The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, vol. 76

April 11, 1899

“Editorial” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 76, 15, p. 232.

“The King in his beauty is coming ere long; ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.1

Prepare ye, prepare ye, to meet him. ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.2

To share in his glory, and sing the new song. ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.3

Who, who, will thus joyously greet him? ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.4

Then wake thee, and haste to arise; ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.5

Already the day-star is beaming; ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.6

Let slumber depart from thine eyes: ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.7

No time now for indolent dreaming. ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.8

O get ready The King in his beauty to see.” ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.9

“THINE eyes shall see the King in his beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off.” Isaiah 33:17. ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.10

“The King in his beauty”—who can comprehend the full meaning of that expression? ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.11

“Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined.” Psalm 50:2. Zion’s own perfection of beauty is all derived from him who alone is King in Zion. ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.12

“Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.” Psalm 48:2. “And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.” Revelation 21:23. ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.13

Then since Zion’s perfection of beauty is derived altogether from him, how great must be his beauty! ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.14

And even so saith the Scripture: contemplating his beauty, the Spirit of inspiration itself seems to recognize that it is indescribable, and can only exclaim, “How great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty!” Zechariah 9:17. ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.15

And in view of this, it is no wonder, and how beautiful it is, that in that great day now soon to dawn, “when he shall come to be glorified in his saints,” he is also “to be admired in all them that believe, in that day.” 2 Thessalonians 1:10. ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.16

And since his glorious coming is so near, that land can not now be so very “far off.” ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.17

Are you ready to greet “the King in his beauty”? Are you ready to go to that land? ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.18

“O get ready The King in his beauty to see.” ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.19

“Editorial Note” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 76, 15, p. 232.

ADAM “was the son of God.” Luke 3:38. ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.1

As the son of God, he was endowed in perfection with every faculty and every power that the Creator could bestow upon him. ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.2

As the son of God, he was favored with every advantage of nature. There perfection was before him on every hand; everything reflected the glory of God, and spoke to him of the wisdom of God. ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.3

Yet, endowed with all these powers, and surrounded with all these advantages, Adam the son of God failed. ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.4

He sinned; and so brought the world under the curse, and filled the world with woe. ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.5

With the tide of sin steadily flowing for four thousand years, the sons of man had reached such a point in degeneracy and wickedness that neither demons nor men, nor even angels, could see any way but that God must inevitably let loose his justice, and at once blot out the whole. ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.6

And just at that point Christ became the Son of MAN. ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.7

He became the Son of man AS MAN WAS at that point. ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.8

As the Son of MAN, he was subject to all the weaknesses that had been entailed upon the race through the degeneracy, personal and hereditary, of the successive generations of evil-doers. ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.9

As the Son of man he was also surrounded, and opposed on every hand, by all the disadvantages of a world laden with the ever-increasing curse. ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.10

As the Son of MAN, in addition to all this, there was “laid on him the iniquity of us all;” he “took our infirmities, and bear our sicknesses;” he was “made a curse for us.” ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.11

Thus, under all the disadvantages of the curse, and under the curse himself, laden with the weaknesses, the degeneracy, and the sins of the race when at the brink of ruin, Christ the Son of MAN triumphed, just where, with all the advantages of the unhindered blessing of God, with all the advantages of open and full communion with angels and even with the Lord himself, and with all the advantages of perfection in himself and in all creation about him, Adam the son of God FAILED. ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.12

And in this triumph, Christ the Son of MAN brought this same triumph to every other son of man in the world. Bless the Lord. ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.13

O believe him, O receive him. ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.14

“The Lion of Judah
Can break every chain.
And give us the victory,
Again and again.” ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.15

Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift of Christ to be “the Son of man.” ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.16

“Editorial Notes” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 76, 15, p. 232.

WE ministers are to be examples of the believers, “in word.” We are to be examples in the matter of our own words,—the words which we speak. We are to be examples of the word of God; for it is the word of God that we are to preach. ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.1

In our own words we are to be examples out of the pulpit and in the every-day life, just as certainly as we are to be examples of the word of God in the pulpit and in the sermon while we are preaching. ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.2

Indeed, our being examples in word is not in our word as separate and distinct from the word of God; because as it is the word of God only which we are to preach, and as we must be what we preach, or else our preaching is vain, so our being examples “in word” is neither more nor less than being in ourselves, in our every-day life, examples of the word of God, which we profess to preach, and which we must be in order to preach it. ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.3

This is shown more fully in the next expression,—we are to be examples “in conversation.” When the Bible was translated, the word “conversation” did not primarily mean even our words; but our whole course of action, everything that pertains to the every-day life, in all that makes up the character, in all that makes a person what he really is. ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.4

This is the Christian ministry; and the Christian ministry is Seventh-day Adventist ministry. “Be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation.” ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.5

“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world; but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but [in the words]which the Holy Ghost teacheth.” ARSH April 11, 1899, page 232.6

“National Apostasy Means National Ruin” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 76, 15, pp. 233, 234.

EVERYBODY knows that the government of the United States was founded upon the Declaration of human rights. And it is equally true, yet not everybody knows, that this Declaration of human rights upon which the government of the United States was founded was directly deduced from Christianity. The principles of this Declaration were intentionally adopted from Christianity by those who framed the Declaration, and were laid down as a basis of the government of the United States, upon which this government was to stand forever. ARSH April 11, 1899, page 233.1

The two vital principles of that Declaration are, that “all men are created equal, and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;” and that “to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Thus this nation presented to the world every man first of all subject to the Creator, and by the Creator endowed with unalienable rights. The founders of this nation, when discussing this before the people, said that these were the principles upon which the gospel was first propagated, and upon which the Reformation was carried on. They said that the Almighty God, being Lord of the human mind, and only Lord of the conscience, and having all power, chose not to propagate his religion by impositions of power upon the bodies or minds of people, as was in his almighty power to do, but that he created the mind free, and that he left it free. ARSH April 11, 1899, page 233.2

Thus, and here, for the first and only time in history, the Christian principles of civil and religious liberty were intentionally chosen and established as the foundation of a nation. And in this sense, the only true sense, this nation, in its establishment and its principles, was a Christian nation. And thus from its beginning this nation has been the beacon-light of liberty, civil and religious, “the classical land of religious liberty,” to all the world. Through these principles alone, in quietness and peaceful isolation, this nation has most powerfully influenced all other nations in the world, and has drawn them away from their former selves toward enlightenment and liberty. This was the wisdom and this the power of this nation in the eyes of all the other nations, who were compelled to say, “Surely this... is a wise and understanding people.” ARSH April 11, 1899, page 233.3

But suddenly a change has come: and how great the change! a complete revolution in principle and practise. To-day the United States government has abandoned the principles which were laid down as the foundation upon which the government should stand, and by which alone it could be able or worthy to stand. The United States government to-day openly denies to people the equal right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and is governing, and expects forever to govern, people without their consent. ARSH April 11, 1899, page 233.4

To-day in this nation the Declaration of Independence, which has ever been the pride, and the ultimate source of appeal, of every American; which has been taught to the youth as the sum of all earthly good, is ignored, belittled, explained away, set aside, and repudiated by leading journalists, both religious and secular, by leading men of all professions, and by national representatives at the Capitol. ARSH April 11, 1899, page 233.5

Long ago it was written, “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” So in this case, when the foundation is destroyed, what shall the people, even the people of other nations, do? ARSH April 11, 1899, page 233.6

This nation, which God established for the enlightenment of the human race upon the divine principle of human rights,—when this nation abandons these principles in the eyes of all the nations who have never yet had any opportunity to have any benefit of these principles except as the principles by their own inherent power have forced themselves upon the other nations? There is the danger that is involved in this abandonment of these principles by this nation. ARSH April 11, 1899, page 233.7

There is to-day the cry of “national expansion,” “imperial America.” This cry is a fact. The nation has entered upon her world’s career—no longer the career of the quiet and peaceable conquest of sound principles, but the career of armed conquest, and so of force. And when the defense of this new feature compels so many good men to explain away the Declaration of Independence, and openly repudiate divine principle, there is in it all an element of danger to the world. ARSH April 11, 1899, page 233.8

Lord Salisbury, last November, in his speech to the world,—for when the prime minister of Britain speaks, he speaks to the world, and all the world listens,—mentioning the fact that the United States government had entered as a new element in the world’s affairs and the Eastern question, said that this does not promise peace to the world. ARSH April 11, 1899, page 233.9

The nations themselves are staggering, and about to fall, under the weight of the immense armaments which they are compelled to maintain because of the mutual anger and jealousies that have persisted for more than half a century. The tension is already so great that by the chief ones concerned it has been likened to a magazine with the train already laid, and every moment in danger of being touched with the fire. ARSH April 11, 1899, page 233.10

All this being acknowledged to be so, what alone can be the effect of the entrance into this awful arena, of this new world-power which, beforehand, the world is told by its chiefest spokesman, is not an element that will make for peace to the world? And above all, what alone can be the effect of it, when this new world-power enters that awful arena with the direct repudiation of its own fundamental and native principles, which alone can make for peace, and which are the very principles of the Prince of Peace? ARSH April 11, 1899, page 233.11

What alone can be the influence of this nation upon the world when it has repudiated the principles by which alone it has influenced the world for good,—the principles which were its life, which were given to it for the world, and which alone can make for peace on earth and good will to men? As this nation by these divine principles has hitherto influenced all nations for good, just so now by the abandon- ment of these principles it will influence them for the worst. ARSH April 11, 1899, page 233.12

In all these things there is involved the great question of human rights. The American people must face this fact. They can not ignore it, and still regard human rights. And when this nation openly disregards human rights, what shall humanity do? Influenced only for the worst, what but the worst can possibly come to all the nations, and also to this one, which, by is apostasy, has most influenced them to the bad? And so “distress of nations, with perplexity,” the time of trouble, hastens,—that “time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation.” ARSH April 11, 1899, page 234.1