The Signs of the Times, vol. 10

December 4, 1884

“‘Babylon Is Fallen’” The Signs of the Times 10, 46, p. 722.

[THE following picture of the condition of the Christian world, was given by Rev. Arthur T. Pierson in a sermon before the Ministerial Convention of Philadelphia, in September, 1884. This is only a part of the sermon however. We have selected some of the most striking portions; but I what is here given, as well as in much more that might be given, there is food for much solemn reflection by all. And in view of it who will say that the Third Angel’s Message is out of place, in calling upon the people to come out of her, and keep the “commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus”? SITI December 4, 1884, page 722.1

ALONZO T. JONES.

“Notes on the International Lesson. Ecclesiastes 12:1-14” The Signs of the Times 10, 46, p. 724.

DECEMBER 21—Ecclesiastes 12:1-4

REMEMBER now thy Creator. Remember him as Creator. “There are gods many and lords many,” but there is but one Creator, and he is the one living and true God. It is by this fact that in his own word he distinguishes himself from all other gods; as in Isaiah 40:18-20, 25, 26: “To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him? The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains. He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image, that shall not be moved.” “To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number; he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.” And again in Isaiah, thirty-seventh chapter, the king of Assyria wrote a letter to king Hezekiah, in which he said: “Let not thy God, in whom thou trustest, deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.... Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed, as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which were in Telassar?” “And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up into the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed unto the Lord, saying, O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubim, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth. Incline thine ear, O Lord, and hear; open thine eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent to reproach the living God.” And in answer to that prayer “the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand.” SITI December 4, 1884, page 724.1

The fact that he is Creator is the primal reason given why all should worship him; and why he should be worshiped. “Serve the Lord with gladness; come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord he is God; it is he that hath made us and not we ourselves.” Psalm 100:2, 3. “Worship him that made heaven and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” Revelation 14:7. “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for [because] thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” Revelation 4:11. “In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.” Job 12:10. “In him we live and move and have our being.” Remember therefore thy Creator in the days of thy youth, and all thy days. SITI December 4, 1884, page 724.2

The fact that he performed the wonderful works of creation does not stand separated from him and us. He not only made these wonderful works; “He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered.” Psalm 111:4. The proper remembrance of him as Creator can only be by remembering the creation. And he has not enjoined upon us the duty to remember him without fully showing us how to do it. He has established an institution, the observance of which will ever keep in the mind the remembrance of the Creator—an institution by which, if properly observed, it is impossible to forget him. That institution is the Sabbath of the Lord. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Exodus 20:8-11. SITI December 4, 1884, page 724.3

“And hallow my Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.” Ezekiel 20:20. It is by hallowing the Sabbath that it becomes a sign by which we know that he is the Lord. And it is thus a sign that he is the Lord, because “in six days the Lord made haven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested.” Exodus 31:17. By hallowed observance of the seventh day we remember the “wonderful works” of the creation, and thus remember the Creator. This is God’s own appointed way for us to remember him. It is the truth that the hallowed observance of the seventh day, the works of creation, and the remembrance of the Creator are inseparably connected. “What, therefore, God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” SITI December 4, 1884, page 724.4

Again, the Lord’s appointed way of bringing things to remembrance is by memorials. Numbers 5:15. Of the passover the Lord said: “And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. And this day shall be unto you for a memorial.” Exodus 12:13, 14. “The censers of these sinners against their own souls, let them make them broad plates for a covering of the altar; ... and they shall be a sign unto the children of Israel.... And they were made broad plates for a covering of the altar; to be a memorial unto the children of Israel.” Numbers 16:38-40. Therefore when we read in the Bible of the Sabbath as a sign, we may lawfully read it as a memorial; thus Ezekiel 20:20: “And hallow my Sabbaths; and they shall be a memorial ... that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.” He desires that we shall ever have him in remembrance; to that purpose he established a memorial; that memorial is the Sabbath, and “the seventh day is the Sabbath.” “Thy name, O Lord, endureth forever; and thy memorial, O Lord, throughout all generations.” Psalm 135:13. “Remember now thy Creator.” SITI December 4, 1884, page 724.5

“The preacher sought to find out acceptable words; and that which was written was upright, even words of truth. The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd.” The Lord is that one shepherd. Psalm 23:1. “We are the sheep of his pasture.” Psalm 100:3. These words are the words of the Lord, and are therefore words of truth. “And further, by these, my son, be admonished; of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.” SITI December 4, 1884, page 724.6

“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.” In all the millions upon millions of books that have been or shall be made, there has not been a single principle of ethics set forth that is not contained in the ten commandments. And although many books are valuable, and worthy of deep study, yet the sum of all that is said in the books, and the most worthy subject of all study, is the law of God. Study it, therefore, ever and always with the prayer of him of old, “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.” Psalm 119:18. SITI December 4, 1884, page 724.7

“For God will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” The law of God being the rule of life, it must be the rule of judgment. “As many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law,” “in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.” Romans 2:12, 16. They who shall stand in the Judgment are those whose “delight is in the law of the Lord,” and who meditate in his law day and night. Psalm 1. Oh, how carefully we must meditate herein, for it is a discerner of the very “thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12), and in that day the Lord “will make manifest the counsels of the heart” (1 Corinthians 4:5), “with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil.” Oh, that we might realize how fearfully searching the Judgment will be! Then, too, we could realize the blessedness of that salvation, and the riches of that precious blood which blots out all our transgression, so that it is remembered no more forever. But realizing, faintly as we do, the awful importance of that event, we may pray with David: “Cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins, let them not have dominion over me... Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.” Psalm 19:12-14. SITI December 4, 1884, page 724.8

A. T. JONES.

“The Missionary. Australia—Our New Missionary Field” The Signs of the Times 10, 46, pp. 730, 731.

AUSTRALIA lies south of the equator, between the 10th and 40th parallels of latitude, and between the 113th and 153rd degrees of longitude. It measures 2,500 miles from east to west, and 1,950 from north to south. Take away West Virginia, Delaware, Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia, from the United States, and then Australia and the United States are within eight square miles of being exactly the same size. It is nearly 8,000 miles from San Francisco, and the passage requires about a month. The mainland was known as Great Jova, to the Portuguese, early in the 16th century. In 1606 Torres sailed through the strait, which now bears his name, between New Guinea and the northeastern point of the mainland, while in the same year a Dutch ship named the Duyfken (Dove) touched the mainland at what is now Cape York. Ten years afterward another Dutch ship, commanded by Dirk Hartog, sailed along the west coast a distance of nearly 250 miles, and left on an islet at Shark’s Bay, a record of his expedition engraved on a tin plate, which was found there in 1801. In 1618 two Dutch vessels explored the great gulf on the north, and named it Carpentaria, in compliment to Peter Carpenter, who was then governor of the Dutch East India Company. Nine years afterward (1627) another Dutch ship, the Gulden Zeepaard, sailed along in sight of the whole southern shore. SITI December 4, 1884, page 730.1

The first Englishman that ever visited the island was a buccaneer, Captain William Dampier, who spent five weeks ashore near Roebuck Bay, in 1688. Again, in 1699, Dampier made a voyage to the same place, not now as a buccaneer, however, but with a commission from the English admiralty. He wrote a narrative of his voyage, giving an account of the trees, birds, and reptiles, that he saw, and of his encounters with the natives. Nothing more of importance was done for nearly a hundred years. In 1770 Captain Cook coasted along the whole length of the eastern side of the island, from Cape Hicks (named after Lieutenant Hicks, who first sighted it) to Cape York, and through Torres Strait to New Guinea. In his second voyage (1773) he went to New Zealand, 1,200 miles southeast of Australia, and in 1777 he visited both Tasmania (140 miles south of Australia) and New Zealand. SITI December 4, 1884, page 730.2

The island is divided into six colonies, viz.: New South Wales, North Australia, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, and West Australia. Of those, however, the three on the eastern coast, Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria, with the extreme southern part of South Australia, are the principal ones. The government in each colony is by a legislature of two houses, the council and the assembly, and by a governor nominated by the queen of England, and all enactments of the legislature must be approved by the queen before they are legal. SITI December 4, 1884, page 730.3

NEW SOUTH WALES

IS the oldest of the Australian colonies. Eighteen years after its discovery by Captain Cook, the British Government appointed it as the place where all their convicts should be sent; so it was first a penal colony. It then (1788) embraced about half of the whole island. In 1836 South Australia was cut off and erected into a new colony. In 1851 another division was made, and the colony of Victoria was established. In 1859 it was again divided, and the northern part was made a colony and named Queensland; so that now New South Wales is only about 500 miles square. It remained a penal colony till 1840, when England ceased to send its criminals there, and since that time it has increased very fast in population, so that now it has over 700,000 inhabitants. Its chief article of export is wool. It has extensive gold fields also, and is the richest part of the island in coal. It has three lines of railway, aggregating about 700 miles, and telegraph lines amounting to more than 8,000 miles. Sydney is the capital, and is a city of about 150,000 inhabitants. SITI December 4, 1884, page 730.4

QUEENSLAND

AS before stated, was set off from New South Wales in 1859. The first settlers in this colony were also convicts sent from the home government. Its population is about 220,000. The principal products are corn, wheat, barley, and sugar cane. It, too, has rich gold mines also copper, coal, and tin, and in the north some pearl fisheries. It has over 400 miles of railroad, and nearly 5,000 miles of telegraph lines. Its capital is Brisbane, 500 miles north of Sydney, and has about 35,000 inhabitants. Ipswich is the second town in size, having about 8,000, about 35 miles from Brisbane. Rockinghampton, 400 miles northwest of Brisbane, is next in size; it has about 7,000. Warwick is considered the “prettiest and healthiest inland town in the colony;” it has a population of over 4,000. SITI December 4, 1884, page 730.5

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

IS the second colony in size, and has a population of about 250,000. Its principal mineral is copper; it has some gold, a little silver, and large quantities of iron. Its chief products are wheat, oats, barley, and wine. Adelaide is the capital, and has about 35,000 inhabitants. SITI December 4, 1884, page 730.6

WEST AUSTRALIA

DOES not amount to much. It has only about 30,000 inhabitants, only 78 miles of railroad, and its principal products altogether are wool, lead ore, and pearls. SITI December 4, 1884, page 730.7

VICTORIA

IS the most southern part of Australia, and is the southeastern corner of the island. The first settlement was made there in 1835, when Melbourne was founded. It was separated from New South Wales, and made a colony in 1851. It is a little larger than Idaho, and by far the richest part of Australia. Fruit and vegetables of all kinds grow in abundance. Its mineral wealth is said to be unparalleled in any place of equal size. There are the richest gold fields in Australia; also copper, silver, antimony, zinc, cobalt, manganese, coal, iron, kaolin, bitumen, and other minerals, are all found in great abundance. The leading products are wheat, barley, and oats. Melbourne is its capital, and is also the largest city in Australia. Its population is over 200,000. The total population of the colony is nearly 900,000. It has more than 1,000 miles of railroad, and nearly 3,000 miles of telegraph lines. Victoria has the finest climate in all Australia; indeed, it has been set down as “delicious.” The coldest weather ever recorded in Melbourne was only five degrees below the freezing point (27° Fahr.), and the hottest 111 degrees, but that was caused by a hot wind, called “brickfielder,” which sometimes blows for a few hours in summer. The mean annual temperature for fourteen years was 57.6 degrees at Melbourne, and for the whole colony, 56.8 degrees. Being on the other side of the equator from us, of course their seasons are directly opposite to ours. That is, there spring is in September, October, and November; summer is December, January, and February; fall is March, April, and May; and winter, June, July, and August. This makes January and February the hottest months, when the thermometer marks from 100 to 108 degrees in the shade; and July the coldest month, when the temperature at the lowest is only two or three degrees below freezing. Besides Melbourne, Victoria has the following cities, with their respective populations: Geelong, 16,000; Ballarat, 48,000; Sandhurst, 27,000; Castlemaine, 7,000; Beechworth, 3,000; and Portland, 2,600. Of these, Geelong is 40, Ballarat about 60, Castlemaine 77, and Sandhurst 100 miles from Melbourne. Beechworth and Portland are about 140 miles in opposite directions from Melbourne. SITI December 4, 1884, page 730.8

RELIGION AND EDUCATION

The total population of Australia is about 2,500,000. Of these about 252,000 are Catholics, 5,500 Jews, and 42,500 Mohammedans and pagans, or about 300,000 in all, which would leave about 2,200,000 of what might be termed Protestants. Of these about one-half are supposed to be of the Church of England. There are nine bishops of the Church of England there, and of the Catholic Church one archbishop, and ten bishops. Statistics of the colonies are very scanty, but it appears that Victoria is far ahead of all the others in these interests as well as in everything else. SITI December 4, 1884, page 731.1

The number of public schools in Victoria is 1,664; instructors, 3,906; average attendance, 116,608; enrolled, 231,169. Number of private schools, 596; instructors, 1,700; scholars, 37,582. The total number of children receiving education in all the institutions of the colony is about 190,000. SITI December 4, 1884, page 731.2

In the colony of Victoria there are over 700 clergymen, 2,815 church editors, with sittings for 420,051 people; the usual attendance is estimated at 203,772, and the approximate number of services during the year, 226,343. This gives an average church attendance of about one in every three of the total population of the colony. This is a remarkable showing, but Mr. Forbes, the famous war correspondent, informs us that it is a common thing for the people to walk fifteen miles, or even more, to attend a single lecture. And if they will do that to hear a common lecture, what will they not do when the splendor of the Third Angel’s Message shines unto them? We look forward to grand results of the Australian missionary work. May the Lord send his angels to prepare the way; may they accompany those who go; and may they stir up all who remain, and help us to cheer and hold up the hands of those who go. SITI December 4, 1884, page 731.3

ALONZO T. JONES.