The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, vol. 76

January 17, 1899

“Editorial” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 76, 3, p. 40.

FAITH is the depending upon the word of God only, and expecting that word only, to do what the word says. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 40.1

Justification by faith, then, is justification by depending upon the word of God only, and expecting that word only, to accomplish it. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 40.2

Justification by faith is righteousness by faith; for justification is the being declared righteous. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 40.3

Faith comes by the word of God. Justification by faith, then, is justification that comes by the word of God. Righteousness by faith is righteousness that comes by the word of God. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 40.4

The word of God is self-fulfilling in creating all things, “he spake, and it was.” And when he was on earth, he stilled the raging sea, cleansed the lepers, healed the sick, raised the dead, and forgave sins, all by his word: there, too, “he spake, and it was.” ARSH January 17, 1899, page 40.5

Now, the same One who, in creating, “spake, and it was,” the same One who said, “Let there be light: and there was light;” the same One who on earth spoke “the word only,” and the sick were healed, the lepers were cleansed, and the dead lived,—this same One speaks the righteousness of God unto and upon all that believe. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 40.6

For though all have sinned and come short of the righteousness of God, yet we are “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth... to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.” ARSH January 17, 1899, page 40.7

In creating all things in the beginning, God set forth Christ to declare the word which should cause all things to exist. Christ did speak the word only, and all things were. And in redemption, which is creation over again, God set forth Christ to declare the word of righteousness. And when Christ speaks the word only, it is so. His word, whether in creating or in redeeming, is the same. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 40.8

“The worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” Once there were no worlds, nor was there any of the material which now composes the worlds. God set forth Christ to declare the word which should produce the worlds, and the very material of which they should be composed. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 40.9

“He spake, and it was.” Before he spoke, there were no worlds: after he spoke, the worlds were there. Thus the word of God spoken by Jesus Christ is able to cause that to exist which has no existence before the word is spoken; and which, except for that word, never could have existence. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 40.10

In this same way precisely it is in man’s life. In man’s life there is no righteousness. In man there is no righteousness, from which righteousness can appear in his life. But God has set forth Christ to declare righteousness unto and upon man. Christ has spoken the word only, and in the darkened void of man’s life there is righteousness to every one who will receive it. Where, before the word is received, there was neither righteousness nor anything which could possibly produce righteousness, after the word is received, there is perfect righteousness and the very Fountain from which it springs. The word of God received by faith—that is, the word of God received by faith—that is, the word of God expected to do what that word says, and depended upon to do what it says—produces righteousness in the man and in the life where there never was any before; precisely as, in the original creation, the word of God produced worlds where there never were any worlds before. He has spoken, and it is so to every one that believeth: that is, to every one that receiveth. The word itself produces it. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 40.11

“Therefore being justified [made righteous] by faith [by expecting, and depending upon, the word of God only], we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 5:1. That is so, bless the Lord! And feeding upon this blessed thing is cultivating faith. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 40.12

“Editorial Note” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 76, 3, p. 40.

WHILE the great object of the gift, and the gifts, of the Holy Ghost is the perfection of the believers, yet this can not be attained without the unity of the believers. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 40.1

For it is written of the gifts of the Spirit that they are “for the perfecting of the saints: ... till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” Ephesians 4:12, 13. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 40.2

This unity of the believers is the great longing of Christ, the one great thing for which he prayed. “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one;” “that they may be one;” “that they may be made perfect in one.” John 17:20-23. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 40.3

He also indicates what is the character of this unity: “As thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us;” “that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one.” This unity of the believers is the divine unity itself; for it is just “as” is the unity between the divine Father and the divine Son. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 40.4

But without the divine nature, how can divine unity ever be found among men? As they are naturally, men have not the Spirit of unity, but the spirit of enmity. “The carnal mind is enmity against God.” And being enmity against God, it results in putting men at enmity with one another. And so men always and everywhere have drawn lines, and built up walls, of separation among themselves,—national lines, tribal lines, aristocratic lines, society lines, color lines, sectarian lines, etc., etc., etc. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 40.5

But Jesus Christ is our peace, who has made both God and man one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, to make in himself one new man, so making peace; and that he might reconcile both Jew and Gentile unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby; for through him both Jew and Gentile have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Ephesians 2:13-18. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 40.6

The cross of Christ destroys the enmity against God, and also breaks down all the lines of separation and walls of partition which, by the working of this enmity, men have made among themselves; and the “one Spirit” takes all these in whom the enmity has been destroyed by beholding the cross of Christ, and binds them all in “one body” in divine unity. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 40.7

So unless men are partakers of the divine nature, they can never enter into this divine unity which is the characteristic of the church of Christ, and for which the Lord so earnestly prayed; and without the Holy Spirit of God, men can not be partakers of the divine nature. For God being Spirit, and the Holy Spirit being the Spirit of God, he is of the divine nature; and whoever is partaker of the Holy Spirit, is thereby partaker of the divine nature. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 40.8

Thus it is alone the baptism of the Holy Spirit that can bring the disciples of Christ into that unity for which he prayed: “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.” Therefore it is written: “I will pray the Father, and he shall send you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth.... I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.... At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” John 14:16-20. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 40.9

He who is partaker of the Holy Ghost, he who is baptized with the Holy Spirit, by that very fact is made acquainted with the divine unity of the Father and the Son; and is himself bound into that divine unity. And this unity of the Spirit with the Father and the Son is so precious that he would rather die than to be separated fro it. And all who know this unity of the Spirit are one, wherever or whoever they may be: they are one as the Father and the Son are one; because their fellowship of the Spirit is the fellowship of the Father and the Son. By one Spirit are they all baptized into one body; and that body is the body of Christ, in whom God—yea, all the fulness of the Godhead bodily—dwells. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 40.10

This is the unity of the true believers in Jesus. Not, this is the unity that ought to be; no, this is the unity that there is everywhere among the true believers in Jesus. It is divine unity. It is the unity of the Spirit, in the Spirit, with the Father and the Son. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 40.11

“Ask, and it shall be given you.” “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” “Be filled with” “the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” ARSH January 17, 1899, page 40.12

“The Dangers of Imperialism” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 76, 3, pp. 41, 42.

FOURTEEN years ago there was published from the Spirit of prophecy the statement that the United States would yet “repudiate every principle of its Constitution as a Protestant and republican government.” ARSH January 17, 1899, page 41.1

For years we have been marking the steps which have fully prepared the country for the final and positive repudiation of every principle of the Constitution as a Protestant government. This was, and is, the right thing to do. This was, and is, the duty of every one would be intelligently informed upon the issues involved in the third angel’s message. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 41.2

Now the nation has started upon a course which, as certainly as it is followed, will inevitably lead to the final and positive repudiation of every principle of the Constitution as a republican government. It is right for us to mark the steps that shall be taken in this course. It is the duty of every one who would be intelligently informed upon the mighty national issues involved in the third angel’s message, to study these passing events in the light of the prophecies which are our guide in this time; and so to be able to discern the signs by which the Lord would show us what to do. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 41.3

For, “as the approach of the Roman armies was a sign to the disciples of the impending destruction of Jerusalem, so may this apostasy be a sign to us that the limit of God’s forbearance is reached, that the measure of our nation’s iniquity is full, and that the angel of mercy is about to take her flight, never to return.”—“Testimonies for the Church 2:207. Wherefore we “will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.” 2 Peter 1:12. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 41.4

A few men of principle and of national standing see the dangers of this new world-career of this nation, and are faithfully uttering the notes of warning. When we find these uttering the very things which we ourselves would tell, we shall take pleasure in presenting these things in their words rather than in our own; for in so doing we shall at once present both their words and our own. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 41.5

The following from the address of Hon. Carl Schurz at the annual convocation of Chicago University, opens the subject excellently:— ARSH January 17, 1899, page 41.6

If ever, it behooves the American people to think and act with calm deliberation; for the character and future of the republic, and the welfare of its people now living and yet to be born, are in unprecedented jeopardy. To form a candid judgment of what this republic has been, what it may become, and what it ought to be, let us first recall to our minds its condition before the recent Spanish war. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 41.7

Our government was, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, the greatest American of his time and the most genuine type of true Americanism, “the government of the people, by the people, and for the people.” It was the noblest ambition of all true Americans to carry this democratic government to the highest degree of perfection in justice, in probity, in assured peace, in the security of human rights, in progressive civilization,—to solve the problem of popular self-government on the grandest scale, and thus to make this republic the example and guiding-star of mankind. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 41.8

Then came the Spanish war. A few vigorous blows laid the feeble enemy helpless at our feet. The whole scene seemed suddenly to have changed. According to the solemn proclamation of our government, the war had been undertaken solely for the liberation of Cuba, as a war of humanity and not of conquest. But our easy victories had put conquest within our reach; and when our arms occupied foreign territory, a loud demand arose that, pledge or no pledge to the contrary, the conquests should be kept, even the Philippines, on the other side of the globe; and that as to Cuba herself, independence would be only a provisional formality. Why not? was the cry. Has not the career of the republic, almost from its very beginning, been one of territorial expansion? Has it not acquired Louisiana, Florida, Texas, the vast countries that came to us through the Mexican War, and Alaska? and has it not digested them well? Were not those acquisitions much larger than those now in contemplation? If the republic could digest the old, why not the new? What is the difference? ARSH January 17, 1899, page 41.9

Only look with an unclouded eye, and you will soon discover differences enough, warning you to beware. There are five of decisive importance:— ARSH January 17, 1899, page 41.10

1. All the former acquisitions were on this continent, and, excepting Alaska, contiguous to our borders. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 41.11

2. They were situated, not in the tropical, but in the temperate zone, where democratic institutions thrive, and where our people could migrate in mass. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 41.12

3. They were but thinly peopled; in fact, without any population that would have been in the way of new settlements. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 41.13

4. They could be organized as territories in the usual manner, with the expectation that they would presently come into the Union as self-governing States, with populations substantially homogeneous to our own. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 41.14

5. They did not require a material increase of our army and navy, either for their subjection to our rule or for their defense against any probable foreign attack provoked by their being in our possession. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 41.15

When the question is asked whether we may hope to adapt those countries and populations to our system of government, the advocates of annexation answer cheerily that when they belong to us, we shall soon “Americanize” them. This may mean that Americans in sufficiently large numbers will migrate there to determine the character of those populations so as to assimilate them to our own. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 42.1

This is a delusion of the first magnitude. We shall indeed be able, if we go honestly about it, to accomplish several salutary things in those countries. But one thing we can not do. We can not strip the tropical climate of those qualities which have at all times deterred men of the northern races, to which we belong, from migrating to those countries in mass, to make their homes there, as they have migrated, and are still migrating, to countries in the temperate zone. This is not a mere theory, but a fact of universal experience. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 42.2

The scheme of Americanizing our “new possessions” in that sense is, therefore, absolutely hopeless. The immediate forces of nature are against it. Whatever we may do for their improvement, the people of the Spanish Antilles will remain, in overwhelming numerical predominance, Spanish creoles and negroes; and the people of the Philippines, Filipinos, Malays, Tagals, and so on—some of them quite clever in their way, but the vast majority utterly alien to us, not only in origin and language, but in habits, traditions, ways of thinking, principles, ambitions; in short, in most things that are of the greatest importance in human intercourse, and especially in political co-operation. And under the influence of their tropical climate, they would prove incapable of becoming assimilated to the Anglo-Saxon. They would, therefore, remain in the population of this republic a hopelessly heterogeneous element, in some respects much more hopeless than the colored people now living among us. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 42.3

If we do adopt such a system, then we shall, for the first time since the abolition of slavery, again have two kinds of Americans,—Americans of the first class, who enjoy the privilege of taking part in the government in accordance with our old Constitutional principles, and Americans of the second class, who are to be ruled in a substantially arbitrary fashion by the Americans of the first class, through congressional legislation and the action of the national executive, not to speak of individual “masters,” arrogating to themselves powers beyond the law. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 42.4

This will be a difference no better—nay, rather somewhat worse—than that which, a century and a quarter ago, still existed between Englishmen of the first class and Englishmen of the second class,—the first represented by King George and the British Parliament, and the second by the American colonists. The difference called forth that great pean of human liberty, the American Declaration of Independence,—a document which, I regret to say, seems, owing to the intoxication of conquest, to have lost much of its charm among some of our fellow citizens. Its fundamental principle was that “governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.” We are now told that we have never fully lived up to that principle; and that, therefore, in our new policy we may cast it aside altogether. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 42.5

But I say to you that, if we are true believers in democratic government, it is our duty, to move in the direction toward the full realization of that principle, and not in the direction away from it. If you tell me that we can not govern the people of those new possessions in accordance with that principle, then I answer that this is a reason why this democracy should not attempt to govern them at all. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 42.6

If we do, we shall transform the government of the people, for the people, and by the people, for which Abraham Lincoln lived, into a government of one part of the people, the strong, over another part, the weak. Such an abandonment of a fundamental principle as a permanent policy may at first seem to bear only upon more or less distant dependencies; but it can hardly fail, in its ultimate effects, to disturb the rule of the same principle in the conduct of democratic government at home. And I warn the American people that a democracy can not so deny its faith as to the vital conditions of its being,—it can not long play the king over subject populations,—without creating in itself ways of thinking and habits of action most dangerous to its own vitality,—most dangerous, especially, to those classes of society which are at least powerful in the assertion, and the most helpless in the defense, of their rights. Let the poor, and the men who earn their bread by the labor of their hands, pause and consider well before they give their assent to a policy so deliberately forgetful of the equality of rights. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 42.7

“Rome’s Progress” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 76, 3, p. 43.

THE following, written by the Washington correspondent of the Chicago Times-Herald, and printed in that paper Jan. 6, 1899, is of interest to the people of the United States:— ARSH January 17, 1899, page 43.1

Friends, of Archbishop Ireland claim they have finally secured a definite promise that he shall be offered the mission of commissioner to the disarmament congress proposed by the czar of Russia. When the archbishop was in Washington several weeks ago, he frankly said the honor had not been tendered him by President McKinley, although it was known that his name has been under consideration. It was know that the President wished to show his appreciation of the service of the Roman Catholic prelate during the campaign of 1896, and contemplated sending him to St. Petersburg on the mission of peace. It was said, in well-informed quarters, that the President feared the archbishop’s selection was liable to lead to embarrassments with representatives of other churches, and had about decided it would not be advisable to name the St. Paul prelate. Monsignor Ireland’s friends resumed their efforts in his behalf, and the personal inclination of the President was backed by the influence of powerful men at court. Senators Hanna and Elkins are understood to have urged the archbishop’s selection; and Richard C. Kerens, the republican leader of Missouri, also joined in the plea. His friends informed the President that Monsignor Ireland was to sail for Europe, January 14; and they argued that the honor would be exceedingly timely if he could be assured of it on the eve of his departure to meet the pope in Rome. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 43.2

The czar has not named a time for the meeting of the proposed congress, nor has he indicated how many representatives he wishes each nation to send. At the State Department in Washington it is thought that he will call for three or five commissioners, probably five. A prominent official of the department says that in the event of there being five commissioners, one will be selected from the army and one from the navy, and it is suggested these honors may fail to General Merritt and Admiral Dewey. It is known that Admiral Dewey has already been offered an opportunity to return to America, but has chosen to remain in the Philippines until the situation there is cleared up. It is presumed that the State Department will be represented by an accomplished diplomat,—some such man as ex-Secretary John W. Foster. The other two commissioners may be considered the personal representatives of President McKinley; and Archbishop Ireland and Whitelaw Reid are suggested for that distinction. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 43.3

Senator Elkins, and Richard C. Kerens are Catholics. Mr. Kerens is the man to whom Archbishop Ireland sent his despatch to the St. Louis Republican Convention, which caused the killing in committee of a resolution already formed in opposition to the appropriation of public money to churches. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 43.4

With one representative of the army, another of the navy, and another of the Department of State, and with the remaining two as the personal representatives of the President, and Archbishop Ireland one of these two, and the first one of all to be chosen, this makes him, in the largest possible sense, not a representative of a department, but of the whole nation. ARSH January 17, 1899, page 43.5