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Review and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 3.

CANVASSERS AS GOSPEL EVANGELISTS
Earlier text: CANVASSERS AS GOSPEL EVANGELISTS

SOWING FOR PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL HEALTH

By David Paulson; W. S. Sadler

David Paulson & W. S. Sadler

AUTO-INTOXICATION, OR HOW A MAN MAY POISON HIMSELF

SOURCES OF POISON WITHIN AND WITHOUT THE BODY

The human body may be regarded as a living form through which a stream of poisonous substances is flowing.
Unnatural, Unwholesome, and Diseased Foods.—Branch 1 of the accompanying diagram (No. 4) represents poisoning which may result from the use of unnatural and diseased foods. We should eat for strength, and not for drunkenness; but food is frequently so prepared that it tends to produce drunkenness rather than strength. The earth is carefully ransacked, and even the scavengers of the great deep are brought to the surface, in the endeavor to find something that will gratify the perverted taste.
Originally, the sense of taste was intended as a protection against eating anything that would not serve to build up the human brain, thus enabling it to think God’s thoughts after Him. The human body is more and more regarded as a harp whose delicate strings are to serve no other purpose than to produce music, as it were, for self-indulgence. The person who uses any function of his body simply to minister to self, instead of to the good of others, will soon reap a crop of the thorns and thistles of misery, whereas he might have gathered the beautiful roses and lilies of health and happiness. The food and drink that should help build up and nourish the man, often become the chief source of his destruction.
The common use of flesh foods is perhaps doing more than any other single dietetic error to weaken the human system, and make it a suitable lodging place for dangerous disease germs. Laboratory experiments have demonstrated that when a person who has been living upon the natural products of the earth is put upon flesh diet for a few days, the poisonous properties of the secretion of the kidneys are greatly increased. But the secretion of the kidneys is only an extract of the tissues of the man, and this means that every nerve cell, and each tissue in the body of the flesh-eater, is continually bathed in blood containing this additional quantity of poison. Is it any wonder that the continuous use of animal flesh is laying the foundation of rheumatism, Bright’s disease, and other kindred evils?
Flesh food is an excellent medium for the propagation of disease germs. The same microbes that can not live upon an apple, will cause a piece of meat to decay and decompose within a few days. The common custom of placing meat in the refrigerator for two weeks, to render it tender, is simply subjecting it to a process of decomposition; but the taste of many has become so fastidious that fresh meat actually does not seem so good to them as that which has been undergoing this decomposing process for a number of weeks.
Other animal products are to a less degree harmful, but generally furnish a more suitable medium for the development of germs than do the natural foods which contain the same elements of nutrition. The use of milk is one of the most common causes of biliousness. This condition is, in reality, due to poisoning of the stomach, instead of to torpidity of the liver.
As men have departed from the simplicity of their forefathers in reference to diet, they have also been compelled to leave behind the record for longevity, physical strength, and endurance, as well as comparative freedom from many diseases which are now familiar to all, but which were then practically unknown. To-day, “rich food” does not mean rich in strength-producing qualities, but a mixture that ordinarily furnishes the necessary combinations for fermentation in the alimentary canal. Concentrated sweets, such as jellies and jams, tend to overwhelm the system with an excessive amount of this food element. Highly flavored and rich foods, instead of promoting a natural flow of gastric juice, stimulate a flow of mucus from the walls of the stomach, which is poured out in self-protection.
Many so-called health reformers, after having renounced the errors just mentioned, immediately go to the opposite extreme: after selecting food substances that are in themselves healthful, they really cause them to become virulent sources of poison in the human system, by improper cooking, or by allowing them to ferment. When food is thoroughly saturated with fat, by a process of frying, the fat itself becomes almost indigestible, and every little particle of starch is inclosed in a coating which neither the saliva nor gastric juice can penetrate, and which would be successfully preserved from all use in the human body if it were not for the special activity of the pancreatic juice and the bile, which digest off this covering of fat, thus allowing the starch to be subjected to a belated process of digestion.
To require the digestive juices to dissolve the totally indigestible things that are often dropped into the human stomach seems like an insult to the divine energy that is required for this transforming process. The human system requires a large amount of fluid to carry off its waste products, but too often the fluid that is taken into the body already contains a large quantity of poison. The quantity of alcoholic liquor that is every year drained through men who were formed in the image of the divine, is almost incredible when translated into figures. Tea and coffee are simply drugs mixed with water. The mania for soft drinks is increasing every year, until the front end of every first-class drug store has been cleared to make room for the magnificent and costly apparatus necessary to produce these beverages, the flavors of which, although bearing the names of fruits, were nearly all grown in the chemist’s test tubes.
Diseased Spiritual Food, Errors of Faith, Doctrine, etc.— Considered either in a physical or in a spiritual sense, healthful foods nourish, while diseased foods tend to stimulate. Therefore, for the very same reason that the people of the world to-day are clamoring for diseased physical food,—foods that will stimulate and stir the body,— so their spiritual natures are inclining toward diseased spiritual food—doctrines and teachings which will stimulate and fascinate the soul. Bread, the staff of life, is ever simple, and although tasteful, does not possess the demon-like powers of many modern foods, which excite the taste, and temporarily arouse the sluggish digestion of an overworked and tired stomach. And so the people are tired of the simplicity and homeliness of truth, and clamor for teachings fantastic and doctrines diseased, which will both amuse and stimulate the moral powers, and perchance wring from them, by their novelty, an interest in religious things, which the beauties of the everlasting gospel had failed to arouse.
The contamination of truth by modern errors, perversions, and deceptions, is nothing more or less than the adulteration of our moral food. Paul, in looking down the stream of time, gave utterance to this prophetic statement, “The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine” (2 Tim. 4:3), or, as Rotherham puts it, “healthy teaching.” The world is seeking for diseased moral food, with which to satisfy the longings of the soul, just as it is seeking for diseased meat,—diseased physical food,—with which to satisfy the hunger of the body. The two go hand in hand; and may we not infer that they are of mutual help to each other? The excitement and stimulation of the soul is sure to react upon the physical nature, while no one will question for a moment that physical contamination has its inevitable rebound in the perversion and deterioration of the moral nature. This is an age of isms and denominations. New religions, novel creeds, unheard-of doctrines, and fantastic interpretations of Scripture are springing up on all sides, like the mushrooms of night, and are serving the enemy’s purpose of exciting and stimulating the man’s moral emotions, but are uniformly failing to supply him with spiritual food and nourishment for the development and growth of his soul powers.
DIAGRAM 4 DIAGRAM 5
DIAGRAM 4 DIAGRAM 5

LOVE

By J. E. Evans

J. E. EVANS (Los Angeles, Cal.)
LOVE is the ruling power in heaven, for God is love. This enduring power is displayed in every provision God has made for all animate creation; and peace and joy can dwell only where it is allowed free sway. When it becomes a vital principle in our lives, darkness is swallowed up by God’s light and glory.
Before we can love our fellow creatures, we must love that which is the common rule of all creation. “Great peace have they which love thy law, and nothing shall offend them.” Ps. 119: 165.
To love the law of God is to love God; for His law is simply His character given to us in the written word; and Christ is also God’s character, given to us as a living expression of the Father’s love. Therefore the Saviour said to the young man inquiring the way to eternal life: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, . . . and thy neighbor as thyself.” Luke 10: 27. This, and this alone, is life. “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in DEATH.” I John 3:14.
There may be so much of self hidden in our hearts that we see more faults in our neighbor than in ourselves, and therefore, trying to be logical, love ourselves the most. This is self-righteousness, and we shall so see it if we follow on to know the Lord.
Peter admonishes us to add to brotherly kindness charity. 2 Peter 1: 7. And Paul says: “Let brotherly love continue.” Heb. 13: 1. “Follow after charity” (1 Cor. 14: 1); “put on charity” (Col. 3: 14); and “let all your things be done with charity.” 1 Cor. 16: 14.
The capabilities with which I may be endowed; the possibilities of earthly or heavenly wisdom; all faith; the giving of all my earthly possessions to feed the poor; even the offering of my body as a sacrifice,—all these “profiteth me nothing” without this benign attribute of God. Yea, more, “I am nothing,” but “am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.”
Love is the great thing that fits us as ambassadors for Christ. Without it we can not work successfully for others.

Faith in Christ

By Jerome Paine Bates

ALL through the New Testament it is constantly reiterated that a real, whole-hearted acceptance of Christ, as God manifest in the flesh, constitutes the only Christian belief; and that without such a belief, which includes not only intellectual recognition and acceptance of, but personal, unreserved surrender to, Christ, no man is or can be a Christian. A general and even devout reverence for God will not save any. The demand is specifically that we believe in, accept of, and surrender to, Christ, as the Son of God and as God manifest in the flesh, reconciling the world unto himself.—Jerome Paine Bates.

A MANSION IN HEAVEN

By John M. Hopkins

JOHN M. HOPKINS (Villard, Minn.)
I've a mansion in heaven all glorious and fair, A home which my Saviour has gone to prepare, In the city of God, by prophets foretold, Whose gates are of pearl, and whose streets are of gold.
In weariness often, and sometimes in pain, I press my way onward: again and again I long for the rest which my Saviour will give To all who in faith and obedience live.
But though there are trials and ills here below, I know I am saved, and rejoicing I go. Praise God for salvation! This now is my song; I sing it each morning, yea, all the day long.
Praise God for salvation! My sins are forgiven, “I'm the child of a King,” with a mansion in heaven; I feast on His goodness, rejoice in His love, An heir of that glory awaiting above.
And so let afflictions and trials befall, By the help of the Lord I shall pass through them all; And praise and rejoice for the grace that is given, This peace here below, and a mansion in heaven.

BLESSING GOD

By H. B. Farnsworth

H. B. FARNSWORTH, M. D. (College View, Neb.)
“His name shall endure forever: His name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in Him: all nations shall call Him blessed. Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. And blessed be His glorious name forever: and let the whole earth be filled with His glory.” Ps. 72: 17-19.
“It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Acts 20: 35.
This must have been the reason that God the Father gave Christ to us, because He really could not withhold Him when He saw our great need; and He experiences a blessed satisfaction when we accept Christ as our Saviour, and show in our subsequent lives that we really desire to copy the heavenly pattern. Christ must also experience a pleasure at seeing us accept the Holy Spirit as our guide; for He sent Him in His stead as a constant companion.
When an earthly gift is proffered, we do not spurn it nor turn from the giver, but give him the pleasure of our appreciation, and tell him our thankfulness. So should it be with our Heavenly Father: while He is continually giving us blessings and privileges of duty, and while He lends to us the aid of the Holy Spirit to guide us, to help in our daily walk, and to plead for us the things our characters most need, ought we not to give to God by grateful praise and heartfelt thanks the blessedness that comes from having His creatures acknowledge Him? How often we read, “Blessed be God;” and yet rarely think that we, too, need to bless God as much as the earlier believers, for the comfort and peace He speaks to our souls, and for the hope of at last having our character in accord with His.
Surely, since He gives us all that comes to us,—and all “work together” for good,—we should not be at all backward in calling Him blessed in return for the blessings He gives us.
Since He has placed within our power “to will and to do,” to accept or reject, let us show Him the highest homage and love by giving freely and unreservedly our every impulse, our undivided selves, that in time we may know the fullness of His love toward us, and experience the blessedness that comes from whole-souled and fervent sincerity. Then shall we be blessed with constancy in trusting, in working, and in watching. Let us bless God in our daily lives in contact with men by making our religion more practical.

New York Indicator

Salvation

New York Indicator

This question has now been before us in our Sabbath-school lessons for some time. Some may have stopped on the less important points of what law or covenant Paul was referring to. The issue is salvation, and the contention is over the truth of the gospel, and the objective point, “Christ . . . formed within you.”
Those false brethren contended that unless a man should be circumcised, he could not be saved; and of course the conclusion from such a premise was, If men should be circumcised, they would be saved.
Now all that was shown to be false doctrine by Paul. Over and over again it is shown that it is not because we do the things enjoined on us by Christ in His service that we are saved, but because we exercise faith in the powerful life of Jesus Christ, and through this gift of faith Christ’s life is formed within us, so that it becomes true of us that “the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God;” yea, it is because of all this we can not but work, we can not help working, for the salvation of those about us.
But shall we be saved because of works?—No. On the other hand, Shall we be saved, in such a time as this, if we fail to work the works of Christ?—No. Works are the evidence of faith. Faith works, and purifies the soul of the exerciser. Without faith it is impossible to please God.
All this means personal experience. We shall not be saved because we have paid tithes, because we have been baptized, because we have washed the saints’ feet. Coming to the higher law of eternity, neither shall we be saved because we have outwardly kept the Sabbath, ten, fifteen, or forty years. With Christ left out, that law never will cease to condemn us; for we have transgressed it. We shall be saved because we have been justified by God through living faith, as individuals, in our personal Saviour, Jesus Christ. And because of this great gift bestowed upon us through the Holy Ghost, we shall be used of our Lord somewhere in the closing scenes of the gospel work.
But until this experience is gained, until we have been endowed with the promised heavenly power through tarrying upon our knees, our working will be profitless. Such will come in on the left hand, counting on their imposing works, but the sentence is, Depart; for I “never knew you.” The others had accomplished all this work in their Saviour, and were not counting on a single thing they had been used to do; for they say, When saw we thee hungry, thirsty, and sick, etc., and helped thee?
When instruments become worthless, we cast them aside, and grasp those that will answer our purpose. Brethren and sisters, have we tarried upon our knees until the Spirit of God is bidding us go forth with the words of life? Then let us go. Remember Meroz. A curse will surely follow those who fail in permitting themselves to be used in such a time as this. Salvation will arise from another quarter, as far as we individually are concerned, but ponder well the awful results if this becomes true in our cases.
God’s closing message will triumph. All the ordinances of the Lord’s appointing will continue until the end; the Sabbath will be kept, tithes and offerings will be paid, baptism and other ordinances will be observed; but let us not conclude that salvation will be the result of the outward observance of these things.

S. O. JAMES

By S. O. James

HAPPY is the faithful servant who, when his one task is performed with all his might, eagerly awaits the command to another.

S. O. JAMES

LABOR IS LIFE

By Frances S. Osgood

LABOR is life! ’Tis the still water faileth; Idleness ever despaireth, bew aileth; Keep the watch wound, for the dark rust assaileth; Flowers droop and die in the stillness of noon. Labor is glory! The flying cloud lightens; Only the waving wing changes and brightens; Idle hearts only the dark future frightens. Play the sweet keys, wouldst thou keep them in tune!
Labor is rest from the sorrows that greet us; Rest from all petty vexations that meet us; Rest from sin promptings that ever entreat us; Rest from the world-sirens that lure us to ill; Work, and pure slumbers shall wait on thy pillow; Work, thou shalt ride over Care’s coming billow; Lie not down wearied ’neath Woe’s weeping willow! Work with a stout heart and resolute will!
— Frances S. Osgood.

EXPERIENCE

I have always had a deep interest in woman's work, and especially since it was by a woman's sending me Seventh-day Adventist literature, and such nice letters, that I was brought into the light of the glorious gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
The more I think of the way in which papers and letters can work when accompanied with prayer, the more wonderful it seems to me. Thinking it might encourage others to keep on in the good work which the Lord has for each of us to do, I will tell you some of my experiences, and how the Lord used these means to save me.
Nine years ago I awoke to the realization that I was in a very wicked world, surrounded with ignorance, sin, and indifference, and nothing could satisfy the longings of my heart. I resorted to one thing after another, but to no avail. Finally I advertised in a paper for reading-matter and correspondence, not knowing what the result would be. But, to my delight, in a few weeks every mail brought me papers and letters, among which were the Signs of the Times, REVIEW AND HERALD, health journals, etc., followed by letters. I read them all, and became deeply interested; in fact, they contained just what I had wanted so long.
I was almost a physical wreck, though I am naturally healthy. I had for some time been suffering from indigestion, headache, nervousness, and a hundred ailments. And it was no wonder; for I drank coffee and other poisonous stimulants, besides using tobacco in all its forms. But I did not know any better; for parents here teach their children to use those things to make them strong.
One day I saw an article in one of the health journals, under the heading, “Effects of Coffee Drinking.” I read in it my own experience to the letter; so I said, “Good-by, coffee; I shall never touch you again;” and in less than a month I felt like a new person, though not entirely well. One day I received a package of health leaflets—twenty-five, I think. When I began to read them, I found that they were intensely interesting, and said, “How does my friend know so well just what things I need to know in order to be helped?” In them I found that all alcoholic liquors, condiments, and tobacco, instead of being foods, or in any way beneficial to health, are deadly poisons, or in some way injurious to health. So I took my “pets,”—nay, poisons,—all of them this time, and said good-by to them for good.
Next I saw the Sabbath truth and accepted it. But with this came persecution. The Lord was with me, and in due time He opened the way for me to obtain a good home among His people, and also to attend one of our schools, where I could obtain a better education, and more light in regard to the message for this time. Later the way opened for me to attend the training school at Battle Creek, where I received most excellent instructions for three years.
Then the Lord gave me a double burden for my home field (I had always felt a burden for those who I knew were suffering untold miseries because of ignorance), and I returned to the dark corner that I had left many days before,—not penniless and ignorant as when I left, but rich in grace, and wise in the ways of the Lord in regard to the laws of life.
The burden came to me in the meeting held by Sister Henry when the Woman's Gospel Work was first organized. How well I remember the power of the Spirit manifested in that meeting! I had the burden, but no money with which to carry out my plans; yet, knowing that the Lord had cared for me, and supplied my every need for so long, I did not hesitate to ask Him to give me the things needful to start the work that lay so near my heart. Within two short weeks I had received books, money, charts, and a sufficient supply to begin the work.
(Concluded next week.)

EXTRACTS FROM CORRESPONDENCE

Ever since my conversion I have worked for the Lord in whatever way I could do any good. I try to do anything that is needed where people are sick or overworked. I scrub, wash, bake bread, sew, distribute reading-matter, and try to get subscriptions for our papers. I canvass some for our books. I encourage the people to go to church and camp-meeting; and read to the children who come to visit my little ones. There was no Sabbath-school here until I started one, and now we have two Sabbath-schools and one church, for which I praise the Lord.
A short time ago I used to be always complaining of my lot; and when my husband would reprove me, and, as an example, would hold up others who were cheerful and happy, I would retort that they had things to make them happy, and that if I had the same comforts and conveniences they had, I should be different, and if they were in my place, they would be no better natured than I was. But I thank God that since I have yielded myself fully to Him, He has made these trials a means of discipline and blessing, and I am happy and cheerful, and know I am overcoming my impatience. I am indeed glad that we can take the little cares and vexations to God.
There is nothing much more disheartening to a man than to have the one whom he has chosen to preside in his home discontented with the provision he makes for her, comparing her own lot with that of other women who seem to be more abundantly blessed. Do the very best you can with what is given you. The smallest amount will go a long way with the blessing of the Lord.
It is within the power of a woman to bring comfort to her family with the most meager and ordinary supplies. The draping and touching of womanly art works wonders in tent or cottage; and when, above all, there is the merry face and cheerful countenance, a loving appreciation of any little thing that the husband and children do, a denial of self for the benefit of all, and an inspiration toward more prosperous circumstances, home will be more delightful to husband and children than any other place on earth — a quiet and happy retreat to which they will love to return from their day’s work, the memory of which will never be effaced, though future years may bring wealth and social position.
“Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith.” Above all, my sister, keep sweet. Nothing fills one with a gloom and dissatisfaction that lead to recklessness so quickly as the atmosphere of a home over which a cross, long-faced woman presides. “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones;” and “a merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance.” Be content with such things as you have, for He hath said, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”
MRS. G. A. IRWIN.

REQUESTS FOR PRAYER

An afflicted sister requests prayer for her father, mother, and son, who are not in the truth.
“Please pray for my unconverted husband, and for me, that I may bring my children up in the right way.” This sister lives in the State of Washington, and does not have any church privileges.
“Please pray for a brother in the northwestern part of Michigan, who is afflicted with bladder and kidney trouble, and can not recover without the Lord’s help. He is a believer in the Third Angel’s Message. Please pray for his recovery.”
“I am a widow, and have an adopted son who is out of the ark of safety. He is smoking cigarettes, and going in bad company. Please pray for him, and for me, that I may exert the right influence over him. I am one of the lonely ones, and he is surrounded with worldly things.”
“My mind is burdened for a neighbor who has consumption, and can not live many days. He is almost an infidel, and will not let us talk of the Saviour to him. I am praying for him, and I ask the sisters to pray that he may yet yield to the Lord and be saved. Also pray that my children may yield obedience to God, and that I may be a living example to my family.”
“I wish to ask the prayers of the sisters for my husband, that he may return to his family. We have been separated about sixteen months, and many a time I have asked him to come back to his family, but he would not. Pray that he may be brought into the truth, and be saved; also pray that I may be healed, and be made strong and able to raise my children in the fear of the Lord. I also request prayer for my father and brother, who are out of the truth.”

NOTICE!

By Editor

We should be glad to receive contributions of poetry on the subject of temperance. We wish something short, and right to the point,—not to exceed four stanzas, and poems of two or three stanzas would be preferable,—something that would be appropriate for children to commit to memory and recite.

Families as Samples of Heaven

“GOD designs that the families on earth shall be samples of the family in heaven, that every member shall be marked with the stamp of heaven. Children should be clad in plain garments, without ruffles or ornament. The time spent in needless sewing, God would have spent in educating them, or in devotional exercises. That garment you are sewing on, that extra dish you think you will prepare, let it be neglected rather than the education of your children.”

REVELATION 11

By Stephen N. Haskell

S. N. H.
THE first two verses of chapter 11 contain the message given by the people of God when they “prophesy again, before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.” Rev. 10:11. The reed is the ten commandments, God’s rule of character in the judgment. Eccl. 12:13, 14. These were seen after the temple of God was opened in heaven at the sounding of the seventh angel, in 1844 A. D. Rev. 11:15, 19. The altar is the golden altar before the throne in the heavenly sanctuary, upon which is offered the incense, the merits and righteousness of Christ, which is added to the prayers and confessions of God’s people. Rev. 8:3-5; 1 John 3:4, 5.
The measuring of the temple and its worshipers refers to the work of our great High Priest in the work of atonement as it is closing in the heavenly courts. This work pertains to every soul. “Satan is now using every device in this sealing time to keep the minds of God’s people from the present truth, and to cause them to waver. I saw a covering that God was drawing over His people to protect them in the time of trouble; and every soul that was decided on the truth, and was pure in heart, was to be covered with the covering of the Almighty. Satan knew this, and was at work in mighty power to keep the minds of as many as he possibly could wavering and unsettled on the truth.”—“Early Writings,” page 35.
This is a special message to prepare a people for Christ’s second coming, as much as Noah’s message was a special message to prepare the world for the flood. Those who can not discern the importance of a special returning to the Lord to be in a condition to be accepted of Him when He comes, will be as veritably lost as were the antediluvians or the Jewish people. Luke 21:20-24. The forty and two months, or twelve hundred and sixty years, of persecution is in the past. The law of God has been taken out of the hands of the power represented by the little horn of Dan. 7:25, and the “son of perdition” of 2 Thess. 2:3, 4; and now the Sabbath reform is to go to the world. Isa. 58:12, 13. This is one of the truths necessary to prepare a people for the coming of the Lord.
The two witnesses, the Old and New Testaments, were taken from the common people during the Dark Ages. The two olive trees are the anointed ones; the people of God become channels of light, into which the golden oil is communicated, through the golden pipes, to others.
It was the rejection of the light of the Reformation that led to the French Revolution before 1798 A. D. The time of persecution was shortened by the light of the Reformation and by the earth’s helping the woman. Matt. 24:22. France rejected this light of the Reformation; and in the French Revolution we have an object lesson of what the results of rejecting light and truth will ever be. “Fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies.” Men can not with impunity trample upon the word of God. The meaning of this fearful denunciation is set forth in the closing chapter of this book. Rev. 22:18, 19.
The great city in whose streets the witnesses were slain is spiritually Egypt. Of all nations represented in Bible history, Egypt most boldly denied the existence of the living God, and resisted His commands. No monarch ever ventured a more high-handed rebellion against the authority of heaven than did the king of Egypt. When the message was brought him by Moses in the name of the Lord, Pharaoh proudly answered, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.” This is atheism, and the nation represented by Egypt would give voice to a similar denial of the claims of the living God, and would manifest a like spirit of unbelief and defiance.
The “great city” is also compared “spiritually” to Sodom. The corruption of Sodom in breaking the law of God was especially manifested in licentiousness. This sin was also to be a prominent characteristic of the nation that should fulfill the specifications of this scripture. This prophecy has received a most exact and striking fulfillment in France. During the Revolution of A. D. 1793, “the world for the first time heard an assembly of men, born and educated in civilization, assuming the right to govern one of the finest European nations, uplift their united voice to deny the most solemn truth which man’s soul receives, and renounce unanimously the belief and worship of the Deity.” France is the only nation in the world concerning which the authentic record survives, that as a nation she lifted her hand in open rebellion against the Author of the universe. Plenty of blasphemers, plenty of infidels, there have been and continue to be, in England, Germany, Spain, and elsewhere; but France stands apart in the world’s history as the single State which, by the decree of her legislative assembly, pronounced that there was no God, and the entire population of the capital, women as well as men, danced and sang with joy in accepting the announcement.
“Where also our Lord was crucified.” This specification of the prophecy was also fulfilled by France. In no land had the spirit of enmity against Christ been more strikingly displayed. In no country had the truth encountered more bitter and cruel opposition. In the persecution France visited upon the confessors of the gospel, she crucified Christ in the person of His disciples. “The Beast that ascended out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.” The atheistical power that ruled in France during the Revolution and the Reign of Terror, waged such a war upon the Bible as the world had never witnessed. The word of God was prohibited by the national assembly. Bibles were collected and publicly burned with every possible manifestation of scorn. The law of God was trampled under foot. The institutions of the Bible were abolished. The weekly rest-day was set aside, and in its stead every tenth day was devoted to reveling and blasphemy. Baptism and the communion were prohibited. Announcements posted conspicuously over the burial places declared death to be an eternal sleep. See “Great Controversy,” chapter 15.
Previously to 1792 little attention was given to the work of foreign missions. In 1804 the British Bible Society was organized. In 1816 the American Bible Society was founded, and they have since printed more than two million copies of the Bible, and have translated the Bible into nearly three hundred languages. In this work the eleventh and twelfth verses have had remarkable fulfillment. The tenth part of the “great city” was one of the ten kings (France) that did this work. The sounding of the seventh angel began in 1844, and covers the entire period of the judgment and the establishment of the kingdom. Heaven beheld all this persecution, and rejoiced when deliverance came. The present condition of the world we see foreshadowed in the eighteenth verse.

BEREAN LIBRARY STUDY

Revelation 11; “Thoughts on the Revelation,”
Pages 497 - 508

DAILY READING FOR JANUARY 20-26

Sunday, “Thoughts on the Revelation,” verses 1-5.
Monday, “ “ “ “ 6-12.
Tuesday, “ “ “ “ 12-17.
Wednesday, “ “ “ “ 18, 19.
Thursday, “Great Controversy,” chapter 15.
Friday, article on Revelation 11, on this page.

QUESTIONS

1. What work did the angel command to be done? V. 1. In what sense could the worshipers be measured? By what standard?
2. To whom was the court given?
3. In what manner were the two witnesses to prophecy during the twelve hundred and sixty years? What is represented by the two witnesses?
4. What other figures are taken to represent the two witnesses?
5. What punishment is inflicted upon those who injure them?
6. What power are they said to have?
7. Who will make war upon them? With what result?
8. What nation is represented in the eighth verse? In what characteristic does this nation resemble Sodom and Egypt?
9. How was the word of God treated in this nation?
10. What part did the other nations act in this work?
11. How did the people of France conduct themselves? In what way had the two prophets tormented them?
12. Give dates of the beginning and ending of the three and one-half days. What position was taken by France, which no other nation has ever taken?
13. In what way has the twelfth verse been fulfilled?
14. Give the historical facts that fulfill verse 13.
15. What was announced from heaven in verse 15 as taking place under the seventh trumpet? When will that be fulfilled?
16. To what place is our mind carried in verse 16?
17. What was said in the heavenly sanctuary by the four and twenty elders?
18. Name five events that will come under the seventh trumpet as given in verse 18. Which take place in heaven? Which upon the earth?
19. Where is the temple of God? When did the opening here referred to take place? What was seen in the temple? What takes place upon the earth? When does the great hail fall?

Christ Is With Us

CHRIST is with us as truly as when, in the days of His humiliation, He moved visibly upon the earth. The lapse of time has wrought no change in His parting promise to His apostles as He was taken up from them into heaven, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.”—“Gospel Workers.”
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