The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, vol. 75

January 18, 1898

“Editorial” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 75, 3, p. 44.

DO you really enjoy Christianity, or do you only endure it? ARSH January 18, 1898, page 44.1

This is really an important question: there is more to it than perhaps would at first be though. ARSH January 18, 1898, page 44.2

As a matter of literal fact, we have met many professed Christians who, in answer to this question, were obliged, honestly, to confess that they endured it. They could not say that they enjoyed it. ARSH January 18, 1898, page 44.3

How is it, then, with you? ARSH January 18, 1898, page 44.4

That you may have a fair chance to look at this question just as it is, and truly to answer it for yourself, to yourself, we set down here the two words, with their definitions:— ARSH January 18, 1898, page 44.5

“ENDURE: to last, or hold out against; to bear with patience; bear up under without sinking or yielding, or without murmuring or opposition; put up with.” ARSH January 18, 1898, page 44.6

“ENJOY: to feel or perceive with joy or pleasure; take pleasure or satisfaction in the possession or experience of; to derive pleasure from association with or observation of; take delight in being with or in. ‘Enjoy’ is composed to two words,—en, signifying ‘in,’ and ‘joy’—literally, ‘in joy:’ and joy is ardent happiness arising from present or expected good; exultant satisfaction; exhilaration of spirits; gladness; delight.” ARSH January 18, 1898, page 44.7

Now do you enjoy Christianity, or do you only endure it? ARSH January 18, 1898, page 44.8

“Christians Are Glad” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 75, 3, p. 44.

“SERVE the Lord with gladness.” Do you do it? If not, why? ARSH January 18, 1898, page 44.1

Of all the people in the universe, those who are washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God, are the gladdest. ARSH January 18, 1898, page 44.2

We do not say that they should be the gladdest. We say they are the gladdest. If you profess to be redeemed by the grace of God, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, and are not one of the gladdest, happiest people in all the world, then it is certain that you have not that which your profession says that you have. ARSH January 18, 1898, page 44.3

The profession of being a Christian testifies that we are Christian, it testifies that we are in possessof what the Christian faith gives. And by so much as we lack what that faith implies, by just that much our profession bears false witness against what the Christian faith really is. ARSH January 18, 1898, page 44.4

Now it is certain that from the beginning to the end of the world; that even in the midst of sorrow, with which this world is so heavily laden, the Christian faith gives “always rejoicing.” ARSH January 18, 1898, page 44.5

Look at the situation: We were under the curse; laden with iniquity; enslaved to the power of evil, which we hated even while we did it; living in malice and envy; hateful, and hating one another; under bonds to death, and “everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord;” and never had any peace. But now, through the grace of the Lord Jesus and the mercy of our God, he “hath redeemed us from the curse;” he has “taken away all iniquity;” he “hath delivered us from the power of darkness,” and given “liberty to the captives;” he has put in our hearts his own love for all people instead of the old malice and envy, hatefulness and hating; he has given us his own peace,—yea, he has made himself “our peace;” he “hath given us eternal life in place of death, and a “certain dwelling-place” in his presence, where we “shall see his face,” midst “pleasures which are forevermore” and the blessedness of “eternal glory.” ARSH January 18, 1898, page 44.6

Now any one of these things which the Lord has given is sufficient to make glad, and it does make glad forever, the soul who really receives it. And how much more is it so when all these things are really received! It is literally impossible for any soul really to receive these things that Christ has brought to him, without being literally filled with a gladness which abides, and which will abide forevermore. “The Lord hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad.” ARSH January 18, 1898, page 44.7

Therefore if any one who professes to be a Christian,—professes to have received all this which God has given, and which Christ brings,—and yet is not filled with gladness so that he really serves the Lord with gladness, it is perfectly plain that his profession of Christianity is merely a profession, and is not the genuine faith which puts the soul in possession of the gifts of God. He still comes short of the glory of God, and bedims to the world the brightness and beauty, the genuine attractiveness, that truly belong to the Christian religion. ARSH January 18, 1898, page 44.8

Come along, then! Let us believe God, and “be glad in the Lord,” and really serve him “with gladness.” No other service than the service of gladness can rightly represent our Lord. ARSH January 18, 1898, page 44.9

“The righteous shall be glad in the Lord, and shall trust in him; and all the upright in heart shall glory.” ARSH January 18, 1898, page 44.10

“Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all yet that are upright in heart.” ARSH January 18, 1898, page 44.11

“Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually, The Lord be magnified.” ARSH January 18, 1898, page 44.12

“Let the righteous be glad; let them rejoice before God: yea, let them exceedingly rejoice.” ARSH January 18, 1898, page 44.13

“Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.” ARSH January 18, 1898, page 44.14

“Rejoice evermore.” ARSH January 18, 1898, page 44.15

“I will be glad in the Lord.” ARSH January 18, 1898, page 44.16

This is Christianity. This is what it is to be a Christian. Come, now, therefore, and let us all be Christians. ARSH January 18, 1898, page 44.17

“Studies in the Book of Daniel” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 75, 3, pp. 44, 45.

FORMALISM being so confirmed upon both king and people in the days of Jehoiakim king of Judah, it was inevitable that every kind of evil practise would abound. ARSH January 18, 1898, page 44.1

There is no power in forms to correct the life. There is no power in forms to hold men back from the evil that is in human nature. Nothing but the power of God can do this; and the power of God can come to men and abide in men only by a living, personal faith. It is this alone that can purify the heart and reform the life: the life can be reformed only by beginning and ending with the heart, out of which “are the issues of life.” Purify the fountain, and the issuing streams will inevitably be pure; for “no fountain can yield both salt water and fresh.” Also when the heart is purified and the life endued with power, by the living faith of Christ, grace is given to all the forms of religion, and the Lord is honored and glorified in the worship so offered. ARSH January 18, 1898, page 44.2

The essential iniquity of the lives of king and people in the days of Jehoiakim may be noted under several heads. Along with the general wickedness of murder, adultery, theft, false witness, and all the accompaniments of idolatry, there was,— ARSH January 18, 1898, page 44.3

1. Oppression and injustice: “O house of David, thus saith the Lord; Execute judgment in the morning, and deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my fury go out like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.” Jeremiah 21:12. “Thus saith the Lord; Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor; and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.” Jeremiah 22:3. “Execute judgment between a man and his neighbor; ... oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, ... then will I cause you to dwell in this place.” Jeremiah 7:5-7. ARSH January 18, 1898, page 44.4

2. Oppressing and defrauding the laborer in his wages, while they in their wealth reveled in luxury: “Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbor’s service without wages, and giveth him not for his work; that saith, I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cutteth him out windows; and it is ceiled with cedar, and painted with vermilion.” Jeremiah 22:13, 14. ARSH January 18, 1898, page 44.5

3. Neglect of the poor: “Shalt thou reign, because thou closest thyself in cedar? did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him? He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me? saith the Lord. But thine eyes and thing heart are not but for thy covetousness.” Verses 15-17. ARSH January 18, 1898, page 45.1

4. Disregard of the Sabbath: “Thus saith the Lord; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers.... And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently harken unto me, saith the Lord, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work therein; then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and this city shall remain forever.... But if ye will not harken unto me to hallow the Sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.” Jeremiah 17:21-27. ARSH January 18, 1898, page 45.2

5. The worship of the sun: In Ezekiel 8 is recorded what he saw in Jerusalem, even in the very presence of the holy temple, as he was taken there in vision from the place of his captivity. ARSH January 18, 1898, page 45.3

First he saw “the image of jealousy” in the very entry of the gates of the altar. ARSH January 18, 1898, page 45.4

Next he saw, in one of the chambers of the court of the temple, “every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon the wall round about,” with “seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel,” every one with a censer in his hand, offering incense. ARSH January 18, 1898, page 45.5

Next he saw, “at the door of the gate of the Lord’s house, which was toward the north,” “women weeping for Tammuz.” ARSH January 18, 1898, page 45.6

After all this the Lord said to him: “Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these. And he brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east; and they worshiped the sun toward the east.” Ezekiel 8:15, 16. ARSH January 18, 1898, page 45.7

6. Rejection of all the word of the Lord in counsel and warning: King Jehoiakim himself, with his princes and counselors, persecuted a prophet of the Lord till, to escape their murderous hands, he fled into Egypt. But the king sent even to Egypt, and had him brought back, and then murdered him. They also persecuted Jeremiah, and threatened him with death. A testimony which the Lord gave by the hand of Jeremiah was read to the great assembly in the presence of the temple. The king commanded that it be brought and read to him. “Now the king sat in the winter house in the ninth month: and there was a fire on the hearth burning before him. And it came to pass, that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth.” Jeremiah 36:22, 23. ARSH January 18, 1898, page 45.8

Because of all these things, the Lord likened Jerusalem to Sodom, declaring that she and Sodom were sisters, and said: “As I live saith the Lord God, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters. Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.” Ezekiel 16:48-50. ARSH January 18, 1898, page 45.9

Because of all this, Ezekiel saw, in the vision, a man with a writer’s inkhorn by his side, passing throughout the city, setting a mark upon the foreheads of the men who were sighing and crying for all the abominations that were done there. Six men followed this man, with slaughter-weapons in their hands, “slaying utterly” all to whom they came, but were to “come not near any man upon whom was the mark.” Ezekiel 9:1-7. ARSH January 18, 1898, page 45.10

Now all these things have their parallel in the last days. Formalism in religion abounds (2 Timothy 3:1-4); general wickedness prevails (Matthew 24:12; 2 Timothy 3:2-4, 13); oppression, injustice, defrauding the laborer in his wages to increase the overloaded coffers of the rich, who revel in luxury, are all practised (James 5:1-8); there is neglect of the poor to such an extent that God is obliged to turn his attention especially to them (Luke 14:21-23); the Sabbath is disregarded (Isaiah 56:1, 2; 58:13, 14); the sun—in the Sunday—is honored (Daniel 7:25; Revelation 14:9-12); the word of God in counsel and warning concerning all the evil and the impending destruction, is rejected (2 Peter 3:3-7, 10-14; Matthew 24:37-39),—so that again, looking upon it all, God is compelled to liken it also to Sodom, and the last days of the world to the last days of Sodom: “Likewise also as it was in the days of Lord, ... even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.” “The same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.” ARSH January 18, 1898, page 45.11

And because of all this, while destruction is impending, the holy prophet of Patmos saw in vision the heavenly messenger passing through the world, and setting the royal seal—the heavenly mark—upon the servants of God,—that are done in the land (Revelation 7:2, 3),—and after him the passengers of judgment, slaying utterly all upon whom is not found the mark. Revelation 14:9, 10; 15:1; 16:1-21. ARSH January 18, 1898, page 45.12

Thus, again and overwhelmingly, is it demonstrated that the wickedness of Judah, which led to their captivity, to the destruction of the city and temple, and to the desolation of the land, is a perfect representation of the wickedness of the world in the last days, which leads to the everlasting captivity of the people and the desolation of the earth. And that situation of old is used by the Lord as an object-lesson of counsel and warning to the people of the world in the last days. ARSH January 18, 1898, page 45.13

Thus the history of the times of Daniel is present truth to-day; and the divine principles of the book of Daniel are given to save the people from the wickedness that cursed Judah and Jerusalem to destruction and desolation. “Whoso readeth, let him understand.” ARSH January 18, 1898, page 45.14