The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, vol. 76

April 25, 1899

“Editorial” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 76, 17, p. 264.

THE Lord desires, and has promised, that our schools shall be as the schools of the prophets. ARSH April 25, 1899, page 264.1

In the first notice that we have of the schools of the prophets, it is shown that the Spirit of God was present in such power that a man whose conversion was of so altogether an improbable thing that when it did occur, it made a proverb, was actually converted; for the Spirit of God came upon him, and he was turned into another man. 1 Samuel 10:5-12. ARSH April 25, 1899, page 264.2

And in the second notice of the schools of the prophets, it is shown that the Spirit of God was present in such power that three successive squads of soldiers sent on a vindictive errand were, each in turn, converted when they came to the school. ARSH April 25, 1899, page 264.3

Then when Saul, who had become estranged from the Lord, and was seeking with determination to kill David, and who had sent in vain the three squads of soldiers to take David,—when he, in his vindictiveness, came down in his own person to take David, “the Spirit of God was upon him also, and he went on, and prophesied.” ARSH April 25, 1899, page 264.4

Such being the character of the schools of the prophets, and God having promised that our schools shall be as the schools of the prophets, is it not perfectly plain that in every Seventh-day Adventist school there is not only ample room but urgent demand for far more of the presence and power of the Spirit of God than any of them have yet received? And when all this is so, shall not every school earnestly seek and receive all that there is for each and all? ARSH April 25, 1899, page 264.5

“Editorial Note” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 76, 17, p. 264.

THE children of Israel in the wilderness insisted that they must have flesh to eat. Numbers 11:4-6. ARSH April 25, 1899, page 264.1

As they would be satisfied with nothing else, the Lord gave them flesh to eat to their fill, “even a whole month.” Verses 18-21. ARSH April 25, 1899, page 264.2

And the Lord told them that one consequence of their eating flesh would be that it would “come out at your nostrils.” Verse 20. ARSH April 25, 1899, page 264.3

But the very flesh itself which they ate could not as flesh come out at their nostrils. Therefore the only way that this could be, would be that the evil effect of eating the flesh would appear in the nostrils. ARSH April 25, 1899, page 264.4

Now what disease is it that shows itself especially in the nostrils?—Everybody knows: it is called “catarrh.” ARSH April 25, 1899, page 264.5

Then what bothersome, almost all-pervading, disagreeable, and offensive disease is directly traceable to the eating of flesh? ARSH April 25, 1899, page 264.6

And yet there are many persons who, against all instruction, continue to use flesh food, and then wonder why change of climate, or nasal douches, catarrhal remedies, etc., etc., do not cure them of catarrh! ARSH April 25, 1899, page 264.7

But the difficulty is not with the climate, nor with the nose. The difficulty is in the system, and is caused by the diet. Change the diet, rather than the climate. Stop eating that that “comes out at your nostrils,” and it will not come out at your nostrils. ARSH April 25, 1899, page 264.8

However, when you have fed yourself on that kind of material for from twenty to forty years, and your fathers fed themselves on it all their lives, do not suppose that you can get your system entirely free of it in a week, nor in “even a whole month.” It will take a good while. Yet, however long it may take, that is the only way to deliverance. ARSH April 25, 1899, page 264.9

When you have changed your diet, and have ceased to feed your system on food that “comes out at your nostrils,” then local treatments, washes, etc., may be beneficial. Climate never has enough to do with the matter to make it worth considering, provided you keep your feet and other extremities dry and warm, which everybody should do in any climate. ARSH April 25, 1899, page 264.10

This is not theory, it is truth and experience. ARSH April 25, 1899, page 264.11

“Editorial Notes” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 76, 17, p. 264.

IN a sermon, March 26, to the young men in Harvard College, Dr. Lyman Abbott gave, in few words, the best illustration that we have seen of how directly antagonistic to the Bible, and so how positively undermining of faith, is the teaching in the colleges, universities, and theological seminaries of to-day. On “the practical and personal side” of his theme—text, Mark 4:26, 27—he pictured a young man of his congregation coming to him for help, and saying:— ARSH April 25, 1899, page 264.1

“I was brought up in an orthodox circle. My mother was a devout believer. I learned from her the Christian creed, and the Christian Bible. I learned to pray; I had no doubts. I began my studies, and soon came to the conclusion that the world was not made in six days. Presently I discovered that man had been on the earth more than six thousand years. Then I reached the conclusion that he had come from a lower order of animals. Then I discovered that language was not broken up at the tower of Babel. I found reason to doubt one after another of the so-called miracles of the Bible, until, at last, my faith is all gone. I do not know what I believe, or whether I believe anything. I do not know what I believe about the Bible, about Christ, about myself. I do not even know whether I am immortal, or whether there is a God. O, that I could go back to the simple faith of my childhood! But I can not.” ARSH April 25, 1899, page 264.2

And now what help did Dr. Abbott, one of the leading divines of the nation, give to such a young man?—This:— ARSH April 25, 1899, page 264.3

“You sign for the simple faith of your mother; it was a beautiful faith, and it sustained her in her simple life. But it would not sustain you in your life, and it is no discredit to her to say that it would not enable her to meet the skepticism that you have to meet. You must have another faith than hers.” ARSH April 25, 1899, page 264.4

Her faith was the believing the Bible as the word of God, and that what it says is therefore the truth. Her son “must have another faith than hers.” But, as faith comes only by the word of God, that is to have no real faith at all, and that is just what he has already, and from which he longs to escape. And what refuge or hope is offered to escape. And what refuge or hope is offered him?—Just none at all. “When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” ARSH April 25, 1899, page 264.5

“Present-day Preaching” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 76, 17, pp. 264, 265.

ON account of his being called to the pastorate of the Plymouth church, Brooklyn, N.Y., a short time ago, the papers of the country have had much to say about Rev. Newell Dwight Hillis, D.D. The very fact of his being called to the pastorate of the Plymouth church testifies that he occupies the leading position among Congregational preachers at the present day. This the papers all emphasize. Under these circumstances, it is interesting to read his first sermon as pastor of the Plymouth church. It fills about three and one-half columns of solid matter of the Chicago Times-Herald of Monday, March 20, 1899, and in it he mentions, in order, Aristotle, King Arthur, young Galahad, the Franco-Prussian War, London, Sedan, Scott, Agassiz, the presidents of the British Society for the Advancement of Science, Galileo, Morse, Aristotle (again), Thomas Carlyle, Guizot, Paul (twice, incidentally), Moses, the Hallam family, the Carlyles, the Adams family, the Grecian, the Duke of Argyle, John Stuart Mill (three times), the Acropolis, the palace of Nero, “Petrarch’s devotion of Laura,” “Dante’s Affection for Beatrice,” Jacob, Rachel (twice), the French, the German, the English, the Italian, the Roman, the pyramids of Egypt, the temple in Jerusalem, the acropolis in Athens, Lucretius, Juvenal, Sigismund, Plato, Bulwer, Peter, Macbeth, Jean Paul, Schliemann, the site of Mycenae, Athens, Raphael, Bacon, Gladstone, Tennyson, Socrates, Orpheus, Hesiod, Homer, Columbus’s ship “Santa Maria,” novels, dramas, tragedies, and Christ, just once, and that in the next to the last sentence of the long sermon; and the sermon would have been more consistent if he had not mentioned Christ at all, because it was all in behalf of the immortality of the soul. Nor is this style of sermon by him to be considered time before he went to Brooklyn, his sermons in his Chicago pulpit were preached altogether from the productions of popular authors. ARSH April 25, 1899, page 264.1

And yet this style of preaching seems not to be exceptional nor peculiar to Dr. Hillis; for the New York Sun of Feb. 21, 1899, in an editorial, calls attention to a sermon, and to the style of it, which was preached, the Sunday before, by one of the leading divines of New York City, who in his sermon lamented the neglect of the observance of Sunday, as shown in slack attendance at church; and the Sun, in its own plain and forcible way, remarks upon it, thus:— ARSH April 25, 1899, page 264.2

The reason men do not go to church is not the distraction of indoor or outdoor amusements. It is because they have lost religious faith, just as the Rev. Dr. ---- has lot it. His sermon last Sunday was without a trace of such faith. What does he believe in? Does he believe that he is preaching the gospel of everlasting salvation to men, who, without it, are doomed to everlasting misery? That is the faith of his church, but he can not believe it when he makes any earthly and temporal conditions of any consequence besides it, whether of wealth or poverty; yet it was only on the temporal that he dwelt. His belief seems to be perfunctory only, and it is the same with the people who prefer to use Sunday in some other way than going to his church. They are of the earth earthy, but so is he. ARSH April 25, 1899, page 265.1

The whole trouble is that the Rev. Dr. ---- can not induce people to believe, because he himself does not believe. In place of religion he gives them only sentimental and unphilosophical philanthropy, far removed from the essential thing he was commissioned to preach—the way to eternal salvation, besides which all earthly concerns are not worth a moment’s consideration. “For,” to use the language of Saint Paul, “Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” ARSH April 25, 1899, page 265.2

“Is Your Money Safe?” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 76, 17, pp. 265, 266.

THROUGH lack of consideration, some of our folks are puzzling themselves somewhat over a statement or two in Brother Magan’s article on Denominational Debts, in the REVIEW of April 11. There is no need, however, of anything of the kind. What is there said is all right: it is what is not said that is the puzzle. ARSH April 25, 1899, page 265.1

He said that “all our institutions have been in the borrowing business.” Is not that the truth?—We all know that it is. ARSH April 25, 1899, page 265.2

He said also, “It is not time for them all to quit.” Would it not be a blessed thing if all our institutions could quite borrowing? or is debt such a blessed thing that it is forever to be courted and everlastingly nursed? ARSH April 25, 1899, page 265.3

And above all, would it not be a blessed thing if all our institutions could just now quit borrowing, IN THE ONLY WAY that Brother Magan said or meant that they could quit; namely, “But let it have an end by letting GIVING have a BEGINNING”? ARSH April 25, 1899, page 265.4

Would it not be a splendid thing if to-day every able-bodied Seventh-day Adventist who holds the note of any one of our institutions or organizations would send in such not as a free gift to such institution or organization, and would follow it up all the time with steady giving of his money? Or is it possible that there is any one who thinks that would be a bad thing? The undeniable truth is that it would be a blessed thing to all our institutions and organizations, and a far more blessed thing to all such persons. ARSH April 25, 1899, page 265.5

It is the truth that our institutions and organizations “have been in the borrowing business because so many of our brethren have been in the lending business.” Our institutions and organizations, and even individual missionaries in foreign lands, have borrowed, and indeed have been compelled to borrow, money, in order that the work of God and the progress of the third angel’s message should not be retarded. This is not a reproach; it is not even a fault, on their part; but what a record it is on the part of those who have refused to give to the work of God and the progress of the third angel’s message, and would only lend on a note at good, paying interest! Would it not have been better for the missionary work, and for these missionaries, to have had the needed money given them, instead of being compelled to go into debt? Besides, where is the missionary work in lending money to missions or missionaries for missionary work? Is the making of debts true missionary work? ARSH April 25, 1899, page 265.6

It is the settled truth that there is no place on earth where money is so secure as it is in institutions and organizations of the cause of God in the third angel’s message. This is a notorious fact, recognized by the world, by worldly men, and worldly institutions. Now it is a recognized business principle everywhere, that “the greater the risk, the greater the interest.” And as there is nothing of this world in which there is not at the very least some risk, so in loaning to the businesses of the world there is always at least some interest expected, and expected to be paid. ARSH April 25, 1899, page 266.1

But this is not so with the cause of God in the third angel’s message. In the Lord’s business of the third angel’s message there is absolutely no risk. It is impossible for this to fail. The Church of the Seventh-day Adventists is going to stand forever. The people and work of the third angel’s message will continue until the day when God shall speak from heaven, “It is done,” and the heaven shall depart as a scroll when it is rolled together, and every mountain and island shall be moved out of their places. And this church, this people, and this work of the third angel’s message are not only going to continue till that time, but are going to continue to grow and prosper in numbers, in power, and in the possession of means, until the day when men cast their silver and their gold “to the moles and to the bats; to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.” Isaiah 2:20, 21. ARSH April 25, 1899, page 266.2

The only way in which there can be any supposition that any person could possibly lose any money that he puts into the cause and work of God in the third angel’s message, is to think that the third angel’s message is going to fail and come to naught; and that is to think that the Church of the Seventh-day Adventists is going to vanish, and there never be any more Seventh-day Adventists in the world; for as certainly as the third angel’s message continues, so certainly there will be Seventh-day Adventists; for the third angel’s message makes nothing in this world but Seventh-day Adventists. ARSH April 25, 1899, page 266.3

Therefore as certainly as the third angel’s message continues, so certainly the Seventh-day Adventist Church will continue. And as certainly as the Seventh-day Adventist Church continues, the institutions and organizations connected with that church and its work will continue; because these are but the instrumentalities by which the work of the church, the work of the third angel’s message, is done. ARSH April 25, 1899, page 266.4

Therefore it is literally impossible for any person to lose any money that he puts in any way in any institution or organization of the cause and work of God in the third angel’s message. In this there is absolutely no risk whatever. Then upon the recognized principle of “the greater the risk, the greater the interest,” where there is absolutely no risk whatever, what follows upon that? ARSH April 25, 1899, page 266.5

We remarked above that the only way that Brother Magan said or meant that our institutions could quite borrowing, is to let the borrowing “have an end by letter GIVING have a beginning.” It is impossible for it to have an end any other way. For since they are thus in debt only because our people have loaned, instead of having given, the money, suppose that now nobody should give, and those who have loaned should want their money, then the institutions would still be obliged to borrow to pay this that is loaned, which the lenders would not give. There is, therefore, literally no way out but that our people shall learn to GIVE. ARSH April 25, 1899, page 266.6

Yet there is more to this learning to give than simply the delivering our institutions and organizations from debt. Indeed that is the minor part of it. We asked once before in this paper, When the Lord comes and pays off all these notes, interest and all, where, in that day, will stand the holders of these notes?—Outside the kingdom, as certainly as they are there at all. And for that reason if can not be too often repeated that the very salvation of these people lies in their learning to GIVE. ARSH April 25, 1899, page 266.7

We have also said before, and this can not be said too often, that there are widows, orphans, cripples, and old people whose little income from what money they may have is all their living. These put their money in our institutions as the perfectly safe place. This is the proper thing to do. And as an income from it is their support, it is only proper that they should receive interest on their money. There are also loyal souls who in times past have borrowed money to help in a crisis, and thus loaned to the institutions; these, of course, are justly entitled to interest. But after all this is said, there yet remains a large number who have loaned simply because they would not give. ARSH April 25, 1899, page 266.8

Now let none say, “Well then, I will take my money out.” Of course it is in your power to do this; but it is NOT SAFE. We have seen people do that, and there are too many of them (and they will tell you so) who could recite to you the lesson of severe experience in their having done so. We personally know a number of them. Some have drawn out a thousand, some two thousand, some five thousand, dollars, and lost it all. One drew out fifty thousand dollars, and it WENT TO THE WINDS, and he has been a poor man ever since. If he had let the fifty thousand remain in the institution where it was deposited, he would have been a rich man forever. And so it will continue to be with such; for there is now literally no cause nor any business on this earth where money can be safely invested, except in the cause and work of the third angel’s message. Read again, in this connection, the two papers printed in last week’s REVIEW from Professor Small and Judge Burke, of Chicago. We are pained, frequently too, as we see Seventh-day Adventists who have saved up some money, but would not give it to the Lord’s work, not deposit it in his institutions, where it would be perfectly safe; but instead, on glowing promises of big interest or dividends by smooth-tongued men, invest in perfectly “wildcat” schemes—schemes from which they will never receive a dollar of either principal or interest. ARSH April 25, 1899, page 266.9

The institutions of the third angel’s message are the only safe places in the world for your money. If you money is there now, be sure you keep it where it can not possibly be lost. If it is not there, be sure to get it there as soon as possible. Give it to the cause and work of God if you possibly can. If in sacred honesty you can not give it, then deposit it WITHOUT INTEREST if you possibly can. If in sacred honesty you can not do that, if your support must come from it, then you are entitled to interest. But whatever you do, be sure you put the money which God has given you where it can not possibly be lost; that is, in the institutions that are the instrumentalities of the third angel’s message. ARSH April 25, 1899, page 266.10