Your ShelfYour Projects

Signs of the Times, Vol. 29, No. 16.

A PALACE OF DEATH
Earlier text: A PALACE OF DEATH

How They Became Convinced

[Believing it would be of interest to our readers, the editor of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES has asked Sabbath-keeping ministers and evangelical workers to tell in a few words the scripture or scriptures, the truths and principles, which constrained them to accept the unpopular truth of the seventh-day Sabbath. These testimonies must not exceed 500 words. Let us hear from all.]

LXI.

I was born a Seventh-day Baptist, in which denomination my father, Elder Simeon Babcock, was an ordained minister in active service many years. Both my parents held the Sabbath of the Lord in holy reverence, and, according to the light they had, strove to hallow the seventh day of each week in the home, in strict obedience to the Word and command of God. At the age of seventeen years I went to college, and thence into the world. Certain doctrines taught I could not accept, nor a god with like attributes. Yet I was taught that to reject these teachings would be to reject God and the Bible. For years the Bible and the Sabbath, and all idea of the Sabbath, were laid aside. But the true God held me in His holy hand, while the fervent prayers of a loving, Christian mother followed me. Meanwhile I searched for that “which was lost,” in ancient and modern lodge and lore, from order to order, and book to book of man, in the last degree taken and the last book read, to end with the goal not in sight, and the lost not found! However, some theorems touching cause and effect, exact, as, that the square of the longest side of a right-angled triangle equals the sum of the squares of the other two sides, led me to that Being who “spake and it was; who commanded and it stood fast.” Off came the dust from the blessed Book, my parents gave me in boyhood, and a search in it from lid to lid found not a trace of those doctrines of devils taught by man out of it and that had turned me so early from it. But is the Bible really inspired? Here God met me with a study of the prophecies, with direct reference to Daniel and the Revelation, furnishing final proof, beyond all reasonable doubt, that the Bible is God’s inspired Word. No creature of himself knows a moment of the future! I must accept the Bible as the Word of God, knowing that no prophecy ever came by the will of man; but “holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”
Accepting the one true God and His Word, the Sabbath presents its claims. This He says is the Sabbath of the Lord, the “Lord’s day” made for man, expressed the seventh day of each week from the rest of God Himself. He has no other! Neither have I! I will not worship God in vain, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
Bridgewater, Nova Scotia. M. S. Babcock.

LXII.

While a member of the Baptist Church I became convinced of the nature of man. Regarding the Sabbath question, I knew, with most men, that Sunday was not the seventh day, but saw nothing more in the Sabbath than the seventh day of the week. In the fall of 1893 I attended a series of meetings held in Jersey City by Pastor E. E. Frank, and drank in the beautiful unfolding of the Sabbath. I accepted the message as from the Lord, and before the meetings closed was a tithe-payer and Sabbath-keeper. I saw Christ as Creator. John 1: 1-3, 14; Col. 1: 14-18. I saw the Sabbath as the memorial of creation. Ps. 111: 2-4; Ex. 20: 8-11. I saw in redemption and sanctification the creative power of Christ (Eph. 2: 10; 2 Cor. 5: 17), and in the Sabbath the sign to us of His power to perform that work (Eze. 20: 12). I saw the keeping of the Sabbath—our resting from physical labor—as an outward sign of our ceasing from sin,—our own works. Heb. 4: 10. I saw that Christ made holy the Sabbath by His own presence; that His presence was rest (Ex. 33: 14; 1 Cor. 10: 4; Matt. 11: 28), and that the keeping of the Sabbath was the evidence of the presence of Christ. I saw that Sabbath-keeping was the test of loyalty to the God of heaven just before the Lord comes (Rev. 14: 6-12, 14-16), and by the grace of God I was led to more fully acknowledge Him and His power to save and keep; to take my foot from off His Sabbath, and know the blessing of Isa. 58: 13, 14.
Camden, N. J. A. R. Bell.

THE OBEDIENT.

By Ellen G. White

All who have determined to serve God will seek to know and to do His will, at whatever cost to themselves. The true servants of God will be made manifest by their willing obedience to all the commandments of their Master. They will not be murmuring and finding fault with the law, but will declare by word and action, “This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not grievous.” In obeying the law, they are doing that which is well-pleasing in the sight of heaven, and all the promises of the Word of God are pledged to the support of the faithful and obedient. They may hope in His mercy, build on His immutable counsels, obtain the desires of their hearts, because their wills are placed on the side of God’s will. It is their meat to do the will of God and to finish His work. The gates of the eternal city shall open for the nation that has kept the truth. The servants of God shall eat of the tree of life, and enjoy the unsearchable riches of eternity. —E. G. White.

Crises in the Soul’s Journey Toward God

By B. M. Adams

As a rule the souls of men get on toward God by a series of crises.—B. M. Adams.

DAVID AND CHRIST.

By H. A. St. John

LONG centuries ago David ascended the throne of his complete dominion over all Israel, by three distinct steps, all of which were taken in accordance with the instruction and revelation of Him, “whose kingdom ruleth over all.”
The first step in David’s ascendency was his anointing by the prophet. David was born in Bethlehem, of godly parents, of the stock of Israel, and the tribe of Judah. In his youth he followed the occupation of shepherd, keeping his father’s sheep on the plains of Bethlehem. When a lad of fifteen years, there came a day when the distinguished prophet, priest, and judge of Israel came to Bethlehem. The object of his coming was unknown to the inhabitants of the quiet little village, but all knew his visit must have great significance, and the elders trembled at his coming. Samuel called to the sacrifice Jesse, the father of David, and requested of him that his sons might appear before him, as he had a divine mission to perform for one of the number. The sons of Jesse, seven in number, successively passed before him. Then the prophet of God in some perplexity, inquired, “Are here all thy children? the Spirit of divine wisdom and discernment upon me does not point to any of these as the one chosen of God.” The father replied, “There remaineth yet the youngest, and, behold, he keepeth the sheep.” “Send and fetch him,” enjoined the prophet, “we will not sit down till he come hither.” So David was brought without delay. “Now he was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to. And the Lord said, Arise, anoint him; for this is he.” Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brethren, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. This was the first step toward making David king of Israel. He was anointed and Spirit-guided, but not crowned.
Saul, an apostate king, still held the throne, and when he learned that David, of another family and tribe, was likely to be his successor, he determined to prevent it. So he pursued David with an army, far and near, year after year, hunting him like a flea, or a partridge, that he might take his life. David’s noble character was revealed, in that he would not harm the Lord’s anointed, even when he had, on several occasions, both the power and the opportunity to do so.
At length Saul threw away his life in battle with the Philistines. David was very soon anointed and crowned king over a part of Israel, at Hebron. Here he reigned for about seven years. At the end of this period the whole kingdom came to him and he was again, for the third time, anointed king, this time king over all Israel, and his final coronation took place. Then began David to reign in Jerusalem and in Mount Zion gloriously. All his enemies were subdued, and the boundaries of his kingdom greatly extended. The dominion of Israel was enlarged under David ten-fold, and never was extended by his successors.
The most illustrious prince in the house of David is the Prince of princes, the Prince of Peace, the Lord Jesus Christ. Of Him the exalted angel Gabriel said, “He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David; and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.”
Jesus, like His father David, will reach the throne of universal dominion over all Israel by three successive steps. Jesus was anointed, but not crowned, when He bowed in prayer on the banks of the river Jordan after His baptism,—anointed with the Holy Ghost, the oil of gladness, above His fellows. The devil, the king of this world, at once began the most desperate and determined campaign against Him. There was the battle of the wilderness, and many another conflict followed, and he never for a moment abandoned his purpose to overthrow Jesus as long as He was in his usurped dominion. As David found refuge outside of Saul’s dominion, so Jesus finds refuge in His Father’s kingdom, where He is gradually, silently, but none the less surely, making up the subjects of His kingdom—the spiritual Israel.
The time is nearing when Jesus will again be anointed, and this time crowned as King of kings and Lord of lords, and then Satan will be bound, and Christ will deliver all the subjects of His kingdom from the dominion of Satan, leaving only the territory as a gloomy prison-house to the apostate. Christ will begin His reign at once over all Israel, but within the circumscribed limits of the capital of His kingdom, the New Jerusalem.
At the end of a thousand years reign in the Holy City will come the third anointing and final coronation of the Lord Jesus. All rebellion will be put down, all rebels, including the arch-rebel himself, will be destroyed, and God will have a clean universe once more. All the consequences of sin, the curse, will be forever wiped out, and the first dominion, a beautiful new heaven and new earth will return to the illustrious son of David, the second Adam. And of His peace and dominion and kingdom there shall be no end. Then will be fulfilled the prophetic words of the angel Gabriel, “He shall sit upon the throne of His father David, and rule over the house of Jacob [or Israel] forever.” In justice and judgment, in harmony and happiness, in love, life, and loyalty His throne will be established and His kingdom honored above all other kingdoms, while the ages of eternity roll. Let His subjects now preach, practise, and pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.”
May the time hasten on when the mighty hosts of redeemed Israel, numberless as the sands upon the seashore, all clothed with immortal youth and beauty, shall be gathered around the King of saints, seated upon His throne of glory. Then the power and majesty of Christ no language can describe, no pen portray. The brightness of His presence will fill the city of God and flow out beyond the gates, flooding the whole earth with its radiance. And then songs of praise will ascend from the white-robed ones, everywhere in the universe of God. “Worthy is the Lamb, that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.” H. A. ST. JOHN.

FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS’ SAKE.

By Augusta W. Heald

[I]t is a common thought, “If I had done that person an injury I might expect this treatment, but I am innocent of the charge. It is hard to be blamed when I have done no wrong.” But Jesus says when men revile you and persecute you and say “all manner of evil against you falsely,” “Rejoice, and be exceeding glad,” or according to Luke, “leap for joy,” for your reward is great in heaven.
One who listened to these words of the great Teacher afterward experienced the truth contained in them, for Peter was cast into prison for righteousness’ sake. He has much to say on this subject, “For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.” 1 Peter 2:19, 20. And, again, “It is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing.” Chapter 3:17. “If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye;” “but let none of you suffer . . . as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters.” Ch. 4:14, 15.
When we endure grief, suffering wrongfully, we are partakers of Christ’s sufferings, for “He did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth,” “yet He bore our sins.” “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities.” Will we do the right, and take the buffeting patiently, knowing that this is acceptable with God?
Whosoever is a partaker of Christ’s sufferings will be heir of Christ’s peace, and when, at length, His glory is revealed, he will be glad also “with exceeding joy.”
AUGUSTA W. HEALD.

HE SATISFIES.

By Kathrina Blossom Wilcox

THE religion of Jesus Christ is indeed a living reality. Would you know why?—Because He is a prayer-hearing and a prayer-answering God. His promises are ever sure, and He never fails to answer the fervent prayer of faith. “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” James 5:16. It may not always be answered in our way, but it will be answered, nevertheless. The all-wise Father may see fit to answer it in some other way, but we have the blessed assurance that His way is best.
Have you ever, dear souls, been burdened with some heart-longing, from which it seemed impossible for you to find relief? Have you ever, under the shadow of sickness or death, felt the utter helplessness of man? Have you then, in the midst of your sorrow and your sadness, fled to Him who is waiting and yearning to help His children, and in Him found peace? Why not? When on earth Christ forgave the sin, healed the sick, cleansed the leper. After His ascension His disciples were enabled to carry on the same wonderful work. Is He not now just as willing to pour out His Spirit upon us, for “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever?”
“And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us; and if we know that He heareth us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.”
Yes, His promises are full and abundant; and when proved are soul-satisfying. “O that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men! for He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.”
KATHRINA BLOSSOM WILCOX.

Daily Dependence on God’s Grace

By D. L. Moody

A MAN can no more take in a supply of grace for the future than he can eat enough to-day to last him for the next six months, or take sufficient air into his lungs at once to sustain life for a week to come. We must draw upon God's boundless stores of grace from day to day as we need it.—D. L. Moody.

Perseverance and Success

If you wish success in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.—Addison.

IT IS SWEET TO BE REMEMBERED.

1. In the Home Circle.—By how many, many wanderers in the great, wide world has the thought of the old song been recalled.
“Do they miss me at home? do they miss me?” with the emphasis upon the “me.” He has thus soliloquized: “Of course, they remember Mary, and Helen, and John, and Henry, but O, how much would I give, if I only knew they cared for me, and remembered me, the wanderer. I may not be worth remembering; but it would be so sweet to know that I was remembered at the fireside, at the table. Do they say, ‘I wish he were here. How he would enjoy this!’ I wish I knew. It seems that the loneliness in life would be relieved if I only knew this.” Thus many have pondered. But the question went unsolved, and the soul drifted on and on, out into the great sea of death and forgetfulness, perhaps.
2. Birthdays.—It is sweet to be remembered on one’s birthday. On the days of great family gatherings, New-year or Christmas or Thanksgiving, it is different. There are at such times general greetings of all sorts to everybody, through habit or custom, generally kindly, but often thoughtlessly. They mean little, after all. But on birthdays it comes home to the heart so much stronger, as the thoughtful person passes one of these mile-stones of life, albeit every day is a new beginning, to receive kindly word of greeting, some little gift or token of remembrance from special friends. But nearly always these occasions pass by with little thought, and many are indeed forgotten, and the mile-stone is noted in sadness, and increasing age seems more of a burden. It will not come amiss, it will prove a good investment, for each to remember all the members of his family, to remember those near by ties of nature. This does not mean that any one should demand remembrance. The blessing comes in remembering others.
3. In Trial.—It is good to be remembered in trial. Who has not relatives, friends, acquaintances, neighbors, sick, poor, bereaved, in need of comfort. It is sweet to be remembered by a kind word, a helpful deed, a sympathetic letter, a little flower, a message of cheer. How these things oftentimes break the seemingly impenetrable cloud overhead, and let the sunlight of God through! Would you be remembered in any of these circumstances, or similar ones?—Then “remember those who are in bonds as bound with them.”
4. At the Family Altar.—It is good to be remembered there in sweet, earnest petition before the Lord. Many a wayward child has been brought back from the paths of sin by remembering the hallowed hour of prayer in the family circle, where the father, the priest of the family, presented, in the name of Jesus, his loved ones before the Father, mentioning the names and perhaps the special needs of each. But the “prayer” must not be a tale of censure before God. Let all that is necessary in that line be with the child. Let the talk with God, on the part of father or mother, be sweet and sympathetic thanks and pleadings, in behalf of each child and each member. And, irreligious tho the boy or girl may be, they will feel that it is sweet to be remembered; and when away from home, as the hour of prayer draws near or rest is sought, it will be doubly sweet to remember that father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter, one or more, prayed for me; and the heart is drawn by the blessed thought to the Father above.
At all times it is good to be remembered; but it is beyond the power of the human to remember all friends or all needy ones always. Therefore we suggest these special times. But at these times our friends forget. We look and hope, not for emolument or reward or gift, but only kindly remembrance, and we look and hope in vain.
5. One Never Forgets.—But God suffers all these disappointments for a purpose, and that purpose our best and highest good. It is a poor, unfeeling heart that has not been broken with pain or grief, which is not moved by trial and disappointment. God can better use the heart which feels. It is more susceptible to truth, more capable of growth. He wishes by these disappointments in which we have felt “I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind,” to wean us away from the human to the Divine, from those who can scarcely help to Him who can save to the uttermost, from the forgetters to Him who never forgets. How good to know God never forgets! He says to His people: “Thou art My servant; O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of Me.” Isa. 44:21. And it is not to one or two or a select class that God gives this word. He remembers the lowest. He continues: “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins; return unto Me: for I have redeemed thee.” Surely, God will not forget that which He has redeemed, that which cost the life of the Son of God. “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands; thy walls are continually before Me.” Even man could not well forget what was written on his palms; it would be continually before him. Under great stress a mother might forget her sucking child; but God can not forget His children. Morning and evening, day and night, in season and out of season, in cloud and sunshine, in trial and prosperity, God never forgets, tho He seems to at times. He knows all about the trial-burdened brother. He knows the lack of true friends, lonely heart. He knows the roughness of the way, striving soul. Leave the human; trust to the Divine; and “at all times” He will be with thee. “He will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”

WINNING THE “RESPECT” OF A “LIBERALIZING WORLD.”

By G.

Well may we ask of the acknowledged leaders of church thought in these days, “How is it that ye do not discern the signs of the times?” The men of whom Christ asked this pointed question could “discern the face of the sky and of the earth”—scientific propositions—but the trend of spiritual things were not discernible to them. Altho they made great spiritual profession, the Lord called them “hypocrites.” See Luke 12:54-57. One of the most striking evidences of a lack of discernment that has come to our notice is the following comment of the Interior, a leading Presbyterian organ:—
Leo XIII has won the respect of a constantly liberalizing world by a liberalism of his own, utterly unwonted in the pontifical palace. To be sure, he has wrought no revolution in his granitic and immobile church, but the marvel is not that so little sign, but that so great sign of his progressive instincts can be discerned through an almost solid surrounding wall of Jesuitic Cardinals, pledged by both interest and prejudice against any reform of ancient dogma or relaxation of ancient prerogative. Where the very constitution of the Roman See has heretofore made it the constant apologist of autocratic civil government, Leo has approved popular rule in both America and France. In the latter country he has actually restrained an angry army of friars from making open rebellion against the republic. He has virtually conceded the principle of separate Church and State by congratulating the Catholics of the Philippines on the freedom into which they have come by the accession of the United States to sovereignty there. In terms that no previous pontiff would have used, he has recognized the essential Christianity of Protestants by referring to them as “separated brethren.” Reversing the trend of centuries of ecclesiasticism, he has sanctioned a society formed to distribute the Bible among the common people of Italy in “the vulgar tongue.” He has countenanced scholarship and science as no pope before him ever did, and has assiduously sought to make his church responsive to the developing social consciousness of the times, where the example of all the popish line would have taught him to resist the movement to the last.
Verily, “blindness in part is happened” to the editor of the Interior, or he would be able to discern the force of his own presentation. The very fact that “no revolution in his granitic and immobile church” has been wrought by Leo XIII, but that it is in harmony with all his apparent liberalism while remaining “immobile,” ought to convince any one with even ordinary discernment that no change in Rome’s character or policy is designed by the pope. He is laboring persistently, and consistently with all Roman Catholic precedent, to build up the church, whose boast is that it “never changes.”
Leo XIII is not only surrounded by a “wall of Jesuitic cardinals,” but he is himself, in principle, a Jesuit of the Jesuits. Intolerance and inflexibility of purpose is not the only, or even the leading, feature of Jesuitism; the most effective weapon of that element—the leading element in the church—is “cunning,” of which Leo XIII is the personification. He is the first pope who ever thought it possible to utilize a nominal republic to the same extent that he could manipulate a monarchy. Of course it is a longer process, for the reason that the government can not be reached directly through intrigue with the administration as in the case of a monarchy; it must be done through inculcating the people with a spirit of compromise. And this can be done only through an appearance of liberality and an apparent leaning to republican principles. Leo was quick to discern that it was better policy to utilize a republic than to have its opposition, and he has worked on that policy. His policy has been to tacitly indorse, in political or social policy, but not in religious principle, that which he can not overcome directly. He never yields a religious point, however; make a note of that.
He put his blessing on the cause of Spain in the Cuban war, but when Spain failed, the pope simply strengthened his profession of friendship for the United States. He has in marked degree the faculty of conceding what he can not retain, and makes the concession with a grace that leads people to infer that he does so from choice. While apparently conceding the separation of Church and State in the Philippines, he gained a point for which he has long been playing, a point that is of more value to Rome’s ambition than all the concessions that he has made to republicanism. He inveigled the government of the United States into direct dealings with the Vatican—the governor of the Philippines being sent as the representative of the United States into the very halls of the Vatican, to deal diplomatically with the pope.
While he has used “terms that no previous pontiff would have used” in recognizing the “essential Christianity of Protestants,” he has gained more than a hundredfold in Protestant recognition of Roman Catholic Christianity. While he has encouraged education in the United States, it is because he has been obliged to do so in order to gain and maintain the prestige of Roman Catholicism in an enlightened country, whose people have to be won over from Protestantism to sympathy with and eventual support of Rome. But note, All the education that Rome encourages in the United States is under the auspices of Roman teachers.
So also, the encouragement of Bible distribution in Italy; it has been forced upon the Roman Church by the encroachments of Protestant colporters distributing the Scriptures in modern translation. Leo is cunning enough to keep up with the times, and thus to make the world believe that Rome is leading in liberality, while she is really saying to the Protestant fly, “Come into my parlor.” And the “foolish little fly” is buzzing about the door displaying a wonderful admiration. G.

Question Corner

1344.—Ten Commandments and Luther’s Translation.

Why, in Luther’s translation, do we find the Ten Commandments after the Roman Catholic pattern? W. G. R.
Our common version makes no division in the commandments, nor does the Catholic version. The scripture in question (Ex. 20:2-17) is divided into verses, but not into commandments. For instance, the prohibition of image-worship includes three verses, and the Sabbath commandment covers four. We do not know whether Luther’s Bible is divided into verses as is the English, or not, not possessing one. The Catholic catechisms divide the commandments differently from Protestants generally. Luther simply followed the church in which he was taught. The true division of the commandments is indicated by the nature and form of each commandment, by the prohibition or the injunction set forth.

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN THE CAPITAL CITY.

By J. S. Washburn

Sunday afternoon, March 29, I spoke to the Secular League of Washington, D. C., on the subject of "Present-day Monopolies, National, Financial, and Religious." This was the second time I had been invited to speak to this society made up almost entirely of infidels, atheists, and freethinkers, but among them I am sure are many who have been driven by the inconsistency of so-called Christians, by the positions of National Reformers and Romanists, to this position of doubt and denial of all divine revelation.
My first talk before this society was on January 3, on the subject of the United States in prophecy. This first invitation was the result of the public hearing, in May, 1902, before the District Commissioners, on the proposed district Sunday law. At that hearing there were three classes of opposers—Jews, Infidels, and Seventh-day Adventists. Altho the chief commissioner of the district is an avowed champion of Sunday legislation, the other two commissioners were against the proposed law, and the strong opposition killed it. It will, however, be revived without doubt soon.
The International Reform Association is represented at the capital by Rev. W. F. Crafts, now a resident of Washington, D. C., who is working more quietly than formerly, but none the less energetically, to get Congress committed to Sunday laws and all manner of religious legislation. By some means, Senator Wellington was persuaded to introduce into the U. S. Senate a document entitled "Patriotic Studies," which contains old-fashioned "National Reform" in a new dress, but "National Reform" none the less, and of a most pronounced and dangerous kind. In it is found Dr. Haegler's Chart, which boldly designates Monday as the first day of the week, Saturday as the sixth, and Sunday the seventh and Sabbath. In this document Mr. Crafts argues the absolute physiological necessity for a compulsory Sunday law to save the people and the nation. Mr. Craft's adage, "the liberty of rest for each demands a law of rest for all," is boldly advocated. "My 'Sabbath for Man,' 'Civil Sabbath,' and other Sunday literature is widely advertised."
This document goes so far as to advocate the Russian system that children of parents who do not train them according to the ruling of this national reform hierarchy should be taken from their parents and properly trained by the State. This precious document was ordered to be printed at public expense, Dec. 20, 1902.
There are men of education and deep students of history in the Secular League, who see the danger and yet do not know exactly how to meet it. On January 3, when I spoke on the United States in prophecy, there was a deep interest. General Bitney, a leading member, spoke most highly of our people; said that Seventh-day Adventists had done more than any others to open the eyes of the people to the dangers of religious legislation; that he had received more benefit from reading the Sentinel of Religious Liberty than from any other publication he had ever read. They see the danger, but hope it may be avoided in some way.
I spoke for forty-five minutes, there was public discussion for an hour, and then I had fifteen minutes in which to answer questions. While some spoke strongly against the Bible, yet they listened with kindest attention to all I had to say from the Bible and all I read to them. Some said they had once had faith and had given it up with regret. I knew in the heart of every one of them God had placed a yearning for something better than this life, a longing for the love of God now, and an earnest desire for eternal life hereafter; and as I considered these men, many of them noble men truly, yet without light, without hope, without God, without chart or compass, driven by the wind and tossed, drifting swiftly toward eternity, toward the darkness of eternal death, I was drawn out to make a strong appeal to them. The Spirit of the living God spoke to them, and I knew that impressions were made that would never be forgotten and will, I trust, bear eternal fruit.
I spoke so strongly from the Bible, I did not know whether they would ever wish to hear me again. I was very much pleased to receive an invitation to speak a second time to them. There was, if possible, a more decided victory than on the first occasion. While there was some sharp criticism and opposition, yet at the last the tender spirit of the Lord took strong hold and all were most cordial, and there were urgent invitations to speak to them often. These men will for a time help to stem the swelling tide of religious oppression at the capital of the nation. J. S. WASHBURN.
Continue reading: THE BLACKENED CITY