The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, vol. 75

March 29, 1898

“Editorial” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 75, 14, p. 202.

“WE know not what we should pray for as we ought.” ARSH March 29, 1898, page 202.1

Not knowing what we should pray for as we ought, it is certain that we cannot receive as we ought even the thing for which we do pray. ARSH March 29, 1898, page 202.2

All such praying as that, therefore, must, in the nature of things, be vague and indefinite, and weakening instead of strengthening to faith. ARSH March 29, 1898, page 202.3

But the Lord does not desire that any prayer shall ever be vague or indefinite. He never intended that prayer should ever in any way have any tendency to weaken faith. ARSH March 29, 1898, page 202.4

The Lord desires and intends that every prayer shall be so definite and so certainly directed that both in its presentation and in its answer it may be a positive and evident strengthening of the faith of the one who prays. ARSH March 29, 1898, page 202.5

How then, can this be, when it stands true that “we know not what we should pray for as we ought”? Ah! the Father has not left us alone; “the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities.” And the Holy Spirit does know, perfectly, what we should pray for as we ought. ARSH March 29, 1898, page 202.6

The Holy Spirit searches the heart and the conscience of man and also “the deep things of God.” He knows perfectly what we need. He knows perfectly what we should pray for. He knows precisely how we ought to pray for what we should pray. He knows how this should be presented to God in such a way that a direct and evident answer may be received. He knows how to present our prayers exactly “according to the will of God.” And “this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us: and if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.” Such praying as this is a perpetual strengthening of faith. ARSH March 29, 1898, page 202.7

Without the Holy Spirit we cannot pray at all “as we ought.” Without the Holy Spirit, our prayers cannot be definite in aim, cannot be certainly according to the will of God, and therefore cannot strengthen faith. While, with the Holy Spirit, we can pray as we ought, our prayers will be definite in aim, will be according to the will of God, and therefore will perpetually strengthen faith, and will build up the believer in genuine faith. ARSH March 29, 1898, page 202.8

The sum of all is, therefore, that we must not pray, we must not think of praying, without the Holy Spirit. ARSH March 29, 1898, page 202.9

Wherefore, beloved, build up “yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost.” ARSH March 29, 1898, page 202.10

“The Spirit itself maketh intercession for us.” “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” ARSH March 29, 1898, page 202.11

“This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” ARSH March 29, 1898, page 202.12

Who shall say that that record is not correct? “This is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son.” God is the witness. The testimony is therefore true. The record is correct. Eternal life, therefore, is a gift of God only in his Son. ARSH March 29, 1898, page 202.13

God being the witness, the testimony therefore being true, and the record correct, who can possibly deny the conclusion, which, indeed, the Lord himself has drawn: “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life”? ARSH March 29, 1898, page 202.14

Eternal life being the gift of God, only in his Son, it is absolutely impossible for any one to have eternal life, anywhere or in any way, who has not the Son of God. ARSH March 29, 1898, page 202.15

In him, however, it can be had for the taking. For “verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” ARSH March 29, 1898, page 202.16

It is written: “No man knoweth the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.” ARSH March 29, 1898, page 202.17

God is know only in Christ, only as he is revealed through Christ. For “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself.” He is “God manifest in the flesh.” He is “God with us.” ARSH March 29, 1898, page 202.18

It is written also: “Hallow my Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.” ARSH March 29, 1898, page 202.19

God is known in hallowing the Sabbath: the object of the Sabbath is that in the hallowing of it, the one who hallows it may know that the Lord is his God. ARSH March 29, 1898, page 202.20

Now as God is known in the hallowing of the Sabbath, and as God is known only in the revelation of Jesus Christ, it is certainly true that true hallowing of the Sabbath is known only in Christ, and the true knowledge of Christ is known only in the hallowing of the Sabbath. ARSH March 29, 1898, page 202.21

As God is known only by those to whom Christ reveals him, and as the Sabbath is a sign by which the believer may know that the Lord is his God, it is certainly true that the Sabbath is a sign by which he who hallows it may know that the Lord is his God as Christ reveals him. ARSH March 29, 1898, page 202.22

And it is written, “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Therefore, as the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, and as the Sabbath is a sign by which, in the hallowing of it, “ye may know that I am the Lord your God,” it is certainly true that the seventh day is a sign by which he who hallows it may know that the Lord is God as Christ reveals him. ARSH March 29, 1898, page 202.23

That many people do not believe this, that even man Christians do not believe it, does not affect the truth of it. It is the truth, even though nobody on earth ever believed it. And being the truth, people—even Christians—by not believing it simply rob themselves of its virtue and its power. ARSH March 29, 1898, page 202.24

“No man knoweth the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.” “Hallow my Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.” “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” ARSH March 29, 1898, page 202.25

“Editorial Notes” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 75, 14, p. 205.

THE question of unequal taxation is fast becoming a vital one; and conservative journals, such as the Independent, declare in no uncertain tones that it seriously threatens the welfare of this government. In some way the owners of millions are almost invariably assessed for only nominal amounts, and the taxes they actually pay are outrageously out of proportion to what are collected from the common people. It is refreshing occasionally to see collectors who are not afraid to do their duty. Last week in South Chicago six banks refused to pay their taxes, on the ground that the assessments were too high. An injunction to prevent their collection was not sustained in the courts; and immediately the collector, with a guard of some twenty men, visited each bank, and demanded the taxes. At first there was a refusal. They were told that unless the money was forthcoming, the banks would be closed up at once; and so, rather than submit to this, they paid over, “under protest,” it is reported, sums in the aggregate amounting to $165,792.49. ARSH March 29, 1898, page 205.1

“Studies in the Book of Daniel” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 75, 14, pp. 202, 203.

THE Lord had revealed himself to Nebuchadnezzar, and had exposed the absolute nothingness but imposture of all claims in behalf of any other god. However, the king was not yet really acquainted with the Lord; he had much yet to learn of right principles. ARSH March 29, 1898, page 202.1

In the interpretation of the remarkable dream that was given to him, the Lord had said to him that the head of gold of the great image represented the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar himself; and that after him should arise another kingdom inferior to his, and a third kingdom inferior to this, and yet another, a fourth kingdom, inferior even to this, and after that a condition of things yet further inferior. First there was gold, then silver, next brass, after that iron, and last of all, “iron mixed with miry clay.” ARSH March 29, 1898, page 202.2

Nebuchadnezzar, however, in his royal pride could not accept this statement. When he had received that wonderful dream, it was because that while upon his bed, thoughts had come into his mind as to “what should come to pass hereafter.” From what came to pass afterward with him, it is evident that his thoughts as to “what should come to pass hereafter,” were to the effect that the mighty kingdom which he ruled, this “lady of kingdoms,” “Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency,” would in its greatness and glory continue on and on indefinitely. ARSH March 29, 1898, page 202.3

To correct this view, and show him the truth of the matter, the dream of the great image was shown to him. This told him that the golden glory of his kingdom would continue but a little while, and then another would arise, and another, and another, and then there would be division, with all these descending in a regular scale of inferiority, and then at last “the God of heaven” would “set up a kingdom,” and this alone would be the kingdom that should stand forever, and not be given to other people. But the king could not accept this view of the subject; and after thinking upon it for a long time, he formulated his own idea in a great image, about a hundred feet tall and ten feet broad, all of gold from head to feet. This was a positive setting up of his own idea against that of God. This was to declare to all people that his golden kingdom was to endure forever, that there was to be no such thing as another kingdom arising separate from his and inferior to his,—a kingdom of silver, and another of brass, and then of iron, and even descend so low as iron mixed with miry clay. No! there should be only his golden kingdom of Babylon, and that should never be broken nor interrupted. ARSH March 29, 1898, page 202.4

He therefore set up, to be worshiped by all, his great golden image as the just representation of what his great kingdom should continue to be. A great day was appointed for the dedication of the image; and “the princes, the governors, and the captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces” were gathered to do honor to the occasion and the image. Through proclamation by royal heralds, all were commanded, at a given signal of all kinds of music, to fall down and worship the golden image. ARSH March 29, 1898, page 202.5

In a number of points all this was an open challenge to the Lord. It was the assertion that Nebuchadnezzar’s idea of the kingdoms of men should be accepted as the true and divine idea instead of that of God. It was the assertion that the embodiment of this idea should be worshiped as God. And all this was indeed the putting of Nebuchadnezzar himself in the place of God as the ruler in the kingdom of men, the head of all religion, and the director of all worship. ARSH March 29, 1898, page 203.1