seventh day became the Sabbath after the Lord had rested upon it, and because he had rested upon it; therefore his command is to remember to keep it holy, that we may not forget, but keep in memory his creative works. “God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God.” Ex. 20:1. Again he says, “My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.” Ps. 89:34. God cannot deny himself. Of himself he declares: “I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” Mal. 3:6. The Declaration of Independence was signed on the fourth of July. Can that be changed to the third, or fifth, or to any other day?—No, never; for that is a fact,—a thing done, or made, which cannot be changed, or altered. No more can the Sabbath be changed from the seventh day to the first, or to any other day of the week.