The Present Truth, vol. 12

February 27, 1896

“Front Page” The Present Truth, 12, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

Thus the Psalmist David wrote: “Lord, remember David, and all his afflictions; how he sware unto the Lord, and vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob: Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed; I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob.” Psalm 132:1-5. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 129.1

Yet David never built the house for the Lord. He “found favour before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. But Solomon built Him an house.” Acts 7:46, 47. Moreover, David surely knew that it would be impossible for him to build the temple that he desired to build for the Lord, or any kind of habitation, before he should go into his own house or close his eyes to sleep. Yet he deliberately made the vow that we have just read. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 129.2

And why?-Because he knew that “the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands.” Solomon, who built the temple, understood that well, as we learn in his prayer at its dedication. See 2 Kings 8:27. Heaven is His throne, and the earth is His footstool. David knew that the only real dwelling-place he could find for the mighty God of Jacob was a humble and a contrite heart. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 129.3

“For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” Isaiah 57:15. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 129.4

“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God?” 1 Corinthians 3:16. Jesus Christ is the chief corner-stone, “in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord; in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.” Ephesians 2:20-22. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 129.5

This is the habitation that every soul may find for the Lord, in which He will dwell in all His fulness. Ephesians 3:19. And there need be no delay, because He is waiting to enter. He says, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.” Revelation 3:20. “To-day, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” It is every reader’s blessed privilege to find such an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob before he sleeps. Shall it not be done? PTUK February 27, 1896, page 129.6

“The Final Cleansing” The Present Truth, 12, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

As before the close of His earthly ministry the Lord cleansed the temple, so before He closes His heavenly ministry and comes to take His own He cleanses His temple, the church, that it may meet Him without guile at His coming. A few Scriptures show this. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 131.1

“But who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth? for He is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap; and He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.” Malachi 3, 2, 3. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 131.2

The falling away and the great apostasy have left traces which the Lord must purge away. The eighteenth of Revelation shows the desperate condition of the religious world just before the Lord comes, and the call from God is, “Come out of her, My people.” It is a call to reformation of life, to forsake sin and self and to take the salvation of God. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 131.3

It is by the Word that the sinner is cleansed (John 15:3) and that the Gospel is preached (1 Peter 1:25), and in Revelation 14:6-14 the Lord has given an outline of the message which is to go to every creature with the power to cleanse all who would be living stones in the living temple of God. It is the work in which every believer should now be engaged, for the day of the Lord is surely at hand and His Word is to be set before the people to prepare them to abide the day of His coming. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 131.4

“Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain; let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand.” Joel 2:1. “Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord.” PTUK February 27, 1896, page 131.5

“Fighting the Drink” The Present Truth, 12, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

THE ONE POWERFUL WEAPON

There are very many good people who are solicitous for the progress of the Gospel, and who show their interest by attempts to remove the “obstacles that are in the way of its progress.” One great obstacle is intemperance, and therefore these good people are using all the means in their power to make people temperate, so that the Gospel may have a fair chance with them. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 131.6

Now there is not the least question that intemperance is a gigantic evil, but it is not the only evil in the world. It is true that no drunkard shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but it is just as true that no covetous man, no railer, no blasphemer, no deceiver, no impure person, no envious person, no thinker of evil, shall have any inheritance therein. Impatience will shut a person out of heaven as surely as intemperance; and it is very certain that there are many more impatient people than there are drunkards. Pride is an abomination in the sight of the Lord, and will shut one out of heaven as surely as intemperance; and while the number of drinkers is legion, the number of those who are filled with pride is vastly greater. These are obstacles to the spread of the Gospel, as well as is intemperance. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 131.7

VARIOUS KINDS OF SLAVERY

“But it is easier to get rid of these things than it is to get rid of intemperance.” Then why are they not diminishing? It is very common to hear of the ineffectual attempts of the drunkard to overcome his appetite for drink. Broken temperance pledges are so numerous that some people are even beginning to have doubts about the power of the pledge to save a man. The idea quite generally obtains that there is a peculiar untrustworthiness about a drunkard. It is thought that his word is not so good as that of other men. Suppose the matter be tested. Let it become as popular to sign pledges to abstain from impatient speech, from talking about one’s neighbours, or from thinking evil, and it would be seen that the promises of other people besides the drunkards are not good for much. There would be such a host of broken pledges as was never dreamed of in all the efforts to reclaim drunkards. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 131.8

It is also quite common to speak of the slavery of drink. The drunkard is pitied or despised as a slave, but those who never in their lives had any desire to use strong drink, but who had been bound as with fetters of steel by pride, selfishness, lust, impatience, covetousness, deceit, envy, evil speaking, or evil thinking. These people will make the same excuses for themselves that the drunkard does. They have tried many times to overcome their evil habits, but in vain. They have never put a pledge upon paper, but they have promised themselves and others times without number, that they will reform. Yet they never have. And so they have fallen back upon the old excuse that some allowance must be made for their peculiar natures. No; all the slaves are not found in the public-houses. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 131.9

We are not by any means seeking to belittle the evil of intemperance. But we are trying to help somebody to look at things with a better sense of their proportion. It seems as though anyone who stops to think over the matter will be convinced that it is just as easy for the drunkard to stop his drinking as it is for the covetous man to overcome his love for money, or for the impatient man to master his temper. Therefore these, and other things that have been mentioned, are as much obstacles in the way of the Gospel as intemperance is. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 131.10

The trouble is that some things show off more than others, and look worse. Fashion, which in such matters as denominated “public sentiment,” regard some kinds of sin as much worse than others. A man could not be admitted into the “best society” if he were a common drunkard, whereas impatience at home and with his employés, such love of money as would lead him through his agent to wring the last penny from a widow; ambition, lust, and pride, would none of them affect his standing in the least. Indeed, pride is quite generally counted as a virtue, although there is no other sin that finds such hearty condemnation in the Bible. A person may even be a church member “in good and regular standing,” who is impatient, covetous, lustful, envious, given somewhat to gossip, and very much to evil thinking; but not if he is a drunkard, because drunkenness “brings a reproach upon the church.” We do not say this to apologise for the drunkard, but to set sharply before the reader the unequal way which people have of looking at things. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 131.11

REMOVING THE OBSTACLES

Well, what shall be done? How shall all these obstacles be removed from the way of the Gospel? Just give the Gospel a chance, and it will show you how to remove obstacles. Quit trying to remove obstacles from the way of the Gospel, and turn your attention to the Gospel itself. Preach the Word without apology or compromise, and see what it can do. The only thing that the Gospel is in the world for us is to remove obstacles. Drunkenness is a sin, just the same as hosts of other things, and the Gospel is for the purpose of saving men from sin. Moreover, it is the power of God unto salvation. And it does thorough work upon a man. It saves him from intemperance, but it does more. It makes him an entirely new man. It does not save him from drinking habits, to let him go to perdition through pride. It makes him complete, after the image of Him who created him. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 132.1

Christ is able to save to the uttermost them that come to God by Him. There is no soul so low that Christ will not stop to touch him, and He is able to raise up every one whom He reaches. Then let Him work. Hold Him up before the world. Do not think to accomplish with the power of man, that which can be accomplished only with the power of God. Remember that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but spiritual, and that they are “mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:4, 5. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 132.2

Therefore let no one who loves his fellow-men, and who would do them good, waste his time in anything less than making known to them “the riches of the glory of this mystery,” “which is Christ in you the hope of glory,” and let us preach Him, “warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.” Colossians 1:27, 28. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 132.3

“The Gods of the Nations” The Present Truth, 12, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

The gods of the nations in ancient times were expected to fight for those who made them. They were the deifications of human character, sharing the passions and ambitions of those whose fancy created them. “They that make them are like unto them,” said the Psalmist. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 132.4

Nor was it necessary in this apostasy to make images or multiply gods. Those who knew of the true God could put away His revelation of Himself and make of Him, by their own conception, a strange god. “Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself,” the Lord said to sinful Israel, and still says to every sinful man who thinks God’s ways must be as his ways, and God’s thoughts as his thoughts. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 132.5

The Jews thought God was like themselves because they did not know Him. They were not worshipping the true God; for they regarded the object of their worship as their national possession solely, and crucified Christ who manifested God. Not even the destruction of Jerusalem could subdue their stubborn fancy that God must belong to them, subject to their own lusts and devices. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 132.6

It is human nature to deify one’s own way and desires, and so it is as natural for nations to make gods after their own imaginations now as it was in ancient times. The Daily News, in a leading article a little time ago, hit off this notion very aptly:- PTUK February 27, 1896, page 132.7

The universal Deity is still tribal in our most secret thoughts. There is a strong disposition to regard Him as a good American or a good Englishman, according to longitude.... To this day, the masters of Cuba believe that their Maker is, above all, a good Spaniard. When the first levies started for the suppression of the insurrection of Cuba they had a “send-off” in a public blessing on their enterprise, with book and candle and all the pomp of ecclesiastical pageantry. The same Maker would certainly be invoked for aid in their discomfiture by the insurrectionary bands. Where are we to stop? There is no stopping. It is so well-known that the Ruler of the Universe is, at heart, a thorough Englishman that no one thinks it worth while to labour the point. That He may be relied on to “protect France” is conclusively demonstrated by the invocation around the rim of the five-franc pieces. We shape the Celestial Powers according to our material rather than our spiritual needs. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 132.8

What says the Lord Himself? “The Lord looketh from heaven; He beholdeth all the sons of men. From the place of His habitation He looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth. He fashioneth their hearts all alike; He considereth all their works.” Psalm 33:13-15. Men cannot draw Him into their national rivalries. From the height of His habitation what matters difference of speech or colour of skin, when all are perishing in sin? So the Gospel goes alike to every tongue and tribe, saving all who believe; and when the witness is borne to all nations “then shall the end come,” and all the kingdoms of this world shall be dashed in pieces as a potter’s vessel. What a very paltry thing is all the pomp and pride of earthly powers. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 132.9

“A Matter of Creation” The Present Truth, 12, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

“It is of no use; there is not enough in me for the Lord to make a Christian of me,” says one. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 132.10

Many more think it than say it. They see duties which the Lord calls upon them to take up, but shrink from them, as they are so far beyond their strength. And then they get discouraged, and think it impossible for the Lord to make them Christians indeed. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 132.11

Now this is not self-depreciation. It is sincerely thought to be such, but that is a mistake. It comes from the idea that the Lord must have something to work upon in order to make Christians; and they haven't, they think, enough material to give any hope for good results. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 132.12

This is to estimate oneself too highly altogether. There is not merely nothing for the Lord to work upon, but man is “less than nothing and vanity.” Making Christians is a work of creation, and creation signifies the making of things which had no existence before. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 132.13

“We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.” Ephesians 2:10. No one has any material to offer the Lord for the process. That is the basis of the hope. God creates all that is. No one can say he has not enough strength to do the good works. God makes the machine or instrument to do the works, and for man to say that he cannot do them is to say that God cannot create an instrument to do His will. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 132.14

To begin right is to know that we have less than nothing for the Lord to begin with. To end right is to hold fast to that, and to know that God can create what He pleases. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 132.15

“A Record of Blood” The Present Truth, 12, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

The Apostle Paul wrote by inspiration of the Holy Ghost: “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.” 2 Timothy 3:1. The following from the San Francisco Examiner shows that in one part of the world, at least, there is no lack of proof that the time of which the Apostle prophesied has come:- PTUK February 27, 1896, page 134.1

“The rapid increase of murder in the United States is one of the most distressing facts in our history. The figures are worthy of deep consideration by every man who is interested in the welfare of the country and his own safety. The recorded homicides for ten years run:- PTUK February 27, 1896, page 134.2

1886.	1,449
1887.	2,335
1888.	2,184
1889.	3,567
1890.	4,290
1891.	5,906
1892.	6,791
1893.	6,615
1894.	9,800
1895.	10,500

Before the flood “the earth was filled with violence.” This wonderful increase of crime can be accounted for in no other way than that men are rejecting the strivings of the Spirit of God, and that in proportion as they do that a Satanic spirit is taking possession of them, thus preparing the earth for final judgment. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 134.3

“Items of Interest” The Present Truth, 12, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

-Russia is actively interfering in Korean affairs. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 142.1

-Building sites in the City of London sell at prices representing a value of nearly ?2,000,000 per acre. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 142.2

-Keen interest in scientific circles has been aroused by the report, as yet unverified, that Dr. Nansen has reached the North Pole. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 142.3

-A squadron of German soldiers, Alsatians, deserted to France last week, marching across the line in company order with their arms. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 142.4

-The prohibition of the sale of oil lamps with glass reservoirs is seriously talked of, owing to the frequent accidents occasioned by the breaking of them. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 142.5

-Every day the Thames scoops out of its banks 1,500 tons of matter, or half-a-million tons a year. All the rivers of the world are doing a similar work; the Mississippi at the rate of 360,000,000 tons a year. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 142.6

-Paris, ever on the outlook for novelties, has found a new food. Arrangements have been made with Algerian butchers to supply that city with camel’s flesh for consumption. There is no accounting for taste. The cats and dogs of Paris may go into the pot next. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 142.7

-The foolish revels of Carnival week, by which the continental pleasure-seekers prepare for the pretended abstinence of Lent, were responsible for the death of forty persons in Portugal last week, who perished by the burning of the hall in which a masked ball was in progress. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 142.8

-Japan can boast of nearly 40,000 doctors, of whom over two-thirds are physicians of the old school, who heal by the old Chinese system of charms and incantations. Many of these old doctors, however, while publicly professing the old plan, have privately studied the European methods, and take advantage of them in their work. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 142.9

-Horse shooting has lately been developed into a profitable branch of sport in some parts of Queensland. On one station near Bundaberg, over 3,000 “brambies” have been shot during the past couple of years, there being a keen demand down in Sydney for horse-skins for the London market. Four hundred wild horses were shot in the course of a couple of days recently by a sporting party in the neighbourhood of Bundaberg. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 142.10

-The famous German “war treasure,” kept on hand to provide against invasion by a foreign country or other emergency, is said to be stored at present in the Julius Tower of the great Fortress of Spandau. The money is all in 10 or 20 mark gold pieces, and is kept in bags, 10,000 marks to a bag. These bags are stored in wooden boxes, held together by screws. The official seal is placed over the head of each screw, to anyone tampering with the boxes could be readily detected. The gold in the boxes is not counted, but is weighed periodically as a precaution against possible loss. The store of gold amounts to 120,000,000 marks. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 142.11

“Back Page” The Present Truth, 12, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

A Swiss journal states that the Portuguese local government have expelled the Protestant missionaries from Delagoa Bay. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 144.1

Navies increase every year as a matter of course, but this year it is stated that, as one of the results of the course of recent events, the navies of England, the United States, and Germany are to be specially augmented. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 144.2

The Echo says: “Father Black states that the number of the Anglican clergy in England and Scotland now engaged in hearing confessions is between 1,200, and 1,506; while the number so engaged fifty years ago might safely be reckoned under a score.” PTUK February 27, 1896, page 144.3

The study of the Papacy shows it to be the development and systemisation of the religion of the natural heart-self instead of Christ being manifested. The call to “Come out of her” means, then, a call to come away not merely from an organisation but from a principle; a call to separation from all that is of self and sin. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 144.4

What strange and wicked use of the word Christian is being made. A despatch tells this news of a disturbance in Crete. Some Christians murdered two Turks. In revenge some Turks murdered two Christian families. “As soon as the news was known the Christians of neighbouring villages assembled and attacked the Turks.” PTUK February 27, 1896, page 144.5

The terrible disaster at Johannesburg, by the explosion of over 100,000 pounds of dynamite, shows what a fearfully destructive power the world now has in the high explosives. Whole families were wiped out and hundreds killed or injured. The gold-fields of the Rand are the richest in the world, but the trouble and the suffering which have come because of them within a few weeks past show how far short of a paradise the richest gold-fields are. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 144.6

The poor Emperor of Austria has many ordeals to pass through in the course of the year, prescribed by his ecclesiastics. A newspaper correspondent gives this description of the ceremony he took part in on the day called Ash Wednesday;- PTUK February 27, 1896, page 144.7

The Emperor sat in his private curtained seat. Afterwards he descended into the church and knelt upon a red velvet stool in front of the high altar, where the Palace chaplain strewed ashes upon his grey hair, taking them from a golden cup handed to him on a silver tray by an assistant. The Emperor then withdrew to his apartments with the ashes still in his hair. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 144.8

One of our workers in British Guiana, who has recently been up in the interior, along the Demerara River, says that interest in the truth presented seems to be extending rapidly in the river district, where our publications have gone far beyond the living missionary. One church of believers was organised at Bootooba. “Three of these,” he says, “are Indians, the first-fruits of our work among the aboriginal tribes.” PTUK February 27, 1896, page 144.9

Controversy is not the element in which the Christian thrives. His work is to speak the words of God, to tell what God says. He will always find honest truth-seeking souls who want help. He will also find many who want controversy and strife. In that element one may neither learn or teach the truth. Therefore he can simply pass on to others who are waiting to know what the Lord says. There is the Word. Give to the people to eat. No one can make those eat it who do not want it. One can only invite men to “taste and see that the Lord is good.” PTUK February 27, 1896, page 144.10

“The French Conscript” The Present Truth, 12, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

The French Conscript.-Some weeks ago we printed a note from the newspapers stating that a young Frenchman, said to be a Seventh-day Adventist, had been imprisoned in France for refusing to serve in the military, on the ground that as a Christian he could not take part in fratricidal contests. The young man was not known to our Continental brethren. It now transpires that he had only recently arrived in France from South America. He has written as follows to one of our friends in Argentina:- PTUK February 27, 1896, page 144.11

I am now in France, imprisoned for not choosing to do military service. Although through weakness and fear of men I obeyed, formerly, the human law and transgressed God’s law, at the end of two months the Lord gave me strength to obey Him. Finally I am imprisoned. I pass my Sabbaths very happily, thanks be to God. I cannot write what I would like because my letters are read by the Governor. I am at present in the hospital, not on account of sickness, but because I am under observation, that they may see if I have all my mental faculties. Thanks be to God, I have. The Lord is with me with power, and sustains me in all my tribulations. I have faith in Him, that He will make me conqueror. I have been imprisoned about three weeks, and do not know whether I will ever get out; but my faith and confidence are in the Strength of Israel. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 144.12

“He Was a Barbarian” The Present Truth, 12, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

He Was a Barbarian.-When King Prempeh came to submit to the British resident his yellow face glistened with oil, and “his somewhat stupid expression,” was, says the Chronicle correspondent, “rendered more idiotic by his sucking a large nut like a fat cigar.” Prempeh is a barbarian who sucks a nut, a stupid thing, certainly; but really why should it make a man look worse to gravely suck a nut than to suck a roll of tobacco leaves? It is merely a question of artistic taste. Of course it would look very funny to see a man walking London streets seriously sucking a nut, or even a lead-pencil but we very commonly see all sorts and conditions of men so walking, with a roll of tobacco leaves or a pipe, unconscious of the fact that it is all very ludicrous. It has taken some centuries for the civilised world to get fairly accustomed to seeing this no longer novel sight, which struck the early discoverers of America with dismay when, for the first time, they saw the aboriginal natives puffing smoke from the rolls of tobacco. But then, those natives, like King Prempeh, were barbarians. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 144.13

“Missionaries of Islam” The Present Truth, 12, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

Missionaries of Islam.-Ever since Mohammed’s day Islamism has not lacked for missionaries. It has been propagated by the sword and by the Koran, and with a zeal which has dared and endured everything. There is more organisation and system in the propagation of the creed than is popularly supposed. Of the great educational centre of Islam the Regions Beyond says:- PTUK February 27, 1896, page 144.14

The Azhar at Cairo is the great university of the Mohammedan faith. It was founded A.D. 1,000, and from 10,000 to 12,000 students are always in attendance, gathered from various parts of Africa. There are 321 sheikhs, or instructors. The instruction is very superficial, and consists largely of committing to memory and reciting, the subject being the Koran and the traditions founded on it. When their education is finished, some of the students return home, while others, who are to be missionaries, join a caravan, and soon disappear into the heart of Africa. These thousands of students become the active propagators of the creed of Islam. PTUK February 27, 1896, page 144.15