FEELING of terror and vague apprehension possessed the soul of the procurator, Pontius Pilate. Convinced that he had consented to the murder of a divine personage, he was filled with remorse. Already he had forced a confession of the truth from the lips of the unwilling centurion—in spite of the bribe of Caiaphas. The story of the women who went to anoint the body of their Master and found an empty tomb, declaring that they had held converse with an angel and had even seen their risen Lord, together with the assertion of some of the Roman soldiers whom the bribe of the priests had failed to silence, began to be circulated everywhere.
These stories, with other and conflicting reports, reached also the guilty ears of Herod Antipas, in his lordly palace to the north of Mount Zion.
And now it was rumored that at the time of the resurrection of the Nazarene many others had arisen from their graves, and had appeared and were appearing to people in and about Jerusalem.
The first day of the week, with its astonishing record, at length had passed, and it was night.
Shut in a secluded chamber of his palace, alone with his accusing conscience, his guilty heart trembling with dread, sat Herod Antipas.
"Let no man come into the chamber," he commanded. "I will spend the night alone."
At the fifth hour of the night, the beautiful but sensual face of the woman Herodias looked in upon him as he sat in despondent and gloomy meditation by a window overlooking the open court.
"Surely, I may come in, mine husband," ventured the seductive voice of the woman.
A deep frown overspread the face of the tetrarch. "Of a truth, thou wilt not bid me nay, my lord!" The frown became deeper and more sullen.
"There is place in the chamber to-night for none but Herod Antipas." A few moments later, he was alone. The hours passed silently. The rigid figure still sat moodily by the open window; his head, sprinkled heavily with gray, rested upon his hand. To-night Herod Antipas was reviewing the checkered scenes in his past life. But most absorbingly his thoughts dwelt upon the prophet Baptizer of the wilderness.
Memory again pictures the stern face of the prophet as he addresses the vast concourse of people who flock to hear his words of wisdom in the wilderness of Judea. And Antipas remembers how, pricked in his own heart on account of his sins, he, the proud son of a kingly father, bends his haughty neck to this humble man, and, with many another, prince as well as plebeian, listens reverently to his preaching. Again he hears the earnest words which so often since that day have rung in his ears:
"Where is thy lawful spouse, even the daughter of Aretas, King of Arabia?"
Then, that other day,—the birthday of the King! Again he heard, in fancy, the music and the light trip of the dancer's feet, and once again the words rang out, "What will thou that I give thee?" and the awful answer, "I will that thou give me this day the head of John the Baptizer in a charger!"
The solemn face of the Passover moon looked through the latticed window; and the yellow light, flickering and uncertain, from a single silver candlestick upon the marble table, fell over the guilty head.
There was a soft rustle of draperies near him, and the echo of a quiet footfall.
"Herod Antipas!"
The bowed head was raised slowly as if in a dream.
"Herod Antipas!"
The startled eyes of the tetrarch met the eyes of the intruder. "Verily thou art John the Baptizer, whom I beheaded! Why dost thou pursue me?"
"I am come that I may testify unto thee, and that thou mayest hear the words of my mouth; for by the power of the God of Israel am I raised from the dead, and many others with me, that they may testify that this Jesus of Nazareth, who verily was brought before thee and before Pontius Pilate for judgment, and whom thou didst revile, with thy men of war, is in very deed the Messiah of the prophets—the King of Israel—the Son of the Highest. And behold, He is raised from the dead!"
"The King of Israel—the Messiah of the prophets!" faltered the tetrarch tremblingly; "the King of the Jews! I knew Him not; but surely mine own father, even Herod the Great, destroyed Him with the infants of Bethlehem, after that my father had been mocked by the magi of the East; and of a truth, my father Herod had hoped himself to be accounted the Messiah of Israel—the King of the Jews!"
"Thy father destroyed Him not," declared the intruder. "But He hath been crucified by the Jews; and behold, He is alive again the third day, even as He declared. And lo, I am the Voice of one who did cry in the wilderness, 'Prepare ye the way, of the Lord; make His paths straight.' This Jesus of Nazareth is He upon whom the Spirit descended in form like to a dove. Thou, O Herod Antipas, hast taken my life from me, but He hath restored it. And behold, He hath risen from the dead, and is alive forevermore; and whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life."
"Who am I, that I should have everlasting life?" echoed the trembling tetrarch, his grizzly head again drooping upon his bosom. When the tetrarch again lifted his head, his visitor was gone.
It was the second night after the resurrection. Trembling with fear lest the crucified and risen Christ, or some other of the many witnesses who arose from their graves with Him, should appear to them, Annas and his guilty son-in-law had shut themselves, also, within their chamber.
"Hast thou heard, my father," questioned Caiaphas, "that the people declare that many have arisen from the dead with the Nazarene, and that they have also appeared unto many? Even this day I have seen the man Bar-jona who followed the Nazarene, and was with Him in the garden,—even him whose nimble sword cut off the ear of the servant Malchus in the garden."
"Sawest thou him?" questioned Annas testily. "Surely these pestilent fellows be afraid of us, and I have not seen one of them upon the streets of Jerusalem these two days. What said he?"
"I said unto him, 'Ho, Bar-jona, where hast thou laid the body of thy Master?' and he said, 'He is indeed arisen from the dead, and many others with Him; and I have seen the old man Eliab, of Bethlehem, for he—'"
"Eliab of Bethlehem!" repeated Annas in dismay. "Behold, he died at the hand of the soldiers of King Herod, when I was a man in my prime! Verily, I knew the old man well. But this Bar-jona hath spoken lies!" thundered the aged high priest; "and we will search out these followers of the Nazarene, and deliver them up to be punished—for they do trouble Israel."
Even while he spoke, the heavy draperies at the doorway parted, and the face of a man with long, snowy beard appeared earnestly regarding them.
"It is Eliab—the old man of whom we spake!" gasped the high priest, his face ashen, and his knees shaking with terror.
"Verily, I am Eliab of Bethlehem; even from the sepulcher of the dead am I come, that I might bring thee word that Jesus of Nazareth hath indeed risen from the dead."
"What sayest thou?" faltered Caiaphas, dropping to his knees in abject terror; "I know thee not!"
"But thou knowest me, O Annas, high priest of Israel. Answer me: Why have ye put to death the Messiah of the prophets? Know ye not, O ye teachers, that the time spoken of by Daniel the prophet—even 'the midst of the week'—hath fully come? But why have ye put to death the Anointed One—the Shiloh of Jacob? Ye have put Him to death; but behold, He is alive forevermore!"
The white-bearded lip of the aged high priest trembled, as if he would answer; but while he hesitated, the resurrected visitant had departed.
(To be continued)
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"As a Shining Light"
By Daniel Nettleton
Personal Experience in Accepting Present Truth
"THOU shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee," says Moses; and Paul exhorts us to "call to remembrance the former days." The Lord said He had somewhat against the church of Ephesus, because they had left their first love. A good way to keep from losing our first love for this message and work, is to review frequently the steps we took in coming into the truth, and then to "remember all the way" in which the Lord has led us.
I accepted present truth in 1875, entered the ministry in 1877, and have been in the work ever since. God called me to do the work of an evangelist,—to preach the Word,—and I have endeavored to be about my "Father's business." "As we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the Gospel, even so we speak."
The Sabbath truth came to me while I was yet at home, working on father's farm in Nebraska. A Seventh-day Adventist home missionary worker sent father the Advent Review and Sabbath Herald.
I also read the SIGNS OF THE TIMES. This last named paper was but two years old at that time, but it was old enough to preach the Word of the Lord. Perhaps not as plainly as in this "Special Present Truth Series;" for the truth, like "the path of the just," "is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." But it helped me to accept God's message for this time, for which I praise the Lord.
Being strict Methodists, and being warned not to read those "Advent papers," mother pasted them on the wall to keep out the wind and cold. Well, they did help keep the cold out, and they brought the truth in, though we did not invite it to come. Though they came uninvited, the papers were a great blessing. "Some have entertained angels unawares." Pasted in a conspicuous place near the wood-box were those papers, with the title-page plainly to be seen. When I brought in the wood, I would stop and read the SIGNS OF THE TIMES. In one paper I read the text, "Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus."
When I went out to work, I would say to myself, "Do not we Methodists keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus?" I had learned the Ten Commandments at Sunday-school, and I knew the fourth one said, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. . . . The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." I knew the calendar put Sunday as the first day of the week, and Mark said, "When the Sabbath was past, . . . very early in the morning the first day of the week," and Matthew said, "In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week."
Our Methodist minister said, "We keep the first day of the week to commemorate the resurrection of our Saviour," but I had not read that in the Bible. I did read, however, "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law;" and I knew the law to say, "The seventh day is the Sabbath." In the epistle of James I read, "Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all;" and in 1 John 3:4, "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law."
I was made a little uneasy by these scriptures, so I began to study and think about this matter. Some said we could not tell which day is the Sabbath. But I read in my Bible (Luke 23:54-56) that the day on which Jesus was crucified "was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew on. . . . And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment." Then "upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher." So I knew that the day just before the first day of the week was the Sabbath day, according to the commandment.
Another incident also helped to make this truth plain. One morning after family worship (my father always had family prayer, morning and evening, and it was this that led me to give my heart to God) my brother said to me: "You are not keeping the true Sabbath day. The seventh day is the Sabbath, and our family Bible says Saturday is the seventh day, or Sabbath." I went to the family Bible, and found the table of the days of the week to which he referred, and sure enough, it said, "The first day of the week, Sunday; the second day, Monday; . . . the seventh day, or Sabbath, Saturday." It was made so plain that Saturday is the true Sabbath day that I could not deny it and be a Christian. God fixed that truth so firmly in my mind that it has not yet been removed.
Divine truth took hold of me, and claimed me as its own. I praise the Lord that I am still His, and by His grace have been able to call hundreds to the same truth, who have been led to keep "the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus."
I am so glad now that my father was poor, and we did not live in a fine, comfortable house; for if we had, those papers might never have been pasted on the wall, and I might never have read them, and been led to the present truth. I am also thankful that God put it into some one's heart to send us the Review and the SIGNS OF THE TIMES. God knows who it was, and I expect to know in the new earth. O brethren! let us continue to send our good papers to our friends. "Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters." "In due season we shall reap, if we faint not." As I continued to read the SIGNS OF THE TIMES and the Review, and study the Bible, there came into my heart a strong desire to be a Sabbath-keeper. I would go out into the grove on father's old homestead, and pray that God would open the way so I could be baptized and keep His Sabbath. After much careful study and earnest prayer, I fully decided to keep the Sabbath, and gave up the world and all it promised me. I was just entering manhood, and, like young men in general, planned great things for the future; but I had learned to lay all my plans at the feet of Jesus, to be given up or carried out at His pleasure.
I had left the dear old farm and father's home, and was then working in a general store. There was but one family of Sabbath-keepers in town; in fact, there were very few in the State at that time, 1875, and I kept my first Sabbath with this family. They were very happy, and so was I. It was a stormy day, but there was "sunshine in my soul." I have had many good Sabbath days since, with hundreds of our people at camp-meetings and conferences; but that Sabbath, passed with that faithful family, was one of the happiest of my life.
"The church of the living God is the pillar and stay of the truth." The family is the unit of the church, and the church is the light of the world. "God setteth the solitary in families." O, the good that one true Seventh-day Adventist family can do in any community! The homes of our people are the missionary centers of this message. The fire kindled on Abraham's family altar is still a light in the world, in one way fulfilling the promise, "In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." The light of our sanitariums, publishing houses, and colleges would soon go out if the light shining from our family altars was extinguished.
When I began to keep the Sabbath, I wanted to be baptized and unite with the church. I had to wait, however, until a minister came. There were not so many Seventh-day Adventist ministers then as now; but they were earnest men, and about their Father's business. Finally Elder C. L. Boyd visited us, and we esteemed it a great privilege to entertain one of God's ministers. I shall never forget his earnest prayers and words of instruction. He not only expounded to me the way of God more perfectly, but helped me to find a place in the work of God. It was a happy day for me when he led me down into the water, and I was buried with my Lord in baptism, rising to walk in newness of life. O, how beautiful and glorious was this new-found truth to me! I wanted all the world to know it. As I saw a lost world rapidly approaching the great day of the Lord, souls unsaved and without hope in God, and as the calls came from different places for ministers and workers, I said, "O Lord, send me."
He did send me, and He has given me many souls as the seal of my ministry. Some of these are now ministers and workers in the message. I have baptized many believers; but I believe the happiest day of my life was when, for the first time, I baptized one who had been converted and accepted the present truth under my ministry. There is no joy this side of heaven like the joy of one who sees a soul for whom he has prayed and labored accept Christ and His truth. Many years have passed since then, and I, with my brethren in the ministry, have many times experienced this joy. We love to think and speak of these experiences, especially as we near the eventide of life. God has promised that "he that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." I have spent nearly all my life in new fields; and notwithstanding all the "light afflictions" incident to the life of a pioneer Seventh-day Adventist evangelist, I would not go back and choose another occupation if I could; I hope to finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus.
DANIEL NETTLETON.
Our Work and Workers
FIVE new believers have been baptized at Princeton, Illinois.
ELEVEN persons were baptized recently at Newark, New Jersey.
AT Rayville, Louisiana, six persons have accepted the truths of the message.
FOUR received baptism and have enrolled with the church at Enyart, Missouri.
SEVEN persons at Shields, British Columbia, have united to keep the commandments.
AT Jackson, Mississippi, four adults, two of whom are teachers, are awaiting baptism.
SEVEN names were added to the membership of the church at Lexington, Kentucky.
AT Fort Worth, Texas, six have cast their lot on the Lord's side. Two have been baptized at New Hope.
SIXTEEN students of the Keene Industrial Academy at Keene, Texas, were converted and baptized recently.
FIVE new Sabbath-keepers are reported at Indian Spring, Maryland. Others are "in the valley of decision."
FIVE more are numbered with the believers in Auburn, Maine, and two young persons are awaiting baptism.
TWO have decided to obey the truth at Wakefield, California. At Smith River five others have taken their stand.15A COMPANY of thirteen have identified themselves with the Lord's remnant people at Leesburg, Florida. At Jacksonville nine have been baptized.
AT Szechuen, China, Brother Allum, with his charge of eight native canvassers, sold in one month over 10,000 papers. Five persons took their stand for the truth.
PASTOR GEO. F. ENOCH writes encouragingly of the work at Panwel, India, where he is now located. There is little mission work done there, so he is not interfering with other established missions.
DURING the last year at least seventy-seven workers, not counting the children, have entered the mission fields. Many of these are self-supporting, but will work with the interest already established. This number includes those who have gone from Europe and the British colonies to mission fields.
BROTHER R. B. COBERLY reports that during his evangelistic visits in Oklahoma, five united with the company at Claremore, five were converted at Vinita, and sixteen additions were made to the church at Ketchum, all but one being baptized. Illness in his family prevented his visiting Bartlesville, where some are awaiting baptism.
THROUGH the efforts of two alumni of the Loma Linda School of Evangelists, Brethren J. N. H. Tindale and C. E. Garnsey, twenty-six persons have united with the church in Hartford City, Indiana, where they have been laboring. Of this number twenty-four were baptized, the youngest thirteen years of age, and the oldest eighty-eight years. Five of the new members have renounced Catholicism.
THE religious liberty number of the German magazine Zeichen der Zeit, surpasses any number of the paper hitherto published, both in appearance and in contents. Besides articles on religious liberty, there are articles on health and temperance and home. The magazine is well illustrated. The beautiful cover design is the Bartholdi liberty statue, printed in green and black. The price of the magazine is 10 cents. Order of your State tract society, or International Publishing Association, College View, Neb.
THE following we glean from an interesting article by R. C. Porter in the South African Missionary regarding work in that field: "Our workers report from one thousand to three thousand magazines sold a week, and this record kept up month after month. The Claremont Union College is filled to the limit of its capacity with a company of young people, most of whom are preparing for work in Africa. Church schools are pressed for teachers. The sanitarium work has prospered the past year as it has not for years. The conferences are pressing an aggressive campaign of evangelistic city mission work which is bringing a harvest of souls into the truth, thirty names being added to the Johannesburg church alone. At Graham's Town the daily papers opened their columns for full reports of the sermons preached, until the entire message was proclaimed from pulpit and press, and the people greatly stirred. In a little over a year the Solusi Mission School has increased from thirty-five students to one hundred and three, and still they knock for admission. The Nyasaland schools, with their one thousand students, are greatly taxing the strength of the workers. Hundreds are turned away, and the calls there for the extension of the work are pitiful. A new magazine has been started with a circulation of from ten to fourteen thousand."
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THE BOY PUZZLE
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By Rev. Joseph F. Flint
BUT this book is not written alone for mothers. Every father, in fact all who have an interest in the welfare of the boys of this nation will find a wealth of help and encouragement in this presentation of the boy question. The author goes to the bottom of things and shows very clearly where the trouble lies if your boy or your neighbor's boy goes wrong.
As the hope of this Republic lies in our boys a careful reading of "The Boy Puzzle" will do much to help solve the difficulties that confront us.
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