Earlier text: THE REMISSION OF SINCOURAGE IN THE LORD.
By James White
TWENTY years since, while at a meeting in the house of worship at Wolcott, Vt., under great depression of mind, Elder Albert Stone arose in the stand, and with his own mind and heart imbued with the spirit of faith and hope, repeated the words, "Courage in the Lord. Courage in the Lord, brethren. Courage in the Lord." These words, repeated three times, seemed electrifying. The powers of darkness gave way, and light, hope, faith, and courage revived, and we wept for joy. We had been burdened with cares and perpetual toil in feeble health, and were sinking in spirits. It seemed to us that the Lord used this dear fellow-laborer to break the bands that held us, and lead us out into freedom. God bless Brother Stone in his age. The words came home to our aching heart with greater power and sweetness coming from one who was never carried away in flights of feeling, but whose position and course were ever as firm as that substance which bears his name. Courage in the Lord! What words! At their very mention the Christian heart throbs with joy. Sanctified courage is needed by all who labor in the cause of God. The powers of darkness never pressed more heavily upon the minds and hearts of Christ's embassadors than at the present time. The field of our labor is unlimited; the harvest is truly great, and laborers are few. Men among us who have long stood under heavy burdens are failing in health and courage, and the time has fully come when no shade of darkness should be cast, when no cause of discouragement should be whispered. God is our hope, and our only hope. He that has been with us may still be seen to be with us, as he has promised to be with us to the end. He has given us glorious victories when we have been humble, faithful, hopeful and true. The very history of the rise and progress of the cause presents a miracle of God's power and love. "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake. Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God? But our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased." We must all learn to regard the progress of the cause of present truth as the work of God, in a special sense. Have we succeeded in our periodicals and publications? It is because God has helped us. He has been our counselor and guide. In our organization and system to secure support to the ministry, his hand is distinctly seen. Our Sanitarium and our beloved College have been planted by his hand. Our missions at home and abroad have been blessed with marked prosperity, because He who said, "Lo I am with you always, even unto the end of the world," has been with them in their fields of labor. The enemy of all good has evidently watched our progress, and has opposed the work most vigorously at every step. This we might expect from the nature of the work in which we are engaged, and the history of his workings in the past. He knows that his career must soon close. "The devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time." Rev. 12:12. "And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Verse 17. Satan's methods of attack are such as will best serve his cause, in his rebellion against the government of God, and the plan of redemption through Jesus Christ. His temptations upon the human mind, ever powerful, increase as we approach the end of our work. Division and subdivision of the church of Jesus Christ, has ever been his forte, and his power to estrange the hearts of near and dear friends increases. As union is strength, so a want of union is the weakness of the church. Discouragements are sure to follow this state of things. Faith grows weak, hope becomes dim, courage departs, and hands hang down,331 that should be strong in God, to battle in the cause of truth. Our system of organization, and the principles of union, in faith and modes of labor, which have prevailed from the beginning of our work, have secured to us a greater harmony than exists in any other religious body. Our ministers are united on the doctrines held by S. D. Adventists. Our people sustain the worship of God in the absence of preachers, as no other people do or can, and there is a willingness to sacrifice for the cause of God, that can be found with no other people. And yet, when we consider the high standard sustained by the plainest declaration of God's word, we, as a people, fall far short of doing what we should do, and of being what we should be. We rejoice in the truth to a certain extent, while that truth does not have that influence upon our lives, our walk, conversation, and devotions, that it must have to meet the mind of God. And what seems most painful, is the fact that in this state of things, many of our overworked ministers are failing in health. Our beloved brother and fellow-laborer, Elder J. N. Andrews, who toiled incessantly for a quarter of a century in this country, and has continued his labors in Europe for five long years, while suffering under bereavements and a series of discouragements that language can but faintly express, is reported to be quite feeble, and fears are entertained that consumption will soon terminate his important labors. Elder Matteson, who labored in this country ardently and successfully for more than ten years, until he was much worn, is laboring in Norway, to the very extent of his strength. Elder Loughborough, who labored upon the American continent faithfully a quarter of a century, the last eleven years of which was spent upon the Pacific coast, continues his arduous labors in Old England. Time, toil, and care are making their marks upon these devoted pioneers of the cause. And while they are wearing out, we do not see men entering upon the work with the same devotion, self-sacrifice, and power that has characterized the ministry of these men. And while such encouraging fields of labor as Colorado are destitute of a single laborer, and other good fields are nearly destitute, several of our most efficient preachers are able to do but very little ministerial labor. Faithful brethren in Colorado have paid for a new tent for the present season, and have money in the bank to sustain laborers, and are actually building a house of worship in Boulder City, and yet there is no laborer in that field, to which there is great immigration, including many of our brethren from different States. The words sad and painful can hardly express this state of things. Our brethren are ready to sustain the cause with their means, their hands, and their prayers, but where are the laborers? The word agonizing better expresses the feelings of those in whose minds and hearts God has put our world-wide message, and whom he has imbued with an undying love for sinners. In view of the situation, and in behalf of the Executive Board of our General Conference, we have appointed July 24 as a day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer. Our people are requested, as they shall assemble in their respective places of worship on that day, to make the wants of the cause and our duty before God as a people the subject of earnest thought, and on that day offer most earnest prayer to God that he will spare to us our dear Brother Andrews, and that he will raise to health and efficiency those who are laboring under the burden of feebleness and discouragements. May we not, as a people, lay hold of the word of the Lord by the prophet, and be admonished and benefited by it? "Behold the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear." God is love. Our sin-pardoning, loving Lord lives and reigns, and it is our privilege to find in Jesus Christ a full and free pardon for all our sins, and to enjoy sweet communion and fellowship with the Father and his dear Son. "God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanseth us from all sin. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:5, 7, 9. As we draw near to God, who is a body of pure light, we lose our darkness and become bodies of light, and the spirit of fellowship and union runs through such a body of Christians as freely as the light in which they walk. God lives and reigns, brethren, and our adorable Redeemer will come into our hearts with all his fullness of blessings, when we return to him with all our hearts, in humiliation, confession, fasting, and earnest prayer. "Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. 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; and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults, one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain; and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him, let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins." James 5:13-20. When the spirit of confession of faults comes into the church, and confidence in the prayer of faith for the sick shall be revived, and the brethren taste of the pardoning love of Jesus, then will a spirit of tenderness and forbearance, and pity for those who err from the truth under special temptations be manifested, according to the words of our Lord, "Love one another as I have loved you." John 15:12. "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted." Gal. 6:1. In the Lord we may have faith, hope, and true courage. Courage in the Lord! Courage in the Lord, brethren! Courage in the Lord! CHRIST OUR ONLY HOPE.
By James White
Our Lord illustrates his relation to the church and the dependence of the disciple upon the Master by the figure of the vine and its branches. He says: "As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing." John 15: 4, 5. In our past brief history as a people, we have the clearest evidence that the power of Christ has been with us, when we have been humble, obedient, and consecrated to the specific work to which God has called us. The crosses, in point of religious faith, which we have to bear, are many. We are out of harmony with the religious world on almost every point. Here is the second advent cross, the cross of the doctrine of life and immortality alone through Jesus Christ, the cross of the perpetuity of spiritual gifts, and the Sabbath cross. The popular church, united with the world, is against us, and without the power of Christ and the presence of his angels to go with us to battle, the contest is an unequal one. Unless the Lord shall go before our people, and with us in our walk, we shall utterly fail. But Christ strengthening us we can do all his righteous will. But, thank God, all power in Heaven and in earth is given to Christ, our conquering leader, and Satan is a conquered foe. In the strength of Christ our people must and will arise. Indications are favorable with the church at Battle Creek. We are holding the fort. Meetings increase in interest, and seasons of prayer are exceedingly precious and profitable. Responses to, the appointment of the day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer, from all parts of the field are favorable. Our people will not wait till the 24th. They have already engaged in the work of returning to the Lord in earnest. He hears our earnest prayers, and meets us, even while far from him. J. W. THE SEVENTH DAY OR A SEVENTH DAY.
By J. W.
(From Les Signes des Temps.) A FRIEND sends us an article written against the duty of remembering the rest day of the Creator. He requests us to notice the arguments therein contained, which we proceed to do. The writer of the article begins by the acknowledgement that the Sabbath originated at creation when God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. Gen. 2:2,3. He says that God did this to teach men their duty, to set apart this day for him. Now this is in truth the foundation of our argument for the perpetual observance of the seventh day. It was ordained of God when he created man. It was therefore made for the whole race, and not merely for the Jews who did not exist till 2000 years later. It originated in immediate connection with marriage (see Gen. 2) and both these institutions were made for man. Mark 2:27; 1 Cor. 11:9. Both were equally sacred in the sight of God when he gave the moral law, for he devoted the fourth commandment to the protection of the day which he had sanctified, and the seventh commandment to the protection of the institution of marriage. As the seventh day was sanctified while man was yet in Paradise, an unfallen being, it follows that the observance of that day is not a yoke of bondage but a sacred duty. The importance of the Sabbath can be stated in one sentence: It is the memorial of the creation of the heavens and the earth. But when this writer has admitted these important facts how does he contrive to escape their just force? How is it that instead of hallowing the seventh day he contends that it ought to be made a day of ordinary business, and that a day which God has never sanctified ought to be honored by us instead of the seventh? This is the answer: In the first declaration which he makes he mixes error with truth in such a manner as to enable him to elude all that God commands in this institution and yet to maintain the appearance of obedience. He calls the Sabbath “the institution of a day of rest after six days of labor.” Why does he speak in this manner when the Bible never uses such language? This form of expression is used on purpose to deceive. It attempts to give the idea that no definite day was sanctified by God, yet the language of the Bible is as definite as can be framed. The first six days were employed by God in the work of creation. The first seventh day God rested from all his work, when he had rested upon it he blessed the seventh day and set it apart to a holy use. This was the act of setting apart the next seventh day and all subsequent seventh days in regular succession as the memorial of his rest on the first seventh day of time. But this writer seeks to render this act vague and indefinite. God did not sanctify the definite seventh day but he sanctified “a day of rest after six days of labor.” If he had sanctified the definite seventh day the day of rest would always be the last day of the week, that is to say, it would always be the same day of the week as that on which God rested. But if he sanctified “a day of rest after six of labor,” meaning thereby no particular day, that day can be made to come on any day of the week that the will of man may ordain. Thus even the first day of the week on which God began his work is by the sleight and craftiness of men made to serve as the memorial of his rest on the seventh day. All this is done by changing “the seventh day” into a term that is so vague that it can be applied to the first day of the week. When there was apostasy in Israel and the majority followed Baal, the worshipers of the God of Israel contended with the Baalites. They said it is written: “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” Matt. 4:10. And they contended that this signifies that Jehovah alone should be adored. But the Baalites could respond in the style of this writer: This text means simply that we should all worship a supreme being and this is what we do in the worship of Baal. The controversy turned on the question whether the commandment was definite or indefinite, and so it is with regard to the seventh day. If the first commandment is indefinite it is not difficult to substitute Baal for Jehovah; if the fourth commandment is indefinite it is equally easy to substitute the first day for the seventh day. In each case those who take these liberties think themselves models of obedience. Thus our friend after this effort to change “the seventh day” into “the first day,” seems totally unconscious of the sinfulness of such conduct and quotes Deut. 8:3, which says that man shall live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, as though he were doing this while deliberately changing the fourth commandment. He next questions whether the Sabbath was observed from Adam to Moses. It is sufficient to say that God set apart the seventh day to a holy use as soon as he had rested upon it. To thus set it apart it was necessary that he should tell Adam that it was to be used only for holy purposes. Adam lived nearly 1000 years, so that this commandment must have been known to all the world in that age. We read of Enoch and of Noah that they walked with God (Gen. 5:24; 6:9), and of Abraham that he kept God's commandments, Gen. 26:5. This writer quotes Deut. 5:15 to show that the Israelites could not keep the Sabbath in Egypt. The text does not affirm this. God uses the same language with respect to their duty toward widows and orphans, Deut. 24:17, 18. This does not signify that they could not act justly toward such persons in Egypt, but the reference to the deliverance from Egypt is an appeal to what God had done as motive to move them to obey. He refers to the fall of the manna (Ex. 16) as the time at which the Hebrews commenced to take a special interest in the Sabbath. They had occasion for this. God sent them bread from Heaven six days. He sent none on the seventh day. He preserved the manna of the sixth day for their food on the seventh, whereas it would spoil if kept to the next day in any other case. Here were three miracles a week, or one hundred and fifty-six in a year. As this continued for forty years, there were in all six thousand two hundred and forty miracles, all marking the definite seventh day and all proving that that day and no other is the Sabbath. SYNOPSIS OF THE PRESENT TRUTH.
REFLECTIONS ON THE SANCTUARY.
The Sanctuary! Momentous subject! Grand nucleus around which cluster the glorious constellations of present truth! How it opens to our understanding the plan of salvation! How it lifts the vail from the position of our Lord in Heaven! What a halo of glory it throws upon his ministry! What a divine harmony it establishes in the word of God! What a flood of light it pours upon past fulfillment of prophecy! How it fortifies the mighty truths of these last days! What a glory it sheds upon the future! With what hope and joy and consolation it fills the heart of the believer! Glorious subject! Its importance can neither be overdrawn nor over estimated. It is as though a new apartment of the heavenly temple were suddenly opened before us, filled with all the divine splendor, the majesty and the beauty of eternal truth.332 We venture the assertion that it is impossible for a person to entertain correct and scriptural views on the subject of the sanctuary, and yet be at variance with any of the fundamental points of what we consider Present Truth; and perhaps no one fact can serve to place its importance in a stronger light than this. It is the great safeguard against all those bewildering errors, which since the passing of the time in 1844, have torn and scattered the once harmonious body of Advent believers. An application of this fact in a few particulars may be well. The wild and disastrous work that has been made by some during the past thirty-six years, in setting so many erroneous times for the second advent of the Saviour, growing out of the idea that the prophetic periods must reach to the coming of the Lord, in the light of the sanctuary might have been avoided. That shows us at once that those periods were not designed to extend to that event. The most important one, perhaps, anywhere given in the Scriptures, is expressly declared to reach only to the cleansing of the sanctuary. Dan. 8:14. The 2300 days ended in 1844. We believe that then our great High Priest entered into the most holy of the heavenly sanctuary, and commenced the work of its cleansing, as the prophecy declared, and that no jot nor tittle of what we were warranted to expect at that time, has in any wise failed. That any of the prophetic periods extend beyond the termination of the 2300 days we have no evidence. The 1335 days will doubtless here recur to the mind of the reader, and the inquiry will arise if Daniel's standing in his lot at the end of the days does not mean his rising in the resurrection, and if therefore those days do not extend to the coming of the Lord. The difficulty lies in the expression, "stand in thy lot." The lot is taken to mean the "lot of his inheritance," and the sentence is supposed to refer to the resurrection. The Englishman's Hebrew Concordance however shows that this is not its meaning. The Hebrew word from which lot in Dan. 12:13 is translated, is "goh-rah-l." This word occurs, and is translated lot, seventy-six times in the Old Testament. That the reader may be able to determine its significance we give the instances of its use. " Lev. 16:8. Aaron shall cast lots.
one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for the scape-goat.- upon which the Lord's lot fell.
- on which the lot fell.
Num. 26:55. the land shall be divided by lot.
56. according to the lot shall the. See also Num. 33:54; 34:13; 36:2, 3; Josh. 14:2; 15:1; 16:1; 17:1, 14, 17; 18:6, 8, 10, 11; 19:1, 10, 17 24, 32, 40, 51; 21:4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 20, 40; Jud. 1:3; 20:9; 1 Chron. 6:54, 61, 63, 65; 24:5, 7, 31; 25:8, 9; 26:13, 14; Neh. 10:34; 11:1; Est. 3:7; 9:24; Ps. 16:5; 22:18; 125:3; Prov. 1:14; 16:33; 18:18; Isa. 17:14; 34:17; 57:6; Jer. 12:25; Eze. 24:6; Dan. 12:13; Joel 3:3; Obad. 11; Jonah 1:7; Micah 2:5; Nah. 3:10. The definition of the word lot, as given by Webster, 1. "That which in human speech, is called chance, hazard, fortune, but in strictness of language, is the determination of Providence; as, the land shall be divided by lot. 2. That by which the fate or portion of one is determined; that by which an event is committed to chance, that is, to the determination of Providence; as, to cast lots; to draw lots." There is another word [gheh-vel] which is translated, region, country, lot of inheritance, etc., as in Deut. 3:4, 13, 14; 32:9; Josh. 17:5, 14; 19:9, 29. But it not being the word used in Dan. 12:13, all ground for the objection usually raised on that point, is removed. It will hence be seen that Daniel does not stand in the "lot of his inheritance," as it has been expressed, at the end of the 1335 days, but he stands in his lot in the decisions of the judgment of the righteous dead. He stands in his lot, with all the righteous dead, in the person of his Advocate. And such we believe has been his position since the ending of the days. The vexed question of Daniel's standing in his lot is therefore settled. The word that is used, determines it with a precision, from which there is no appeal. Being satisfied with regard to the termination of the prophetic periods, we are guarded also, by this subject, against giving up the past Advent movement, as a delusion, or ignoring the divine agency that produced it. We are prevented from misapplying the first and second messages of Rev. 14, as they were but proclamations preparatory to the sanctuary work; and we are as firmly fixed upon the third, since that work is its very root and foundation. But we call attention more particularly to the connection which this subject has with a practice which constitutes one of our distinguishing features as a people—we mean the observance of the Lord's Sabbath. We read in Revelation, "that the temple of God was opened in Heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament." Chap. 11:19. This ark of the testament, whether contemplated on the earth, as man was connected with it under the former dispensation, or in Heaven as it is here introduced to us, is equally an object of interest. Considering that the sanctuary of the first covenant was but a type or shadow of the sanctuary of this, which now exists in Heaven, who may tell us that the ark of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man, differs from the former, either in the purposes for which it was used, or the things which it contains? The ark of the earthly sanctuary was called the ark of the testimony, or testament. Ex. 25:22. It contained the tables of stone, on which were engraved by the finger of God the ten commandments, and just as he engraved them. Ex. 25:16; 31:18. The ark of the heavenly sanctuary, called also the ark of his testament, as in the text above quoted (Rev. 11:19), must also contain similar tables, with precisely the same commandments, else it was not prefigured by the former. The ark, then, under whatever dispensation we view it, suggests to our mind the same idea, the commandments of God, as he uttered them from Sinai, and engraved them with his own finger. But who can suppose that thoughts of the ark, or the writing it contained, suggested to the mind of a Jew, the observance of the first day of the week as a day of rest! Neither does it suggest such an idea to our minds; but quite another, according to the reading of the fourth commandment contained in it, which says, The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, etc. Such are some of the considerations which naturally connect themselves with the ark of God. But, says the Revelation, "The temple of God was opened in Heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament;" therefore considerations like these have been, and are still, agitating the minds of the people; and as we have seen by faith, through the declarations of his word, those tables of the law carefully preserved in the holy temple of the Highest, overwhelming impressions of its immutability and perpetuity have rolled over us, till we could do no otherwise than turn our feet to the keeping of all those holy commandments. Here is a nail in a sure place. The tables of the testimony are enthroned in Heaven. There they exist without liability of change or decay. Men may legislate and hold councils, and past decrees, and vent their rage against those who will acknowledge the claims of the royal law, but they cannot touch the law; as high as heaven from earth it still remains above their reach. What must man do to change it? He must ascend to Heaven, dethrone Jehovah, burst through the angel guards into the sacred temple, wrest from the ark the mercy-seat, and with his own would-be omnipoient finger, change the writing of the imperishable tables. And yet people will talk about the change of the law as a very little thing! or even proceed further and speak of its abolition! They might as well talk of abolishing earth and heaven! The temple has been opened in Heaven, and there is seen the ark of his testament. I have set before thee an open door, says Jesus, and no man can shut it. Rev. 3:8. Men may endeavor with all their energies to obscure the claims of the law, but they cannot obscure them. They may raise all the stir they please amid the dust and dirt of earth, and joy over the portion they succeed in throwing into their own eyes; but we have only to look away to the heavenly sanctuary, and behold therein the ark of his testament, and in that ark the tables of the commandments, safely deposited beneath the eye of Him who slumbers not nor sleeps. We now perceive a beauty, before unnoticed, in the work of redemption. Sin is the transgression of the law. The law is deposited in the ark. The cover of the ark is the mercy-seat. Ex. 25:21. Before the mercy-seat Christ pleads his blood for sinful man. Before the eyes of our Mediator therefore lies the law which we have transgressed, and which is the test of our characters. And now, reader, what think you? Can you with confidence approach the throne of grace, and plead with the Minister of the sanctuary for mercy until you are conscious that you are at least striving to keep every one of those commandments, just as they are engraved upon those tables which repose beneath the mercy-seat before which he ministers? Think well upon this point; and may the Lord help you to seek in a consistent manner remission of your sins, and justification by faith in Christ. Thus the sanctuary becomes a great bulwark of the truth on every hand. We do not say that a person cannot keep the Sabbath unless he believes in it; but we do say that a person cannot believe in it, and yet consistently, we may say honestly, refuse to observe the Sabbath. Never lose sight of the sanctuary. When carnal hearts around you are venting their spite against the law of God, look to the sanctuary. Amid all the opposition of "unreasonable men" against the commandments of God, look to the sanctuary. In hours of darkness, trial, temptation and persecution, look to the sanctuary. There is light and glory there. There help has been laid upon One that is mighty. There our High Priest ministers for us; and thither our hope has entered, within the vail. Heb. 6:19, 20.