7. “And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off; it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched; where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” Mark 9:43, 44.
This probably stands as the second strongest text which our opponents produce. Hell, never-dying worm, unquenchable fire! This they think settles the question. But let the word of God explain itself. The word “hell” in this instance comes from gehenna, which is thus defined by Greenfield in his Greek Lexicon: “Properly the valley of Hinnom south of Jerusalem, once celebrated for the horrid worship of Moloch, and afterward polluted with every species of filth, as well as the carcasses of animals, and dead bodies of malefactors, to consume which, in order to avert the pestilence which such a mass of corruption would occasion, constant fires were kept burning. Hence, hell.” There was a place just south of Jerusalem where Moloch was formerly worshiped. When the Jews reformed, and saw the error of that worship, they made this a place for casting all the filthy refuse of the city. Dead bodies of beasts and malefactors were cast into fire to be consumed. These fires were kept burning. And worms also devoured some other parts which the fire did not consume. Thus there were two elements of destruction here, the fire and the worms. As long as there were any carcasses to burn, the fire was kept burning; and, of course, as long as there was a piece of decaying flesh, there were worms to devour it. Dr. Barnes thus comments on Mark 9:43–48:—
“This figure is clearly taken from Isa. 66:24. In describing the great prosperity of the kingdom of the Messiah, Isaiah says that the people of God shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men who have transgressed against God. Their enemies shall be overcome. They shall be slain. The people of God shall triumph. The figure is taken from heaps of the slain in battle; and the prophet says that the number shall be so great that their worm—the worm feeding on the dead—shall not die, but shall live long, as long as there are carcasses to be devoured; and that the fire which was used to burn the bodies of the dead shall long continue to burn, and shall not be extinguished till they are consumed.”
This figure the Saviour uses to illustrate the destruction of the wicked. Seeing that the damned will finally be destroyed, just as these carcasses were consumed in gehenna, no doubt this was the most forcible figure that could be produced of the utter destruction and consumption of the wicked. The expression used is very far from teaching endless suffering, because, in the strongest language, it asserts utter destruction.
But the text speaks of “unquenchable fire.” If the fire is unquenchable, must it therefore burn eternally? No; to quench a fire is to extinguish it, to put it out before it has entirely consumed that upon which it is feeding. Thus, a house is on fire. We call for help; the fire is extinguished and the house saved. That fire is quenched. But in case the house caught fire, and every effort was made to save it, but it was found impossible, and the house burned down, that would be unquenchable fire. We were not able to quench it, and the building was burned. Just so, says Christ, the wicked shall be cast into fire which they can in no way extinguish. Thus in another passage we read: “Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly235purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” Matt. 3:12.
The wicked will be burned up like chaff in the fire. That would be a poor illustration to teach never-ending burning. The chaff burns up speedily and certainly; and this is what the Lord says of the wicked. They will be burned up with unquenchable fire; that is, fire which they can by no means put out. Suppose the Lord had said that the wicked should be cast into quenchable fire. They might say, Very well; we will make a desperate effort, and put out the fire and save ourselves. But no, says the Lord, you shall be cast into fire which you can by no means extinguish, and hence it will certainly burn you up without any hope. This is the simple meaning of the text, as we shall prove by other passages. The Lord threatened old Jerusalem thus: “Then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, . . . and it shall not be quenched.” Jer. 17:27. Jerusalem was to be burned in unquenchable fire. The Lord carried out this threat, and where is Jerusalem now? Burned down to the dust eighteen centuries ago. Are the gates of Jerusalem burning now? And yet it was burned with unquenchable fire. Then if God could burn Jerusalem with unquenchable fire, and that fire could go out, he can burn the wicked with unquenchable fire and the fire then go out.
(Concluded next week.)
SCRIPTURE QUESTIONS.
57.—BAPTISM OF FIRE.
What are we to understand by the baptism of fire in Matt. 3:11? S. C. C.
Ans. Competent critics read the passage thus: “He [Christ] shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost or with fire.” The passage would then bring to view two classes; namely, the righteous and the wicked; the one class the subjects of the operation of the Spirit of God, who will thus be made meet for a place in his kingdom; the other, cast at last into the lake of fire, thus being baptized with fire, in the second death.
58.—THE 1335 DAYS.
What time and what work is referred to in Dan. 12:12: “Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days”? W. C.
Ans. The 1335 days commenced with the 1290 of the previous verse, in 508, and consequently ended in 1843. The blessing to be received at the end of those days was a blessing upon the living, and not upon the dead; for it was to him that “waiteth,” that is liveth, or cometh, to the termination of that period.
The blessing referred to, we think, was involved in the great light which was then going forth respecting the second coming of Christ, and the closing up of this dispensation. As a parallel see Matt. 13:16, 17.
What is meant by the hour of temptation, spoken of in this verse: “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth”? W. C.
Ans. This is addressed to those who have kept the word of Christ’s patience, probably the same time and work of patience mentioned in Rev. 14:12. The hour of temptation must, therefore, be some period of especial trial through which the world is to pass in connection with the close of its history; and this trial, we think, will be brought upon them by the wonderful work of spiritualism, which is to bring fire down from heaven upon the earth in the sight of men, Rev. 13:13, to be accompanied with “all power and signs and lying wonders,” 2 Thess. 2:9, and to be so powerful as to “deceive, if it were possible, the very elect.” Matt. 24:24. Those only will then be saved from the power of this delusion, who have stood fast in the truth of God’s word.
THE TRUSTWORTHINESS OF REVELATION.
We published a week ago the last word of candid Unitarian scholarship as to the authenticity of the Gospel of John. Professor Ezra Abbot, of the Harvard Divinity School, the most competent scholar in America in the matter of Biblical criticism, gives it as his judgment, after the most thorough study of the German, Dutch, and English critical writers and of the patristic authorities, that the objections made to the Johannean authorship of the Fourth Gospel have no validity. There is no higher authority on this subject in America than Professor Abbot. There is no more competent scholar in Germany. He is candid, and not prejudiced by dogmatic considerations. Simply the literary considerations, the historical evidences, convince him that John, the beloved disciple, wrote the Fourth Gospel.
It is equally certain, settled now by the best authority, that a number of the so-called Pauline Epistles must have been written by Paul. This even Rationalism now has to concede.
Now what follows? It follows that the latest and best criticism now decides (what was said a few years ago to be doubtful) that Christianity as it has come down to us is the Christianity of Christ and his disciples. Our Christianity is not a mythical growth of centuries; but it is fact. What we read in the Bible as the supernatural story of Christ and his revelation is actually what the companions of Jesus believed to be fact, and themselves wrote down as fact. They actually believed in the miracles; declared that they saw them. They actually believed that Jesus Christ rose from the dead after his crucifixion. They said so. They wrote so. They preached so. They suffered death for the testimony of it.
On their testimony of this glorious supernaturalism, and on our recognition that the revelation is worthy of such testimony of miracles, we can accept it still, as we have been taught to do, and be glad that reason and evidence are on its side. God has given us a revelation, and that will stand firm in its historical evidences. No matter what opposition has come from enemies, who have tried to prove that because it is wonderful it must be mythical; no matter what criticism may come from those who find, or think they find, here and there, minor errors; the grand fact of revelation stands firm. God has sent his Son Jesus Christ to die for our sins, and rise again for our justification. On that rock the church can stand till the world shall end, as it has stood for eighteen hundred years.—The Independent.
HYACINTHE LOYSON ON PAGANISM IN FRANCE.
The religious question, says Father Hyacinthe, whatever may be said or done, is the reigning question of our epoch. It is more and more evident, he adds, to any one who has the slightest perspicacity, that the question which France and the Republic have to solve under penalty of death—and of a death not far distant—is precisely the religious question. “Paganism in Paris” is the title he gives to his noteworthy article in the last Nineteenth Century. The paganism which, with admirable insight, he analyzes and depicts, is twofold. It is the paganism of superstition and the paganism of infidelity,—that of Ultramontanism and that of Rationalism. The one is the intellectual paganism, or “rather the irreligious, I should almost say the impious, paganism—for it is that which suppresses religion. The other paganism is the superstitious paganism, which distorts religion.”
Paganism, he says, is vast; it stretches from the African fetichism to the pantheism of Brahmins and the atheism of the Buddhists, for atheism itself has its religion. The essence of paganism is defined in the words of Bossuet: “Everything is God except God himself!” The two schools in France, which at the present time carry all before them, which would fain grasp all methods of teaching, and gain control of all private and social life, are, he says, that of Materialism and of Positivism. He does not hesitate to tell these schools that they, in fact, are the embodiment of paganism in the sense of the substitution of man for God; the constant substitution of the finite for the Infinite, the creature for the Creator. He admits that it may be a comparatively pure paganism, “for, indeed, there could be no other within a Christian society.” As to the paganism of Ultramontanism, it has taken the form of two idols, one male, the other female ; the male idol is the pope, the female idol the Virgin Mary. The moral paganism is that which places some man, as in the modern Romish confessional, between the conscience and God. This he characterizes as “a fundamental immorality.” All it desires of man is this one thing: to abdicate all direct relations with supreme reason, with absolute justice, with God, and to place between the personal soul and these, a priest—that Italian priest who is called the pope. Between these two contrasting, yet closely related, paganisms, France seems forced to choose. The question which, with profound and touching earnestness, Father Hyacinthe urges is: Will they choose between these, or will they reject both? Will they kneel before the pope, or stray in the midst of their dreams, tottering in the midst of their doubts? They feel, he says, that a choice must be made, and they know not how to make it. “Weak souls, the majority, hesitate till on the point of death.” To these two paganisms he pleads with wonderful earnestness, “Let us reply with a restored Christianity. Ah! this is what must be done.” Speaking for himself, he says: “I shall not be like those who seek only immediate success. I shall not be like those who stop before duty and sacrifice, saying to themselves, ‘If I go further I shall not be followed. I shall march alone, if I am to be alone!’” The great malady which to-day afflicts the thought and life of Paris, of France, the ever-eloquent Hyacinthe rightly discerns and vividly portrays; that he knows how, practically, to prescribe for the remedy of the disease may be doubted. Those connected with the remarkable McAll mission in Paris, may understand that better than he. But how obvious it is that France is about to be a field for Christian missions, of pre-eminent interest and promise.—The Advance.
The Famine in North Persia.
Mrs. Dr. Benj. Labaree, one of the American missionaries in Ooroomiah, writes as follows in a letter printed in an English paper: “The one absorbing theme here now is the starving poor, and what can be done for them. The price of flour is now £4 the load of about five bushels (320 lbs.) Last year at this time the price was twelve shillings per load. All food is equally high in proportion, and it is utterly impossible for the people to maintain themselves. A man’s wages are sevenpence a day; a woman’s, threepence-halfpenny. But at this season there is little or no work. Many are starving, and the suffering of multitudes is dreadful. Very many have sold everything which they had of apparel, bedding and cooking utensils, and after the small quantity of food which they thus obtained is exhausted, their condition is deplorable, with neither food, clothing, nor fuel. A large proportion of the families in the village just below us have torn down their houses, in order to sell the timbers, and have gone down to the plain, seeking shelter in stables, or any place which they can find. Their opportunities for getting little jobs of work, or for begging, are greater than here on the mountains. We have heard of a number of instances in which, after having disposed of everything available, the head of the family has mixed arsenic with the last food, and destroyed the whole household. Last week I was told of a family of eight thus poisoned, and the next day heard of another case in which two persons had died from the effects of the arsenic, and two were very low. The mission, some time ago, opened a soup kitchen, where the first forty persons who come are served with one meal daily. This is but a drop in the bucket. The swarm of beggars is innumerable, and constantly increasing. So far as we have the means to furnish work, we dispense charity in this way, furnishing wool or cotton to spin and weave, or putting men to work on the roads or college grounds. We are asking the Lord to send us help.”
Crime and Immorality Rising in German Towns
—Herr Von Puttkammer, Prussian minister of education, has been inquiring very carefully into matters connected with his office; and he finds that there has been a steady increase of crime and immorality in the great towns of Germany during the last ten years. This unsatisfactory state of things, he declared in the Reichstag, had not been without its effect on the teachers of elementary schools. He had no fault to find with the majority of the school-masters; still the tone of the class had degenerated in all the chief centers of industry, with the exception of Berlin. This was to be attributed in a considerable measure to the increased facilities for drinking which had been provided by recent legislation, and which had injuriously affected large sections of the community.—Independent.
War's Devastation of Armenian Districts Brings Famine
—The late war has had a cruel effect upon the Armenian districts of Van, Aleshgerd and Bayazid. These places, being the scene of action for the two contending armies, and subjected to all the ravages which war can bring upon a country, have had their homes ruined, and their agricultural implements, though of the rudest kind, have been destroyed, and now famine lays its deadly fangs upon the poor inhabitants.
OHIO
Mendon, March 26.—March 3, I visited Vansville. Sold some books, and obtained one subscriber for the REVIEW. The Sabbath-keepers here are not as earnest in the work as they should be. I spoke to a few in the evening, and they promised that they would resume the Sabbath-school, which had been given up. I have since learned that they have done so. The roads and weather did not admit of holding meetings.
I next visited Bro. Atkinson, of Rushylvania, and remained over Sabbath and Sunday. One of his neighbors was interested in the truth, and I sold books to the two amounting to $8.85.
I have been at Mendon since March 12. Have held several meetings with a fair interest. I find many friends to the truth, both in the town and its vicinity. Have sold here about $12 worth of books. I have faith to believe that a proper effort will strengthen the Mendon church. Ten copies of the Signs were ordered by the brethren. Each church in this district is now taking a club of our pioneer paper. G. G. RUPERT.
Elyria and Milan.—Since my last report, I have been laboring mostly in the missionary work. The blessing of God has attended my efforts. It is encouraging to see the influence which the truth has on the hearts of the people. One incident I will relate. Just as I was starting for the train, a brother handed me $13 for the foreign mission, $2.00 for the tract society, $2.00 for the Lord, and $2.00 for a thank-offering. May the Lord bless him.
Commenced laboring in Elyria, Lorain Co., March 16. Many here are earnestly seeking for the truth. This is a fine field, and the harvest is ripe. The Age-to-Come people have a small company near the city. I had no sooner commenced work, than I found that there was some one in my rear distributing tracts; but it was all to no purpose, for the truth is destined to prevail, and some good, honest souls will keep all the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. After getting well to work, I was obliged to return home on account of my son's sickness. Left one keeping the Sabbath, and shall return soon.
I have since been holding meetings near Milan. The interest is excellent. The Lord gives freedom, and by hard study we hope to show ourselves workmen approved of God. Please remember me in your prayers.
March 28. WM. BEEBE.
NEW YORK.
By Geo. D. Ballou
Catlin, April 1.—There has been a Seventh-day Adventist church in this place for more than thirty years. They have received but very little ministerial labor, and the Sabbath and the signs of the times are about the only subjects which had ever been presented.
We began our effort here about a week after the close of a seven-weeks' protracted effort by the Methodists. At first, presented practical subjects chiefly. The people gave the best of attention, and our brethren did everything they could to make the meetings a success. The gentlemanly courtesy and kindness of Bro. Bump, local elder of the M. E. church, is especially worthy of mention. May the Lord guide this brother and all his family into a full acceptance of present truth. Five or six signified their full intention to obey all the truth, as presented. These had never observed the Sabbath before. There are a still greater number who are going contrary to their convictions of duty in not observing the Sabbath.
Nearly all the church signed the teetotal pledge, and all, I think, without exception, have adopted the tithing system.
There was considerable sickness during the whole of our stay, and this hindered the meetings some. I was well throughout, until the last three days. I expect soon to be in the field again. GEO. D. BALLOU.
LIGHT FROM THE CROSS.
Look up, dark soul, to endless heights
Where happiness abounds;
The men of noble instincts bred
Creep not upon the ground.
The men who bravely stand and dare
The mean to do their worst,
Will find that God's no petty friend;
He will reward their trust.
Friends may desert, cares may annoy,
And life may seem too long;
But in God's love there's no alloy,
Still hope and do no wrong.
If in your heart there seems a doubt
Of his almighty love,
Drive hell's array behind your back,
And flee for help above.
Then clouds will calmly drift away,
And light again appear;
And God's kind voice will answer forth,
Be faithful! Have no fear!
—Advocate and Guardian.
NEBRASKA
By Chas. L. Boyd
Labor among the Churches.—The meetings in Boone and Greeley counties have been held according to appointment. A special effort has been made to awaken an interest which shall, in some measure, correspond with the work committed to our charge. I trust our labor has not been fruitless. At Halifax one united with the church by baptism. CHAS. L. BOYD.
March 24.
IOWA
By J. S. Hart
Border Plains, March 29.—Commenced meetings in a school-house at this place March 3, and continued about four weeks. The attendance was small. Sold $3 50 worth of tracts, and obtained two names for the Signs and one for the Instructor. Eleven promised to obey God and keep his commandments. I go from here to Sigourney to attend the Institute, and shall return soon. J. S. HART.
KANSAS
By L. D. Santee
Sherman City, March 30.—We have been visiting and preaching here for some time, and have organized a church of eight members. They have all signed the teetotal pledge, and pledged s. s., according to the true method of tithing. Organized a Sabbath-school of fifteen members, with a club of five copies of the weekly Instructor. The cause of temperance is being agitated, and I find it a good time to introduce our pledges. We have sold $3.00 worth of books in this place. L. D. Santee.
ILLINOIS
By J. F. Ballenger; E. O. Hammond
Compromise, Champaign Co.—Our meetings in this place closed with a discussion on the Sabbath question with Eld. Smith, a Disciple minister. He used the common arguments of that denomination to prove the abolition of the law. Asserted that Paul was sent a prisoner to Rome for preaching against the law; and that the Jews stoned Stephen to death for speaking against the ten commandments! The candid, unprejudiced part of the community acknowledge that in the discussion, we furnished the Scripture and Eld. S. the wind. The discussion resulted in strengthening our brethren, who have taken hold of every point of our faith in good earnest. We have baptized seven. Fifteen signed the covenant, and made the usual pledge to sustain the cause with their means. A leader and church clerk were chosen, and a Sabbath-school of twenty-five members was organized. We have received $26 by donation, and sold books to the amount of $4.25.
J. F. BALLENGER. E. O. HAMMOND.
INDIANA
By A. W. Bartlett
Walkerton, St. Joseph Co., March 29.—For more than three months in the immediate past, I have labored with the churches at Rochester, West Liberty, Bourbon, Bunker Hill, Thorntown, Wolf Lake, Ligonier, Sevastopol, and North Liberty, and visited the brethren at Silver Lake, Sharpsville, and in the vicinity of Bourbon. More than twenty-seven were received into the above churches. Eld. S. H. Lane was associated with me in the above labor, except in three churches mentioned, and at Sharpsville, Silver Lake, and the vicinity of Bourbon.
Four weeks ago I began meetings at Walkerton, and up to the present time sixteen have signed the covenant to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. A well-known physician of W., who has also preached twelve years as a Baptist minister, has embraced the Sabbath, as has also one of the trustees of the Baptist church in which we have been holding meetings. The interest still continues very good, and we expect a goodly company, by God’s blessing.
Eld. W. W. Sharp has labored with me for nearly one week in the past at W., and has rendered very valuable service. He seems to be more devoted than ever to the cause of present truth. A. W. BARTLETT.
COLORADO
By A. J. Stover
Texas Creek.—March 5, I visited Texas Creek, where a few individuals have been reading the Signs and other S. D. A. publications, and have commenced the observance of the Sabbath. One brother, who had preached two years for the M. E. church in Missouri, had been expelled from that church for the crime of observing all the commandments.
On the 7th, all the Sabbath-keepers met. I presented to them some of our duties, and eight signed the covenant, and $100.00 was subscribed for ministerial labor and to help purchase a tent. We arranged for Sabbath meetings, and discussed the T. and M. work, but left it for future action. About eight desire baptism.
After the meeting was closed, a little boy nine years old, the son of a brother, came and said, “I want to sign the pledge too.” Of course, his name went on the covenant, making nine names to the covenant of the Texas Creek church. A minister is wanted here as soon as possible to perform the rite of baptism, and perfect the organization. Others are investigating, and some are favorable. This company came out by reading; only one had ever seen a S. D. A. preacher, and he had heard but one sermon. A. J. STOVER.
MINNESOTA AND DAKOTA.
By R. A. Burdick
Rock and Moody Counties.— I have recently visited a company in Rock Co., Minn. Last spring Bro. W. T. Henton preached a number of discourses in the west part of Martin township, about three miles from Valley Springs, Dakota. Three families embraced the Sabbath, and are still endeavoring to keep it. One, a young man and his wife, have removed to Moody Co., Dakota.
I stayed with them a week, from March 21 to 28. I spoke to them five times. Bro. Henton came the 24th, and spoke three times. The brethren and sisters came out promptly to all the meetings. They desire to know what is right, and seem willing to do it. They need help. One has been baptized, two or three more desire to be. One more, a Christian lady, promised to keep the Sabbath from this time. She is a widow, and has one son living with her. Two sisters signed the tithing pledge; others are favorable. They intend soon to join the tract society. We re-organized the Sabbath-school, with sixteen members. I sold one copy of Testimony No. 29 and some tracts. Others there are deeply interested.
March 15, I visited a company of Danes in the southern part of Moody county, five miles northeast of Dell Rapids. There are four families and one sister keeping the Sabbath here. They did belong to the S. D. Baptists, but their organization has gone down. They hold to most of our views. They are good, honest people.
R. A. BURDICK.
CALIFORNIA
Freshwater.—Seven have signed the covenant here; others are keeping the Sabbath; and still others are seriously considering and investigating the subject. Four have been baptized. A Sabbath-school has been organized, and ten copies of the Instructor are taken. T. and M. and V. M. societies were organized, taking, in all, thirty copies of the Signs. Nearly all have signed the tithing pledge, and will pay the additional one-third to support the T. and M. work. Eleven have signed the various temperance pledges, seven of whose names are on the teetotal pledge. J. D. RICE.
St. Helena.—This meeting was well attended, and a good degree of the Spirit of the Lord seemed to characterize the meetings from the commencement. The tract society unanimously voted to use the twelve-page edition of the Signs. There are few societies in the country which manifest so much interest in remailing the Signs, as this; and they are in constant receipt of letters from all parts of the world where the English language is spoken.
The subject of purchasing a new tent was presented, and nearly one hundred dollars was immediately subscribed. Quite a number of the friends were not present. Should there be more funds raised in the State than will be required for this purpose, with the consent of the donors it can be appropriated to the California ship missionary work, which is accomplishing much good, and is in want of funds.
The hearty responses of the brethren and sisters, and the interest taken by the children, reminded us of several meetings east of the mountains, where there was not a person present but that seemed anxious to donate something. Children that could not speak plain were eager to bring their five and ten cent pieces to help purchase a tent, that the truth might be presented to others.
Some interest was manifested by those not of our faith. We here met Eld. Rice, who assisted in the meetings. Eld. Waggoner was unable to be present except Sabbath forenoon. S. N. HASKELL.
ILLINOIS, NOTICE.
By R. F. Andrews
At the time of our last Conference, I was appointed to audit the treasurer’s book, and to make a report. In company with Eld. B. F. Merritt, I have attended to this matter, and find the book correctly kept. There was $301 00 and some cents tent money that was not put on the book, but the account was kept by itself in a pass book, by order of the President. As the book was not balanced when sent to the Conference, and as those who attempted to balance it did not know or remember these facts, the book could not be balanced, but showed over $301.00 in favor of the treasurer. But by charging himself with $301.00 “tent fund,” the treasurer balanced his book in one minute. It is but just to say that in the written report sent to the meeting by the treasurer, on the bottom of the page he wrote, “Tent Fund, $301.00.” But, strange as it may appear, it was entirely overlooked. This circumstance shows the importance of not leaving our work for others to do. Had our ex-treasurer drawn his own balance, everything would have been right.
March 29, 1880. R. F. ANDREWS.
PENNSYLVANIA
By F. Peabody
Page Hollow, Warren Co., March 28,—Commenced meetings here some two weeks ago. The people proposed a discussion on the Sabbath question, to which we reluctantly consented. As the result, several are now keeping the Sabbath, and many more are investigating, for whom we hope. This is the Lord’s own work.
F. PEABODY.
THE THREE PLANS.
By S. N. Haskell
BY ELD. S. N. HASKELL.
Three different plans have been adopted by our brethren for the distribution of the Signs. The first is to procure the addresses of friends and acquaintances, and have the paper sent directly to them for a specified length of time. This plan was acted upon by the tract societies several years ago in a six-months’ trial-trip of the REVIEW; ten thousand copies of the Voice of Truth were also sent out in this manner. To this plan there are serious objections: 1. It is not known whether or not the persons to whom the papers are sent are or will become sufficiently interested to read; and if they do not, a year’s subscription is lost; 2. Publishers are forbidden by law to send out printed matter at publishers’ rates of postage, to any who are not regular subscribers; 3. It is quite probable that two or three copies might be sent to one person by different individuals; 4. Those sending the papers simply paid their money, and had no further care, responsibility, or burden of labor in the matter.
By the second plan, individuals or churches subscribe for a club of from ten to five hundred copies, and by correspondence, in connection with sending them out, learn who are interested to read. They then have copies transferred from their clubs to these persons. This course may be followed with a degree of success. There is one objection to it; namely, that frequently the entire club will thus be disposed of, so that the society will have no papers with which to carry on the work.
The third plan is similar to the second in most respects. As large a club as can be paid for by monthly installments, is ordered, and the papers are remailed, each week, to those whose addresses may be obtained from various sources, accompanied, at the proper time, with letters or cards (a letter is better) of such a nature as to call forth a response. These responses will indicate the best course to be pursued afterward. If the individual subscribes for the Signs, or it is thought best to send a copy to him, it is ordered from the Office, and the full number of Signs is retained in the club, with which to obtain other interested readers.
This plan has many advantages over the first, and some over the second: 1. It educates persons to labor for others, and infuses a true missionary spirit wherever it is carried out; 2. It lays a weekly responsibility upon each person, which cannot be properly discharged without much thought and prayer; 3. It calls into exercise much talent which would otherwise be useless to the cause of God; 4. It guards against laying papers aside and not using them, because some may fail to find interested readers; 5. By this plan ten families, at least, will be visited by the Signs, where, by the first method, only one would receive it; 6. It brings into the church a good moral atmosphere. This I have never known to fail.
If you want a healthy church, let there be spiritual exercise, not merely in devotional forms, but in that which requires earnest thought and effort and much prayer. This kind of exercise is as essential to our spiritual health as physical exercise is to our physical health. All S. D. Adventists should discipline themselves to labor for the salvation of precious souls; and they should have clubs of our pioneer sheet and Good Health as auxiliaries in this work.
AN ENCOURAGING LETTER.
By Mrs. J. A. Hardiman
BY MRS. J. A. HARDIMAN.
THE V. M. society of Frankfort and Litchfield, N. Y., are in receipt of the following heart-cheering item of correspondence from a young minister of Kansas. Hoping its practical suggestions and its tone of implicit trust in our Heavenly Father, may prove an incentive to others to “go and do likewise,” we present it for the columns of the REVIEW. Bro. F. W. Gibbs, of Stafford Co., Kan., writes under date of Feb. 16, 1880:—
“I have examined the Sabbath question carefully, and with much prayer that I might be shown the truth, and that I might not be deceived by false doctrine. I have had perfect confidence, from the beginning, that the truth would be made plain to me; but little did I imagine, when first I commenced a candid search after truth, the conclusion at which I should thus arrive. I see that the word of God is plain on this subject. The fourth commandment means just what it says. I can find no place in the Bible where it has been done away or changed. It stands as a part of God’s holy law. No authority is given us to substitute anything in its place. If it is not plain and positive, there is nothing reliable in the Bible. I can no longer keep the venerable day of the sun, nor any other day than the seventh, as answering the requirements of the fourth commandment. To do so, with the light which has come to me, would be willful disobedience to the commands of God.”
“For some time past, I have contented myself with the thought that the use of one-seventh portion of time in the culture of man’s moral nature was fulfilling God’s design in the fourth commandment; but I see, when I apply the same rule of attempting to interpret God’s design to the other nine commandments, that the door is thrown open to the grossest immorality. I only wonder that I was not sooner convinced of the truth. I am sure that from the first I made the endeavor to lay aside prejudice of education; yet amid the light of the full blaze of truth, for awhile, I could not feel it my duty to change. I conclude that my depraved heart is so constituted as to unconsciously bear the impress of past habits of thought, for the effacement of which time is required.
“My study of the prophecies has done much to cause me to see the plainness of Scripture statement, and the strictness of all God’s commands. I shall be obliged to lay aside preaching entirely for the present; I desire to spend a large portion of time in the investigation of present truth. I think, however, that I shall open my mouth in behalf of the Sabbath, publicly, before long, in my own community, that my example may be rightly understood.
“My heart swells with gratitude to God for the light which he has shed upon me.”
He also requests earnest prayer that the hearts of the people may be prepared to accept the truth. Let us join our hearts and hands to labor on,—
“Hoping, trusting ever,
Till our raptured souls shall find”
Rest in God forever.