The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, vol. 76

February 14, 1899

“Editorial” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 76, 7, p. 104.

“BEING justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 5:1. ARSH February 14, 1899, page 104.1

Since faith is the depending upon the word of God only, for what that word says, being justified by faith is simply being accounted righteous by depending upon the word only. ARSH February 14, 1899, page 104.2

And since the word is the word of God, dependence upon the word only is dependence upon God only, in the word. Justification by faith, then, is justification—being accounted righteous by dependence upon God only; and upon him only because he has promised. ARSH February 14, 1899, page 104.3

We are all altogether sinners,—sinful, and ungodly. We are, therefore, all subject to the judgment of God. Romans 3:9-19. Yet for all of us there is escape from the judgment of God. But the only way of escape from the judgment of God is to trust in God. ARSH February 14, 1899, page 104.4

When David had sinned in numbering the people, and so had incurred the exemplary judgment of God, the Lord had incurred the exemplary judgment of God, the Lord gave him his choice as to whether there should be seven years’ famine, or he should flee three months before his enemies, or there should be three days’ pestilence. But David would not choose at all; he deferred it all to the Lord, for him to choose: saying, “Let us fall now into the hand of the Lord; for his mercies are great.” 2 Samuel 24:11-14. ARSH February 14, 1899, page 104.5

When depending upon God alone, in his word, for righteousness, we have peace with God; because thus we really obtain righteousness, and “the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever.” Isaiah 32:17. ARSH February 14, 1899, page 104.6

When depending upon God alone in his word, for righteousness we have peace through our Lord Jesus Christ, because “He is our peace, who hath made both” God and man “one,” “Having abolished in his flesh the enmity” “for to make in himself of twain”—of God and man—“one new man, so making peace.” Ephesians 2:14, 15. ARSH February 14, 1899, page 104.7

Further: when depending upon God alone, in his word, for righteousness, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, because God has “made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; ... whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproachable in his sight: IF ye continue in the faith”—if you continue to depend only upon God alone in his word. Colossians 1:20-23. ARSH February 14, 1899, page 104.8

When he has made the way so plain, the justification so complete, and the peace so sure to all, and asks all people only to receive it all by simply accepting it from him, and depending upon him for it, why should not every soul on earth be thus justified, and have the peace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ? ARSH February 14, 1899, page 104.9

This is “what the Scripture means when urging upon us the necessity of exercising faith.” Are you exercising faith? Are you justified by faith? Have you righteousness by faith? Have you peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ? ARSH February 14, 1899, page 104.10

“Have faith in God.” Mark 11:22. ARSH February 14, 1899, page 104.11

“Editorial Note” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 76, 7, p. 104.

NOTHING that we could say on receiving the Holy Spirit could be so important nor so good as is the following extract from a letter written by Sister White, Dec. 26, 1898. The letter was written from the camp-ground at Newcastle, New South Wales:— ARSH February 14, 1899, page 104.1

“I came on the ground Friday. On Sabbath I attended morning meeting at six o’clock. All through the night I had seemed to be in meetings, presenting the subject of the reception of the Holy Spirit. This was my burden in laboring—somewhere, I can not tell where. The whole subject was the opening of our hearts to the Holy Spirit. I was trying to present to those who were there the great necessity of receiving the Spirit. Christ told the disciples. ‘I have many things to say unto you, but ye can not bear them now.’ Their own limited comprehension put a restraint upon him, so that he could not open to them the things he longed to unfold; for it would be labor lost. ARSH February 14, 1899, page 104.2

“In my dream a sentinel stood at the door of an important building, and asked every one who came for entrance, ‘Have ye received the Holy Ghost?’ A measuring-line was in his hand, and only very, very few were admitted into the building. ‘Your size as a human being is nothing. Your size as the full stature of a man in Christ Jesus according to the knowledge you have had, you will receive an appointment to sit with Christ at the marriage supper of the Lamb; and through the eternal ages, you will never cease to learn of the blessings granted in the banquet prepared for you. ARSH February 14, 1899, page 104.3

“‘You may be tall and well-proportioned in self, but you cannot enter here. None can enter who are grown-up children, carrying with them the disposition, the habits, and the characteristics which pertain to children. You have nurtured your suspicions, your criticisms, your bad temper, your self-dignity, and you cannot be admitted to spoil the feast; for all who go in through this door have on the wedding garment, woven in the loom of heaven. Your leaven of distrust, your want of confidence, your power of accusing, closes against you the door of admittance. Within this door nothing can enter that could possibly mar the happiness of the dwellers by marring their perfect trust in one another. Those who have educated themselves to pick flaws in the character of others have thus revealed a deformity of character which has made families unhappy, which has turned souls from the truth to choose fables. You can not join the happy family in heavenly courts; for I have wiped all tears from their faces. You can never see the king in his beauty if you are not yourself a representative of the loveliness of Christ’s character. ARSH February 14, 1899, page 104.4

“‘Abiding with Christ is choosing only the disposition of Christ, so that he identifies his interests with yours. When you give up your own will, your own wisdom, and learn of Christ as he has invited you, then you shall find entrance into the kingdom of God. Entire, unreserved surrender he requires. Give up your life for him to order, mold, and fashion; take upon your neck his yoke; submit to be led and taught, as well as to lead and teach; learn that unless you become as a little child you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Abide in him, to be and do only what he wills. These are the conditions of discipleship. ARSH February 14, 1899, page 104.5

“‘Unless these conditions are complied with, you can not have rest. Rest is in Christ; it can not be found as something he gives apart from himself. The moment the yoke is adjusted to your neck, that moment it is found easy; and the heaviest labor in spiritual lines can be performed, the heaviest burdens can be borne, because the Lord gives the strength and the power, and he gives gladness in doing the work. Mark the points: Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart. Who is it that speaks thus?—The Majesty of heaven, the King of glory. He desires that your conception of spiritual things shall be purified from the fog of selfishness, the defilement of a crooked, coarse, unsympathetic nature. There must be the inward, higher experience. You must obtain a growth in grace by abiding in Christ. And when you are converted, you will not be a hindrance, but will strengthen your brethren. ARSH February 14, 1899, page 104.6

“‘As these things were spoken, I saw that some turned sadly away, and mingled with the scoffers; others with tears, all broken in heart, were making confessions to those whom they had bruised and wounded. They did not think of maintaining their own dignity, but asked at every step, ‘What must I do to be saved?’ The answer was, ‘Repent, and be converted, that your sins may go beforehand to judgment, and be blotted out.’ Words were spoken greatly to rebuke all spiritual pride, for this God will not tolerate. It is inconsistent with His Word and with our profession of faith. ARSH February 14, 1899, page 104.7

“Seek ye the Lord,” all ye who are ministers of His. Seek Him ‘while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.’” ARSH February 14, 1899, page 104.8

“Ask, and it shall be given you.” “Every one that asketh receiveth.” “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” “Be filled with” “the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” ARSH February 14, 1899, page 104.9

“The True ‘Merit’ of Sunday-keeping” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 76, 7, pp. 105, 106.

MR. GAMBLE plainly confesses in print that “Christ and the Jews were agreed as to the day of the week of the Sabbath;” and that “Christ kept the Jewish Sabbath, and all his followers did the same, until his resurrection.” ARSH February 14, 1899, page 105.1

Very good. And the word of God says that the Sabbath which his followers kept the very day before his resurrection was “the Sabbath day according to the commandment.” Luke 23:55, 56. ARSH February 14, 1899, page 105.2

And Jesus, the last night before his death, said to his disciples, “I have kept my Father’s commandments.” John 15:10. ARSH February 14, 1899, page 105.3

It is therefore perfectly certain by the word of God that the Sabbath which Christ and his followers kept until his resurrection, was the Sabbath day according to the commandment of God as to the Sabbath. ARSH February 14, 1899, page 105.4

This keeping of the commandment of God, this keeping of the Sabbath according to that commandment, by Jesus, was Christ’s obedience in man’s behalf, by which obedience alone can any man ever find righteousness in Sabbath-keeping. ARSH February 14, 1899, page 105.5

No man can ever be counted righteous in anything, by his own obedience. Righteousness comes to men in everything only by the obedience of Jesus Christ. “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of ONE shall many be made righteous.” Romans 5:18. And that One Jesus Christ alone. ARSH February 14, 1899, page 105.6

Now, as it is only the obedience of Christ that can ever make anybody righteous in anything, it is certain that it is only the obedience of Christ that can ever make anybody righteous in Sabbath-keeping. And as all Christ’s obedience in Sabbath-keeping was in the keeping of the seventh-day,—the Sabbath according to the commandment,—it follows, in the very certainty of the word of God, that the only Sabbath-keeping in which the obedience of Christ can ever make a man righteous is in the keeping of the Sabbath on the seventh day, the Sabbath day according to the commandment. ARSH February 14, 1899, page 105.7

Even though it were true that Mr. Gamble’s “great discovery” of an annually shifting Sabbath through all the days of the week was the true Sabbath; and even though it were true, as he claims, that it was such a sabbath that Christ kept, then that, being the obedience of Christ in Sabbath-keeping, would be the only Sabbath-keeping in which Christ’s obedience could ever make any man righteous. ARSH February 14, 1899, page 105.8

So, even though his claim of an annually shifting sabbath through all the days of the week were the truth, even that would exclude all hope of any obedience but self-obedience, all hope of any righteousness but self-righteousness, in the observance of Sunday, the first day of the week—or whatever he may claim as to the day now to be observed. For Christ never observed, in his life as a man in man’s behalf, the kind of sabbath that Mr. Gamble has discovered. Mr. Gamble himself says that he never did. He says:— ARSH February 14, 1899, page 106.1

Christ kept the Jewish sabbath, and all his followers did the same, until his resurrection; and since the resurrection they have kept the Christian, or creation, sabbath. ARSH February 14, 1899, page 106.2

Christ stopped the constant change of the day. The sabbath day had changed once a year for over fifteen hundred years, and Christ made the sabbath a fixed day,—Sunday,—instead of certain fixed dates. ARSH February 14, 1899, page 106.3

But as this was not till after his resurrection, Christ never kept this day at all in his life as a man in man’s behalf. And as in his life of obedience in man’s behalf, there was never any obedience of his in keeping this Sunday sabbath, so there is no obedience of Christ to make any man righteous in the keeping of the Sunday sabbath. ARSH February 14, 1899, page 106.4

In Christ’s life of obedience as a man in man’s behalf, it was impossible that there could be any keeping of the Sunday sabbath; for there was no commandment for it. Where there is no commandment, there can be no obedience. It is admitted by all, Mr. Gamble with the rest, that during his whole life as a man on the earth in man’s behalf, he observed, not the Sunday sabbath, but the other. And that other was “the Sabbath day according to the commandment.” ARSH February 14, 1899, page 106.5

This being certainly so by the word of God, it is also certainly so that the only obedience of Christ that was ever rendered in sabbath-keeping was in the keeping of the seventh day. ARSH February 14, 1899, page 106.6

This being certainly so, and it being also certainly so that in all his life on earth as a man in man’s behalf, he never did keep the Sunday sabbath, it is just as certainly so that there is no obedience of Christ to make any soul righteous in the keeping of the Sunday sabbath. ARSH February 14, 1899, page 106.7

And there being no obedience of Christ to make any soul righteous in the keeping of the Sunday sabbath, the only obedience that there can possibly be to make any man righteous in the keeping of the Sunday sabbath is his own obedience. But all of any man’s own obedience is self-obedience, and is sin. All the righteousness that any man can have by his own obedience is self-righteousness; and all self-righteousness is sin. Thus the keeping of the Sunday sabbath is sin, and only sin. It is all of self, and none of Christ. It is all of self-obedience, and none of Christ’s obedience. It is all of self-righteousness, and none of the righteousness of Christ. It is all of works, and none of faith. ARSH February 14, 1899, page 106.8

Again: in all Christ’s life on earth as a man in man’s behalf there is no word of God for the observance of the Sunday sabbath; and there is no word of God for it yet. ARSH February 14, 1899, page 106.9

Now the word of God is the only means of faith. Romans 10:17. Where there is no word of God there can not be any faith. There being no word of God for keeping the Sunday sabbath, and Christ having never kept it in his life for man, it is impossible that the keeping of it can be of faith. but “whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” Romans 14:23. Therefore it is as plain as A B C, and by the word of God too, that the keeping of the Sunday sabbath is sin. ARSH February 14, 1899, page 106.10

Not so with the keeping of the seventh-day Sabbath, the Sabbath of the Lord. There is abundance of the word of God for that; and there is for it the obedience of the whole life of Jesus Christ on earth as a man in man’s behalf. There is for it the perfect commandment of God, and the perfect obedience of the Lord Jesus to that perfect commandment. Therefore the observance of the Seventh-day Sabbath, the Sabbath of the Lord, is altogether of faith. And the righteousness of it is altogether the righteousness of God: “even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ,” by whose obedience and faith alone can any soul ever be made righteous. ARSH February 14, 1899, page 106.11

And thus “here are they which keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” ARSH February 14, 1899, page 106.12

“Papal Advice to the United States” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 76, 7, pp. 106, 107.

American Sentinel

IN previous issues this paper has referred to the papal advice—which was, in fact, a thinly veiled threat—to the government against interfering with the Catholic program in Cuba. The government was advised that it would do well not to antagonize the priests in Cuba, since the restoration of order and tranquility in that island depended almost entirely upon their will, through the great influence they exercise over the Cuban people. It appears now that the same threat has been made with reference to the Philippine Islands, and that by Archbishop Ireland, the close friend and adviser of the President. A recent interview had with the archbishop in this city, quotes him as saying:— ARSH February 14, 1899, page 106.1

Who in America knows anything about the Philippines? The church in the Philippines will, I have no doubt, accustom itself to the conditions under the new régime, as it did under the old. The church will accept the conditions that are to be, just as she accepts them in this country. All the civilization that people of the Philippines have has been received from the priests. They are the representatives of social and civil order in the islands. The people were taught by the priests, and they were taught too much. The priests will uphold this government as they upheld the government of Spain. That is, as the representatives of order, they will uphold the existing government. This government will have to depend upon the priests to a large extent for their moral influence in the interests of law and order. ARSH February 14, 1899, page 106.2

This government will do well not to antagonize the priests. And I will say I know it is not the policy of the government to antagonize them, nor is there any disposition to do so in any quarter. ARSH February 14, 1899, page 106.3

In reply to the question whether his visit to Washington (from which city he had just come) was for the purpose of interviewing the President on this subject, the archbishop said, further:— ARSH February 14, 1899, page 106.4

I saw the President but, I can not say what the subject of conversation was. There is no truth in the published report that the Archbishop of Manila has issued a circular of an unfavorable character against the United States. Aguinaldo is jealous of the power of the priests, and wants to rule absolutely himself. ARSH February 14, 1899, page 106.5

The conduct of the priests will depend entirely upon the policy of the United States in the Philippines, and that I have no doubt will be the same as in this country. ARSH February 14, 1899, page 106.6

“This government will do well not to antagonize the priests,” because it “will have to depend upon” them “for their moral influence in the interests of law and order.” And “the conduct of the priests will depend entirely upon the policy of the United States. In other words, if the government does not accede to the will of the priests, the priests will prevent the restoration of peace and order; and in this way they will make so much trouble for the government that it will be forced, in the interests of peace, to let affairs be managed in the islands as Rome wants them managed. And if the government interferes with Rome’s program there, the cry of religious persecution will be raised; and the millions of Catholics in the United States will have it in their power seriously to embarrass the government at home. ARSH February 14, 1899, page 106.7

And what must the government do to avoid antagonizing the priests? How much can it do in the direction of establishing civil and religious freedom in the islands without antagonizing the priests? How much of the papal program is in harmony with such liberty? How much of it has been taught in the Philippines during the four hundred years that Rome has ruled in the islands as she please? ARSH February 14, 1899, page 106.8

These questions answer themselves to every person who knows anything about papal history and the papal system. That system and the system of civil and religious freedom set up in America by the men who signed the Declaration of Independence and created the American Constitution, have about as much in common as have day and night. To establish the latter system in the islands, would be to interfere directly with the system Rome has cherished for centuries; and who can suppose that this can be done without antagonizing the priests? And the papacy has warned the government not to antagonize the priests. ARSH February 14, 1899, page 106.9

Archbishop Ireland asserts that the government has no intention of doing such a thing; and being in the confidence of the President, he is no doubt well informed upon that point. But how much will the United States be able to do toward relieving the Filipinos from the civil and religious despotism under which they have so long been held, without doing anything to arouse the antagonism of the priests? ARSH February 14, 1899, page 106.10

The Filipinos know what papal rule is; their bitter and determined antagonism to the priests and the various religious orders in the islands speaks volumes upon this point. They are fighting for their freedom; and they know that this can never be enjoyed under the yoke of Rome. ARSH February 14, 1899, page 106.11

Spain was the nominal ruler in Cuba and the Philippines, but the real dominion was that of Rome; the essence of the despotism which has oppressed them was the papacy’s. Spain has been driven out, but Rome remains; and she is determined to abate no part of her sovereignty. She has warned the United States not to interfere with that, and now boldly asserts that the United States will heed the warning. ARSH February 14, 1899, page 106.12