The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, vol. 75

February 22, 1898

“Evangelistic Temperance. How to Live” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 75, 8, 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 February 22, 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 February 22, 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 February 22, 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 February 22, 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 simply as any other part of the religion of Christ. Listen to this:— ARSH February 22, 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 February 22, 1898, page 121.6

What kind of laws are these?—Simple laws. That is just what they are. Do not allow yourself, not 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 February 22, 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 the laws of God in regard to health and life. 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 February 22, 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 quite 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 February 22, 1898, page 121.9

“The chest will become broader.” ARSH February 22, 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 shall study afterward. ARSH February 22, 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 February 22, 1898, page 121.12

The throat is the 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 February 22, 1898, page 121.13

“Instead of becoming consumptives by speaking, our ministers may, by care, overcome all tendency to consumption.”—Id. ARSH February 22, 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 ministers? 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.” This is a great deal; it is a blessed promise. ARSH February 22, 1898, page 121.15

“I would say to my ministering brethren, Unless ministers educate themselves to speak in accordance with physical law, they 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, they did injustice to themselves and to the truth which they represented, and robbed God and the world of the service they might have rendered. God would have been pleased to have them live, but they slowly committed suicide.”—Id. ARSH February 22, 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 February 22, 1898, page 121.17

“Editorial” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 75, 8, p. 124.

“CHRIST impressed upon his disciples that they were to ask God in prayer for the gift of the Holy Spirit; and then, placing themselves in an attitude to receive, they would receive all the gifts comprehended in the gift of the Spirit.” ARSH February 22, 1898, page 124.1

Jesus says, “Without me ye can do nothing.” ARSH February 22, 1898, page 124.2

But he is gone away; he is not here as he was when he said this. ARSH February 22, 1898, page 124.3

That is all right, however; for it was expedient for us that he should thus go away. ARSH February 22, 1898, page 124.4

Nevertheless he says: Be not ye troubled: “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” ARSH February 22, 1898, page 124.5

We are not left comfortless, because he comes to us by the Comforter. And “the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost,” shall “abide with you forever.” ARSH February 22, 1898, page 124.6

The Holy Spirit brings the presence of Christ to the believer, to abide with him forever. “His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts, ... that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” ARSH February 22, 1898, page 124.7

The Holy Spirit comes to abide with us forever. The Holy Spirit brings the presence of Christ to abide with us forever. Therefore says Jesus, “I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” ARSH February 22, 1898, page 124.8

Jesus said, “Without me ye can do nothing.” It is the Holy Spirit only that brings Christ to us. Therefore it is as plain as A B C, and as true as the word of God, that without the Holy Spirit we can do nothing. ARSH February 22, 1898, page 124.9

Professing religion, joining the church, “working in the cause,” are all “nothing” without the gift, the baptism, the abiding forever, of the Holy Spirit. “Ask, and it shall be given you.” “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” ARSH February 22, 1898, page 124.10

“The Lord Jesus wants all to stand in their appointed place. He makes use of one believer’s influence, another’s wealth, and another’s attainments. On all is inscribed, Holiness to the Lord. All is sanctified and set apart for a holy purpose. All are to co-operate with God. Mind, heart, soul, and strength belong to God. We are his by creation and by redemption. ‘Ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.’” ARSH February 22, 1898, page 124.11

When Cyrus W. Field, the maker of the Atlantic cable, left home at the age of fifteen to make his way in the world, his father said to him: “Cyrus, I feel sure you will succeed; for your playmates could never get you off to play, until all the work for which you were responsible was done.” That is sufficient surety that any boy will succeed. It is simply faithfulness. And faithfulness itself is success. ARSH February 22, 1898, page 124.12

“He who has not sufficient faith in Christ to believe that he can keep him from sinning, has not that faith that will give him an entrance into the heaven of God.” ARSH February 22, 1898, page 124.13

“Studies in the Book of Daniel” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 75, 8, pp. 124, 125.

THE second feature in Daniel’s education is that he was “cunning in knowledge.” He had knowledge acquired by experience, or practice,—technical knowledge. ARSH February 22, 1898, page 124.1

The third feature of his education is that he understood science. This was but the complement of the second, as the second was the complement of the first. Wisdom, knowledge, and science were these three. Wisdom is the fear of the Lord; this is the beginning of knowledge. Daniel was “skilful in all wisdom;” he was skilful in the fear of the Lord. This being the beginning of knowledge, Daniel had proceeded from this beginning to its complement,—he had observed facts and studied things, and so had become “cunning in knowledge;” and from this, in turn, he had proceeded to its complement, and had classified and systematized his knowledge, and so understood science. ARSH February 22, 1898, page 124.2

This is the divine order in education: first, the fear of the Lord; secondly, knowledge, thirdly, science. First, the fear of the Lord as the beginning and the basis of all knowledge; secondly, knowledge, acquired from the careful observation of facts and the diligent study of things; and thirdly, science, as the result of this knowledge classified and systematized. ARSH February 22, 1898, page 124.3

But where did Daniel or his teachers find any formulated science or any guide to science which might be used as a study in school or as a material part of general education?—Without hesitation it can be said, and truly said, that all this had been matter of common knowledge in Israel for hundreds of years, and at least the principles of it were found in the Holy Scriptures, the Bible of that time. ARSH February 22, 1898, page 124.4

Solomon lived and taught, four hundred years before Daniel’s school-days. Solomon “was wiser than all men.” And what Solomon knew was not kept to himself, lock up in his understanding; but he taught it to the people. He taught it, too, to all the people; he popularized it. It was so plain and simple that the common people could understand it. ARSH February 22, 1898, page 124.5

Solomon thoroughly understood what is now called botany, and zoology, and ornithology, and entomology, and ichthyology, and meteorology. For “he spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even to the hyssop that springeth out of the wall;” and that is called “botany.” “He spake also of beasts;” and that is called “zoology.” He spake also “of fowl;” and that is called “ornithology.” He spake “of creeping things;” and that is called “entomology.” He spake “of fishes;” and that is called “ichthyology.” He spake of the course of the wind in “his circuits,” of the clouds and the rain; and that is “meteorology.” Solomon knew more of all these sciences than any man to-day knows of any one of them. And he taught them all to the people; for “he spake” of them all. 1 Kings 4:33; Ecclesiastes 1:6, 7; 11:3, 4. ARSH February 22, 1898, page 124.6

We do not say that Solomon taught “botany” as such, nor “zoology” as such, nor “ornithology,” nor “entomology,” nor “ichthyology,” nor “meteorology.” We do not say that he taught “science” at all, as it is taught to-day, nor as it is suggested in these big words; that is, science in the abstract. He did not speak of “botany;” he “spake of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even to the hyssop that springeth out of the wall.” He did not speak of “zoology;” “he spake of beasts.” He did not speak of “ornithology;” he spake of fowl. He did not speak of “entomology;” he spake of “creeping things.” he did not speak of ichthyology;” he spake “of fishes.” He did not speak of “meteorology;” he spake of the wind in “his circuits,” and the returning of “all the rivers” from the sea to the place whence they came to “run into the sea.” ARSH February 22, 1898, page 124.7

That is, he did not give learned and high-sounding discourses on these subjects; he spake of the things themselves. The very flowers themselves were studied, and discoursed upon; not the flower plucked off, and torn to pieces, and each piece designated by an almost unpronounceable term, and that perhaps in a foreign language,—not this, but the flowers as they grew, in garden, field, or forest, just as God caused them to grow, clothed with living beauty. And the lesson which God teaches by each flower was learned from the flower as it stood; for instance, the lovely little violet growing demurely among the grasses. Likewise also the beasts, the birds, the creeping things, and the fishes were studied and discoursed upon as they were, alive and before his eyes and the eyes of those to whom “he spake.” ARSH February 22, 1898, page 124.8

Such is the way in which science was taught and learned in Israel, where the fear of the Lord was the beginning of all knowledge, the guide in all study, and the basis of all science. It was the study of things, rather than a study about things. And that is just the difference to-day that there is between the right and the wrong way of studying science. The right way it to study things, the wrong way is to study about things. By studying this right way, the student learns always something; whereas, by studying the wrong way, he learned only about something. The right way gives him practical knowledge; the wrong way gives him but abstract theories, which he has not the gumption to reduce to practise. ARSH February 22, 1898, page 124.9

Now this genuine science which was taught by Solomon, remained with the nation after Solomon had died. Much of it was written out, and so was accessible to both teachers and students. And above all, the lessons were ever before them in the beasts and the birds, the creeping things and the fishes, in the trees and the flowers, in sky and sea, in the sunshine and the rain, in the wind and the cloud. ARSH February 22, 1898, page 124.10

We know that it is commonly supposed that “the Jews did not understand science;” that it was only the heathen that had attained to that. The fallacy of such a view is clearly seen by the fact that although at the time when Daniel was carried away captive, Babylon is supposed by these same persons to have stood at the head of the world in scientific attainments, yet when these four young Jews were examined there after three years of study, “in all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm.” Daniel 1:20. These magicians, astrologers, etc., were the scientists of Babylon. Some of them had been the teachers in the school in Babylon, where Daniel was obliged to go and study. Yet when examination day came, Daniel and his companions proved to be ten times better informed than all of them. No man in this world could ever teach ten times more than he knew. Therefore it is certain that Daniel and his brethren did not obtain from those teachers their great knowledge. They obtained it from their own Scriptures, under the teaching of the Spirit of God. In other words, they continued in Babylon that same system of study that they had formerly used in the college in Jerusalem; and, in all that was really knowledge in the Babylonian studies, this gave them ten times the advantage of even their teachers there. ARSH February 22, 1898, page 124.11

Another illustration of the worse than fallacy of this supposition that the Jews did not understand science, while the heathen did, is the fact that in the books to-day, and in standard school-books too, it is printed and taught that Anaximander, a Greek, invented the sun-dial about 550 B.C., while the sun-dial was in use in Jerusalem in the reign of Ahaz, nearly two hundred years before that. Isaiah 38:8; 2 Kings 20:11; 16:1. It is possible that to the sadly belated Greeks, Anaximander’s sun-dial was a new invention altogether, and a great scientific discovery; but for our part we refuse to believe the books, even though they be in Seventh-day Adventist schools, which teach that the sun-dial was invented by Anaximander or anybody else two hundred years after it was in common use by the Jews in Jerusalem. The truth is that among the Jews only was known the purest and truest science that was known in the world down at least to the time of Daniel. And when there shall be found again schools that will teach science as it was taught in the school where Daniel learned, there will be found again Daniels in science—even young men who will know ten times as much as even the teachers in schools where the fear of the Lord is not counted as having any connection with science. ARSH February 22, 1898, page 125.1

No greater mistake has ever been made, no greater loss has ever been incurred, neither by the church nor by the world—and it has been made by both—than the mistake that has been made in separating the fear of the Lord—religion—from science. ARSH February 22, 1898, page 125.2

The church, when she ruled the world, held that the fear of the Lord was a matter altogether apart, and had no relation to the observation of facts and the study of things; and so, that religion had nothing to do with science. Consequently, the most “pious” ones, the “saints,” turned away from facts and things, and shut themselves up in cloisters and cells, or set themselves on the tops of pillars, and spent their time in “worshiping” by trying how many times they could bow or prostrate themselves in an hour; or else in drawing fine-spun distinctions in doctrine, and expounding hair-splitting theories in theology, and then arraigning and hunting as “heretics” all who would not espouse their particular distinction when they themselves could not clearly state it. Then as the number of theological distinctions was increased, “heresies,” of course, multiplied. As heresies multiplied, councils were held to set straight the “heresies.” In setting straight the heretics, the councils were obliged authoritatively to interpret the word of God. Different councils interpreted it differently. Appeals were lodged with the bishop of Rome as the chief bishop of “Christendom.” And thus it came about that the bishop of Rome became the oracle through whom alone the word of God could come rightly interpreted, not only to the church, but even to science. Thus was developed the infallibility of “the church,” which was but the infallibility of the bishop of Rome as the chief voice in “the church;” for wherever is lodged the authoritative interpretation of the word of God, or the claim of it, there lies infallibility or the claim of it. ARSH February 22, 1898, page 125.3

The world, on the other hand, of course held that the fear of the Lord was a matter altogether apart, and had no relation to the observation of facts and the study of things; and so held that religion had “nothing to do with science.” ARSH February 22, 1898, page 125.4

Thus originated the conflict between religion and science. This conflict has always continued on the part of the world. But since the Reformation, there has been an effort on the part of the church to connect religion and science. However, in this effort, “science,” as the world had developed it, was taken as the standard, and the fear of the Lord—religion—was made to conform to it. But this “science” had been built up without the fear of God, and in many cases in direct antagonism to it. And when this was accepted by the church as the standard to which the fear of the Lord must conform, and by which the fear of the Lord must be gauged, this was to make “science,” and even science falsely so-called, the beginning of knowledge, and the fear of the Lord the end; instead of the fear of the Lord being the beginning, and science—true science—the end. Science was made the head, and the fear of the Lord, the tail. And thus the word of God, by which alone the fear of the Lord can be acquired, was made, even by the church, subordinate to human, and even antagonistic, “science;” the word of the Lord must be interpreted by this human and antagonistic “science:” and so infidels and atheists, through this science to which the church deferred, became the oracles through whom alone the word of God could come rightly interpreted even to the church. And thus is fast developing the infallibility of “science,” which, when finished, will be but the infallibility of the dictum of the chief voice in science, speaking ex cathedra. ARSH February 22, 1898, page 125.5

The everlasting truth is that genuine religion and genuine science are inseparable. Neither with Solomon nor with Daniel was there ever any conflict between religion and science. With neither of these was there ever any accommodation, any more than any conflict, between religion and science. With both of these men, science was what it always it—the complement of religion. ARSH February 22, 1898, page 125.6

True science is the complement of true religion,—and it is only the complement, it is never the essence. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, and it is only the beginning. It is not intended to be anything but the beginning of knowledge. Therefore he who does not take the fear of the Lord, and use it for the acquirement of knowledge, makes an infinite mistake. And he who takes the fear of the Lord, and uses it for the acquirement of knowledge, and yet stops short of having his knowledge attain to the grade and character of science, just so far frustrates the real object of his receiving the fear of God to begin with. He who receives that which is the beginning of science, is bound by that very thing, so far as in him lies, to go on and attain the end of that of which he has received the beginning. ARSH February 22, 1898, page 125.7

And thus with the fear of the Lord as the beginning of science, and science as the inseparable adjunct of the fear of the Lord; with the word of God as the means of knowing the fear of God, and this same word as the basis of all science; with the Holy Spirit of God as the great teacher and the only interpreter of the word of God; true religion and true science will be united, one and inseparable, now and forever: and infallibility will rest where it belongs,—with God, the author of both true religion and true science. ARSH February 22, 1898, page 125.8