The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, vol. 75

April 19, 1898

“Evangelistic Temperance. How to Live” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 75, 16, p. 121.

AS we can live only by breathing, it certainly follows that we can live rightly only when we breathe rightly; our physical life will be full, bright, and strong only when we breathe fully, brightly, and strongly. And when, physically, we live fully, brightly, and strongly, we can also live a spiritual life that is full, bright, and strong. Read this:— ARSH April 19, 1898, page 121.1

“By giving heed to proper instruction, by following health principles in regard to the expansion of the lungs and the culture of the voice, our young men and women may become speakers that can be heard, and the exercise necessary to this accomplishment will prolong life.”—Christian Education 132. ARSH April 19, 1898, page 121.2

This touches the point; yea, it tells the whole story. And again we may say, It is not enough simply to expand the lungs. You can expand the lungs in such a way as to make them only an invitation to consumption; yet in the right way, you can also expand the lungs so that it will be impossible for consumption to get hold of you. When this is done, then even if you should take cold, and it should even reach and settle upon your lungs or in your throat, you need not be afraid; it cannot stay, neither can it stop you in your work. The life and living vigor of the whole system will drive it speedily away. O, the Lord wants us to live! ARSH April 19, 1898, page 121.3

“There is need that among our ministers careful attention should be given to the culture of the voice, or many will lie down in untimely graves. The Lord is not glorified by the reflections that are cast upon him, when men attribute to him their sufferings; for the Lord has no pleasure in the suffering and death of his people. He would have them pursue a right course of action, carefully looking after their bodies that they may be in health, and know how to keep the habitation in order.”—Id., 133. ARSH April 19, 1898, page 121.4

Now, do not get the idea that this is an intricate thing, hard to understand, and difficult to get hold of, so that you must have a whole lot of unscientific instruction to get it. It is not that at all. It is all as simple as any other part of the religion of Christ. Listen to this:— ARSH April 19, 1898, page 121.5

“If we neglect to heed the simple laws by which we may preserve health, and fail to cultivate right habits, the Lord will not work a miracle to heal our disorders, while we continue to transgress his laws. Men are sleeping in their graves that the Lord would have had live. They destroyed themselves through lack of knowledge.”—Id., 133. ARSH April 19, 1898, page 121.6

What kind of laws are these?—Simple laws. That is just what they are. Do not allow yourself, nor allow anybody else for you, to make them anything else than simple. You will see this more fully as we follow this subject further:— ARSH April 19, 1898, page 121.7

“Some of our most talented ministers are doing themselves great injury by their defective manner of speaking. While teaching the people their duty to obey God’s moral law, they should not be found violating his physical laws. Ministers should stand erect, and speak slowly, firmly, and distinctly, taking a full inspiration of air at every sentence, and throwing out the words by exercising the abdominal muscles. If they will observe this simple rule, giving attention to the laws of health in other respects, they may preserve their life and usefulness much longer than men in any other profession.”—“Gospel Workers 147. ARSH April 19, 1898, page 121.8

Well, then, is it not almost a disgrace for any Seventh-day Adventist minister, except the oldest, to die, especially to die of lung or throat troubles? and he professing to be a health reformer, too! If we did not have these things, if God had not spoken on these subjects, and set them so plainly before us, and so repeatedly, too, it would not be so bad. But with all these things made so plain, and these good wishes of the Lord so fully expressed, it is awful to have our ministers dying, when to take the Lord’s way, the ministers may “preserve their life and usefulness much longer than men in any other profession.” Then let us quit dying. This expression is not out of place, either; for men often think they are all right, and not dying, when the truth is that they are dying all the time. Read again:— ARSH April 19, 1898, page 121.9

“The chest will become broader.” ARSH April 19, 1898, page 121.10

What! the chest become broader by exercising the abdominal muscles?—Yes, of course. That is the only way the chest can become broader in the right way, in the way to have health. Now there is no contradiction nor inconsistency here. I am not explaining, yet, just how this will be. It is all true, though. You believe it, and practise it, and you will find it so. However, we are searching now for what is the right way to breathe; how to practise it we whall study afterward. ARSH April 19, 1898, page 121.11

“The chest will become broader, and by educating the voice, the speaker need seldom become hoarse, even by constant speaking.”—Id. ARSH April 19, 1898, page 121.12

The throat is the last place in the body to become weary from speaking; the lungs, never. The abdominal muscles may become tired sometimes, and the back also, and even other parts of the body, with long or strong speaking, but the lungs and throat will be all right. Only use them as God intended them to be used, and they will outlast all the rest of the system. ARSH April 19, 1898, page 121.13

“Instead of becoming consumptives by speaking, our ministers may, by care, overcome all tendency to consumption.”—Id. ARSH April 19, 1898, page 121.14

Good. Then why should any Seventh-day Adventist minister have any tendency to consumption, much less have consumption itself? And even some of our doctors have tendency to consumption; yea, some have actually died of consumption, in the face of this direct instruction from the Lord, too! How long shall these things be? Instead of being delicate, and sunken-chested, and weak-lunged, the Lord wants us to be healthy, full-chested, strong-lunged, and proof against disease instead of being subject to it. And why is not this true of all the people as well as of the ministeres? Why should our sisters be sunken-chested, stoop-shouldered, and weak-lunged, and subject to lung troubles, any more than our brethren or our ministers?—They should not. The Lord wants women to have as good health as he wants men to have. And these excellent things that we have been reading are just as much for women as for men, and are just as true of women as they are of men. Then, sisters, you stand erect, and use the abdominal muscles in deep breathing and in expanding the chest. You, too, can throw out your words by exercising the abdominal muscles. Then, if you have any tendency to consumption, you will soon be all right,—in more ways than simply your lung troubles, too,—you will “overcome all tendency to consumption.” That is a great deal; it is a blessed promise. ARSH April 19, 1898, page 121.15

“I would say to my ministering brethren, Unless you educate yourselves to speak according to physical law, you will sacrifice life, and many will mourn the loss of “those martyrs to the cause of truth,” when the facts in the case are, that by indulging in wrong habits you did injustice to yourselves and to the truth which you represented, and robbed God and the world of the service you might have rendered. God would have been pleased to have you live, but you slowly committed suicide.”—Id. ARSH April 19, 1898, page 121.16

That is to Seventh-day Adventists who die of consumption. It is an awful thing when a person, in very desperation, commits suicide by a sudden act. But how much more awful it is for a person—and of all people a Seventh-day Adventist, too—slowly to commit suicide,—to keep it up, and follow it up persistently for years, till it is finally accomplished! That is terrible. Who, then, will continue to do it? O, rather, who will not cease entirely to do it, by choosing now, and diligently following, the right way? ARSH April 19, 1898, page 121.17

“Editorial” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 75, 16, p. 252.

IT is as easy to “live in the Spirit” as it is to live at all, because it is impossible to find a place where the Spirit is not an all-pervading presence. ARSH April 19, 1898, page 252.1

If any one does not live in the Spirit, it is not because the Spirit is not where he is; but solely because he will not receive the Spirit, he will not choose the way of the Spirit, he will not believe. ARSH April 19, 1898, page 252.2

We cannot find a place to live where the Spirit is not. Then as we must live anyhow, why not live in the Spirit? why not live the right way, instead of the wrong way? ARSH April 19, 1898, page 252.3

Come, then, every soul; let us live in the Spirit. ARSH April 19, 1898, page 252.4

Then, upon this, the exhortation is, “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” ARSH April 19, 1898, page 252.5

The Spirit being everywhere, it being impossible to flee from his presence, surely it is just as easy to walk in the Spirit as it is to walk at all. ARSH April 19, 1898, page 252.6

We cannot find any place to walk where the Spirit is not. Then as we must walk anyhow, why not walk in the Spirit? why not walk the right way, instead of the wrong way? ARSH April 19, 1898, page 252.7

And, indeed, this is even the promise of God. Read it: “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” What a joyful promise! ARSH April 19, 1898, page 252.8

Blessed be God for the unspeakable gift of his Spirit in such measure as to reach and surround every soul wherever he may be! ARSH April 19, 1898, page 252.9

Praise the Lord that he ever longingly woos us by his Spirit, to live in the Spirit, that we may walk in the Spirit, that we shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh! ARSH April 19, 1898, page 252.10

“Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God.” “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” ARSH April 19, 1898, page 252.11

“How Shall We?” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 75, 16, p. 252.

“HOW shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” ARSH April 19, 1898, page 252.1

How shall we? Can you tell? ARSH April 19, 1898, page 252.2

Can a man live in what he dies of? When any person dies of any disease, can he live any longer in it?—No; that is why he died—he could not live any longer in it. ARSH April 19, 1898, page 252.3

Having died of that disease, and were he even brought back from the dead into that very disease, could he live any longer in it?—No; he would certainly and immediately die again. A person simply cannot live any longer in the thing of which he has died. This is perfectly plain to everybody. ARSH April 19, 1898, page 252.4

Very well, then: Have you died to sin? Have you grown so sick of sin that you died of it? Have you grown so sick of it that you could live no longer in it, and so died to it? ARSH April 19, 1898, page 252.5

If you have, do not be afraid; you cannot live any longer therein. Were you even taken back from that death, and put once more in the presence of sin, you would certainly and immediately die again. You could not live any longer in it when you were there before; and because you could not live any longer in it, you died; and if you were brought back to it again, you could not live any longer in it any more than you did before. ARSH April 19, 1898, page 252.6

Remember, this is being sick unto death, of sin; not sick of a few, or even many, particular sins, while at the same time you choose others, because you are pleasing to you, and become fat and flourishing on them. In this way you can live in sin forever, and then die in it, and then die the second death for it. ARSH April 19, 1898, page 252.7

No; it is not sins, so that we can die to one and live to another, that are contemplated in the Scripture: it is sin,—sin in the essence,—so that when you die to it, it is a death indeed to sin in every phase and of every sort. Then, being thus dead to sin, you simply cannot live any longer therein. The very presence of the thing, the very suggestion of it, is death to you. ARSH April 19, 1898, page 252.8

And being thus dead to sin, the Lord intends that we shall not live any longer in it. And intending that we shall not live any longer in it, he intends that we shall live ever longer without sinning. ARSH April 19, 1898, page 252.9

There is power in Jesus Christ to keep the believer from sinning. There is virtue in the grace of God to hold back the believer in Jesus from serving the sinful propensities and passions that dwell in the human flesh. Praise his holy name forever and ever. ARSH April 19, 1898, page 252.10

“Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.” ARSH April 19, 1898, page 252.11

Are you dead to sin? Then how shall you live any longer therein? ARSH April 19, 1898, page 252.12

“Studies in the Book of Daniel” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 75, 16, pp. 252, 253.

GOD had exposed to Nebuchadnezzar the impotent nature and fraudulent character of all the gods of Babylon, and had brought the king to the knowledge of the true God. And this instruction was given in such a way that it reached all the people as instruction also. ARSH April 19, 1898, page 252.1

The Lord next taught the king that however great was the power of kings over people and nations, yet they could of right have no power at all over the religion or worship of those whom they ruled. God showed him that the edicts of rulers must yield, that the words of kings must change, in the presence of the right of the individual to worship according to the dictates of his own conscience. This also was taught in such a way as to make it instruction to “all people, nations, and languages” in all the wide extended empire of Babylon. ARSH April 19, 1898, page 252.2

Finally the Lord taught the great king that it is the Most High who rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever he will; that though Nebuchadnezzar had made the conquest of all the nations, and had become ruler over them all, yet it was the God of heaven who had given all these nations into his hand, and had made him ruler over them all. This great truth, too, was taught not only to Nebuchadnezzar direct, but through him, by official proclamation, to “all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth.” ARSH April 19, 1898, page 252.3

Though all this was known by the princes, and the lords of all the realm, yet at the death of Nebuchadnezzar, his son and successor made himself so profligate and so altogether vicious that his own relatives put him to death at the end of his second year’s reign. This man’s successor held the power only four years, three of which were busily employed in preparation for the war that came in the fourth year, and in the first battle of which he was killed. He was in turn succeeded by a king who so “let himself loose in the utmost excess, without any manner of restraint whatever,” that it was only nine months before his excesses became so unbearable that “his own people conspired against him, and slew him.” And this man was succeeded by a king who at last actually associated with himself upon the throne his son, the outbreaking Belshazzar, in whose riotous excesses in debauchery and blasphemy the Babylonian iniquity culminated, and brought upon the wicked city the swift judgment of God in the very night of this king’s greatest drunken, lascivious, and blasphemous feast. ARSH April 19, 1898, page 252.4

“Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand. Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein. Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem; and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank in them. They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone. In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Then the king’s countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.” Daniel 5:1-6. ARSH April 19, 1898, page 252.5

The conscience-cowardly king, in his frenzy, “cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers;” and promised great rewards and the highest honor, next to the king, to whomsoever would explain the terrible writing. None could do it until the holy Daniel was brought. “Then Daniel answered and said before the king, Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another; yet I will read the writing unto the king, and make known to him the interpretation.” Verse 17. ARSH April 19, 1898, page 252.6

“O thou king, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdom, and majesty, and glory, and honor: and for the majesty that he gave him, all people, nations, and languages, trembled and feared before him: whom he would he slew; and whom he would he kept alive; and whom he would he set up; and whom he would he put down. But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him: and he was driven from the sons of men; and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses: they fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven; till he knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will.” Verses 18-21. ARSH April 19, 1898, page 252.7

“And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this; but hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified: then was the part of the hand sent from him; and this writing was written.” Verses 22-24. ARSH April 19, 1898, page 252.8

And now every one who reads these lines likewise knows “all this.” It has been told to you. It has been written in the holy Book and preserved to you by the Lord, “in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways.” You have read it many a time; and it has been brought to your attention many more times. And what are you doing with it all? ARSH April 19, 1898, page 253.1

Knowing “all this,” have you humbled your heart? or are you, like Belshazzar, going on, with a heedless heart and a high head, to swift destruction? ARSH April 19, 1898, page 253.2

This was not made known to Belshazzar in his time in vain: no more in vain is it made known to you in this time of all the world in which it most applies. Knowing “all this,” are you lifting up your heart “against the Lord of heaven”? Is it now true of you, as of him, that knowing “all this,” “the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified”? ARSH April 19, 1898, page 253.3

Take heed; for the writing that night was that once written for all time”? ARSH April 19, 1898, page 253.4

Take heed lest you, too, knowing “all this,” shall, when “weighed in the balances,” be “found wanting.” ARSH April 19, 1898, page 253.5

For “this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.” ARSH April 19, 1898, page 253.6

And “this is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.” Verses 26-28. ARSH April 19, 1898, page 253.7

“In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old. Verses 30, 31. ARSH April 19, 1898, page 253.8

“Editorial Notes” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 75, 16, p. 253.

WHEN Paul was at Athens, he seemed to the Athenians to be “a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection.” Now if Paul had preached Jesus and the immortality of the soul, would he have seemed to them to be a setter forth of “strange gods”?—Not for a moment. With men and the immortality of the soul, they were perfectly familiar; indeed, such was their whole thought. Of the immortality of the soul, many of their gods were made. Paul could have preached to them forever Jesus and the immortality of the soul, without once being thought to be a setter forth of strange gods; such would have been precisely in the channel of their thought from ancient time. But Jesus and the resurrection was to them altogether new and strange. That the dead should be awakened, and rise up, and stand alive again, was so utterly foreign to all their ideas that to them such preaching was only the setting forth of strange gods; and as it was always feared of new gods that they might supplant the old, they at once brought Paul to the highest court for examination. From this whole record it is perfectly certain that Paul never preached Jesus and the immortality of the soul. ARSH April 19, 1898, page 253.1