The Book of Nature and Its Lessons—How the Great Teacher Used This Book—May Learn to See Him in Tree and Vine and Flower and Star—We Should Learn to See and Teach the Book of Nature in Its Relation to the Written Word
By the late MRS. E. G. WHITE
The great Teacher brought His hearers in contact with nature, that they might listen to the voice which speaks in all created things; and as their hearts became tender and their minds receptive, He helped them to interpret the spiritual teaching of the scenes upon which their eyes rested. The parables by means of which He loved to teach lessons of truth show how open His spirit was to the influences of nature, and how He delighted to gather the spiritual teaching from the surroundings of daily life.
THE DAILY TASK BRIGHTENED
The birds of the air, the lilies of the field, the sower and the seed, the shepherd and the sheep,—with these Christ illustrated immortal truth. He drew illustrations also from the events of life, facts of experience familiar to the hearers,—the leaven, the hidden treasure, the pearl, the fishing net, the lost coin, the prodigal son, the houses on the rock and the sand. In His lessons, there was something to interest every mind, to appeal to every heart. Thus the daily task, instead of being a mere round of toil, bereft of higher thoughts, was brightened and uplifted by constant reminders of the spiritual and the unseen.
TEACH THE CHILD THE LESSONS OF NATURE
So we should teach. Let the children learn to see in nature an expression of the love and the wisdom of God; let the thought of Him be linked with bird and flower and tree; let all things seen become to them the interpretation of the unseen, and all the events of life be a means of divine teaching.
As they learn thus to study the lessons in all created things, and in all life's experiences, show that the same laws which govern the things of nature and the events of life are to control us; that they are given for our good; and that only in obedience to them can we find true happiness and success.
LIFE IS SERVICE
All things both in heaven and in earth declare that the great law of life is a law of service. The infinite Father ministers to the life of every living thing. Christ came to the earth “as he that serveth.” Luke 22:27. The angels are “ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation.” Heb. 1:14. The same law of service is written upon all things in nature. The birds of the air, the beasts of the field, the trees of the forest, the leaves, the grass, and the flowers, the sun in the heavens and the stars of light,—all have their ministry. Lake and ocean, river and water spring,—each lives to give.
As each thing in nature ministers thus to the world’s life, it also secures its own. “Give, and it shall be given unto you,” is the lesson written no less surely in nature than in the pages of Holy Writ.
As the hillsides and the plains open a channel for the mountain stream to reach the sea, that which they give is repaid a hundredfold. The stream that goes singing on its way leaves behind its gift of beauty and fruitfulness. Through the fields, bare and brown under the summer’s heat, a line of verdure marks the river’s course; every noble tree, every bud, every blossom, a witness to the recompense God’s grace decrees to all who become its channels to the world.
LESSONS FROM THE SEED
Of the almost innumerable lessons taught in the varied processes of growth, some of the most precious are conveyed in the Saviour’s parable of the growing seed. It has lessons for old and young.
“The stream that goes singing on its way leaves behind its gift of beauty and fruitfulness.”
“So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; and should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.” Mark 4:26-28.
The seed has in itself a germinating principle, a principle that God Himself has implanted; yet if left to itself, the seed would have no power to spring up. Man has his part to act in promoting the growth of the grain; but there is a point beyond which he can accomplish nothing. He must depend upon One who has connected the sowing and the reaping by wonderful links of His own omnipotent power.
HIS LIFE-GIVING POWER MUST ACT ALSO
There is life in the seed, there is power in the soil; but unless infinite power is exercised day and night, the seed will yield no return. The showers of rain must refresh the thirsty fields; the sun must impart warmth; electricity must be conveyed to the buried seed. The life which the Creator has implanted, He alone can call forth. Every seed grows, every plant develops, by the power of God.
“The seed is the word of God.” Luke 8:11. “As the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth.” Isa. 61:11. As in the natural, so in the spiritual sowing; the power that alone can produce life is from God.
The work of the sower is a work of faith. The mystery of the germination and growth of the seed, he cannot understand; but he has confidence in the agencies by which God causes vegetation to flourish. He casts away the seed, expecting to gather it manifold in an abundant harvest. So parents and teachers are to labor, expecting a harvest from the seed they sow.
SEEDS THAT LIE UNNOTICED
For a time, the good seed may lie unnoticed in the heart, giving no evidence that it has taken root; but afterward, as the Spirit of God breathes on the soul, the hidden seed springs up, and at last brings forth fruit. In our life work, we know not which shall prosper, this or that. This question it is not for us to settle. “In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand.” Eccl. 11:6. God’s great covenant declares that “while the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest . . . shall not cease.” Gen. 8:22. In the confidence of this promise, the husbandman tills and sows. Not less confidently are we, in the spiritual sowing,742to labor, trusting His assurance: “So shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” Isa. 55:11.
THE DEVELOPING PLANT A FIGURE
The germination of the seed represents the beginning of spiritual life, and the development of the plant is a figure of the development of character. There can be no life without growth. The plant must either grow or die. As its growth is silent and imperceptible, but continuous, so is the growth of character. At every stage of development, our life may be perfect; yet if God’s purpose for us is fulfilled, there will be constant advancement.
COOPERATION WITH DIVINE AGENCIES
The plant grows by receiving that which God has provided to sustain its life. So spiritual growth is attained through cooperation with divine agencies. As the plant takes root in the soil, so we are to take root in Christ. As the plant receives the sunshine, the dew, and the rain, so are we to receive the Holy Spirit. If our hearts are stayed upon Christ, He will come unto us “as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.” Hosea 6:3.
The wheat develops, “first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.” Mark 4:28. The object of the husbandman in the sowing of the seed and the culture of the plant, is the production of grain,—bread for the hungry, and seed for future harvests. So the divine Husbandman looks for a harvest. He is seeking to reproduce Himself in the hearts and lives of His followers, that through them He may be reproduced in other hearts and lives.
THE CHILD’S DEVELOPMENT
The gradual development of the plant from the seed is an object lesson in child training. There is “first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.” He who gave this parable, created the tiny seed, gave it its vital properties, and ordained the laws that govern its growth.
Parents and teachers should aim so to cultivate the tendencies of the youth that at each stage of life they may represent the beauty appropriate to that period, unfolding naturally, as do the plants in the garden.
The little ones should be educated in childlike simplicity. They should be trained to be content with the small, helpful duties and the pleasures and experiences natural to their years. Childhood answers to the blade in the parable, and the blade has a beauty peculiarly its own. Children should not be forced into a precocious maturity, but as long as possible should retain the freshness and grace of their early years. The more quiet and simple the life of the child,—the more free from artificial excitement and the more in harmony with nature,—the more favorable it is to physical and mental vigor and to spiritual strength.
CAUSE AND EFFECT WITH UNVARYING CERTAINTY
By the laws of God in nature, effect follows cause with unvarying certainty. The reaping testifies to the sowing. Here no pretense is tolerated. Men may deceive their fellow men, and may receive praise and compensation for service which they have not rendered. But in nature there can be no deception. On the unfaithful husbandman the harvest passes sentence of condemnation. And in the highest sense this is true also in the spiritual realm. It is in appearance, not in reality, that evil succeeds. The child who plays truant from school, the youth who is slothful in his studies, the clerk or apprentice who fails of serving the interests of his employer, the man in any business or profession who is untrue to his highest responsibilities, may flatter himself that, so long as the wrong is concealed, he is gaining an advantage. But not so; he is cheating himself. The harvest of life is character; and it is this that determines destiny, both for this life and for the life to come.
REPRODUCTIONS THAT END IN RUIN
The harvest is a reproduction of the seed sown. Every seed yields fruit “after its kind.” So it is with the traits of character we cherish. Selfishness, self-love, self-esteem, self-indulgence, reproduce themselves, and the end is wretchedness and ruin. “He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” Gal. 6:8. Love, sympathy, and kindness yield fruitage of blessing, a harvest that is imperishable.
In the harvest, the seed is multiplied. A single grain of wheat, increased by repeated sowings, would cover a whole land with golden sheaves. So widespread may be the influence of a single life, of even a single act.
What deeds of love the memory of that alabaster box broken for Christ’s anointing has through the long centuries prompted! What countless gifts that contribution, by a poor unnamed widow, of “two mites, which make a farthing,” has brought to the Saviour’s cause!
MAKE THE CHILDREN’S LESSONS PRACTICAL
As parents and teachers try to teach these lessons, the work should be made practical. Let the children themselves prepare the soil and sow the seed. As they work, the parent or teacher can explain the garden of the heart, with the good or bad seed sown there, and that as the garden must be prepared for the natural seed, so the heart must be prepared for the seed of truth. As the seed is cast into the ground, they can teach the lesson of Christ’s death; and as the blade springs up, the truth of the resurrection. As the plant grows, the correspondence between the natural and the spiritual sowing may be continued.
The youth should be instructed in a similar way. From the tilling of the soil, lessons may constantly be learned. No one settles upon a raw piece of land with the expectation that it will at once yield a harvest. Diligent, persevering labor must be put forth in the preparation of the soil, the sowing of the seed, and the culture of the crop. So it must be in the spiritual sowing. The garden of the heart must be cultivated. The soil must be broken up by repentance. The evil growths that choke the good grain must be uprooted. As soil once overgrown with thorns can be reclaimed only by diligent labor, so the evil tendencies of the heart can be overcome only by earnest effort in the name and strength of Christ.
WHY THESE WANDERERS FROM EDEN?
Thus while the children and youth gain a knowledge of facts from teachers and textbooks, let them learn to draw lessons and discern truth for themselves. In their gardening, question them as to what they learn from the care of their plants. As they look on a beautiful landscape, ask them why God clothed the fields and woods with such lovely and varied hues. Why was not all colored a somber brown? When they gather the flowers, lead them to think why He spared us the beauty of these wanderers from Eden. Teach them to notice the evidences everywhere manifest in nature of God’s thought for us, the wonderful adaptation of all things to our need and happiness.
Many illustrations from nature are used by the Bible writers; and as we observe the things of the natural world, we shall be enabled, under the guiding of the Holy Spirit, more fully to understand the lesson of God’s word. It is thus that nature becomes a key to the treasure house of the Word.
COMPARE THE BIBLE WITH NATURE
Children should be encouraged to search out in nature the objects that illustrate Bible teachings, and to trace in the Bible the similitudes drawn from nature. They should search out, both in nature and in His word, every object representing Christ, and those also that He employed in illustrating truth. Thus may they learn to see Him in tree and vine, in lily and rose, in sun and star. They may learn to hear His voice in the song of birds, in the sighing of the trees, in the rolling thunder, and in the music of the sea. And every object in nature will repeat to them His precious lessons.
To those who thus acquaint themselves with Christ, the earth will never be a lonely and desolate place. It will be their Father’s house, filled with the presence of Him who once dwelt among men.
The Law and the Prophets
By C. L. Taylor
THE Scriptures beautifully explain themselves. They require no “private interpretation.”
Take as an illustration the truth regarding “the law and the prophets.” “The law and the prophets were until John,” says Luke. “For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John,” says Matthew. But Matthew also adds, “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.” Summed up, what is the result?—Simply this: The law and the prophets prophesied, or foretold, and foreshadowed, the great truths of the gospel, until the time of John the Baptist, when that servant of God actually introduced to the world “the Lamb of God.” Then type met antitype. Then prophesying and foreshadowing gave place to the fullness of light and life as manifested in the Lord Jesus.
But the law and the prophets did not cease to be. In them is the Golden Rule. To do to others as we would have them do to us, is the law and the prophets. Jesus, the very personification of the Golden Rule of love, is only a revelation and demonstration of the virtues of the law and the prophets.
Beautiful harmony! To love God with all the heart and soul and mind, and our neighbor as ourselves, is but to fulfill the great end of the law and the prophets. “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Matt. 22:40.
No wonder, therefore, that Jesus came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them. They are everlasting gospel truth. They are the kindness and love of God. They are all goodness, as expressed in the life of Jesus. And he who knows most of our Lord Jesus Christ, knows most of that beauty of character which, from earliest times, God set before the world in “the law and the prophets.” C. L. TAYLOR.
The Heathen World in Darkness
PAINT a starless sky; hang your picture dark with night; drape the mountains with long, far-reaching vistas of darkness; hang the curtains deep along every shore and landscape; darken all the past; let the future be draped in deeper and yet deeper night; fill the awful gloom with hungry, sad-faced men and sorrow-driven women and children,—it is the heathen world, the people, seen in vision by the prophet, who sit in the region and shadow of death, to whom no light has come; sitting there still through the long, long night, waiting and watching for the morning.—Bishop Foster.
“The apostle saw the church . . . ‘drunken with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.’”
Papal Image to Be Formed
By A. R. Bell
The Dark Days of Papal Supremacy—Papal Power Receives a Death Stroke—Another Power Then Seen Coming Up That Will Make an Image to the Papacy—It Will Speak as a Dragon
By A. R. BELL
This is the second of A. R. Bell’s articles on that portion of Revelation which predicts a religious despotism and tyranny to bear sway throughout the world just before the second coming of Christ. His article last week presented in brief some of the leading points in the twelfth chapter of Revelation, showing the conflict through which the church passed as the papacy arose, during the Dark Ages.
The article this week is the first of three articles on the thirteenth chapter of Revelation. Mr. Bell presents in brief some of the evidences that show why the people represented by this power have taken the position, for more than half a century, that the two-horned beast of the thirteenth chapter of Revelation is a symbol of the United States government, and that the prophecy gives a forecast of the persecuting power that will yet arise in this great nation—a nation whose corner stone was liberty and freedom as never before manifested anywhere in all the history of the world. The article this week really lays the foundation for next week’s article, which will present the evidence showing that Protestantism is to turn away from its foundations, and become a persecuting power itself, through forming an “image” to the papal power.
It may be inconceivable, for some Protestants, that their principles of soul liberty will be so completely reversed as to permit of religious bigotry and persecution. But be it remembered that some of the worst persecutions that have ever been inflicted upon the world have been through Protestants. It is not Protestantism that will keep people from persecuting, but it is holding, in fact and not merely in theory, to the principles and the spirit of the teaching of Christ.
Many men were saying, two years ago, that they would never have another war; but witness what is occurring in Europe to-day. The prophets had predicted war as a prevailing passion in these times; and those who were following the book of books, knew what was coming. In like manner, men are saying to-day that we will never have any more religious persecution. But the prophets of God have predicted it; and those who will open their eyes to facts, and see the forces gathering amid the present storm conditions, can readily see how powerfully things are shaping in the world to fulfil literally the inspired prediction of the word of God.
EDITOR.
In the thirteenth chapter of Revelation, it is recorded that there was opened before the seer of Patmos, in vision, the sad experiences through which the people of God were to pass because of apostasy and its attendant persecution. The time of the rise of the papacy is brought to view, the period of its continuing, and the time of its overthrow; and the prophet is privileged to observe “the last word” in earthly government developing with unparalleled rapidity and strength—the mightiest and freest people of all history—only to see that nation forsake the principles which had been its life, and in that forsaking, find naught but death.
The heart of the apostle must have been saddened as he saw this nation forsake the pathway of the men who, in the providence of God, were the makers of it, and behold this “last hope of constitutional government in all the earth” prove to be but a passing shadow, to meet its overthrow as an opposer of God’s work and a persecutor of His people.
PAGANISM GAVE WAY TO THE PAPACY
“Finis” was being written to the last chapter of pagan history in Europe at the time to which the beginning of the vision points. The passing of that time of paganism, however, did not open up to the world the Elysian plains of the Isles of the Blessed. That hour marked the beginning of a time never equalled in its record of cruelty and blood—the most awful that has ever stained the pages of history with its shame.
Paganism was passing, but a greater power than paganism arose to blight the world. Paganism was the open and avowed enemy of Christianity. As such, it had failed to accomplish the purpose of Satan—the destruction of God’s people. Satan, however, was not to be turned from his purpose. Disappointed though he was, he turned his face in another direction, and succeeded in inoculating the church of Christ with his infernal virus. He led it to forsake the throne of grace for the throne of the Cæsars. He caused it to cast away the sword of the Spirit, and to unsheathe the sword of Peter.
The apostle saw the church lay aside her robes of white, and array herself in purple and scarlet, and in her infamy become “drunken with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.” He saw the professed church of Jesus Christ so change in character and aims and purposes, that heaven presents it as a beast having upon its head the name of blasphemy, and not only making “war with the saints,” but also opening its mouth “in blasphemy against God.”
He saw an effort made to destroy the beast; but, alas, the deadly wound is healed, “and all the world wondered after the beast,” crying out, “Who is able to make war with him?”
THE PERIOD OF PAPAL SUPREMACY
Verses 1–10 of Revelation 13 mark the record, in the matter of time, from A. D. 330 to A. D. 1798. The seat and power and great authority of the dragon—pagan Rome, the power through which Satan, the real dragon (see Rev. 12: 9), was operating—was passed on to papal Rome, beginning, practically, with the removal of the seat of the empire from Rome to Constantinople, in A. D. 330, in the days of Constantine, and reaching to the seating of the bishop of Rome upon the throne of Rome, by the arms of Justinian, in A. D. 538. To this period Rev. 13: 5 points, saying, “And power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.”
This is the same time brought to view in chapter 12, verse 6, “a thousand two hundred and threescore days”; and in verse 14, “a time, and times, and half a time.” It is that long, dark night which covered the world with its woe, beginning A. D. 538, and ending A. D. 1798.
It is a story without a parallel. It is the history of a system whose boast is that it “never changes.” It is the record of a church which, through the centuries, has been proving her claim that she is the “true church,” by the stake, the rack, the gibbet, and the block.
The forty and two months terminated in 1798. In that year, Pope Pius VI was taken prisoner, and stripped of all his power, civil and ecclesiastical, and of all his property, by the arms of France. The papacy, for the moment, was abolished. Rome was proclaimed a republic. The pope was carried an exile into France, where he died in captivity.
SHE THAT HAD USED THE SWORD
This was the wounding to death foretold in verse 3 of Revelation 13, and which met its fulfillment in verse 10. The church that had led captive the hosts of earth for centuries, that had used for so long “the power of the state for the furtherance of her aims,” was herself led into captivity. She had used the sword (verse 10), the symbol of the state, to lead into captivity, and to kill. That same sword was her undoing. Temporal power was taken away. The voice which, when it spoke, had made kingdoms quake, was stilled. The wounding to death of verse 3 was inflicted.
A BEAST COMES OUT OF THE EARTH
It was at this time that the prophet’s attention was called to the rise of another power—our own nation. He saw “another beast coming up out of the earth.” Verse 11. So rapid was its rise that John seemed actually to see it coming up.
No nation save our own fits the prophetic mold and the time. Nine years before the prophecy received its “death stroke” by France, the constitution of the United States went into effect. She is seen “coming up out of the earth,” the very opposite of the beast in verse 1, which is seen to “rise up out of the sea.” In Scripture, the sea symbolizes “peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.” Rev. 17: 15.
The term “earth,” then, would suggest that the place where the beast of Rev. 13: 11 was seen “coming up” was far removed from the densely populated territory of Europe, where the beast of verse 1 had its rise.
The time of this nation’s coming up, and the manner of it, and the place of it, correspond in every detail with the prophecy.744
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE LAMBLIKE HORNS
The two horns like a lamb (see verse 11), would imply some specially prominent, characteristic features of the power brought to view. And what do we find as we look for the answer?—We find the United States of America to be the only nation in all the history of all the world that founded the whole superstructure of government upon two great principles; namely, civil and religious liberty.
These principles, upon which this nation is built, have been the foundation of her greatness, making her a magnet that has attracted to her shores, from every land and from every clime, men who, like the ones that gave to this nation its constitution, have “recognized the eternal principle that man’s relation to his God is above human legislation, and his right of conscience inalienable.”
Under the great providence of God, through these two fundamental principles, America became a beacon light of liberty to the whole world—a new and wonderful thing in government.
IS TO SPEAK AS A DRAGON
But the prophecy continues. It says, “And he spake as a dragon.” Verse 11. What a tremendous change! How sad to contemplate!
We found, last week, in our study of Revelation 12, that the dragon was a persecuting power, bending every energy toward the destruction of God’s people. Verse 12 of this chapter we are studying, tells us this nation is to exercise “all the power of the first beast”—the papacy. The papacy used the power of the state to persecute and destroy. The prophecy tells us that this nation is to make men worship the papacy. Supernatural forces will operate, and men will be deceived, and led to believe that this work of compelling their fellows in matters of conscience is of God. This deception will be so great that the principles which have been the nation’s life and power and greatness will be set aside, and an image to the papacy will be erected in their stead. Verses 12–14.
Nor is this all. We read that life will be given to “the image of the beast,” to the end that the image of the beast should be heard to speak. Verse 15.
THE IMAGE WILL SPEAK
Note also that when life is given to the image, it is the image that speaks. That voice will be the voice of the dragon, which is brought to view in chapter 12 as a relentless persecutor of the people of God. The image of the beast speaks, and its voice is heard even to the issuing of the death penalty. This would lead us to the conclusion that the image to the beast is supreme, and that the state is simply the tool used to do her bidding.
Photo Underwood & Underwood
AUTO TRUCK AMMUNITION TRAIN LEAVING FOR THE FRONT
As therefore the papacy is the very embodiment of the union of church and state, with the church ruling the state, so also is the image to the papacy.
This being true, we are confronted, in the prophecy, with the fact that this nation will be led to forsake the position she has occupied for a hundred and twenty-five years, guaranteeing to every man protection in his right to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, and form an illicit union with the church. State and church will be united, with the church ruling the state. This is an exact likeness to the papacy.
HUMAN RIGHTS TRAMPLED UNDERFOOT
When that day is reached, the inalienable rights of men will be trampled underfoot, and civil and religious liberty will be only a matter of remembrance.
The story penned by inspiration is “written for our learning.” Just a little way ahead are Mount Zion and a redeemed host.
To these days of apostasy belongs the promise of the Deliverer; and a waiting remnant are looking forward with hope to that day which soon will dawn, when He whose right it is to reign shall come and claim His own, “every one that shall be found written in the book.” “They shall trust in the name of the Lord, . . . and none shall make them afraid.”
Reader, Christ and His glorious kingdom, a sure possession by faith, now are the guarantee of heaven to the glorious reality soon to be experienced. “Have faith in God.”
Next week, the study of this subject will be continued further.
SERVIAN AMMUNITION CARS LEAVING FOR THE FRONT, DRAWN BY OXEN
