General Conference Daily Bulletin, vol. 5
January 29, 30, 1893
VOL. 5. - BATTLE CREEK, MICH. - NO. 2
SUNDAY, JANUARY 29
STATE AGENTS’ CONVENTION
PURSUANT to appointment, the first session of the general convention of District and State canvassing agents, convened in the east vestry of the tabernacle, at 7:30 A. M. Jan. 29, 1893, with F. L. Mead, the general canvassing agent in the chair. Prayer was offered by F. W. Morse. S. D. Hartwell was chosen secretary. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 17.1
Upon calling the roll by Districts and States, it was found that the following representatives were present:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 17.2
Districts, No. 1, E. E. Miles; No. 2, A. F. Harrison; No. 3, R. B. Craig; No. 4, F. L. Mead; No. 5, N. P. Dixon. State Agents: New York, J. R. Calkins; Atlantic, C. F. Parmelee; Pennsylvania, F. W. Spies; West Virginia, U. P. Long; Maine, J. B. Goodrich; North Carolina, C. D. Wolf; Louisiana, C. F. Dart; Ohio, Nelson Hay: Michigan, A. J. Olson; Illinois, C. L. Taggart; S. Dakota, G. A. Wheeler; Minnesota, C. M. Everest; Wisconsin, S. D. Hartwell; Kansas, S. C. Osborn; Missouri, H. L. Hoover; Texas, W. W. Eastman; Oklahoma, W. M. Crothers; Oregon, J. R. Blivins; Scandinavian work, Z. Scherrig. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 17.3
Upon motion, Brother L. C. Chadwick, a former general canvassing agent, who was present, was invited to full participation in the proceedings of the convention. The same invitation was extended to presidents of Conferences and State Tract Society officers. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 17.4
Brief remarks were then made by the chairman, in which he reviewed somewhat the history of former conventions, showing the great value that they had proved to the work, and the advantages for the present convention because of the experience gained. The necessity for the present convention was made emphatic, and the course of action for the same outlined, whereby the greatest results possible may be realized. The relations of the members to each other and to the work of the convention were made explicit, and the confident hope was expressed that the work of the convention would be harmonious and fruitful in desired results. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 17.5
Brother Chadwick spoke for a few minutes relative to his recent journeys in foreign countries, showing the wide opportunities and urgent demands that exist regarding the canvassing work in the same. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 17.6
Brethren Miles, Harrison and others spoke of encouraging features regarding the canvassing work, after which adjournment was taken to 7:30 A. M. of the following day. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 17.7
THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE. - No. 2. ELDER S. N. HASKELL
AT 10 A. M., Elder Haskell gave another lesson on the study of the Bible. At the close of Elder Haskell’s previous lesson, the question was asked, if God knew all these things about us, our steps, our works etc., from the beginning, - if that was not fore-ordination and a denial of free moral agency? To this question Elder Haskell now replied, that no man by searching can find out one attribute of the deity. His wisdom is so much above ours that we cannot measure it with our finite minds. He referred to 1 Corinthians 15:18-25. Christ is the power of God, only to those who believe and who receive him by faith. If we thus receive him, the Spirit of God opens our hearts to understand the word. But we shall never be able wholly to fathom the deity, no more than we can measure the ocean with a little cup. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 17.8
If the gospel is the power of God to me, it is because I believe it. The world by its wisdom did not know God; they thought it was foolishness because they could not fully understand it. We should be foolish enough to believe what God says. Man cannot reason out a divine principle, but at the same time it is in harmony with reason. If we believe, God will enlarge our understanding. He referred to Matthew 11:25-27. The Pharisees could not reason out Christ. They had so many ways of their own, they could not see him. But the babes received him. Babes get everything by revelation. They do not know their parents, or even their own names, only as these things are revealed to them. Babes are those who sit at the feet of Jesus and learn the truth as he reveals it to them. We want to be where we can learn everything of God by revelation. It may be contrary to our reason, but our reason is from too low a source. We want to drink at a higher fountain than human reason. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 18.1
The knowledge of God must come to us by Jesus Christ, and only by revelation. If we try to understand Christ by reason we are trying to place ourselves above him. If we take the Bible as his word and believe it, there is salvation in every line. Men are free moral agents. 1 Samuel 23:7-12. God saw Saul go down to Keilah, and the men of Keilah deliver David into his hand. Yet he did not go and they did not deliver him. God knows everything and we cannot limit his power. Elder Haskell quoted Ephesians 1:4. God saw us here to-day, and he saw two paths in which we may be. If we are in the path to glory, God saw us there. If we are in the path to hell, he saw us there. God settled it from all eternity that all should go to glory, and if I stand in that path, then it is settled for me. If we believe what God says we are in the path to heaven. We may get confused and may not be able to understand it, but God is not confused, and he always understands it. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 18.2
Elder Haskell then returned to the consideration of the 139th Psalm. God searched us from eternity, and knows all the minutia of our lives. He sees us through and through, and weighs every motive. Such knowledge is too wonderful for us. We cannot attain to it. When did God know all this? It was before we were born. Our members were all known of God “when as yet there was none of them.” He then read Psalm 51:2-5, and asked why David in one place speaks of his creation as being so good, and in another as so bad? What is the difference? In one case David saw himself as he was naturally; in the other case, as covered by Christ’s righteousness. Christ puts his righteousness back to our birth, and even farther than our birth. That is what he came to the earth for. When you take this out of the Bible, you take everything out. He knew us all before the foundation of the world, and just how sinful we were. How could he have died for us if he had not known it. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 18.3
So every good thing was in Christ for me, and all this good he wants to give me, and stamp upon me the divine image. He made every provision for us, and if we fail, it is because we will to do so. With this faith in Christ, we can go to prison, and he will go with us. He then read Acts 15:18. This text is complete, and needs no comment. There was trouble in the church, and the first General Conference was held. But James told them that God knew all about this from the beginning of the world. There was comfort for them in this thought. There is such a thing as moving when the pillar of cloud moves, and resting when it rests; then we can believe that all things work together for our good. Christ’s word is the living word, and I must take it as being written to me. Then I get the life and power in the word. We cannot see the life principle in a grain, but if it is planted it will grow. So if I take God’s word in my heart, it will grow. I cannot explain it, but I know it is so. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 18.4
Any man, even the infidel, if he will take the Bible and study it to see what it is to him, will pray. He cannot help praying. There is power in the word to make him pray. God is in the word, and his power is in the word, and when we take it so, God comes into our hearts. It will give us peace, fullness and satisfaction. You will know for yourself that God accepts you. When you drop into the arms of Christ, you will get salvation. You will repent, for you cannot help it. We have a new heart. Let us read Hebrews 4:12. We see by this, that the word is intelligent. The Bible is Christ to me, if I take it so. When Christ was on the earth, he spoke to us, to me. Every phase of society was represented and came under his notice, when he was on the earth. He went with the rich, and saw every rich man that ever lived, both before and since then. In Christ is all the perfection there is in the world, and the Bible is Christ talking to me. We should never read the Bible without asking God to open our understanding. Elder Haskell then closed by reading from “Gospel Workers,” beginning on page 174. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 18.5
THE STUDY OF THE TESTIMONIES. - No. 2. ELDER J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH
WE can no more disconnect the work of the Spirit of God from the third angel’s message than we can have a live body without nerves or muscles, or get life out of a marble statue. God has been speaking to his people from the beginning of this cause, and I praise him that the testimonies still come from him, and come warmer and warmer. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 19.1
Some may say, Why haven’t you evangelized the world during the forty years you have been at work? Look at your publishing houses and other institutions. Yes; but these were not in existence forty years ago. At that time we did not have one sixty-four page tract. We published one paper, about a quarter as large as the “REVIEW” now is. All of Sister White’s Testimonies made less than one hundred pages. A man who gave five dollars to the cause was thought to be giving us quite a lift. But now we have the machinery, and we will see more done in one year now than could be done in twenty years then. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 19.2
Notice how it was back in the first angel’s message. A letter written by Elder J. V. Himes, and published in the Midnight Cry, of Sept. 12, 1844, makes this statement: “When we commenced the work with Brother Miller in 1840, he had been lecturing nine years. During that time he stood almost alone, but his labors had been almost incessant and effectual in awakening professors of religion to the true hope of God’s people, and the necessary preparation for the advent of the Lord, as also the awakening of all classes of the unconverted to a sense of their lost condition and the duty of immediate repentance and conversion to God, as a preparation to meet the Bridegroom in peace at his coming.” For nine years, as he said, he stood almost alone, but in 1843-44 there was a wonderful stir made all over the earth. God opens the way very quickly for a great work when things come round in readiness for it. That was the way it was at that time, and it will be so now. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 19.3
Your attention was called last Friday to the effect of the work of God in producing unity in the church. Extracts were read showing how the Testimonies produced harmony among the brethren in the early days of the cause. This morning I wish to call attention to some other points. We are told to take the prophets as an example of suffering affliction and of patience. James 5:10. If we know the manner of God’s working through the prophets in one age of the world, we know how he will work through them in other ages. 1 Corinthians 10:11, “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples, and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 19.4
We will notice some points about the work of the Spirit of God in connection with these ancient prophets. First notice the case of Balaam, as recorded in Numbers 22:38, “And Balaam said unto Balak, Lo I am come unto thee; have I now any power at all to say anything? the word that God putteth in my mouth that shall I speak.” When God took the prophet in his hand he had to do just exactly as God wanted him to do. Connect this with a case in the New Testament: The apostle Paul tells us, in 2 Corinthians 12th chapter, of the visions and revelations which were given to him. He says he did not know whether he was in the body or out of the body. At such times he was entirely lost to all surrounding circumstances; and he tells us that lest he should be exalted above measure, through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to him a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan, to buffet him. Sister White has also a thorn in the flesh; she has continually had great difficulty with her heart, yet she will not have the brethren pray that she may be relieved of this trouble, for she said it was to remain by her, and to be manifested whenever she was in danger of becoming exalted. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 19.5
Going back to the case of Balaam, we read in Numbers 24, verses 3 to 5, “And he took up this parable and said, Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said; he hath said which heard the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open: How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 19.6
Balaam, when in vision, had his eyes open. Notice now the case of Daniel (Daniel 10:17-19). The prophet said, “For how can the servant of this my lord talk with this my lord? for as for me, straightway there remaineth no strength in me, neither is there breath left in me. Then there came again and touched me one like the appearance of a man, and he strengthened me, and said, O man, greatly beloved, fear not: peace be unto thee, be strong, yea, be strong. And when he had spoken unto me, I was strengthened, and said, Let my lord speak; for thou hast strengthened me.” Daniel had no strength or breath left in him, and he was strengthened by an angel, and he says, “And when he had spoken unto me I was strengthened,” indicating that he had superhuman strength. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 19.7
I have seen Sister White in vision about fifty times. The first time was about forty years ago, when Brother Oswald Stowell was very sick, and expected to die. It was on the Sabbath, the first Sabbath I ever kept. Brother Stowell wanted his case commended to God, and desired the brethren to pray for him. In answer to their prayers he was healed and went to work again two days later. Brother White, who was present at the time, said to me, “Ellen is in vision.” I looked at her and saw her kneeling by the bed and looking up toward heaven, and she soon began to shout praises to God. Brother White said, “There is no breath in her body.” Eyes open, no breath, yet her pulse beating naturally, and everything else in a normal condition! Her eyes seemed intently fixed upon something off at a great distance. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 19.8
On one occasion Elders White and Andrews, and myself, were awakened at midnight, and called to come and pray for Sister White. She had fainted, and all efforts to revive her were unavailing. We had a season of prayer, and she seemed to revive and was taken off in vision. Some of our opponents say, “Yes, that is always the way, she is always sick and faints away before she has one of her visions.” But this is not true. The first one I saw her have was at the close of a meeting, when she was well enough to take a long journey. Her last open vision was in 1884, on the camp ground at Portland, Oregon. She has visions at the present time, but they are not open visions in a public assembly. It is a heavenly place to be in, where there is an open vision, as some of those here who have seen her at such times, can testify. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 20.1
The first indication that she is about to be taken off in vision is that she loses all strength, like a person suddenly falling down. This state continues not more than five seconds, when she suddenly rises to her feet. She herself says that the first thing she knows an angel stands by her side and touches her and she receives strength. This is just as it was with Daniel. She has been examined while in vision, by skillful physicians, and we have testimonials from them which declare that the phenomena of her visions are beyond their comprehension. A remarkable evidence of the superhuman strength which Sister White has while in vision was given during her third vision, when she held on her arm a Bible eighteen inches long, eleven inches wide, and four inches thick, and weighing eighteen and a fourth pounds. It was published by Joseph Seale, of Boston, Mass., in 1822. This she held out at arm’s length, her eyes meanwhile looking straight up, and her hand turning from text to text for more than half an hour, pointing to the texts with her finger and repeating them. I have conversed with those who examined every text as she pointed to them, and they testify that she repeated every one correctly. This was an indication that the power of God was connected with that work. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 20.2
When God has a special work to do he sometimes starts out by bringing to view something of a startling character, to show that it is above human power. So it was with Moses, at the burning bush. The bush seemed to be burning with fire, yet not a twig or a leaf of it was consumed, so that Moses said, “I will now turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.” When Moses turned aside God called to him and said, Moses, Moses, put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. This was only the first step, which led on to greater manifestations of God’s power, till the terrible exhibition when God thundered his law from Mount Sinai. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 20.3
God designed by this exhibition of power to show that the work was altogether superior to that of any human agency. Another effect was to call the attention of the people to them, so that they began to make inquiries around in different places, and desired that Sister White would come and visit them. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 20.4
At another time Sister White held this same kind of a Bible open in one hand, above her head, at an angle of forty five degrees, for half an hour, while she turned from text to text, and repeated the words to which she pointed. The spectators stood in chairs to examine the texts as she pointed to them. Some of them tried to hold a Bible in their hands at this angle, and could not do so, but the Bible in her hand seemed to be as firm as if the two had been glued together. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 20.5
People who never saw Sister White in vision, say they can explain all about it, that it is only the result of disease, hysterics, etc., but the testimony of skillful physicians who have examined her at such times is altogether different. We are happy to acknowledge the working of God for us in connection with these manifestations. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 20.6
COUNCIL MEETING. - No. 2
SUBJECT - ORGANIZATION
THE subject considered in the afternoon council was that of organization, its object and importance. Elder Olsen made remarks and read from the testimonies recently received touching this matter. He said that next to the importance of having the Holy Spirit of God with us in our work, is that of proper organization. Union is strength; confusion is weakness. In all the work of God, the most perfect order is manifest, and from the instruction which we as a people have received both from the Bible and from the experience of those who have been connected with the work of God from the first, the importance of organization is fully demonstrated. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 20.7
The object of organization, he said, is to secure efficiency in the work, also to so divide up the work and responsibilities that no one will be overburdened, while others are carrying nothing. As a people we have from first to last received very much instruction on these points, but we have not always been able to apply these principles so as to receive all the profit that should come to us. Since the last season of the General Conference the idea has gained ground to some extent that it might be well to drop some of our organizations that have been established in connection with present truth. He expressed himself as having felt some anxiety over this matter, for he was sure that the Lord had given direct instruction to this people on the question of organization, and that it would not be to the glory of God to entertain any idea of disorganization. We have, no doubt, made a mistake in relying too much on form, and in not giving proper importance to vital godliness and thorough Christian experience. He stated that at one time he feared that this question would come up in a shape that would not result for the best, but we are glad to say that our fears in this respect have been relieved. But he said we have received instruction bearing on these subjects which he would place before the brethren, and which he believed would set this subject in such a light as to relieve us from any embarrassment, and show us what attitude to take in reference to this important question. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 20.8
He first read a short extract from a pamphlet written by Elder James White in the year 1873, entitled, “An Earnest Appeal,” as it seemed so plain and explicit, he said, and placed before us the way in which this subject was regarded by the pioneers in our work. Following is the extract:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 21.1
“With Seventh-day Adventists, organization was not so much a matter of choice as of necessity. It was first entered into very cautiously by some, and reluctantly by others. And as numbers have increased, and missionary fields have opened before us, we have all come to prize our simple, and, to human view, complete organization. The history of our cause bears a decided testimony in favor of our system of organization. The men who framed it, and introduced it, felt the importance of their work. The guiding Hand was with them, which is the reason why the lapse of more than ten years has not revealed defects demanding changes. We unhesitatingly express our firm convictions that organization with us was by the direct providence of God. And to disregard our organization is an insult to God’s providential dealings with us, and a sin of no small magnitude. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 21.2
“The permanency of the cause, and united effort of all our people to push the work forward, depends upon the establishment and maintenance of order. And this cannot be done without proper organization. But organization exists only in form when the offices of such organization are trampled under foot. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 21.3
Our General Conference is the highest earthly authority with our people, and is designed to take charge of the entire work in this and other countries. The officers of our State Conferences, and also those of our institutions located at Battle Creek, are expected to respect our General Conference Committee as the men appointed to take the general supervision of the cause in all its branches and interests. They should be regarded as the safest counselors, and the proper persons to give advice in all important matters. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 21.4
One or more of the General Conference Committee should be present at each State Conference, and should take part in all deliberations and counsels, especially in licensing men to improve their gifts in teaching the word of God, and auditing accounts, and settling with ministers. These men who labor from State to State, and have their minds exercised with matters pertaining to the general wants and dangers of the cause, are far better qualified to judge of the local wants of State Conferences than their own officers possibly can be. - Pages 12,13,14. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 21.5
Following this, he read from a recent testimony on “Formality, not Organization, an Evil,” the following:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 21.6
Evil does not result from organization, but because of making organization everything, and vital godliness of little moment. When form and machinery take the pre-eminence, and a laborious task is made of carrying on the work that should be done in simplicity, evil will result, and little will be accomplished in proportion to the effort put forth. The object of organization is just the reverse of this; and should we disorganize, it would be like tearing down that we might build up. Evil results have been seen both in the Sabbath-school work and in the missionary society because of making much of machinery, while vital experience was lost sight of. In many of the imagined improvements that have been brought in, the mould of man has been placed upon the work. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 21.7
In the Sabbath-school men and women have been accepted as officers and teachers, who have not been spiritually minded, and have had no live interest in the work committed to their care; but matters can be set in order only through the aid of the Holy Spirit. The same evil has existed for years as now exists in our churches. Formality, pride, and love of display have taken the place of true piety and humble godliness. We might see a different order of things should a number consecrate themselves wholly to God, and then devote their talents to the Sabbath-school work, ever advancing in knowledge, and educating themselves so that they would be able to train others as to the best methods to employ in the work; but it is not for the workers to seek for methods by which they can make a display, consuming time in theatrical performances, and musical display; for this benefits no one. It does no good to train the children to make speeches for special occasions. They should be won to Christ, and instead of expending time, money, effort to make display, let the whole effort be made to gather sheaves for the harvest. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 21.8
Many seem to have thought that all that was essential in Sabbath-school work was to organize the school, and drill the scholars so that they would act in harmony with a set of ceremonies and forms, and that if persons could be secured as teachers, the Sabbath-school would run itself. Teachers are often secured who cannot lead souls to Christ, because they know not what it is to find him precious to their own souls; but all those who do not value the soul so that they will work as Christ would have them, will scatter away from Christ. “He that [mark these words], gathereth not with me, scattereth abroad.” If teachers have no burden to lead souls to Jesus, they will grow indifferent to the truth, they will become careless, and the atmosphere with which they surround their souls will work to scatter away from Christ. And with such elements in the Sabbath-school, there will be perpetual conflicts with difficulties; for when the teachers engage in the work and have no interest in it, the pupils will partake of the same spirit. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 21.9
But although these difficulties exist, will it abolish them to put an end to organization? I am sure that the Lord has wrought in the organization that has been perfected, and the fact that there are discouraging features in the work, should not be thought a sufficient reason for disorganization. Much light was given to us in reference to the organization of churches, but the victory was gained at last, and now shall the church be disorganized because of indifference, formality and pride? Shall we go back to disorder because unconsecrated members of the church have placed upon the church the mould of man, and sought to fashion the church to meet a popular standard?” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 21.10
This was much to the point, but he said only last week he received the following communication from Sister White, bearing directly upon this subject:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 21.11
MELBOURNE, VICTORIA, DEC. 19, 1892
Dear Brethren of the General Conference:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 22.1
I learn that it is proposed by some of our brethren to do away with the organization of some at least of the branches of our work. No doubt what has led them to propose this step is that in some of our organizations the machinery has been made so complicated as really to hinder the work. This, however, is not an argument against organization, but against the perversion of it. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 22.2
It is nearly forty years since organization was introduced among us as a people. I was one of the number who had an experience in establishing it from the first. I know the difficulties that had to be met, the evils which it was designed to correct, and I have watched its influence in connection with the growth of the cause. At an early stage in the work, God gave us special light upon this point; and this light, together with the lessons that experience has taught us, should be carefully considered. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 22.3
From the first our work was aggressive. Our numbers were few, and mostly from the poorer class. Our views were almost unknown to the world. We had no houses of worship, but few publications, and very limited facilities for carrying forward our work. The sheep were scattered in the highways and byways, in cities, in towns, in forests. The commandments of God and the faith of Jesus was our message. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 22.4
“Ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called, but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise: and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 22.5
Our numbers gradually increased. The seed that was sown was watered of God, and he gave the increase. At first we assembled for worship, and presented the truth to those who would come to hear, in private houses, in large kitchens, in barns, in groves, and in school houses; but it was not long before we were able to build humble houses of worship. As our numbers increased, it was evident that without some form of organization, there would be great confusion, and the work would not be carried forward successfully. To provide for the support of the ministry, for carrying the work in new fields, for protecting both the churches and the ministry from unworthy members, for holding church property, for the publication of the truth through the press, and for many other objects, organization was indispensable. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 22.6
Yet there was strong feeling against it among our people. The First-day Adventists were opposed to organization, and most of the Seventh-day Adventists entertained the same ideas. We sought the Lord with earnest prayer that we might understand his will, and light was given by his Spirit, that there must be order and thorough discipline in the church, that organization was essential. System and order are manifest in all the works of God throughout the universe. Order is the law of heaven, and it should be the law of God’s people on the earth. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 22.7
In a Testimony first published in 1859, in regard to systematic benevolence, are these words:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 22.8
“There is order in heaven, and God is pleased with the efforts of his people in trying to move with system and order in his work on earth. I saw that there should be order in the church of God, and that system is needed in carrying forward successfully the last great message of mercy to the world.” - Test. for the Church, vol. 1, p.191. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 22.9
Again I quote from Testimony No. 6, on another point:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 22.10
“As we near the close of time, Satan comes down with great power, knowing that his time is short. Especially will his power be exercised upon the remnant. He will war against them and seek to divide and scatter them, that they may grow weak, and be overthrown. The people of God should move understandingly, and should be united in their efforts. They should be of the same mind, of the same judgment; then their efforts will not be scattered, but will tell forcibly in the upbuilding of the cause of present truth. Order must be observed, and there must be union in maintaining order, or Satan will take the advantage. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 22.11
“I saw that the enemy would come in every way possible to dishearten the people of God and perplex and trouble them, and that they should move understandingly, and prepare themselves for the attacks of Satan. Matters pertaining to the church should not be left in an unsettled condition. Steps should be taken to secure church property for the cause of God, that the work may not be retarded in its progress, and that the means which persons wish to dedicate to God’s cause may not slip into the enemy’s ranks. I saw that God’s people should act wisely, and leave nothing undone on their part to place the business of the church in a secure state. Then after all is done that they can do, they should trust the Lord to overrule these things for them, that Satan take no advantage of God’s remnant people. It is Satan’s time to work. A stormy future is before us; and the church should be awake to make an advance move that they may stand securely against his plans. It is time that something was done. God is not pleased to have the matters of the church at loose ends, and suffer the enemy to have the whole advantage and control affairs as best pleases him.” - Vol. I, pp.210,211. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 22.12
The following were published from 1862 to 1868:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 22.13
“Unless the churches are so organized that they can carry out and enforce order, they have nothing to hope for in the future; they must scatter into fragments. Previous teachings have nourished the elements of disunion. A spirit has been cherished to watch and accuse, rather than to build up. If ministers of God would unitedly take their position, and maintain it with decision, there would be a uniting influence among the flock of God. Separating bars would be broken to fragments. Hearts would flow together and unite like drops of water. Then there would be a power and strength in the ranks of Sabbath-keepers far exceeding anything we have yet witnessed. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 22.14
“The hearts of God’s servants are made sad as they journey from church to church, by meeting the opposing influence of other opposing ministering brethren. There are those who have stood ready to oppose every advance step that God’s people have taken. The hearts of those who have dared to venture out are saddened and distressed by the lack of union of action on the part of their fellow-laborers. We are living in a solemn time. Satan and evil angels are working with mighty power, with the world on their side to help them. And professed Sabbath-keepers who claim to believe solemn, important truth, unite their forces with the combined influence of the powers of darkness to distract and tear down that which God designs to build up. The influence of such is recorded as of those who retard the advance reform among God’s people.” - Vol. 1, p.270. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 22.15
“There are many restless spirits who will not submit to discipline, system, and order. They think that their liberties would be abridged were they to lay aside their own judgment and submit to the judgment of those of experience. The work of God will not progress unless there is a disposition to submit to order, and expel the reckless, disorderly spirit of fanaticism from their meetings.” - Vol. 1, p.413. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 22.16
“Ministers should love order, and should discipline themselves, and then they can successfully discipline the church of God and teach them harmoniously, like a well-drilled company of soldiers. If discipline and order are necessary for successful action in the battle field, the same are as much more needful in the warfare in which we are engaged, as the object to be gained is of greater value and more elevated in character, than those for which opposing forces contend on the field of battle. In the conflict in which we are engaged, eternal interests are at stake. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 23.1
“Angels work harmoniously. Perfect order characterizes all their movements. The more closely we imitate the harmony and order of the angelic host, the more successful will be the efforts of heavenly agents in our behalf. If we see no necessity for harmonious action, and are disorderly, undisciplined, and disorganized in our course of action, angels, who are thoroughly organized and move in perfect order, cannot work for us successfully. They turn away in grief, for they are not authorized to bless confusion, distraction, and disorganization. All who desire to co-operate with the heavenly messengers, must work in unison with them. Those who have the unction from on high, will in all their efforts encourage order, discipline, and union of action, and then the angels of God will co-operate with them. But never, never will these heavenly messengers place their endorsement upon irregularity, disorganization, and disorder. All these evils are the result of Satan’s efforts to weaken our forces, to destroy our courage, and prevent successful action. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 23.2
“Satan well knows that success can only attend order and harmonious action. He well knows that everything connected with heaven is in perfect order, that subjection and perfect discipline mark the movements of the angelic host. It is his studied effort to lead professed Christians just as far from heaven’s arrangement as he can; therefore he deceives even the professed people of God, and makes them believe that order and discipline are enemies to spirituality; that the only safety for them is to let each pursue his own course, and to remain especially distinct from bodies of Christians who are united, and are laboring to establish discipline and harmony of action. All the efforts to establish order are considered dangerous, a restriction of rightful liberty, and hence are feared as popery. These devoted souls consider it a virtue to boast of their freedom to think and act independently, they will not take any man’s say so. They are amenable to no man. I was shown that it was Satan’s special work to lead men to feel that it was God’s order for them to strike out for themselves, and choose their own course, independent of their brethren. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 23.3
“I was pointed back to the children of Israel. Very soon after leaving Egypt they were organized and most thoroughly disciplined. God had, in his special providence, qualified Moses to stand at the head of the armies of Israel. He had been a mighty warrior to lead the armies of the Egyptians, and in generalship he could not be surpassed by any man. The Lord did not leave his holy tabernacle to be borne indiscriminately by any tribe that might choose. He was so particular as to specify the order he would have observed in bearing the sacred ark, and to designate a special family of the Levites to bear it. When it was for the good of the people and the glory of God, that they should pitch their tents in a certain place, God signified his will to them by causing the pillar of cloud to rest directly over the tabernacle, where it remained until he would have them journey again. In all their journeyings they were required to observe perfect order. Every tribe bore a banner with the sign of their father’s house upon it, and each tribe was required to pitch under its own standard. When the ark moved, the armies journeyed, the different tribes marching in order, under their own standards. The Levites were designated by the Lord as the tribe in the midst of whom the sacred ark was to be borne, Moses and Aaron marching just in front of the ark, and the sons of Aaron following near them, each bearing trumpets. They were to receive directions from Moses, which they were to signify to the people by speaking through the trumpets. These trumpets gave special sounds which the people understood, and they directed their movements accordingly. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 23.4
“A special signal was first given by the trumpeters to call the attention of the people; then all were to be attentive, and obey the certain sound of the trumpets. There was no confusion of sound in the voices of the trumpets, therefore there was no excuse for confusion in movements. The head officers of each company gave definite directions in regard to the movements they were required to make, and none who gave attention were left in ignorance of what they were to do. If any failed to comply with the requirements given by the Lord to Moses, and by Moses to the people, they were punished with death. It would be no excuse to plead that they knew not the nature of these requirements, for they would only prove themselves willingly ignorant, and would receive the just punishment for their transgression. If they did not know the will of God concerning them, it was their fault. They had the same opportunities to obtain the knowledge imparted as others of the people had, therefore their sin of not knowing, not understanding, was as great in the sight of God as if they had heard and then transgressed. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 23.5
“The Lord designated a special family of the tribe of Levi to bear the ark; and others of the Levites were specially appointed of God to bear the tabernacle and all its furniture, and to perform the work of setting up and taking down the tabernacle. And if any man from curiosity, or from lack of order, got out of his place, and touched any part of the sanctuary or furniture, or even came near any of the workmen, he was to be put to death. God did not leave his holy tabernacle to be borne, erected, and taken down indiscriminately, by any tribe who might choose the office, but persons were chosen who could appreciate the sacredness of the work in which they were engaged. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 23.6
“Has God changed from a God of order? No; he is the same in the present dispensation as in the former. Paul says, ‘God is not the author of confusion, but of peace.’ He is as particular now as then. And he designs that we should learn lessons of order and organization from the perfect order instituted in the days of Moses for the benefit of the children of Israel.” - Vol. I, pp.649-653. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 23.7
The Lord has continued to give light from time to time in regard to the importance of maintaining order. Reproofs and warnings have been given to those who started out to labor according to their own judgment, feeling that they were amenable to no one, and having no regard to the general interest of the cause of God. Physicians who practiced among the churches have been reproved for their course in establishing themselves wherever they pleased, and working according to their own judgment from a selfish stand-point. I have been shown that physicians who practice in our churches should come under the supervision of the churches as fully as the minister. If they do not maintain strict integrity, it is the duty of the churches to labor with them according to the instruction of the word of God. And the direction that Christ has given in Matthew 18 concerning our duty to those who fall into error and sin, reveals the fact that there is to be thorough organization in the church. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 23.8
“We had a hard struggle in establishing organization. Notwithstanding that the Lord gave testimony after testimony upon this point, the opposition was strong, and it had to be met again and again. But we knew that the Lord God of Israel was leading us, and guiding by his providence. We engaged in the work of organization, and marked prosperity attending this advance movement. As the development of the work called us to engage in new enterprises, we were prepared to enter upon them. The Lord directed our minds to the importance of educational work. We saw the need of schools that our children might receive instruction, free from the errors of false philosophy, that their training might be in harmony with the principles of the word of God. The need of health institutions had been urged upon us, both for the help and instruction of our own people and as a means of blessing and enlightenment of others. This enterprise also was carried forward. All this was missionary work of the highest order. Our work was not sustained by large gifts and legacies; for we have few wealthy men among us. What is the secret of our prosperity? We have moved under the order of the Captain of our salvation. God has blessed our united efforts. The truth has spread and flourished. Institutions have multiplied. The mustard seed has grown to a great tree. The system of organization has proved a grand success. Systematic benevolence was entered into according to the Bible plan. The body “has been compacted by that which every joint supplieth.” As we have advanced, our system of organization has still proved effectual. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 24.1
“In some parts of the work it is true, the machinery has been made too complicated; especially has this been the case in the tract and missionary work; the multiplication of rules and regulations made it needlessly burdensome. An effort should be made to simplify the work, so as to avoid all needless labor and perplexity. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 24.2
“The business of our Conference session has sometimes been burdened down with propositions and resolutions that were not at all essential, and that would never have been presented if the sons and daughters of God had been walking carefully and prayerfully before him. The fewer rules and regulations that we can have, the better will be the effect in the end. When they are made, let them be carefully considered, and, if wise, let it be seen that they mean something, and are not to become a dead letter. Do not, however, encumber any branch of the work with unnecessary, burdensome restrictions and inventions of men. In this period of the world’s history with the vast work that is before us, we need to observe the greatest simplicity, and the word will be stronger for its simplicity. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 24.3
“Let none entertain the thought, however, that we can dispense with organization. It has cost us much study, and many prayers for wisdom that we know God has answered, to erect this structure. It has been built up by his direction, through much sacrifice and conflict. Let none of our brethren be so deceived as to attempt to tear it down, for you will thus bring in a condition of things that you do not dream of. In the name of the Lord, I declare to you that it is to stand, strengthened, established, and settled. At God’s command, “Go forward,” we advanced when the difficulties to be surmounted made the advance seem impossible. We know how much it has cost to work out God’s plans in the past, which has made us as a people what we are. Then let every one be exceedingly careful not to unsettle minds in regard to those things that God has ordained for our prosperity and success in advancing his cause. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 24.4
“The work is soon to close. The members of the church militant who have proved faithful will become the church triumphant. In reviewing our past history, having travelled over every step of advance to our present standing, I can say, Praise God! As I see what God has wrought, I am filled with astonishment and with confidence in Christ as Leader. We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and his teaching in our past history. We are now a strong people, if we will put our trust in the Lord; for we are handling the mighty truths of the word of God. We have everything to be thankful for. If we walk in the light as it shines upon us from the living oracles of God, we shall have large responsibilities, corresponding to the great light given us of God. We have many duties to perform, because we have been made the depositories of sacred truth to be given to the world in all its beauty and glory. We are debtors to God to use every advantage he has entrusted to us to beautify the truth of holiness of character, and to send the message of warning, and of comfort, of hope and love, to those who are in the darkness of error and sin. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 24.5
“Thank God for what has already been done in providing for our youth facilities for religious and intellectual training. Many have been educated to act a part in the various branches of the work, not only in America but in foreign fields. The press has furnished literature that has spread far and wide the knowledge of the truth. Let all the gifts that like rivulets have swelled the stream of benevolence be recognized as a cause of thanksgiving to God. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 24.6
“We have an army of youth to-day who can do much if they are properly directed and encouraged. We want our children to believe the truth. We want them to be blessed of God. We want them to act a part in well organized plans for helping other youth. Let all be so trained that they may rightly represent the truth, giving the reason of the hope that is within them, and honoring God in any branch of the work where they are qualified to labor. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 24.7
“We are still free to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience. As the disciples of Christ it is our duty to diffuse light which we know that the world has not. Let the people of God be “rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 24.8
ELLEN G. WHITE.
Our work is extending in every direction. The time has come to open missions in many of our large cities. These are needed especially in Chicago. The work needed to be carried on in such missions must include visiting the sick, supplying the needs of the destitute, and pointing the unfortunates to the Lamb of God. We need not go to foreign lands to find work of this kind to do. There is force in the statement that “charity begins at home”. But why have not steps been taken in this direction before? We have lacked the workers and the means. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 24.9
Our work is extending in foreign lands with wonderful rapidity. It will soon be impracticable to attempt to get delegates together from all the fields in foreign lands. Groups of Conferences in distant fields must be formed for the purpose of holding District Conferences, which Conferences can elect delegates to the General Conference. At such Conferences there can be representatives from the General Conference, and the work can be made to blend in all parts of the world. We would ask, What can be the objection to organizing District Conferences for the convenience of foreign lands? There is the publishing work in London. That city is one of the most important centers on the globe. It would seem to be desirable that the General Conference should take the responsibility of a work so important as that, and this could more readily be done through the agencies afforded by District Conferences. It would seem that the problem of unity of effort in many distant fields, such as Australasia, South America, etc., could not be solved so well in any other way as to provide such fields with District Conferences. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 24.10
THE MIND OF CHRIST. - No. 2. ELDER R. C. PORTER
AT 7 P. M. Elder Porter resumed his discourses on the mind of Christ. Elder Porter said: The study of the mind of Christ is the study of the mind of God, for the mind of Christ contains the eternal purpose of God in all his works. His mind is a transcript of the divine mind of God. It is higher than the heaven, and it will therefore require the eternal ages for it to be fully revealed to us. Christ is the great teacher of the plan of salvation of God from eternity. The Spirit of God is the agency by which he reveals it, and that Spirit is called “the eternal Spirit.” Created beings need an eternity to study this plan, and this is true of the inhabitants of every world the Lord has made; so an eternal life, and an eternal home was necessary, and God has provided them for us. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 25.1
God would have all the world study the same subject and come to the same conclusions, and he sets us to studying the mind of Christ that we may do so. We can understand it only as it becomes our mind, not in theory but in reality. All the intelligent beings in the universe can study the same great plan, and by so doing will be united in one. No wonder the angels desired to look into a plan so great! How great? - It is the mystery of godliness, the unsearchable riches of Christ. Its depths never can be fathomed. God’s plan in the beginning was unfolded as far as was needed at that time. He desired that all that should serve him should choose to do so. He must either make man an irresponsible machine, or make him free. In making him free there was a liability that man might sin, but God did not create sin; he is not responsible for its existence in the world. The lessons drawn from Christ in creation are valuable to us to-day. There was no difference in the position he took in creation or in redemption. The same humility was seen in both places. His heart was the same all the time. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 25.2
Elder Porter then referred to the creation of the earth, and all the worlds. God is a God of order. It was his purpose that every planet in the universe should have a head - a controlling power or government. Adam was to be the head of this world (Genesis 1:26); he was to be the prince. Then when Satan came and overcame Adam, he took his place as the prince of the world. John 14:30. The question may arise, Can the devil tempt the inhabitants of other worlds? And if the people of other worlds should sin, would the plan of redemption avail for them? Yes; the plan was laid for all the universe. Hence Satan and the fallen angels had a provision made for them, but they did not avail themselves of it. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 25.3
Sin entered the earth and the earth was lost because the head of the government was overthrown. Sin also entered heaven, but heaven was not lost, for Christ was the head of the government of heaven, and he did not fall under Satan’s power. Some of the subjects were lost, the angels who left their “first estate,” and when they refused to return, they were cast out. Jude 6. Christ has now taken Adam’s place as the head of the human race. He is the “second Adam.” 1 Corinthians 15:45. To take the place lost by Adam he came in the flesh and became like one of us, subject to all the temptations to which Adam was subjected. And we are to be created anew in him. Colossians 3:10. Created in his image, and he in all, and there is one great family in heaven and earth. Ephesians 1:10. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 25.4
While angels, and the inhabitants of the world who have never sinned, are studying the great theme of redemption, we are studying it here. The plan has been perfected, the price for our salvation has been paid and we are awaiting the time of redemption. God made the world to be inhabited Isaiah 45:18. It was his purpose that its inhabitants should be holy beings. And when the earth is redeemed and the first dominion (Micah 4:8) is restored, holiness will be restored in the earth. Isaiah 60:21. Then the image of Christ will be restored in every being in the universe. Then there will be eternal life and eternal inheritance. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 25.5
If Adam had not sinned, then any one, to become partaker of the inheritance, would have to be born of Adam, in Adam’s line of descent. But now Christ has taken Adam’s place as the head of the human family, and those who become partakers of the inheritance must be born of him. So we read of the new birth. John 3:3. We must be born of the Spirit, the incorruptible seed which liveth and abideth forever. 1 Peter 1:23. Every person who shares in the dominion must be born anew, - he must be in Christ by a new birth. It was in view of this spiritual relation, that Christ did not know his own mother in the flesh. Matthew 12:50. Those who did his will, were his brethren, - his father, sister and brother. So Paul declared that he knew no man after the flesh. Should we not be glad to belong to such a glorious family? Christ is the teacher of this great family. We are studying that eternal plan here. We do not yet know anything as we ought to know it. God’s family is scattered through all the universe, and are all being taught of the Lord. We can only teach what Christ reveals to us. We should study according to the way described in Jeremiah 23:35. Let us receive the word of the Lord, by whomsoever it may come. Let us ask one another what the Lord has spoken, and when we learn what it is, let us say Amen. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 25.6
Another point I wish to make is, Christ created all things by the word of his power. All the universe, every planet is upheld by that power. It is not hard work for the earth and all the planets to remain in their places. They are upheld, and they cannot help it. Now this same power is given to us, and cannot we be upheld? Yes; God is able to make us stand. Man is a part of the “all things” upheld by Christ. It is easy to withstand temptations if he upholds us. Adam was placed on a platform of truth. As long as he stayed there he would not sin. The same is true of us to-day. It is a matter of the utmost importance that we stand on the platform. We will not be compelled to stand there. We can deliberately step off as did Adam. Satan has more ways of access to us than he had to Adam. Adam could only be tempted at one place, by the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He put himself upon that dangerous ground and fell. With the knowledge we have of sin and its consequences, could we keep away from that tree? We think we could. We have a lesson that Adam did not have. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 26.1
Elder Porter then read from Patriarchs and Prophets, 53, also from a tract by Mrs. E. G. White, entitled “The Elect of God.” He further read from advanced proofs of the “Life of Christ,” by Sister White, a statement to the effect that the everlasting covenant was manifested from the eternal ages, and that in God’s great plan, redemption was not an afterthought. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 26.2
THE WEST AFRICAN MISSION FIELD. ELDER L. C. CHADWICK
I REMEMBER to-night the first General Conference it was my privilege to attend. It was the one when we sent our first laborers to Africa, - Brother Boyd and wife, and Brother Robinson and wife. That was to South Africa, six years ago last fall. Since then we have seen the work develop until now there is a Conference there who have sent a delegate here to this meeting, and we have students from that country in our College. I am glad it has been my privilege to visit the west coast of that great country, and learn something of the situation and wants of the people there. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 26.3
I shall read three or four texts of Scripture to you, and then I want to know how many of you believe them. Romans 10:12-15: “For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed, and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard, and how shall they hear without a preacher, and how shall they preach except they be sent?” If these verses do not lay upon us some of the responsibility that rests on us as laborers in the great harvest field, and delegates to this Conference, then I do not know what could lay it upon us. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 26.4
“There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek.” Putting this in different words, there is no difference between a person with a black skin and one with a white skin. Brethren, do you believe it? I have associated much with the black people, have been with them in their meetings, and at the celebration of the ordinances, and have never enjoyed more pleasant associations among the whites. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 26.5
“For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.” Do you believe this? Then why isn’t the gospel carried to them? Where is the lack? for there is a lack somewhere. It is a lack of faith on the part of those who have had the gospel committed to them. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 26.6
“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” After laboring among these poor people for a few months I could appreciate the statement made by Elder Haskell, that however dim the ray of light that comes to a man, that light is salvation to that man. Their minds are not able to grasp all the theories that we have been disputing over, but I believe that when these simple people turn to the Lord Jesus Christ and believe on him, forsaking their former evil ways, they will be saved. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 26.7
The apostle asks us some very pertinent questions. I want you to let these questions settle into your minds, and weigh constantly upon them. “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach except they be sent?” We recognize the General Conference as the highest power in the work of God among men. Then, in the hands of these delegates will rest the responsibility of sending laborers to these foreign fields. And brethren and sisters I have a great deal of faith in the prayers of those at home offered up in behalf of those who have gone away. I have felt encouraged and strengthened during my absence by the knowledge that the brethren and sisters at home were praying for me. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 26.8
I can only give you to-night a brief outline of the condition of this vast African field, of the way in which the truth reached it, and the openings there are now for laborers to spread the truth of God. Mr. H. Grattan Guinness said that in opening up the Central African field, Stanley had done as important a thing as was the discovery of America four hundred years ago. It was my privilege to visit nearly three thousand miles of the west coast of Africa, from Dakar to Accra. The coast after we reached Sierra Leone, is about five degrees north of the equator, and the term “hot” does not adequately describe the climate. Sierra Leone is one of the oldest missionary stations on the coast, and the first one I visited. Freetown has a population of about sixty thousand people, but any estimate of the population is only approximate, because the people live out of doors most of the time, and it is very difficult to secure an accurate census. I found there seven or eight different religious denominations, and which two do you think are the most aggressive? They are, first, the Mohammedans, and second, the Roman Catholics. The Mohammedans are sending out their teachers all through this part of Africa, making their converts, and building their mosques. Brethren, are we to settle down here and let the Mohammedans carry their work all through that country, and then we have to convert the people from their Mohammedanism? GCDB January 29, 1893, page 27.1
The mission work is confined mostly to the larger towns along the coast. In villages, that is, towns of not more than five thousand inhabitants, the work is hardly started, and in smaller villages there is nothing being done at all. Then there are some missions in the interior. One quite prominent one is under the charge of the United Brethren. The Wesleyans control the principal missions on the Gold Coast. In other places the Baptist missions are the strongest. By a sort of mutual consent one denomination leaves the field to the other when the latter have entered it first. On the Gold Coast, which extends about 330 miles, the Wesleyans have a membership of more than 6000. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 27.2
A few words now about how the present truth first reached that field. It has been some time since missionary correspondence was first opened with persons in Sierra Leone. The International Tract Society now has a large number of correspondents in and about Sierra Leone, and we have been sending reading matter to them. Then, many of you remember that about two years ago a call was made from this desk for cast-off clothing and material for clothing to be sent to the people there, and two boxes were furnished and shipped. When I reached the coast I met Mr. Coker, who is a native preacher, and he told me of the good that clothing had done, and he earnestly pleaded with me that I would lay their wants before the General Conference, and ask them to send out some one to labor among them. He said that as soon as our mission was started, himself and his congregation would unite with us. Most of them he said believed the truth. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 27.3
They build churches out there in this way; they take long poles and set them up about fifteen feet apart, then use other poles for rafters and stringers, weaving in branches for the sides, and thatching the roofs, and in these the people gather and sit down on the ground. There is no platform and no seats, but they answer the purpose of a meeting house very well, and are much easier to speak in than an ordinary church building. I hardly felt at home when I got to London and held services in our house of worship there. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 27.4
The people wear but little clothing, some almost none at all, but I saw less immodesty among them than is to be seen in many civilized towns. Mr. Coker had told them about the boxes we had shipped to them, so that they knew they should have some clothing with which to appear in church. Mr. Coker told me he had been praying over this matter of proper clothing for the people with which to appear in church, when the two boxes arrived. One of those heathen men walked thirty miles to see me, and tell me how glad he was that some one had sent him clothing so that he could come to church. I thought you here who had sent it would be glad to have me tell you these incidents. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 27.5
The truth came to Sierra Leone first through reading matter, and there are a few there who are obeying it, but they have to meet great opposition. They hear it said, “These people have no church and no minister to conduct the work, and it will soon go to pieces.” The people are not naturally constituted to lead themselves, they must have a mission, a preacher, a school, and someone to teach their children and bury their dead. I told them I would try to do what I could to have their wants supplied by the General Conference. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 27.6
Further out, in Liberia, the work was started by Brother Gaston of the Washington, D. C., church. I visited the Gold Coast also where the truth has reached the people by reading matter. After spending some months in this tropical country, and having learned the natural instability of the people, I found the work on the Gold Coast in a much better condition than I had expected. A few of the brethren there can speak English. I gave them some instruction, but did not baptize anyone, preferring to leave that till a later time. There are on this coast about fifty or sixty people obeying the truth, and they had never seen a Seventh-day Adventist until I visited them. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 27.7
Providentially, as it seemed, before visiting the Gold Coast, I had the privilege of spending one Sunday with the chairman of the Wesleyan Mission in that field. I talked with him quite freely, and told him of our belief, and he was very friendly. I learned from him that at Appam, where most of those interested in the truth live, there is not a single white resident. So, as the Wesleyans were doing but very little there, I told him I thought this would be a good place to start our work, and he concurred with me. The captain of the steamer wondered, when I told him I was going to Appam. Why, said he, you do not expect to stop there, do you? Yes, I said calmly. Why, he replied, there is not a decent house in the whole town! But I told him I would go, and I did, and I found one house there that was quite comfortable. Our people there had been expecting me, and had made all arrangements for my reception, and I never in my life saw a people more glad to see a person than they were to see me. I had sent word that I was coming on shore, and I watched the surf boats coming off to the steamer to see if I could pick out Brother Dolphijn from among them. Soon I saw in one of them a man standing up in the bow of the boat and looking anxiously toward the steamer, and I guessed that he was Brother Dolphijn. He came up the rope ladder at the side of the vessel several steps at a time and met me at the top of the stairs. He exclaimed, “Can you tell me if Elder Chadwick is here?” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 28.1
“Yes,” I said, “he is here.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 28.2
“Can you tell me where I can find him?” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 28.3
“Yes,” I replied, “I am the man!” and, brethren, I tell you there were some tears of rejoicing shed there on the deck of that steamer. When I met the people on shore I thought they would carry me on their shoulders, they seemed so glad. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 28.4
I went out as much as I could into the interior. They have no horses or sleds or oxen to travel with, and it was intensely hot. We walked about ten miles into the interior one morning, and how many heathen villages do you think we passed through in that ten miles? There were no less than five, with from five hundred to two thousand people in each. In five minutes time after we entered the village, from one hundred to one hundred and fifty people would be gathered around us. Then, through Brother Dolphijn, as interpreter, I would ask them some questions, and try to give them some knowledge of the gospel, as much as I could in fifteen or twenty minutes. This is a sample of the population of the Gold Coast of Africa. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 28.5
Brother Dolphijn has a farm ten miles back from the coast. They can raise good corn, but no wheat, and their flour has to be imported, and when I tell you that a garment hung on the wall for forty eight hours will be white with mold, you can understand that the bread they have to use is not the best in the world. And what kind of a mansion do you think Brother Dolphijn lives in? His house was made of four poles ten feet high set in the ground, making a space of about twelve feet square. About five feet up from the ground he had poles withed on, on which was laid the floor, the sides formed of twigs and branches deftly woven in, with a thatched roof. This is Brother Dolphijn’s house. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 28.6
If I were to ask this General Conference for the help I think we ought to give this three thousand miles of coast, I would ask for one hundred missionaries, but I know we haven’t got them to send, so I am going to ask for just - three! And, brethren, will you be willing to give them? I am going to ask the General Conference to send three men to that coast to open up three missions, one at Appam, one in Liberia, at or near the home of Brother Gaston, and one in Sierra Leone near Freetown. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 28.7
I have faith to believe that by the time of the next General Conference we shall have a score or more of laborers raised up to work in that far-off field. We must also send over a portable house for each mission company. The natives live on six cents a day, so the expense of the mission will be very light, compared with what it is in other places. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 28.8
May God help us to sense the importance of this field. There are more than half as many people who must be reached from that portion of the coast that I visited, as we have in the United States of America. At present we have not a single laborer among them. Surely this request for three laborers is a modest one. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 28.9
MONDAY, JANUARY 30
STATE AGENTS’ CONVENTION. - No. 2
The membership of the convention was increased at the second meeting by the presence of the following State agents: Vermont, E. R. Palmer; Virginia, A. M. Neff; Tennessee, J. A. Parker; Alabama, Daniel Graber; Ontario, B. Hagle; Manitoba, James Hackett. Upon motion, F. W. Morse, formerly general agent for the Maritime Provinces, was invited to membership in the convention, also the representatives of the several publishing houses. Of these there were present, Elder A. O. Tait, of the Central Publishing House at Battle Creek, and G. W. Morse of the Toronto Branch of the same. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 28.10
In order to accommodate a larger number, the hour of daily meetings was changed from 7:30 A. M. to 4:30 P. M. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 28.11
The chairman read a list of important subjects connected with the canvassing work, upon which different ones had been requested to prepare papers for presentation before the convention. This excellent plan insures mature consideration of the subjects designated, and enables the convention to give concentrated thought to the same to much better advantage than could otherwise be secured. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 29.1
C. F. Parmelee then read to the convention a paper on GCDB January 29, 1893, page 29.2
QUALIFICATIONS AND EXAMINATION OF CANVASSERS
After mentioning the importance of the work in which we as a people are engaged, the remarkable reading age in which we live, the comparative importance of the canvassing work, and the necessity for properly qualified laborers in this department, the responsibility of selecting workers was dwelt upon. This responsibility should be shared by the church to which the individual belongs, by those of our ministers who have acquaintance with the parties, and by the State agent. A few extracts will give the general tenor of the paper:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 29.3
“In no case should any one engage in this sacred work without connecting himself with heaven. Unto the wicked, God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldst take my covenant in thy mouth, seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee? Psalm 50:16, 17. It is an acknowledged fact that every advance move is judged by the representatives sent out to promulgate that movement. So it is with this message, and so it is with our books. The work our Saviour began on earth he is able to complete with his own servants, and to them only has he committed his goods. Matthew 25:14.” ... GCDB January 29, 1893, page 29.4
“But now we come to the difficult part of this subject; viz., How shall the selection of workers be made? Again I refer to the statement already quoted from the Testimonies, that as much care should be used in selecting the workers as in selecting men for the ministry. But on whom must this burden rest? On the State agent? On the executive committee of the Tract Society? Or on the Conference Committee?” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 29.5
“I will begin by making the assertion that primarily the duty rests on the minister who carries the truth to the people, for ‘all branches of the work belong to the ministers,’ says ‘Gospel Workers.’ And again: ‘When the youth give their hearts to God, your care for them should not cease. Lay some special responsibility upon them. Make them feel that they are expected to do something. When believers are formed into churches the responsibility rests more on the leaders of those churches. Meetings should be held frequently for laying upon all the burden of the cause of God. And when any begin to feel the restraining power of God to labor for him they should state their convictions to the leaders of their home church, and they, after making it a subject of prayer, should lay the matter before the Conference officers. The church has her sphere in which to work and should not be curtailed in that work by any man, or set of men.” ... GCDB January 29, 1893, page 29.6
“Should it be urged that all this ado will consume too much time, we can only say that God’s work can much better afford to wait than to be attempted by those whose hearts are not right before him.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 29.7
Opportunity being given for questions, several were asked, covering such features as were not dwelt upon, and which have an intimate bearing on the subject. 1. Responsibility of the State agent in selecting canvassers: As he sees those whom he considers capable to enter the canvassing work, let him place the matter before the church for their consideration. Exceptions were taken to this as a universal rule, and it was granted that there might be instances in which a variation would be admissible. 2. Isolated Sabbath-keepers, and those not holding membership in any of our churches: Decision regarding such would rest with some minister who might know them, or with the State agent, or such brethren as know them. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 29.8
3. Decision regarding natural and acquired abilities: While the church should be held chiefly responsible in the matter of moral fitness of a candidate for the canvassing work, the State agent is expected to be able to pass judgment in the matter of special qualifications necessary to go forward with the work intelligently and correctly. Natural and acquired abilities (other than moral considerations) are best decided upon by the State agent, who gives those matters his continual thought and study. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 29.9
4. Conflicting judgments: In cases when there is a conflict of judgment between the church and the State agent regarding an individual, the aid of a minister who knows all parties may be sought, or the Conference committee appealed to. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 29.10
One of the most important features of the paper and the accompanying discussions was the necessity for the churches to which candidates for the canvassing work belong, and the ministers who have acquaintance with them, to bear heavier responsibilities in the matter of the selection of canvassers; and that they should realize these responsibilities after the canvasser has gone into the work, and remember their obligations in the premises. Were this the case, the success or failure of canvassers would be given far more consideration by them than it is. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 29.11
On motion, the chairman was authorized to appoint an assistant secretary whose duty it shall be to edit the proceedings of the Convention for publication in the General Conference BULLETIN. G. W. Morse was subsequently selected for that work. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 29.12
The Convention adjourned to 4:30 P. M. of the 31st inst. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 29.13
THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE. - NO. 3
ELDER S. N. HASKELL. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 29.14
ELDER HASKELL, January 30, at 10 A. M., gave his third lesson on the study of the Bible. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 29.15
He said that it was his desire to show the importance of the Bible, so that we can see it as God looks upon it, and as he would have us look upon it. Then we will understand it. The gospel comprehends the entire Bible, and all the divine revelation we have is the gospel. No matter how it is revealed, it is Christ in us the hope of glory. This gospel was in Christ before the world was. Sin has made a development of the plan known. To reject or neglect any portion of the Bible is to neglect Christ and the gospel of Christ. God knew every individual case just as it is to-day in the plan of the gospel. This involves what we call fore-ordination, but it is not fore-ordination to God. It is fore-ordination to us. To God all time is present. There is no past or future knowledge with him. This is incomprehensible to us. We must grasp it by faith, then we can understand the divine truths. We may learn a theory of Christ. We should learn his divinity. The devil does not know our thoughts. We should be thankful for this, and if a bad thought should arise in our minds we should never utter it. Christ knows anything and everything about us. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 29.16
Elder H. then read the following from Testimony No. 33, beginning on page 155:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 30.1
“Keep ever before you this truth, ‘Wherever I am, whatever I do, thou God seest me.’ It is not possible for the least item of our conduct to escape the observations of the One who says, ‘I know thy works.’ The depths of every heart are open to the inspection of God. Every action, every purpose, every word, is as distinctly marked as though there were only one individual in the whole universe, and all the watchfulness and scrutiny of God were employed on his deportment. Shall we then break even one precept of his law, and teach others to do so by evasions, by assertions, by falsehoods, in the very sight of the Lawgiver? Shall we brave the sentence in the very face of the Judge? In this there is a hardihood which seems to surpass the worst human presumption.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 30.2
Yes the Lord sees everything in me as though I was the only person in all the world, and he watches everyone just the same. We cannot understand it, but God tells us that we may believe it. He wants to have us believe something. We should accept it because it is divine truth. When we fully believe, we are given another nature. Our soul and heart are changed. Nothing but divinity can change the heart. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 30.3
Elder H. then read the following extract from Gospel Workers, 130:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 30.4
“It is impossible for any mind to comprehend all the richness and greatness of even one promise of God. One catches the glory of one point of view, another the beauty and grace from another point, and the soul is filled with the heavenly light. If we saw all the glory, the spirit would faint. But we can bear far greater revelations from God’s abundant promises than we now enjoy. It makes my heart sad to think how we lose sight of the fullness of blessing designed for us. We content ourselves with momentary flashes of spiritual illumination, when we might walk day after day in the light of His presence.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 30.5
My idea is that we should read the Bible by course, and it is a good plan when possible for several to read it together. When we cease to study the Bible by course, and study only by subject we shall have a dry theory. Studying by subject is largely for theory. When we study the Bible simply by subject, we secure a theory to give to some one else, and that is all we have to give; but when we read the Bible as the voice of God addressed to us, it opens our understanding, and he unfolds himself to us. Then we have something of our own that we can give to another. The stream can rise no higher than the fountain that supplies it. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 30.6
Elder H. read again from Gospel Workers, 135:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 30.7
“There are deep mysteries in the word of God, which will never be discovered by minds that are unaided by the Spirit of God. There are also unsearchable mysteries in the plan of redemption, which finite minds cannot comprehend.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 30.8
Again on p.137:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 30.9
“The gospel is a revelation to man of beams of light and hope from the eternal world. All the light does not burst upon us at once, but it comes as we can bear it. Inquiring minds that hunger for a knowledge of God’s will are never satisfied; the deeper they search, the more they realize their ignorance and deplore their blindness. It is beyond the power of man to conceive the high and noble attainments that are within his reach, if he will combine human efforts with the grace of God, who is the source of all wisdom and power. And there is an eternal weight of glory beyond. ‘Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.’” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 30.10
Elder H. then read the following, on p.141:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 30.11
“The word and will of God are expressed in the Scriptures by inspired penmen. We should bind them as frontlets between our eyes, and walk according to their precepts; then we shall walk safely. Every chapter and every verse is a communication from God to man. In studying the word, the soul that hungers and thirsts for righteousness will be impressed by the divine utterances. Skepticism can have no power over a soul that with humility searches the Scriptures.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 30.12
Elder H. also read the following from Testimony No. 32, p.22:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 30.13
“‘The great day of the Lord is near; it is near, and hasteth greatly.’ Jesus says, ‘Lo, I come quickly.’ We should keep these words ever in mind, and act as though we do indeed believe that the coming of the Lord is nigh, and that we are pilgrims and strangers on the earth. The vital energies of the church of God must be brought into active exercise for the object of self-renovation; every member must be an active agent for God. ‘For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building, fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord; in whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit.’ This is a particular work, which must be carried forward in all harmony, in the unity of the Spirit, and in the bonds of peace. No place should be given to criticisms, doubts and unbelief.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 30.14
This study of the Bible, these truths we get from it, is the beginning of an education that will never end. The more interest we take in the study of these things here, the better prepared we will be to enter the same study in the future. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 31.1
Again Elder H. read from Testimony No. 32, p.57:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 31.2
“Jesus is waiting with longing desire to open before his people the glory that will attend his second advent, and to carry them forward to a contemplation of the landscapes of bliss. There are wonders to be revealed. A long lifetime of prayer and research will leave much unexplored and unexplained. But what we know not now, will be revealed hereafter. The work of instruction begun here will be carried on to all eternity. The Lamb as he leads the hosts of the redeemed to the fountains of living waters, will impart rich stores of knowledge; he will unravel mysteries in the works and providence of God that have never before been understood.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 31.3
How long then will we be getting our education? To all eternity. Christ will be unfolding these mysteries to us forever. All the mysterious providences of our lives that have seemed to us so dark and inexplicable will then be explained. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 31.4
In the gospel is to be found every scientific subject. Everything to make us wise and to build up our characters. It is all in that book. My confidence in the book is increasing every day. It is full of information upon all kinds of subjects. It was written by men of all avocations; by philosophers, and by ignorant men; by learned, and illiterate men; by farmers, by fishermen. God lifted the curtain and revealed to these men of different capacities the truths of his word. It was written by all classes that it might be a benefit to all. They each illustrated the truth by things with which they were familiar, but they are the words of God just the same. If we read the Bible with this thought in our minds, we shall be surprised to see how much instruction we shall find in it upon a variety of subjects. There is information about farming. The wealthy but selfish farmer tears down his barns and builds larger that he may have room to save to himself all his plentiful harvest; the sower goes forth to sow the seed, with varying results of good and ill success; the vine dresser carefully prunes his vine that it may bring forth much fruit, etc. The Bible has much in it about agriculture. It is full of wisdom of every kind. Colossians 2:2, 3. How much wisdom and knowledge is it to you, to me? We must decide this question for ourselves. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 31.5
Let us go back to the beginning and read Genesis 2:5, “And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground” etc. All these things were in the mind of Christ even before they grew. He knew every plant of the field and every herb before it grew out of the earth. There was nothing in the earth to make anything grow until God spake and made them grow. It was the power of God that made them grow. The same power makes them grow now. God gave everything power to reproduce its kind and man was to have dominion over all. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 31.6
Then God made the garden in which he placed the man he had formed. In that garden was every tree that was pleasant to the sight and good for food, an example of what the earth should be under the subduing influence of man. God created man in his own image, which is not simply the form of God but of the nature of God in intelligence, and he said to man “Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 31.7
He had given the man a sample of what he wanted the whole earth to be and expected him to make it so. Then God must have given him a knowledge of the nature of trees, - the nature of plants and their properties, and the art of cultivating them. If Adam did not have the knowledge, then God in commanding him to make the earth like Eden, was telling him to do what he could not do. This would have been as inconsistent as it would be to take a man from the city, who had never seen a farm and place him upon a large tract of wild but productive land and expect him to make out of it a landscape garden. Adam was indeed a landscape gardener in the highest sense of the word. How much intelligence then did Adam need, to rule over all the earth, and bring it into such a perfect condition? He knew enough on the first day of his existence to name all the beasts, fowls and every living creature. As primitive names are always expressive of the nature, appearance or habits of the thing named, Adam must have known of the nature of everything he named. He understood about the trees and shrubs. That is what we call botany. He knew all about the beasts, that is, he was a zoologist. As he would subdue the earth, his knowledge of what it contained, of its fruits, flowers and minerals, would have increased by his experience. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 31.8
God made Adam perfect, physically and mentally. He was little inferior to the angels of God. Hebrews 2:7. He was a specimen of the kind of men that God makes. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 31.9
Now what is the object of the gospel? It is to restore us to the condition of the original man. The object of the gospel is twofold, to keep men from sinning, and to restore and bring them back to their original state of purity, to the likeness of the Infinite God. Sin took away the knowledge Adam had, and we have been on the down-grade ever since. The object of the third angel’s message is to take us back again. The problem is being worked out to settle the question for the inhabitants of unfallen worlds. Our relations to the truth and to Christ have an effect upon other worlds. Colossians 1:18. Christ is pre-eminent in all things, everywhere. He is teaching the universe, and he wants us here to learn more of him. If anyone does not like to take the Bible and read it through, they need converting. When I hunger for righteousness for myself, to know what God will say to me, but not my choice, then God will give me all I need. Every day I shall be learning something of God. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 31.10
Elder Haskell then closed by reading from Patriarchs and Prophets, 49, 50. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 32.1
“God made man upright; he gave him noble traits of character, with no bias toward evil. He endowed him with high intellectual powers, and presented before him the strongest possible inducement to be true to his allegiance. Obedience, perfect and perpetual, was the condition of eternal happiness. On this condition he was to have access to the tree of life. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 32.2
“The home of our first parents was to be a pattern for other homes as their children should go forth to occupy the earth. That home, beautiful by the hand of God himself, was not a gorgeous palace. Men, in their pride, delight in magnificent and costly edifices, and glory in the works of their own hands; but God placed Adam in a garden. This was his dwelling. The blue heavens were its dome; the earth, with its delicate flowers and carpet of living green, was its floor; and the leafy branches of the goodly trees were its canopy. Its walls were hung with the most magnificent adornings, - the handiwork of the great Master-artist. In the surroundings of the holy pair was a lesson for all time, - that true happiness is found, not in the indulgence of pride and luxury, but in the communion with God through his created works. If men would give less attention to the artificial, and cultivate greater simplicity, they would come far nearer to answering the purpose of God in their creation. Pride and ambition are never satisfied, but those who are truly wise will find substantial and elevating pleasure in the sources of enjoyment that God has placed within the reach of all.... GCDB January 29, 1893, page 32.3
“While they remained true to God, Adam and his companion were to bear rule over the earth. Unlimited control was given them over every living thing. The lion and the lamb sported peacefully around them, or lay down together at their feet. The happy birds flitted about them without fear; and as their glad songs ascended to the praise of their Creator, Adam and Eve united with them in thanksgiving to the Father and the Son. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 32.4
“The holy pair were not only children under the fatherly care of God, but students receiving instruction from the all-wise Creator. They were visited by angels, and were granted communion with their Maker, with no obscuring vail between. They were full of the vigor imparted by the tree of life, and their intellectual power was but little less than that of the angels. The mysteries of the visible universe - “the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge” - afforded them an exhaustless source of instruction and delight. The laws and operations of nature, which have engaged men’s study for six thousand years, were opened to their minds by the infinite Framer and Upholder of all. They held converse with leaf and flower and tree, gathering from each the secrets of its life. With every living creature, from the mighty leviathan that playeth among the waters, to the insect mote that floats in the sunbeams, Adam was familiar. He had given to each its name, and he was acquainted with the nature and habits of all. God’s glory in the heavens, the innumerable worlds in their orderly revolutions, ‘the balancings of the clouds’ the mysteries of light and sound, of day and night, - all were opened to the study of our first parents. On every leaf of the forest, or stone of the mountains, in every shining star, in earth and air and sky, God’s name was written. The order and harmony of creation spoke to them of infinite wisdom and power. They were ever discovering some attraction that filled their hearts with deeper love, and called forth fresh expressions of gratitude.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 32.5
THE STUDY OF THE TESTIMONIES. - No. 3
ELDER J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 32.6
MY mind is impressed this morning to read again Ephesians 4:13: “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 fullness of Christ.” In my first talk I told something about the work of the gifts in producing unity; but that is not all there is to it, for our text says, “unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” And here is this little work of Sister White’s, “Steps to Christ,” which Brother Jones has called the “Gospel Primer” - yes, and it’s a whole library - in what direction does it point? Is it not in this very direction of growing to the up full measure of the stature of Christ? GCDB January 29, 1893, page 32.7
I have here Testimony No. 1, - a vision given Nov. 20, 1855, in the first Seventh-day Adventist meeting house ever built in Battle Creek. I read from the third paragraph. “Exaltation has come into the ranks; there must be more humility. There is too much of an independence of spirit indulged in among the messengers. This must be laid aside, and there must be a drawing together of the servants of God. There has been too much of a spirit to ask, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Said the angel, “Yea, thou art thy brother’s keeper. Thou shouldst have a careful watch for thy brother, be interested for his welfare, and cherish a kind, loving spirit towards him. Press together, press together.” There is the very root of order among us, laid right down in that testimony; and in the second meeting-house that was built definite steps were taken toward organization. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 32.8
I want now to connect with my text another scripture found in the first chapter of 1st John: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word of life.... That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: And truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” “If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth: but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” Verses 6, 7. Then how is it we are to get this true harmony and unity? Why, the text tells us that our fellowship is with Christ and the Father; so if we all have the spirit of Christ in our hearts and have fellowship with him, there’ll be no trouble about all having the same mind, and all being in unity. You remember the proposition in philosophy that “two things that are like the same thing are like each other,” and it is just so here. Two minds that are like the mind of Christ will be like each other. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 33.1
I have here a recent special testimony to brethren in responsible positions, and on page 11 I read these words: “Now is the time for God’s people to take up the duties that lie next them. Be faithful in the little things; for on the right performance of these hang great results. Do not leave the work which needs to be done, because it appears to your judgment to be small and inconsiderable. Make up every waste place, repair the breaches as fast as they occur. Let all go to work to help some one who needs help. There is a cause for the great weakness in our churches, and that cause is hard to remove. It is self. Men have none too much will, but they must have it wholly sanctified to God. They need to fall on the Rock and be broken. Self must be crucified in every one who shall enter the gates of the city of God. The fierce spirit which rises up in the hearts of some in the church when anything does not please them, is the spirit of Satan, and not the spirit of Christ. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 33.2
“Is it not fully time that we return to our first love and be at peace among ourselves? We must show ourselves to be not only Bible readers, but Bible believers. If we are united to Christ, we shall be united to one another. ‘A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.’ ‘We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. For even Christ pleased not himself, but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me. For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus.’ So then where is the working of the gifts to bring us? - “Unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 33.3
I want now to read a few texts which speak more about this fullness. John 1:14, 16: “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth.” “And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace.” Colossians 2:9: “For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” Ephesians 1:22, 23: “And hath put all things under his feet, and given him to be the head over all things to the church; which is the body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all.” Also Ephesians 3:17-19: “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.” As we behold and contemplate the infinity of God’s love to us, and grasp it and take it in, we are filled with all the fullness of God. “And he [Christ] is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church.” Then if we are united to that Head we are filled with his fullness. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 33.4
This is what the Bible teaches; and now let us see what the Testimonies teach. I thought I had read the Testimonies pretty thoroughly and understood what was in them, but now I begin to see things in them that I had never seen before. True, I had read these things, and thought they were very good, but somehow did not grasp the real point that was in them. This means that God is clothing his word with power. You can’t separate the message from the Testimonies. Just as well try to get along without eyes or nerves or muscles in your body, as try to carry forward the message without them. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 33.5
I read from Testimony No. 8, written in 1861: “We must study the life of Christ, and learn what it is to confess him before the world. In order to confess Christ we must have him to confess. No one can truly confess Christ unless the mind and the Spirit of Christ are in him. If a form of godliness or an acknowledgement of the truth were also a confession of Christ, we might say, Broad is the way that leadeth unto life, and many there be that find it. We must understand what it is to confess Christ, and wherein we deny him. It is possible by our lips to confess Christ yet in our works to deny him. The fruits of the Spirit manifested in the life are a confession of him.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 33.6
I stated yesterday some points of comparison between ancient prophets and prophets of our own time; but here is a point I wish to mention, concerning the difference between the true prophets and the false. With the false prophets there was always flattery, but with the true ones there was never flattery, but always reproof. So, in the Spirit of Prophecy, you would expect to find reproofs. And that is just what we do find. There have been a great many people with broken heads, people who found fault with the Testimonies given to them because their course had been reproved, and they would talk about them and say it was not true, and perhaps before they were through talking you would see from what they said that it was true. Notice what the Lord says in Jeremiah 44:4, 5: Howbeit, I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, O do not this abominable thing that I hate. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, nor turned from their wickedness, to burn no incense unto other gods.” You see it did not say, Oh, you are a good fellow; you are just about right. O no, it was “Do not this abominable thing that I hate.” There is shown the character of God’s messengers. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 33.7
Now how did the false prophets do their work? I turn to Jeremiah, and read in chapter 23, verses 16, 17: “Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you; they make you vain, they speak a vision of their own heart and not out of the mouth of the Lord. They say still unto them that despise me, The Lord hath said, ye shall have peace; and they say unto everyone that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you.” Here you see the flattery that was a characteristic of their work. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 34.1
I read now another text, 1 John 4:1, 3: “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God.” I used to believe this meant that these false spirits had got to acknowledge the incarnation of Christ, but I bless God there is greater light coming to us, and now I believe it means to confess that Jesus Christ has come in our flesh. That is just how we are to overcome, - by Jesus Christ in our flesh, as the text says, “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.” “They are of the world, therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God. He that knoweth God heareth us, and he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” 1 John 4:5, 6. Here is the contrast. They are of the world, but we are of God, and God is our strength. This is just what we find in the Testimonies all the way through. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 34.2
At Rocky Hill, Conn., a circumstance occurred which brought these two opposite classes right together. A meeting was held at the home of one of our brethren, and there was a blind man there who claimed to have visions. Sister White had a vision in which she was instructed to tell this man and his wife that they should send for their daughter, who was away from home among strangers in New Britain, and have her return home right away, for she was in great danger, and that she had already taken an imprudent course. The blind man said, O no, the daughter would not do anything that was wrong, and he got up in the meeting and rattled off what he called his gift of tongues. There was quite a power went with it, and quite a number sympathized with him. Along about midnight there was a loud rap at Sister White’s door, and the word came that the daughter wanted to see Sister White, for she was sick, and was afraid she was going to die. The outcome was that she confessed all that Sister White had said. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 34.3
The next morning the man who claimed to talk with tongues was seen taking a hasty departure. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 34.4
But some say, I never had any testimony of reproof sent to me. How is that, - never had any reproof? Why, you have all had reproof. Christ said, “If any man hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” Just keep your ears open, and you will get the reproof. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 34.5
We say to ourselves, O that testimony is for Brother J. That hits him. Yes, but quite likely it hits you too, and if it hits you it was given for you also. Some of these persons who were reproved used to try to keep their reproofs hidden from their brethren, so that it would appear that Brother and Sister White sanctioned their course. This is what first led to the publication of the Testimonies. I read from Testimony No. 14, paragraph 8:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 34.6
“I have finally decided that many of these personal testimonies should be published, as they all contain more or less reproof and instruction, which apply to hundreds of thousands of others in a similar condition. These should have the light which God has seen fit to give, which meets their cases; it is wrong to shut it away from them by sending it to one person or to one class, where it is kept as a light under a bushel. My convictions of duty on this point have been greatly strengthened by the following dream: ‘A grove of evergreens was presented before me: several including myself were laboring among them. I was bidden to closely inspect the trees and see if they were in a flourishing condition. I observed that some were being bent and deformed by the wind, and needed to be supported by stakes. I was carefully removing the dirt from the feeble and dying trees to ascertain the cause of their condition. I discovered worms at the roots of some; others had not been watered properly, and were dying with drought; the roots of others had been crowded together to their injury. My work was to explain to the workmen the different reasons why these trees did not prosper. This was necessary, from the fact that trees in other grounds were liable to be affected as these had been, and the cause of their not flourishing, and how they should be cultivated and treated must be made known.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 34.7
Yet the Lord deals with us gently, and does not wish to expose all our faults to others, to be a hindrance to us. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 34.8
I read now from Testimony No. 15, paragraph 2. It tells of a dream that Sister White had which she thus relates:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 34.9
“I dreamed that a person brought to me a web of white cloth, and bade me cut it into garments for persons of all sizes and all descriptions of character and circumstances in life. I was told to cut them out and hang them up all ready to be made when called for. I had the impression that many for whom I was required to cut garments were unworthy.... I felt discouraged at the amount of work before me, and stated that I had been engaged in cutting garments for others for more than twenty years, and my labors had not been appreciated, neither did I see that my work had accomplished much good.... The person replied, ‘Cut out the garments; that is your duty.... The loss is not yours, but mine; God sees not as man sees. He lays out the work that he would have done, and you do not know which will prosper, this or that.’ I then held up my hands, calloused as they were with long use of the shears, and stated that I could but shrink at the thought of pursuing this kind of labor. The person again repeated, ‘Cut out the garments, your release has not yet come.’ With feelings of great weariness I arose to engage in the work. Before me lay new polished shears which I commenced using. My feelings of weariness and discouragement left me. The shears seemed to cut with hardly an effort, and I cut out garment after garment with comparative ease.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 35.1
But now comes somebody and says, O yes, I guess it was all so, but there is a little something about this that I don’t understand. It is about that teaching of Sister White’s that after the time passed, there was no more mercy for sinners. O, is that it? Well, bless your heart, Sister White didn’t teach that. I will tell you how that teaching originated. Joseph Turner was the first one to advocate it, at South Paris, Maine, after the passing of the time; though the same idea had been held by others before the time had passed. I read from “Rise and Progress of Seventh-day Adventists,” page 118: “Some of these fanatical and exclusive persons took the position that no one could be saved except those who had already identified themselves with the Advent movement. Shortly after the circumstances above mentioned, Miss Harmon returned to Maine and made a second visit to Paris, where she had a reproof for such extremists. Concerning this visit, I will quote from Mrs. Truesdail, who, as we have before said, then resided in Paris:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 35.2
“During Miss Harmon’s visit in Paris, Maine, in the summer of 1845, I stated to her the particulars concerning a dear friend of mine, whose father had deprived her of attending our meetings, consequently she had not rejected light. She smilingly replied, ‘God has never shown me that there is no salvation for such persons. It is those only who have had the light of truth presented to them and knowingly rejected it.’” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 35.3
Eld. J. N. Andrews, who resided in Paris, Maine, in 1845, and who is wholly conversant with the people there, and with that of Eld. Jos. Turner, who taught there was no more mercy for sinners, says of Miss Harmon’s position on the subject at that time, “Instead of the visions leading them to adopt this view, it corrected those upon it who still held to it.” To this I will add a further testimony by Mrs. Truesdail:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 35.4
“Another occasion worthy of mention was a vision given in 1846, in Paris, Maine. Miss Harmon was shown that when Satan could not prevent the honest hearted from doing their whole duty, he would exert his skill in pushing them beyond duty. One good sister had been telling the churches that God had rejected them because they had rejected the message sent from heaven to save them. Sister Harmon was shown that there was no truth in her message, as there were many in the churches who would yet embrace the truth; that the good angels would leave her (this sister) at the door of the church if she went there upon such an errand.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 35.5
Yes, but didn’t she get hold of that idea afterwards? No, that won’t do, for our enemies, who oppose the visions, say that she taught this from the very first. The people held to these doctrines, and whenever she would go to them and associate with them and hold meetings, she was charged with advocating their views; and this was how this shut door objection originated. She gave Joseph Turner a testimony, saying that he was corrupt at heart. Elder Turner had announced his intention of going to Portland, Maine, but this testimony said he had no call to go to Portland, and that his character would there be manifested. Then he turned against Sister White, and made the claim that she taught there was no more mercy for sinners. But at this very time, and later, people were being converted and brought into the light through her labors. Hiram Patch and his wife were converted in Oswego, N. Y., in 1848, by a testimony concerning a man who was conducting a revival. In this testimony Brother Patch was told to wait one month and he would see the true character of this pretended revivalist, and he did see it only about two weeks later. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 35.6
In 1849 Sister White had a vision about these false shepherds who professed to have a travail of soul for sinners, and yet had rejected the truth, that the time for their salvation was past; and since then people have pointed to this and said that Sister White had claimed there was no more mercy for sinners. But with those who came out into the light, and were converted at that time, you can no more shake their faith in the Testimonies than you can blot out Bunker Hill Monument with a blow of your fist. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 35.7
COUNCIL MEETING. - No. 3
HEALTH AND TEMPERANCE WORK
The council meeting Monday afternoon was conducted by Elder Olsen, the time being spent in the consideration of the health work among us as a people. The fact that this work has been connected with this people and this message from the early days of the message, and further, that the Lord has seen fit from time to time to give us instruction in regard to it shows that it is not one of insignificance or of little importance. The following testimony was read:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 35.8
“The health reform is closely connected with the work of the third message, yet it is not the message. Our preachers should teach the health reform, yet they should not make this the leading theme in the place of the message. Its place is among those subjects which set forth the preparatory work to meet the events brought to view by the message; among these it is prominent. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 35.9
“I saw that the reason why God did not hear the prayers of his servants for the sick among us more fully was, that he could not be glorified in so doing while they were violating the laws of health. I saw that he designed the health reform and Health Institute to prepare the way for the prayer of faith to be fully answered. Faith and good works should go hand in hand in relieving the afflicted among us, and in fitting them to glorify God here, and to be saved at the coming of Christ.” - Test. for the Church, Vol. 1, pp.559,561. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 36.1
The importance of this work and of looking after it to see that it receives its due attention, and that those especially engaged in it are devoted and properly connected with the general work, were dwelt upon at some length. The further extract was read touching this point:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 36.2
“In the vision given me Dec. 25, 1865, I saw that the health reform was a great enterprise, closely connected with the present truth, and that Seventh-day Adventists should have a home for the sick, where they could be treated for their diseases, and also learn how to take care of themselves so as to prevent sickness. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 36.3
“I saw that a very extensive work could not be accomplished in a short time, as it would not be an easy matter to find physicians whom God could approve, and who would work together harmoniously, disinterestedly, and zealously, for the good of suffering humanity. It should ever be kept prominent that the great object to be attained through this channel is not only health, but perfection and the spirit of holiness, which cannot be attained with diseased bodies and minds. This object cannot be secured by working merely from the worldling’s standpoint. God will raise up men and qualify them to engage in the work, not only as physicians of the body, but of the sin-sick soul, as spiritual fathers to the young and inexperienced.” - Test. for the Church, Vol. 1, pp.553,554. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 36.4
Whereupon the following from recent testimonies on “Health Principles,” was read:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 36.5
“A responsibility to spread the knowledge of hygienic principles rests upon all who have enjoyed the benefits of health reform. This responsibility rests upon every man and woman who claims to be a Seventh-day Adventist, and much more by those who are connected with our health institutions. All should realize that this is an important part of the Lord’s great work for the salvation of souls. Let it be the aim of all to be laborers together with God for the uplifting of humanity. All should be educators by precept and example. They should feel a personal responsibility to send forth fully instructed men and women who shall exert a direct and saving influence in the homes, the communities, and the churches to which they go. This would be the very best advertisement that any of our institutions could have.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 36.6
“God’s blessing will rest upon every effort made to awaken an interest in health reform; for it is needed everywhere. There must be a revival in regard to this matter; for God purposes to accomplish much through this agency. Present temperance, with all its advantages in reference to health. Educate people in regard to the laws of life, so that they may know how to preserve health. The efforts put forth at the present time are not meeting the mind of God. Drug medication, as it is generally practiced, is a curse. Educate away from drugs. Use them less and less, and depend more upon hygienic agencies, then nature will respond to God’s physicians, - pure air, pure water, proper exercise, a clear conscience. Those who persist in the use of tea, coffee, and flesh meats will feel the need of drugs, but many might recover without one grain of medicine if they would obey the laws of health. Drugs need seldom to be used.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 36.7
Elder Olsen remarked that the question of establishing health institutions and other institutions, is a very important matter, and should receive most careful consideration. He submitted the following extracts touching this matter, from testimonies lately received:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 36.8
“My mind is much perplexed, my soul is burdened, because I discern many things which our brethren do not see in regard to the prosperity of our institutions. The medical branch of the work is the most difficult matter now before us. I have received letters from Presidents of Conferences and from men of property, and have also had interviews with these brethren, in reference to establishing health institutions in different States. I could not encourage this without a careful consideration of the wants of the cause of God in every branch. I have brought before their minds the difficulties we have had to meet in the institutions already established, the discouragements that came in because there was such a dearth of men of piety, of principle, of unswerving integrity, of well balanced minds, of unselfish interest, - men who were wholly consecrated to God. Men of this character are the only ones that should have a controlling power in our institutions. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 36.9
“I have been shown that the matter of establishing and conducting health institutions should come under the supervision of the General Conference. Such institutions should be established, only when after careful and prayerful consultation it is decided to be essential for the advancement of the work of Bible hygiene and temperance, for the good of suffering humanity. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 36.10
“Our schools are under the supervision of the General Conference. This body decides as to the advisability of establishing new schools, as to how much means it is wise to invest, and also as to the educational force to be employed. Our medical institutions should stand in GCDB January 29, 1893, page 36.11
the same relation to the General Conference and the great whole. The establishment of a health institution is too important a matter to be left to the independent management of a few interested individuals. If the enterprise is under control of the General Conference, the way is open for deliberate counsel and a careful consideration of the matter, and if it is undertaken, there will be a united force to give it influence and standing, and this will contribute largely to its success. Under such management, a class of workers could be enlisted that otherwise could not be secured, and thus the enterprise would prosper when it would prove a failure in ordinary hands. And furthermore, there must be an authority to guard such an institution, so that persons who are not qualified shall not be allowed to grasp responsibility through selfish ambition in their professional line as physicians. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 36.12
“The Christian physician cannot maintain a supreme regard for his own individuality, acting in his profession without reference to his fellow-physicians, and indifferent or careless in regard to his accountability to God, or the relation he sustains to the cause of God at large. He should not enter upon important enterprises, such as the establishment of a Sanitarium upon his own independent judgment, pleading his desire to serve the cause of God, but in his works serving himself.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 36.13
The question of the relation that physicians and medical workers should sustain to the work in general was touched upon. Elder Olsen said he saw no reason why the worker in this line should not sustain the same relation to the work in general as that of other laborers. He called attention to the temptation and tendency of unconsecrated individuals coming to our health institutions and engaging in the work long enough to gain an experience and education in this line, and then leaving them to go into the work upon their own responsibility and for personal interests only, though using their former instruction and connection with our health institutions as capital to work upon. He raised the question why physicians among us should not receive and carry credentials from the General Conference as duly accredited laborers in this line of work and this feature of the message as well as ministers. He thought the Conference should speak more decidedly upon this subject. Some seem to think or act at least as though the health and temperance work was of little importance. Some ministers even are not by instruction and example ensamples to the flock and fit representatives in this matter. The speaker expressed it as his intention to do what he could to raise the standard in this respect. He said it was important that everyone should be true to principle and walk orderly. He submitted the following extracts, also from late testimonies relating to this point:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 36.14
“I have been shown that the physicians in our health institutions should feel that they are under the same obligation to follow Christ in all their devising, and in their connection with their medical line of work, as are the workers in our colleges or publishing houses. Not the least selfishness should be practiced in any one of these instrumentalities of God. Human reason and the world’s customs are not to be followed. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 37.1
“Men who are controlled by selfish desires should not remain connected with our institutions, and their course of action would better be exposed, that every church of Seventh-day Adventists may know what principles govern these men. This would be a wise and just precaution; for through their medical profession this class take advantage of interests which the Conference has built up at great labor, and sustained at great expense. Under the name of Seventh-day Adventists they establish themselves among our people, and represent themselves as working for the good of the cause. They are accepted as Christian physicians, and there is need that men and women should go forth into these various places, and act as missionaries in the capacity of Christian physicians; but they should be under the direction of the Conference. The people are so anxious to have institutions established, that they may encourage men who come among them to take upon them the responsibility of building institutions. But there are many who are practicing physicians who do not work with an eye single to the glory of God, but for the sake of gain to themselves.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 37.2
He then gave extracts from late testimonies, showing the importance of this line of work, reading as follows:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 37.3
“I am much perplexed in regard to many matters concerning the education of men and women to become medical missionaries. I could wish that there were one hundred nurses in training where there is one. It ought to be thus. Both men and women can be so much more useful as medical missionaries than as missionaries without the medical education. I am more and more impressed with the fact that a more decided testimony must be borne upon this subject, that more direct efforts must be made to interest the proper persons, setting before them the advantages that every missionary will have in understanding how to treat those who are diseased in body, as well as to minister to sin-sick souls. The double ministration will give the laborer together with God, access to homes, and will enable him to reach the higher classes of society. An intelligent knowledge of how to treat disease upon hygienic principles, will gain the confidence of many who otherwise would not be reached with the truth. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 37.4
“I have been surprised at being asked by physicians if I did not think it would be more pleasing to God for them to give up their medical practice and enter the ministry. I am prepared to answer such an inquirer: ‘If you are a Christian and a competent physician, you are qualified to do tenfold more good as a missionary for God than if you were to go forth merely as a preacher of the word. I would advise young men and women to give heed to this matter.’ GCDB January 29, 1893, page 37.5
“Guilt rests upon us as a people who have had much light, because we have not appreciated or improved the light given upon health reform. Through misunderstanding and perverted ideas many souls are deceived. Those who teach others and who should be shepherds of the flock will be held accountable for their willing ignorance and disregard of nature’s laws. This is not a matter to be trifled with, to be passed off with a jest. As we approach the close of this world’s history, selfishness and violence and crime prevail as in the days of Noah, when the old world perished in the waters of the flood. As Bible believers, we need to take our position for righteousness and truth. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 37.6
“As a people, we are not doing one fiftieth of what we might do as active missionaries. If we were only vitalized by the Holy Spirit, there should be a hundred missionaries where there is now one. In every city there should be a corps of organized, well disciplined workers; not merely one or two, but scores should be set to work.... More attention should be given to training and educating missionaries with special reference to work in cities.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 37.7
In closing he remarked that one reason some have fallen out by the way of late, was because they had not been instructed in all points of the truth; they did not accept nor heed the testimonies. But not one principle, not one truth God has given, can be ignored with impunity. Unbelief makes the long, tedious road through the wilderness, and prevents our entering the promised land. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 37.8
THE PROMISE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. - No. 1
PROF. W. W. PRESCOTT. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 37.9
AT 7:00 o’clock P. M., Prof. Prescott commenced his discourse upon the promise of the Holy Spirit. He read as a foundation Luke 11:5-13. He said: The study we are to take up is the study of the Holy Spirit. Ever since this subject was assigned to me, I have been thinking about it, how it could be studied in a way most practical. It will be my plan to move along by easy steps to receiving the Spirit, and when the Spirit is received it will teach us more about itself that we can learn in any other way. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 37.10
I shall not take up any theory, for it would be all wrong. It is not theory we want so much as experience. This scripture I have read says if we knew how to give good gifts unto our children how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him. We do know that it is a pleasure for us to do that. And he is not only as willing to give his Spirit, but he is much more willing to give it to those who ask him. You think how much joy it gives you to bestow good gifts to your children, and then remember that God is much more willing to give the gift of the Spirit to you. Why do we not have it? Let us see if we can find the reason. Prof. Prescott then read John 14:14: “If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it.” Notice the expression “in my name.” Read verse 26. “The Comforter which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name.” The Comforter is sent in Christ’s name. We read also in John 15:16, “that whatever ye shall ask of the Father in my name it shall be given you.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 38.1
Whatever we ask in Christ’s name we shall receive. What then is it to ask in Christ’s name, if all our petitions are to be presented thus? Let the following from Steps to Christ, 117, answer:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 38.2
“Jesus said, ‘Ye shall ask in my name: and I say unto you that I will pray the Father for you, for the Father himself loveth you.’ ‘I have chosen you, ...that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.’ But to pray in the name of Jesus is something more than a mere mention of that name at the beginning and the ending of a prayer. It is to pray in the mind and Spirit of Jesus, while we believe his promises, rely upon his grace, and work in his works.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 38.3
Now we see what is meant by asking in Christ’s name. It is to pray in the mind and the Spirit of Christ, while you believe in his promises and rely upon his grace to work in his works. When we have this mind in us, we expect what we ask we shall receive. Then suppose we ask and our request has not been granted to us? What then? We should go back to the word and ask in his name, in the mind and in the Spirit of Jesus, while we believe his promises and work in his works. We must do it while believing his promises; must ask in living faith, the faith that makes every word of God a living reality to us. That will make us living representatives of God: that makes Christ take us and do the works through us. Those who thus believe on him have that grace which is an active agency that works in us. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 38.4
To ask, then, on this basis means that Christ must dwell in us. We can truly ask in the name of Christ only when he dwells in us. Faith is the gift of God, and grace is the gift of God, and it can only be wrought in us when Christ dwells in us and works the works of God. Everyone who asks according to the true meaning in the expression receives the Holy Spirit. If we have asked and have not received it, there is a reason on our part, and not on God’s part. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 38.5
We should find out what is in the way of the pentecostal season, and then we want to remove it. This is the most important thing before us. There is nothing that my soul longs for more than that the baptism of the Spirit shall rest upon the services of God at this time. Let us address ourselves to find out what it is that hinders, and then by the help of God remove it. This will not come to us in our way. It will not come to us in any easy, passive manner. We must have experiences like removing right eyes and cutting off right hands. Everyone who wants that experience, wants to be ready to give everything, even life itself, to God. [Murmurs of Amen.] And we should remember that it is easier to say Amen than it is to do what God says. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 38.6
Let us now look for the reason: We read in Revelation 7 that there are to be 144,000 who will have the seal of the living God. The same company are again brought to view in Revelation 14, and it is said of them in verse 5, they are without fault before the throne of God. The same expression is again used in 1 Peter 1:19, without blemish. Again in Jude 24, faultless. And again in Colossians 1:22, it is unblamable. The thought is that as Christ is without blemish so we are to be. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 38.7
Prof. Prescott then read Revelation 18:1. We all understand that this refers to the closing work of the third angel’s message, when it will go with a loud cry. And now I will read from an article from Sister White in the REVIEW of Nov. 22, 1892:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 38.8
“Let everyone who claims to believe that the Lord is soon coming, search the Scriptures as never before; for Satan is determined to try every device possible to keep souls in darkness, and blind the mind to the perils of the times in which we are living. Let every believer take up his Bible with earnest prayer, that he may be enlightened by the Holy Spirit as to what is truth, that he may know more of God and of Jesus Christ whom he hath sent. Search for the truth as for hidden treasures, and disappoint the enemy. The time of test is just upon us, for the loud cry of the third angel has already begun in the revelation of the righteousness of Christ, the sin pardoning Redeemer. This is the beginning of the light of the angel whose glory shall fill the whole earth.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 38.9
Now that angel of Revelation 18 is the angel that is to join the third angel and swell the message into a loud cry. And this message from Sister White says it has already begun to shine. What, then, is our duty at this time? It is to go out and give the LOUD cry of the message to the world. Prof. Prescott then read from “Historical Sketches of Foreign Missions,” p.155. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 38.10
“Our only safeguard against the wiles of Satan is to diligently study the Scriptures; to have an intelligent understanding of the reasons of our faith; and to faithfully perform every known duty. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 38.11
The indulgence of one known sin will cause weakness and darkness, and subject us to fierce temptation.... Are our supplications ascending to God in living faith? Are we opening the door of the heart to Jesus, and closing every means of entrance to Satan? Are we daily obtaining clearer light and greater strength, that we may stand in Christ’s righteousness? Are we emptying our hearts of all selfishness, and cleansing them, preparatory to receiving the latter rain from heaven?” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 39.1
We must overcome the disposition to sin or we cannot receive the latter rain. The light that is to lighten the earth with its glory has already begun to shine. What does this mean to us practically? It means that the shaking time is here and that God is going to make a separation in his own people, and those who do not have Jesus living in them will not be permitted to take any part in the work of God when it swells into a loud cry. To my mind God has begun to deal with his people in dead earnest. It is no time to dally with God; no time to spend in idleness. If ever God’s people should walk carefully and softly before him it is now. His people at this time should wait for the power of God. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 39.2
Revelation 3:18. What is the counsel of the faithful and true witness? It is to be either cold or hot. God wants us to be something. He wants us to be one thing or the other. The gold tried in the fire is the faith and love; the clothing is the righteousness of Christ, and the anointing is the unction of the Holy Spirit. The preaching of this will cause the shaking among God’s people. Standing this side of events that have taken place the last four years we ask, Has it been fulfilled? Some think they do not need the righteousness of Christ, and others oppose it. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 39.3
As many as he loves he rebukes and chastens. Last year at the week of prayer the especial testimony to us was, “Be zealous, therefore, and repent.” Many more people than we imagine are longing for Jesus Christ. The loud cry and the latter rain go together. As the time has come for the loud cry it has also come for the latter rain, and we are to ask for it. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 39.4
The first work of the Spirit of God is to convince us of sin, and it will be the same here. If we do not say yes when the Spirit convinces us of sin, it will not convince us of righteousness. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 39.5
The Lord has long been waiting to give us his Spirit. He is even now impatiently waiting that he may bestow it upon us. How much longer shall he have to wait? GCDB January 29, 1893, page 39.6
Now we have been accustomed to turn to pentecost as the time when the Lord did the greatest work he ever did for his people. But now a work that will be greater than pentecost has begun, and there are those here who will see it. It is here, it is now we are to be fitted for the work. We have not a moment to lose; not a moment to waste. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 39.7
THE THIRD ANGEL’S MESSAGE. - NO. 2. ELDER A. T. JONES
I will take a text to-night that will last a week at least. It is a familiar statement to all, I think. It is as follows:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 39.8
“The people who will now see what is soon to come upon us by what is being transacted before us, will no longer trust in human inventions, and will feel that the Holy Spirit must be recognized, received, presented before the people.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 39.9
To-night, to begin with and to lay the foundation for what is to come, we will look at the situation as it exists to-night before us in the United States government. And for this reason I shall relate the experiences of the hearing that took place lately in Washington; beginning with that, and simply state the facts as they are before us to-night, and then afterward we can find out the bearing of the facts that already exist. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 39.10
When the first movement was made for religious legislation by Congress in the United States, you will remember that we began to circulate a petition, which was, in effect, a remonstrance against anything of the kind, containing these words:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 39.11
“To the Honorable, the Senate of the United States:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 39.12
“We, the undersigned, adult residents of the United States, twenty one years of age or more, hereby respectfully, but earnestly, petition your Honorable Body not to pass any bill in regard to the observance of the Sabbath, or the Lord’s day, or any other religious or ecclesiastical institution or rite; nor to favor in any way the adoption of any resolution for the amendment of the National Constitution that would in any way tend, either directly or indirectly, to give preference to the principles of any religion or of any religious body above another, or that will in any way sanction legislation upon the subject of religion; but that the total separation between religion and State, assured by the National Constitution as it now is, may forever remain as our fathers established it.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 39.13
And the Sunday closing of the World’s Fair, when that came up, this was likewise brought before Congress under this protest:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 39.14
“We the undersigned, citizens of the United States, hereby respectfully, but decidedly, protest against the Congress of the United States committing the United States Government to a union of religion and the State in the passage of any bill or resolution to close the World’s Columbian Exposition on Sunday, or in any other way committing the Government to a course of religious legislation.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 39.15
The Breckinridge bill was protested against in the same way; the bill to stop the delivery of ice on Sunday, last year, in Congress, was protested against in the same way; so that our protest in this respect has been against Congress touching the subject in any way at all: but it did do it, as we expected always, of course, that it would. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 39.16
While we were circulating these petitions men would not believe that there was enough of importance in it to sign their names to the petitions, even when they believed that the petition was all right in itself. Men would admit that that was all right. They would say, “I believe all that; but it is not of enough importance to pay any attention to; I would not take the time to sign my name to it, although I am in favor of all that you are saying. No such thing as that will ever be done.” And because there were so many of that kind of people who did not believe that it would ever be done, it was done. And when they found out it was done, they began to try to have it undone. They began to wake up to see that they were mistaken, and that it had been done; and then seeing their mistake, they began trying to retrieve it by asking that the World’s Fair should be open on Sunday. And the reasons they urge for the opening of the Fair are precisely the same reasons that were given for closing it. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 39.17
This movement for opening, originated in Chicago. The Chicago Herald started it, and the city council of Chicago took it up, and drafted a memorial to Congress, which the city council, with the mayor at its head, as representatives from the city of Chicago, took to Washington, and presented the first day of the four days’ hearing. Some of the reasons that were given upon which they asked that the Fair should be opened on Sunday, I will read:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 40.1
“The wish of the Council is, - GCDB January 29, 1893, page 40.2
“That the gates of the world’s Columbian Exposition be not closed Sunday. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 40.3
“That all machinery be stopped, and that noise be suppressed that day, to the end that quiet may prevail, which is in keeping with the Sabbath.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 40.4
That recognizes Sunday as the Sabbath, and of course there is a certain quiet that becomes it; and they wanted it open with the machinery stopped “that the quiet may prevail.” That is the same reason that the other folks want it shut on Sunday. They want the same thing. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 40.5
“That suitable accommodations be provided within the Exposition grounds for holding religious services the Sabbath day, to the end that all the denominations may have worship conducted according to their several customs without obstruction or hindrance.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 40.6
That is the same reason that the other folks wanted it shut - so that they could have religious services in their churches. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 40.7
“We recognize and rejoice in the fact that our country is and always has been a Christian Nation.” ... GCDB January 29, 1893, page 40.8
And the leading reason urged by the churches for closing it is that “this is a Christian Nation.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 40.9
“We are of the opinion that more good will be accomplished by permitting these people and all others who desire it, to visit the inside of the grounds than will follow from keeping them out.... We believe that the United States, as a Christian country, should open the gates Sunday as a recognition of the fact that in no branch of human interest or thought has there been more progress during that four hundred years of time than in the Christian Church.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 40.10
That is exactly the reason that the other folks gave for shutting it: that the United States, as a Christian nation, should shut the Fair on Sunday as a recognition of the advancement made in Christian ideas. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 40.11
“Would it not be a good thing to throw the sanctify of religious worship about the great temple dedicated to the things of use and beauty?” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 40.12
And the reason given for shutting the Fair was that it would be a good thing to throw the sanctity of religion over the whole Fair. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 40.13
So you can see the reasons that were given for opening it are precisely the reasons that were given for shutting it. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 40.14
The Chicago Tribune, in mentioning the letter that Cardinal Gibbons wrote on the subject, introduced it in this form, in its issue of Dec. 3, 1892:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 40.15
“There is a strong and growing sentiment in some religious circles in favor of the repeal of the World’s Fair Sunday closing act. One eminent divine after another is coming out in favor of this liberal movement. The possibilities for a series of religious demonstrations at the Park become more and more manifest. With the leading religious and moral teachers of Europe and America to conduct services every Sunday, with sacred music produced by choruses embracing, perhaps, thousands of trained voices, Sunday at the World’s Fair will be one of the grandest recognitions of the Sabbath known to modern history.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 40.16
So the other folks said if the Fair be closed on Sunday, and the solemnity of the Sabbath overspreads it, and this nation sets the grand example of the recognition of the Sabbath, it will be “one of the grandest exhibitions of the Sabbath known to modern history.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 40.17
More than this: those who worked for the opening of the Fair pandered to the church interests precisely as the others did in working for the shutting of it. As soon as these things appeared in print I wrote a letter to Brother A. Moon, sending him these marked passages, and I said to him, “You can readily see that the reasons that are given by these people for opening the Fair are precisely the reasons that were given for shutting it. Now that being so, for us to join with them would be to recognize the legitimacy of the legislation and the reasons for the legislation, whereas every one of these reasons is directly against everything that we have been working for all these years in Congress. So this makes it plain enough that we can not put a single one of our petitions along with theirs. We can not take a single step along with them; we can not work with them at all, or connect with them in any way, in the way they are working or upon the reasons which they give for opening the Fair. We will have to maintain the position that the legislation is not and never was right at all. The only thing we can do therefore is to hold that the thing ought to be undone. The only position which we can take is that the Sunday part of the legislation should be unconditionally repealed.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 40.18
Brother Moon immediately replied that he had seen these statements, and had already taken the position that I spoke of in my letter. You will remember that about the same time I wrote an article which appeared in the Sentinel setting forth the same facts and taking the same position; saying that we did not care a turn of the hand whether the Fair was opened or shut on Sunday; but we did care more than could be told whether the subject should be dealt with at all by Congress. Therefore Brother Moon told the Chairman of the Committee, and the gentlemen who were managing that side of the question in Washington, that neither we nor our petitions could be counted at all in connection with that movement. The Chairman of the Committee asked Brother Moon what our position was. He told the Committee what our position was, and how many petitions there were there. Of course all the names that were gathered upon that first petition, nearly four hundred thousand, are just as good to-day as they were then, whenever any Congressman chooses to call them up and present them. They are everlastingly against the whole thing. Therefore the Chairman, when Brother Moon told him what our position was, and the reasons for it, said to him: “You write out your position as regards this legislation, and I will present it as a bill, in the House, so as to give you a basis upon which to present your petitions, and for your arguments to be heard.” Brother Moon, in that room, dictated to Mr. Thompson of Chicago, what we desired, and Chairman Durborow introduced it with his own name on it. Following is the bill:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 41.1
| 52D CONGRESS, | ] | H. RES. 177. |
| 2D SESSION, |
In the House of Representatives, December 20, 1892. Referred to the Select Committee on the Columbian Exposition and ordered to be printed. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 41.2
Mr. Durborow introduced the following joint resolution:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 41.3
Joint Resolution to repeal the religious legislation pertaining to the World’s Columbian Exposition. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 41.4
Whereas the United States Constitution specifically states that “Congress shall make no laws respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;” Therefore be it - GCDB January 29, 1893, page 41.5
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the act of Congress approved August fifth, eighteen hundred and ninety-two, appropriating five millions of Columbian half dollars to provide for celebrating the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus by holding an international exposition of arts, industries, manufactures, and products of the soil, mine, and sea in the city of Chicago, in the State of Illinois, on the condition that the said exposition shall not be opened to the public on the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday; and also that section four of “an act to aid in carrying out the act of Congress approved April twenty-fifth, eighteen hundred and ninety, entitled ‘An act to provide for celebrating the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, by holding an international exposition of the arts, industries, manufactures, and products of the soil, mine, and sea in the city of Chicago, in the State of Illinois,’” be, and the same is hereby, amended so as to leave the matter of Sunday observance entirely within the power of the regularly constituted authorities of the World’s Columbian Exposition. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 41.6
Then that being understood that that was introduced with the understanding, and for the express purpose of opening the way for us to present our petitions and to be heard upon the question, we proceeded upon that idea. The arrangement for the hearing was made. Brother Moon tells me that if the hearing could have been had before Christmas he is perfectly satisfied that we would have been heard; but the hearing was not appointed until after the holidays, and Congress took a recess during the holidays, and when Congress reconvened it was discovered that the Chairman of that Committee was another man altogether. I was informed that he had a dinner with Elliott F. Shepard in the mean time. Whether that had any effect upon his digestion or some other part of his make-up I do not know. At any rate that or something caused him to repudiate all that he had done, and shut out the principle which he had embodied in that resolution and presented in order that we might be heard. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 41.7
Dr. Lewis, the Seventh-day Baptist, went to Congress to be heard. He told me that he went to Mr. Durborow, the chairman of the committee, and asked to be heard. Mr. Durborow asked him what he represented, and what his argument was to be. Mr. Lewis told him that it would be upon the point of the unconstitutionality of the legislation already taken by Congress. Mr. Durborow told him that the Committee had decided not to hear any arguments at all upon the principle, but only upon the policy of the legislation; not to consider any question at all as to whether it was constitutional or not, but that Congress had done it, and it was presumed that Congress had the right to do it. And any mention as to the propriety of the legislation would be entirely left out, and it was only considered now as to whether it would be better policy for the country, to open the Fair or shut it on the Sunday that had been adopted by Congress. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 41.8
When that was done Dr. Lewis had nothing at all to say, and made no calculation to say anything. But the third day and among the last minutes of the day, Mr. Durborow called upon him to speak, giving him five minutes. Dr. Lewis told him that he did not have anything to say, that he did not have his documents with them, and that he had no intention to speak under the circumstances. But Mr. Durborow rather insisted that he should, that he had five minutes to occupy if he chose. So he occupied them though in rather a perfunctory way. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 41.9
Samuel P. Putnam was there for the same purpose, having several thousand of petitions in his pocket. He is president of the Free Thought Federation of America. He went to Mr. Durborow for a portion of time to be appointed him, and he received the same information; that any arguments as to the constitutionality of the question, or the principle involved, was not to be considered at all, but only the policy of the legislation. That being so, Mr. Putnam made no further request. But he likewise was called upon to speak, but was given only a very few minutes, which he occupied as best he could. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 42.1
I did not get there long enough beforehand to find all that out. Brother Moon knew it, but I did not have a chance to talk with him. My train was late, and I arrived there in time, by hurrying, to get to the committee room as the argument was opened. So I did not have time to learn anything about the situation at all. After the hearing Mr. Thompson of Chicago came to me and asked me if I would take the balance of the time that day, - the last half hour. I had written to Brother Moon that whatever arrangements they should make I would conform to when I got there. I supposed that was the arrangement. I told Mr. Thompson if they thought best I would speak that day, but I would like to wait until after the American Sabbath Union had spoken; but if they would rather, I would take the time. And so when I began I began on the only thing I knew. It was to call in question the legislation; but that was the thing they had decided not to have discussed. I noticed immediately that they were restless. The chairman was very restless. But I did not know what was the matter. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 42.2
So I will take up the question right there now. It is true that the chairman made a statement in opening the hearing that I understand now, but did not then. He said:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 42.3
“The meeting to-day will be held for the purpose of giving a hearing to those favoring the legislation that is before the Committee. I think it would be proper to state to the Committee that the present case is somewhat different from the case as presented a year ago; and that the proposition before the Committee is to modify existing law, not create law, as was the proposition a year ago. Therefore the discussion before the Committee on this occasion it is expected will be held very closely within the lines of modification presented in the resolution before the Committee, copies of which are on the desk, and which can be furnished to you, which provides for the modification of the closing of the gates of the Columbian Exposition on Sunday, by permitting them to be opened under restrictions as stated in these resolutions.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 42.4
That expression, “Not to create law,” was the statement that I did not understand then, but do now. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 42.5
Well, it was fortunate in another sense that I spoke that half hour, because there was no time afterward when I could have had a half hour. The longest time occupied by anybody after that was about twenty-five minutes, and the most of the fifty-seven speakers had only an average of about ten minutes allowed them. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 42.6
Although the chairman shut out the argument I was making upon the constitution, yet other members of the Committee asked questions until the whole half hour was consumed, and every one of their questions was presented in such a way that I was compelled to strike the constitution and the unconstitutionality of what they had done, in answering the questions. And so the argument they wanted to shut out was presented in spite of the efforts of the chairman. And the very things that he refused to listen to from us, were presented by others, in a great deal stronger way than we should or could have stated them. My argument before the Committee is as follows:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 42.7
Mr. Durborow. - You have just thirty minutes left, Mr. Jones. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 42.8
Mr. Jones. - Mr. Chairman, I expect to speak in favor of this legislation that is now before the Committee for a larger number of reasons than could be given in the half hour which I may have to speak; but I shall endeavor to touch upon such reasons as have not been dwelt upon very particularly hitherto. I shall start with one that has been touched by Mayor Washburne, to some extent, but which may be referred to a little more fully, and then I shall go from that to the consideration of other points. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 42.9
My first point is that this subject, of whether the gates of the World’s Fair shall be closed or opened on Sunday, is a subject with which the national government has nothing at all to do. It is entirely beyond its jurisdiction in any sense whatever. There are three distinct considerations - GCDB January 29, 1893, page 42.10
Mr. Robinson. - What church do you belong to? GCDB January 29, 1893, page 42.11
Mr. Jones. - I do not see what that has to do with the question. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 42.12
Mr. Durborow. - The gentleman certainly has the right to ask the question. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 42.13
Mr. Jones. - Is he a member of the Committee? GCDB January 29, 1893, page 42.14
Mr. Durborow. - Yes sir. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 42.15
Mr. Jones. - Very well; I beg your pardon; I did not know that the gentleman was a member of the Committee. I am perfectly willing to answer the question, though I cannot see what bearing it has upon this discussion. I am a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. But I speak here to-day as a citizen of the United States, and upon the principles of the government of the United States. And I may say further that in the way that Congress has touched this question, I may probably speak upon it as a Seventh-day Adventist; as Congress has entered the field of religion already, we have the right to follow it there, if necessity should require. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 42.16
What I was about to say is that three distinct considerations in the Constitution of the United States forbid Congress to touch this question. The first is well defined by George Bancroft in a letter which he wrote Dr. Philip Schaff, Aug. 30, 1887, which reads as follows:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 43.1
“My Dear Mr. Schaff: I have yours of the 12th. By the Constitution no power is held by Congress except such as shall have been granted to it. Congress therefore from the beginning was as much without the power to make a law respecting the establishment of religion as it is now after the amendment has been passed. The power had not been granted, and therefore did not exist, for Congress has no powers except such as are granted; but a feeling had got abroad that there should have been a Bill of Rights, and therefore to satisfy the craving, a series of articles were framed in the nature of a Bill of Rights, not because such a declaration was needed, but because the people wished to see certain principles distinctly put forward as a part of the Constitution. The first amendment, so far as it relates to an establishment of religion, was proposed without passion, accepted in the several States without passion, and so found its place as the opening words of the amendments in the quietest manner possible.... “ GCDB January 29, 1893, page 43.2
GEORGE BANCROFT.”
This is shown by the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution which says that “the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” As no power has been granted to Congress on the subject of religion, that is reserved to the States or to the people. That is where we ask that this shall be left, - just where the Constitution has left it. It is a question reserved to the States. It is for the State of Illinois alone, so far as any State can have anything to say upon the subject, to say whether that Fair shall be opened or shut on Sunday. If the State of Illinois should not say anything on the subject, it is still left with the people. It is for the people in their own capacity as such, to act as they please in the matter, without any interference or dictation by Congress. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 43.3
Not only is that so on that point, but if the Constitution had not said a word on the subject of religion, there would have been no power in Congress to touch this question. But the people have spoken; the Constitution has spoken, and denied the right of the United States government to touch the question, and has reserved that right to the States or to the people. Not only did it do that, but it went further, and actually prohibited the government of the United States from touching the question. This lack of power would have been complete and total without the prohibition, because the powers not delegated are reserved. But they went further, and not only reserved this power, but expressly prohibited Congress from exercising it. It is trebly unconstitutional for Congress to touch the question. It was so at the beginning of the government, and this is why we insist that this legislation shall be undone, and leave it where the Constitution has left it, - to the States or to the people. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 43.4
Mr. Houk. - The language of the Constitution, I believe, is that Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 43.5
Mr. Jones. - I am going to follow this question a little further, and notice that amendment. The amendment does not read, as it is often misquoted, “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion;” but “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” There are two meanings in this clause. When the Constitution was made, all that it said upon this subject was that “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.” Some of the States had established religions at the time; I think all except Virginia. Virginia had released herself in a campaign directly touching this question. The first part of the clause was intended to prohibit Congress from making any law respecting any of these religions which were established already in those States, and the second part of the clause prohibits Congress from touching the subject of religion on its own part, in any way. In the State of Virginia from 1776, - with the exception of the interval when the war was highest, - to Dec. 26, 1787, there was a campaign conducted over the same question that is now involved in this legislation. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 43.6
The English Church was the established church in Virginia, and the Presbyterians, the Quakers, and the Baptists sent a memorial to the General Assembly of Virginia, asking that as the Colonies had declared themselves free and independent of British rule in civil things, so the State of Virginia should declare itself free from British rule in religious things, and that they should not be taxed to support a religion which they did not believe, nor even any religion which they did believe. And the English Church was disestablished. Then a movement was made to establish the “Christian religion,” and to legislate in favor of the “Christian religion,” by passing a bill establishing a provision for teachers of that religion. Madison and Jefferson took the opposition to that bill, and by vigorous efforts defeated it, and in its place secured the passage of a bill “establishing religious freedom in Virginia,” which is the model of all the State Constitutions from that day to this, on the subject of religion and the State. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 43.7
Now then, that campaign in Virginia against the establishment of the Christian religion there, embodied the same principle that is involved in this legislation of to-day, and as that was distinctly shut out, so we ask that this shall be also, and Congress and the government step back to the place where it was before and where it belongs. Madison went right out of that campaign into the convention which formed the Constitution of the United States, and carried with him into that convention the principles which he had advocated in the campaign, and put those principles into the United States Constitution; and the intention of all was, and is, that Congress shall have nothing at all to do with the subject of religious observances. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 43.8
Washington in 1797, made a treaty with Tripoli, which explicitly declared that “The government of the United States is not in any sense founded upon the Christian religion.” And when Congress has legislated upon this question with direct reference to the Christian religion, therein again it has gone contrary to the express intent of those who made the Constitution and established the supreme law, as expressed in their own words. And for this reason we ask that the thing shall be undone, and Congress put the government right back where it was before that legislation was established, and leave the question where it belongs. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 44.1
Mr. Durborow. - Your objections are simply constitutional? GCDB January 29, 1893, page 44.2
Mr. Jones. - There are some others, but the foundation of all is the unconstitutionality of it. Those who sent up the petitions here, and those who worked for the movement in this Capitol, knew that it was unconstitutional when they asked it. A gentleman who spent six months at this Capitol for this legislation, has argued for more than twenty-five years, in print and in speech, that any Sunday legislation by Congress, or legislation in behalf of the Christian Sabbath, would be unconstitutional. And yet he worked here six months to get Congress to do that without any change in the Constitution. For twenty-five years, he, with the Association to which he belongs, has been working to get an amendment to the Constitution recognizing the Christian religion and making this a “Christian nation,” so that there would be a constitutional basis for Sunday legislation. But now in the face of that twenty-five years’ history and work, and in the face of their own arguments, they have gone right ahead, and got Congress to do it, when they knew it was unconstitutional. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 44.3
Another reason why we ask the repeal of it is that it was secured upon false representations. The representations which they made to Congress in order to secure this legislation, were all false. They represented before Congress that the mass of the people of the United States were in favor of their cause, which has been demonstrated over and over to be false. It was forcibly demonstrated in the city of Chicago not quite a month ago. There the American Sabbath Union held a convention, - a national convention. They had four mass-meetings the first night of the time in which the convention was held. One of those mass-meetings I attended. It was reported in the Chicago papers, of which I have copies here. I will read the Chicago report of it, so that it will be seen that I have not put any of my feelings into it. The Chicago Tribune of December 14, 1892, had this report:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 44.4
“IT WAS VOTED DOWN. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 44.5
“The American Sabbath Union suffered a defeat last night at one of its meetings which so surprised the leaders present, that the incident was a veritable sensation. It was an unexpected blow, and the more grievous because it was administered by one of the most sabbatarian of all Christian denominations.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 44.6
Mr. Jones. - This was not the first instance of the kind, as some present here will remember. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 44.7
Rev. W. F. Crafts. - That’s a good joke. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 44.8
“The Union opened a national convention here yesterday afternoon, and made arrangements for four mass-meetings throughout the city last night to forward the movement. One of these meetings was held at the M. E. Church, South Park Ave., and 33rd St. It was a small mass-meeting, but everything went on smoothly for a time, and the ‘American Sabbath’ had everything its own way. Dr. H. H. George, a leader in the movement, Mr. Locke, and others advocated the closing of the World’s Fair on Sunday, and vigorously denounced the efforts of the directors and of the mayor and city council to have Congress repeal the closing act. These speeches were, warmly if not unanimously approved by frequent amens and clapping of hands. No one looked for any opposition, and so the following resolutions were drawn up in a confident and emphatic manner:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 44.9
“‘Whereas, We are informed by the Chicago press that our City Council through the influence of Mayor Washburne has appointed a committee of its members to go to Washington for the purpose of influencing Congress to reverse its action with reference to closing the World’s Fair on Sunday; and, GCDB January 29, 1893, page 44.10
“‘Whereas, The Chicago directors have opened headquarters in Washington for the same purpose, notwithstanding the acceptance of two and one half million dollars’ appropriation from Congress on the express conditions that the gates should not be opened to the public on Sunday; and, GCDB January 29, 1893, page 44.11
“‘Whereas, There are seven thousand saloons running open every Sunday, contrary to the State law; therefore, be it - GCDB January 29, 1893, page 44.12
“‘Resolved, First, That we enter a most earnest protest against such official action on the part of the mayor and city council in using such measures in opposition to the action of Congress and spending the people’s money in attempting to reverse the very conditions upon which the appropriation of Congress was received. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 44.13
“‘Resolved, That we deprecate and condemn the action of the directors, who received the money from Congress upon condition that the Fair should not be opened Sunday (a bona fide contract), and are now using all possible effort to influence Congress to set aside said condition. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 44.14
“‘Resolved, That in our judgment it would be more proper for the mayor and city council to close the saloons on Sunday in accordance with the State law, than to endeavor to influence Congress to open the Exposition Sunday, contrary to law.’ GCDB January 29, 1893, page 44.15
“There was applause at the end, and then the chairman of the meeting, Rev. H. H. Axrell, put the resolutions to vote. To his and others’ surprise the ‘Ayes’ and ‘Noes’ seemed equal, with the volume of tone apparently in favor of the latter. The chairman then said, that a rising vote would seem to be in order, and he requested all in favor of the resolutions to stand up. The Secretary counted thirty on their feet. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 44.16
“All opposed will arise.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 44.17
“The rest of the audience, with the exception of four who seemed to have no opinion on the matter, stood up, and the secretary looking astonished at the evident majority paid little attention to counting heads, and declared that there were at least thirty-five against the resolution, and what seemed strangest was that many of them were women. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 45.1
“After a moment of wonder the chairman said he would like to have some explanation for the action of the majority.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 45.2
Mr. Jones. - I was there and gave the reason why we were opposed to the resolutions. The next day in their convention this thing was called up, and quite fully considered. And so I read the report from the Chicago Times of the following day:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 45.3
“Gloom pervaded the meeting of the American Sabbath Union yesterday morning. The unexpected set-back received at the meeting held at the South Park Methodist Church the evening before had dampened the ardor of the delegates, and only a baker’s dozen were in their seats when the presiding officer of that session, Dr. H. H. George, of Beaver Falls, Penn., called the meeting to order. The cause of the depression was the outcome of the meeting the night before. Four mass-meetings were held Tuesday night. At the first three, resolutions were adopted in favor of Sunday closing of the World’s Fair. At the last the resolution was defeated, the attendance, it is now claimed, being principally of Adventists. That was the reason of the gloom which pervaded the South Park Church yesterday. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 45.4
“The committee appointed to prepare a telegram to Congress reported the following:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 45.5
“‘The National Convention of the American Sabbath Union, meeting in this city, respectfully request our Congress, and especially the Committee on the World’s Fair, that no action be taken to repeal the Sunday closing law. Mass-meetings were held in four different parts of the city last night to protest against this repeal as an act dishonorable to Congress and the nation.’” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 45.6
“Dr. Mandeville was on his feet in an instant. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 45.7
“That should not read, four mass-meetings, for one meeting was opposed to the resolutions,” he said. “It should read three mass-meetings.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 45.8
“‘Yes,’ protested the committeeman, ‘but our resolution covers that point. It says the meetings were held to protest - it does not tell what they did.’” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 45.9
“But Dr. Mandeville would not be hoodwinked by any double dealing of the sort, and the resolution was made to say that three mass-meetings vigorously protested against the repeal of the Sunday closing law.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 45.10
And the Secretary of the American Sabbath Union for the State of Illinois wrote a correction to the Chicago Evening Post, in which he denounced those who voted against their resolutions as “brass interlopers,” and for having “massed their forces to defeat the object of this mass-meeting.” That opened the way for me to reply, which I read here as a part of my argument, and which explains this point a little more fully before this Committee:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 45.11
“CHICAGO, DECEMBER 17. - Editor of the Evening Post: - I would not needlessly add to the afflictions of the American Sabbath Union, but in justice to the people denounced in Rev. Mr. McLean’s letter in the Evening Post of Thursday, as well as to bring that letter within the boundary of facts, Mr. McLean’s correction needs to be corrected. That he should not have a clear understanding of the situation at the South Park Church mass-meeting of Tuesday night, is not strange. He was not there. I was there, and, therefore, beg a little space to correct his correction. He states that the Seventh-day Adventists, ‘evidently supposing it would be a fine stroke of policy, in order to defeat the object of the meeting, massed their forces,’ from the region of the meeting, ‘with the result as published.’ This is a total misapprehension. There was not a particle of policy about it; there was no thought beforehand of defeating the object of the meeting; and our forces were not massed. That there was no massing of forces will readily appear to all from the fact that while there are one hundred and ninety-four Seventh-day Adventists in this quarter of the city, there were only about forty at the mass-meeting. And whereas, there are fully three hundred Seventh-day Adventists in the other three divisions of the city - west side, north side, and Englewood - there were none in attendance at the Sunday Union mass-meetings in those three quarters. If we had done as we are charged with doing, at least three, instead of only one, of their mass-meetings would have been carried against their resolution. Mr. McLean ought to be thankful that we are not so black as he has painted us, and that they escaped as well as they did.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 45.12
“But why should they denounce us? Was it not 1 - “ GCDB January 29, 1893, page 45.13
The Chairman (Mr. Durborow). - I don’t want any more of such stuff as that. I do not see what bearing that has on this question. Please confine yourself to proper lines of argument. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 45.14
Mr. Jones. - It shows this, that their representation of forty millions of people - the masses of the country - is not true. When forty people can go to a mass-meeting and outvote them it shows that the masses are not with them. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 45.15
Mr. Durborow. - We are here on a matter of changing some legislation. I think we might as well drop that. The congressmen undoubtedly knew what they were doing when they passed that bill. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 45.16
Mr. Jones. - I am not casting any reflection upon Congress in this. I am not saying that the Congress knew that these representations were false. But is it not possible for congressmen to be deceived, and seriously to consider representations which were false? GCDB January 29, 1893, page 46.1
Mr. Durborow. - I don’t think your whole argument is very respectful to the Congress of the United States. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 46.2
You see he shut me off from showing that these representations were false and said he did not “want any more of that stuff;” but he got it. Rev. H. W. Cross, a Presbyterian minister from Ohio went to Washington to make a five minutes’ speech. And the third day of the hearing he set forth this matter stronger than I could have done. I think I had better give his speech right here. It is as follows:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 46.3
SPEECH OF REV. H. W. CROSS, BEFORE THE COMMITTEE
Mr. Durborow. - Rev. H. W. Cross of Ohio will speak for five minutes. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 46.4
Rev. H. W. Cross. - Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the Committee: The real object of my being here to speak a word, is in favor of intellectual honesty on the part of the orthodox churches. I am a minister of an orthodox church. I notice in my territory that these church petitions are exceedingly delusive as to the number of those that sign them or vote for them. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 46.5
Now for example, in one instance in our State the Presbyterians passed a resolution, saying that we represent so many, aggregating a certain membership; and then the Christian Endeavor Society, composed of many of the same church members alluded to by that Presbyterian church, will pass a like resolution, and say we represent fifty, seventy, or one hundred members. And then it will be brought before the Sunday-school. And many of the persons who are counted as voting for the resolutions will have been counted three, four, or five times; and it is almost on the principle of voting early and often - which is so much opposed in secular politics. I am a witness to this fact. There was one petition claiming to represent eighty church members that signed the petition to Congress but they were not present at all. It was at a Sunday-school, and the vote was taken by the Sunday-school superintendent, and there were children that voted for those resolutions that were not old enough to know whether the expression “World’s Fair” meant the pretty girls in the next pew or the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 46.6
I deem it my duty to inform this Committee of the facts in that case. The real animus of these petitions is religious. But you cannot tell by the wording of the petitions just what they mean; it is the spirit back of them that shows this. The columns of the religious press, and the exhortations of class leaders and Sunday-school superintendents, - it is what they say to the few that were voting, that tell what these petitions mean. I deem our legislators thoroughly competent, intellectually and morally, to decide this question without any imperious dictation from any sect or group of sects, as to whether this opening of the great educational exposition is consistent with the civil Sabbath. I notice a tendency in my own church papers and in other orthodox church papers to gloat over the fact that “we (that is this group of denominations having this common idea) have been strong enough by our own strength, to grasp Congress; we have hurled Congress against the Seventh-day Adventists, against the Seventh-day Baptists, and against the Roman Catholic citizens, and against various other of our citizens.” Now it seems to me that is hardly a desirable thing to do in this country. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 46.7
I cannot speak to you, gentlemen of the Committee, in the manner and to the extent that I had prepared myself, owing to the fact that I have but five or six minutes allowed me; and so I have simply presented these two points: that these petitions are exceedingly delusive as to the number who sign them, inasmuch as one and the same identical people have spoken many times, and in a great variety of instances, at conventions as individual signers, at Sunday-schools, as members of the Society of Christian Endeavor, - the same persons have voted again and again. And when you come to figure out the vast aggregate it is exceedingly delusive, and if the interests of the civil Sabbath - GCDB January 29, 1893, page 46.8
Mr. Durborow. - Mr. Cross, your time has expired. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 46.9
Mr. Cross. - Very well, then; I will leave my sentence unfinished. I bow to the decision. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 46.10
Another speech which most powerfully set forth this that the Committee refused to hear from me, was that of Mr. Thomas J. Morgan, a laboring man from Chicago. He had his speech written out to be read. But after hearing some of the church representatives, he was so stirred by their misrepresentations, that he, when he came to speak, forgot all about his written speech, the passing of time, and everything else, till the Chairman told him his twenty-five minutes were gone. I will give his speech here also. So I read:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 46.11
SPEECH OF THOS. J. MORGAN
After stating whom he represented, and that he had received word “from 375 labor organizations, coming from every town and city in the United States, in which there is sufficient industry carried on to promote or encourage the organization of a body of workmen,” and covering up to date “thirty-three States of the Union,” he said:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 46.12
Now Mr. Chairman, having stated the authority that is vested in me, I wish to say that I appear before this Committee under very great embarrassment. I did not know until two hours before I took the train that I should be able to reach this Committee. I arrived here at eleven o’clock last night, and being in a new place, in unaccustomed conditions, I lost my sleep. In addition to that I am just from the bench. You see [holding up his hands] I am a workman; there are the callouses and corns that are a necessary incident to manual labor. I come unprepared by education, to meet the arguments presented here, or to present my case with the force and fluency that gentlemen in the opposition have, having been forced by my condition to labor all my life-time since nine years of age, without a single vacation; absolutely denied the opportunities of education except that which was wrested from my sleeping hours. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 46.13
I am also embarrassed by the fact that I find myself, for the first time in my life, in the midst of a lot of friends of labor, whose existence I never before was aware of; and I am absolutely astounded as well as embarrassed at the statements they make. They not only claim to speak in the name of labor, such as we have it in the United States; but, lo and behold, they speak with the voice of authority from my fellow-workers in Great Britain, from which country I came. Not only that, but they take the name of a man whom I honor more, possibly, than any other, and hurl authority from that source at this Committee; - that man is Karl Marx. They speak in the name of the Social Democrats of Germany also; and I, being a Social Democrat, being an Englishman, and associated intimately with the reform movement of that country, and being here in the United States for twenty-three years an active labor reformer, - why, you can imagine my embarrassment and astonishment when I find myself in the presence of these advocates and friends of Karl Marx, the Social Democrats of England, and the friends of labor reform here in the United States. [Turning to the Clergymen.] I regret exceedingly that I cannot grasp your hands in fraternal friendship. I am sorry that I have to say, Oh, save us from our friends. I am embarrassed in being compelled to say that I am here with authority to absolutely repudiate you, and charge you with false representation. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 47.1
When I heard the statements they made, I thought I will approach this matter with kindness, gentleness, etc.; I thought to myself, I hope I will have the power to deal with this question in the same spirit; but I am afraid I have overstepped the limits already. I have this thing so near at heart that ordinary composure is absolutely destroyed when I find that we are attacked, that our interests are so misrepresented, that our desires and wants are so distorted, by these men who claim to speak with authority. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 47.2
[To the Clergymen]. You bring men’s names from England, who are absolutely unknown. What is the matter with Joseph Arch? What is the matter with Tom Mann? What is the matter with Ben Tillott? Can you speak in their names? No; you bring some unknown names here to add force to your misrepresentation. You have never been the friends of labor, and at this time you have no right to speak in that sense. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 47.3
When you brought your references here my mind ran back at once to England, to Joseph Arch, a layman in the church, whose zeal for the Christian religion was too great to be contained. As a layman he taught, under the hedge-rows, the moral truths that Christ enunciated, and he found in his efforts to lift up his class that the whole array of clergymen of Great Britain were against him, as we find the whole array of the clergy of the United States except the Catholic Church arrayed against us. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 47.4
[Voices from the clergymen expressing disapproval.] GCDB January 29, 1893, page 47.5
Possibly that statement I made that the whole clergy was arrayed against us is not strictly true. I hope to save myself from any statement that is not absolutely based upon facts. Possibly I would be right if I said that the evangelical churches of the United States, as here represented, are absolutely opposed to us and to our interests. Probably I should except the Catholic Church; possibly I will admit that. I tell you I am embarrassed. Possibly you will give me some consideration at least in that respect. I wanted to undo the work that you have been doing here, and I will do it to the best of my ability. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 47.6
Joseph Arch, to whom I referred who now lives, and from whom you have got no word, who was lifted from the hedge-row into the House of Parliament, was placed there by the people, and he promised to make it possible for them to live in decency and respectability. After he had accomplished that, the clergymen of Great Britain called him to a great meeting in Exeter Hall, at which there were present two hundred clergymen. They asked him to explain the purposes of his organization, and he did so. It was to lift the people out of absolute ignorance, into the comforts and decencies of manhood; it was to kill the saloon, to empty the jail to give men in the agricultural districts a chance to live, as decent human beings. He had accomplished a great deal in that direction, and he not only told the ministers, “We not only did it without your help, but we did it in the face of your absolute effort in antagonism.” And he said, “After we have accomplished this work you call us to account! We give you the results of our work. We did that without your help. We will go right along. All that we ask you is that if you can not see your way to help us, get out of the way and leave us alone to do our work.” This is my answer to your English production. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 47.7
You speak here of the Social Democrats of Germany. What right have you? You have no authority at all. You go to work and take this little bit and that little bit from the work of Karl Marx, the Social Democrats, and the result of their convention, and present it here with authority. I am a Social Democrat. I belong to that organization, and have done all I could to proselyte, in my humble way, the minds of the workmen of the United States, to the principles they hold. And I want to tell you clergymen that the principles held by the Social Democrats of Germany are the principles enunciated by Jesus Christ, and which you do not understand. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 47.8
[Voices: “Hear, hear.”] GCDB January 29, 1893, page 47.9
Mr. Chairman, I not only speak with this authority that I have expressed, but I want to call attention to the relative position that we occupy toward this World’s Fair matter, in comparison with this body of clergymen organized like a machine, - [turning to the ministers] - I want to call up one after another to do his portion of the work. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 47.10
Mr. Durborow. - Mr. Morgan, the Committee is at this end of the table. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 47.11
Mr. Morgan. - My general statement as to my unfitness for this kind of work will excuse me, I hope. If the friends of the Church had been kinder to me when I was a child, had they taught me to read and write, I possibly would have been able to follow all the requirements of refined and common etiquette and society. Thanks to them, possibly I shall make some bad breaks, for which I ask to be excused. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 47.12
I was going to say, Mr. Chairman, that in addition to the authority that I have here set forth, I wish to say that we workmen of Chicago particularly and especially demand the right to be heard with more consideration than our opponents. As soon as the word went forth that it was proposed to have an exposition, a world’s exposition, in the United States, the labor organizations everywhere responded with gladness to that proposition; and as soon as it was settled that the World’s Fair should be held somewhere in the United States, Chicago workmen put forth their claim to Chicago as the proper geographical point to have a world’s exposition located. They backed up their request that Chicago should be the place, with petitions from labor organizations throughout the United States, to such an extent that Congressman Hawley was able to stand up in the Congress of the United States and say, “I hold in my hand petitions from organized labor from every State in the Union, except New York, asking that the Fair shall be located in Chicago.” That Fair was located there. But even before it was located there, the demand was made by Congress that Chicago should show its ability to conduct that Fair, by subscribing for ten millions of her stock. The workmen put their hands into their pockets, and with dimes and fifty cent pieces and dollars subscribed for half a million of her stock. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 47.13
What did the Church do? Did the Church demand that there should be an exposition of the world’s products and man’s ingenuity? If they did they did it silently. The workmen responded in this substantial fashion; and since then they have built the Fair, and consecrated it with their blood. Hundred and hundreds of workmen have been killed and maimed in the construction of that mighty work. And I think that because of these reasons what we have to say should have additional weight attached to it. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 47.14
Not only that; but giving all due credit to the master minds who designed and planned that wonderful exposition, - giving them all due credit, - the products exhibited there come from this kind of hands. [Holding up his own labor-hardened hands.] And after we have built the Fair, sacrificed our lives in doing so, after we have contributed by our ingenuity and labor in placing there the exhibits, these men, who had no hand in it, neither in designing, constructing or in anything else connected with it, have come and shut the gate and turned the lock on us workmen! And then they come here with the miserable plea that they are instructed, that they are justified in speaking for labor! It is absolutely astounding, the assumption these men have in making their plea. I can not comprehend how they could risk their reputation for veracity, for honesty, and for truth, - and that is all the stock in trade that the clergy have, and if that is lost they are gone, how they could risk their veracity and honesty in making these statements. One of them comes here this morning, and says, “I hold a petition from a labor Union in New York City.” What labor Union? GCDB January 29, 1893, page 47.15
Rev. Mr. W. F. Crafts. - The engineers of the United States. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 48.1
Mr. Morgan. - Who? GCDB January 29, 1893, page 48.2
Mr. Crafts. - The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 48.3
Mr. Morgan. - No! Look here: that claim, that statement that is made, that they do not duplicate things is basely, maliciously false. They do duplicate things. And they bring in a single petition from one of the local Unions in the State of New York, and you make people believe you have got another organization. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 48.4
Mr. Crafts. - O no. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 48.5
Mr. Morgan. - Well, of course my comprehensive faculties are not equal to grasp your way of managing these things. Another statement is made that because the engineers of the United States speak, that settles the question; that they are the most intelligent of all workmen in the United States. I absolutely repudiate that statement. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 48.6
[Here Mr. Morgan spoke a few words touching some rather personal matters between the organization which he represented and the organization of engineers, which we think it best for us not to seem to take any part in by printing and circulating as widely as this document will be spread. - PUBLISHERS.] GCDB January 29, 1893, page 48.7
Then the plea is made that the opening of the Fair will necessitate extra work upon the part of the engineers. Let me call your attention to this fact, that if the World’s Fair is closed on Sunday people will be absolutely prohibited from enjoying its privileges on that day. That day will be given to traveling. Men will start on Sunday, reach Chicago Sunday night or Monday, spend the week at the Fair, take the train at the latest hour Saturday night or the earliest hour Sunday morning. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 48.8
Mr. Durborow. - Mr. Morgan, you have been speaking just twenty-five minutes, and have consumed the time allotted to you. I understand that you desire Mr. Askew to follow you, and unless you give way to him, of course you would occupy his time. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 48.9
Mr. Morgan. - O, excuse me, Mr. Chairman; I did not think I had been talking so long. But really I would like to have a little more time. I have a paper here which I would like very much to present. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 48.10
Mr. Durborow. - If you have the consent of the other speakers, of course it will be all right. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 48.11
Dr. W. H. Thomas. - I will give you my time. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 48.12
Mr. Durborow. - Simply state a synopsis of your paper if you can, and give it as quickly as possible. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 48.13
Mr. Morgan. - I will read it as rapidly as possible, and you can read it at your leisure. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 48.14
(Reading.) In regard to the religious side of this matter, I wish to say that the working men attribute the action of Congress in closing the World’s Fair on Sunday to the activity and influence of the Protestant evangelical church, and that in the accomplishment of its purpose the representatives of these churches assume to be the guardians of the economical and moral interests of the working people, and in their name and behalf urge Congress to close the gates of the World’s Fair on Sunday. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 48.15
We are here duly authorized by the only organized and formal movement made by workingmen in relation to the closing of the Fair on Sunday to absolutely deny the right of these churches or their representatives to speak or act for us in this matter, and to prove to you by documentary evidence we present that all such representations made to Congress by these churches were willfully or ignorantly fraudulent. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 48.16
In this connection we desire to call the attention of congressmen who may have been influenced by the action of these churches, and who are sincerely interested in the religious side of this question, to the fact that the indifference or active antagonism of the working classes toward the Church is at present and has been for years past, a subject of the most serious consideration by the clergy. We respectfully represent that one of the principal causes of this latent and active hostility to the Church is due to the fact that its representatives are so far removed economically and socially from the wage-working classes as to entirely fail to understand their wants, desires and aspirations, and hence as a result, when they do speak in our name, they misrepresent us, as they have in this case. This has occurred so frequently and universally that the respect and reverence for the Church held by the working people in the past, has been destroyed to such an extent that the Church itself has become alarmed. With a few exceptions, and upon rare occasions, a suggestion to have a clergyman open or participate in our conventions or mass-meetings would be met with contemptuous ridicule. Tens of thousands of wage-workers who like myself have passed from infancy to manhood within the folds of the Church, and in being forced from it have retained a fervid love for the moral principles taught by the Carpenter of Nazareth, realize not only the wickedness embodied in the acts of the clergy in shutting the workers out of the fair, but also understand the effect it will have in further alienating the working classes from and intensifying their hostility toward the Church. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 48.17
Speaking as we do, with this intimate personal knowledge, we respectfully, but most earnestly, urge congressmen who have been influenced by religious considerations to undo this ill-advised and injurious act of the Church. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 48.18
Rev. Mr. Martyn, in advocating the closing of the Fair on Sunday, declared that neither literature nor art had any effect whatever upon the moral status of the people. Our reply is that this statement is a libel upon literature and art and a monstrous insult to all scholars and artists, and an absolute denial of the advantages of secular education; whereas we insist that every advance in general knowledge is necessarily an advance in public morals, and that the knowledge of individuals, and hence their moral status, is affected largely by their environment. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 48.19
Place a workingman within the gates of the World’s Fair, bring him in contact with the wonders of nature as there shown, and the marvels of man’s production gathered from the whole world, and in open-eyed wonder he will be lifted out of his ordinary self, all his lowest and basest instincts and habits will be for the time submerged, and deep into his mind and heart will be pressed, as never before, a comprehension of nature’s varied resources and the limitless ingenuity and power of the human mind, which will ever after be a profitable source of reflection, a subject of conversation, instructive alike to himself and his associates, that must necessarily make him a better man, a more skillful, and hence a more valuable, worker and a more useful citizen. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 48.20
These conclusions are reached not from abstract reasoning, but through practical personal experience, and were I a clergyman or an active member of the Church, having the moral welfare of the people at heart, I would consider it an imperative duty not only to open wide the gates of the fair on Sunday, but to advocate the organization of special means to bring the masses within its intellectual and moral influences on that particular day. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 48.21
In the consideration of the moral side of the subject I asserted that the influence of a visit to the World’s Fair would make the laboring man a more skillful and hence a more valuable worker. To the great army of unknown inventors a day in the World’s Fair would be an inspiration of inestimable value, not alone to themselves, but to the nation and to the human race. Again I speak from actual experience, being personally benefited by visits to expositions similar in character to the World’s Fair, but in size and scope comparatively insignificant. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 49.1
Those guarding the industrial and commercial interests of Great Britain and France thoroughly understand this view of the case. In Birmingham, England, where I came from, one of the greatest manufacturing towns in the world, such exhibits on a small scale were permanent institutions. Special delegations of workers were regularly sent to the world’s expositions of London and Paris, and from personal conversation with one of the French workmen delegated to visit the centennial and exposition at Vienna, I learned that the French people were equally alert to the importance of this particular matter. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 49.2
I am also advised by one of my associates, actively interested and aiding in this work of opening the gates of the World’s Fair on Sunday, that in Germany in the industrial towns along the Rhine the workingmen’s societies regularly sent delegations to both London and Paris to report upon the exhibits relating to their particular trades; and that such visits were so arranged, for economical reasons, that the delegates reached Vienna or Paris on Saturday night or Sunday morning, visited the exposition during Sunday, and departed for home Sunday night or Monday morning. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 49.3
Comparatively few of the workers in the United States have had the advantage of those stimuli to thought and invention, nor have the manufacturing and commercial class as yet reached a full realization of its importance. Hence I press this view of the matter, hoping that it may aid in opening the gates of the World’s Fair on Sunday to the hundreds of thousands of workers in Chicago and its neighboring towns, and to encourage by that privilege the visits of as many wage-workers throughout the nation as may by months of self-denial and sacrifice save sufficient to pay the expenses of a visit to the World’s Fair, such visit being necessarily limited to a few days. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 49.4
Now I return to my own speech, where it was interrupted by the Chairman of the committee. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 49.5
Mr. Jones. - Well, very good. I will take it, then, that Congress knew what they were doing. Here is the record of it in the Senate; that is where this part of the legislation began; because the legislation in the House touched only the closing of the government exhibit, and passed the House that way, and said nothing about closing the Fair on Sunday. When it came to the Senate, there this part of the legislation originated. I shall read from the Congressional Record of July 10, 12, and 13. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 49.6
Mr. Durborow. - Well, it is no use to read that here. We are more familiar with that than you are yourself. What we are after is modifications of the existing law. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 49.7
Mr. Jones. - Certainly. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 49.8
Mr. Durborow. - Now if you will argue on the point of the modification of the law, the benefits why this law should be changed and modified in accordance with the resolutions that are before this Committee - that is what this Committee has these hearings for. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 49.9
Mr. Jones. - Well, that is what I am doing. I have given the Constitution as it provides, prohibiting this legislation; and when the Constitution prohibits it, then ought not the legislation to be undone? GCDB January 29, 1893, page 49.10
Mr. Durborow. - This is not the place to argue that question. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 49.11
Mr. Little. - I think you perhaps misunderstand the legislation that has already been taken. I agree with you as to the Constitution. But this legislation makes an appropriation, and accompanies the appropriation with the condition that the Fair should be closed on Sunday. For instance, you have no right to say to a gentleman walking along the street, You shall not go into that saloon; but if you give him five dollars you have the right to connect with it the condition that he shall not spend it in the saloon. 1 GCDB January 29, 1893, page 49.12
Mr. Jones. - I see your point. The argument has been made, and it was made when the legislation was before the Senate, that as Congress was appropriating the money, it had the right to put whatever restrictions it considered proper upon the use of the money. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 49.13
Mr. Little. - But they were not forced to take the money. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 49.14
Mr. Jones. - Certainly. But I deny that proposition. Congress had the right to put whatever civil restrictions she pleased upon the use of the money; Congress had no right under the Constitution to put any religious restriction at all upon the use of the money. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 49.15
Mr. Little. - Is it a religious restriction? GCDB January 29, 1893, page 49.16
Mr. Jones. - Yes, sir; it is religious legislation entirely. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 49.17
Mr. Houk. - Do you believe that it would be right for Congress to say that the Fair should be closed one day in seven? GCDB January 29, 1893, page 49.18
Mr. Jones. - No, it would not be proper, for it all rests upon religious ground, and that is the only ground upon which Sunday observance or Sunday recognition rests. And the claim that the legislation was in the interests of the workingmen is contrary to the proceedings of the Senate. Senator Hawley said plainly, “Everybody knows what the foundation is; it is founded in religious belief.” Senator Peffer said, “To-day we are engaged in a theological discussion as to the observance of the first day of the week.” So that they considered it as religious, and religious only. Now, I repeat, they had no right under the Constitution to put any religious restriction upon it. When they put that restriction there, and said that the directors should sign an agreement to close the World’s Fair on Sunday, on the “Christian Sabbath,” as Congress declared Sunday to be, before they could receive any money; they had just as much right to say that the World’s Fair directory should sign an agreement to submit to Christian baptism before they could receive any of the appropriation. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 49.19
Voice. - Or try Dr. Briggs. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 50.1
Mr. Jones. - Yes. When Congress put upon this appropriation the condition that the directory should sign an agreement to shut that Fair on the “Lord’s day,” as Congress declared Sunday to be, before they could receive any of the money, Congress had just as much right to require that the World’s Fair Committee should observe the Lord’s supper before they could get any of the money. Hence, if Congress can define what the Christian Sabbath is, they can require anything else in the Christian religion. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 50.2
Voice. - That is so. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 50.3
Voice. - Is not this a Christian nation? GCDB January 29, 1893, page 50.4
Mr. Jones. - No, of course not. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 50.5
Mr. Jones. - When they go beyond the Constitution in one point for religion’s sake, they can go beyond it on every point. What Congress has done in this respect in favor of Sunday only opens the way to do whatever else may be demanded by those who have secured this. And it will be demanded, for the Christian Statesman, whose editor is in the hall, has said that “the great Christian majority has learned, by response to its great petition, and its host of letters with reference to the World’s Fair, that it can have of national and State governments whatever legislation against immorality it will ask unitedly and earnestly.” And a preacher in Pittsburg, as soon as this bill had passed Congress, declared in a sermon: “That the Church has weight with great political or governing bodies has been demonstrated most effectually in the late World’s Fair matter, when the United States Senate, the highest body in the country, listened to the voice of religion and passed the World’s Fair five million appropriation bill with the Church-instituted proviso that the gates of the great Exposition should not be opened upon Sunday. That grand good fact suggests to the Christian’s mind that if this may be done, so may other equally needful measures. The Church is gaining power continually, and its voice will be heard in the future much oftener than in the past.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 50.6
Voice. - The statement of an individual. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 50.7
Mr. Jones. - No, not the statement of an individual only; it is representative, because those who secured the legislation, those who presented the petition, - they did it as a grand combination, not as individuals, but as a combination. The National Reform Association, the American Sabbath Union, and the whole combination put together, - they worked for it for religious reasons; they demanded it upon religious grounds only, and did it as religious. The basis of it was declared to be the fourth commandment, when Senator Quay sent up his Bible to the Secretary of the Senate to be read there. Here it is in the Record. Who will deny that the fourth commandment is religious? Who will deny that the fourth commandment as given in the Bible is religious, and that the Bible itself is religious? I appeal to this Committee: Has the Congress of the United States a right to put that Bible into its legislation and to make that the basis of legislation in this government? - No, sirs; the CONSTITUTION is the basis of legislation by Congress, and not the Bible. And the Constitution has shut religious questions from the consideration of Congress, and therefore has shut the Bible out of legislation by Congress. But the Bible was sent up that day, and this is the record:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 50.8
Mr. Quay. - On page 122, line 13, after the word ‘act,’ I move to insert:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 50.9
“‘And that provision has been made by the proper authority for the closing of the Exposition on the Sabbath day.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 50.10
“The reasons for the amendment I will send to the desk to be read. The Secretary will have the kindness to read from the Book of Law I send to the desk, the part enclosed in brackets. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 50.11
“The Vice-President. - The part indicated will be read. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 50.12
“The Secretary read as follows:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 50.13
“‘Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.’” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 50.14
Mr. Jones. - You know the fourth commandment; I need not read it. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 50.15
Voice. - Read it all. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 50.16
Mr. Jones. - “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.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 50.17
Voice. - Is that the seventh day or the first day? GCDB January 29, 1893, page 50.18
Mr. Jones. - The commandment says the seventh day; but in the face of this plain declaration of the Lord that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, the Senate has put its own interpretation upon that commandment, and has declared that the statement that “the seventh day is the Sabbath” means “the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday.” Thus the Congress of the United States has taken the fourth commandment from the Bible and put it into its legislation, and has put its own interpretation upon that statute. If Congress can interpret the Bible in one point, it can interpret it on every other point. So that when it went beyond the Constitution of this country in this thing, it has put itself and the government in line with all the Church-and-State governments that have ever been, and has assumed to itself to be the interpreter of the Bible for all the people in the land, and for all who come into the land. That is what has been done. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 50.19
Mr. Houk. - Your argument is, then, that the quotation of that commandment by Senator Quay, and the insertion of that, incorporates the fourth commandment and the whole Bible into the legislation of this country? GCDB January 29, 1893, page 51.1
Mr. Jones. - In principle it does. (Laughter.) Why not? What is to hinder it? When they can incorporate one part of the Bible for this occasion, what is to hinder their incorporating every other part of the Bible as other occasions may be presented? And therefore it is true that the incorporation of this part of the Bible here, does in principle incorporate the whole. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 51.2
Mr. Houk. - That is a kind of general way to get God into the Constitution. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 51.3
Mr. Jones. - Exactly. And that is what these are rejoicing at who have wanted all these years to put God into the Constitution. And that is why they say now, “We can have all we want, when we ask unitedly for it.” And this is true. This does give them all they wanted; for when Congress can do that in one point, who will deny its right to do it in any other point? When the principle is once established, the thing is all done. But it did put the fourth commandment there as giving the reasons why the Fair should be closed Sunday, and as forming the basis of the legislation upon this question. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 51.4
Mr. Durborow. - Now was the reading of that commandment an organic act of the Senate, of Congress, in doing any such thing as that? GCDB January 29, 1893, page 51.5
Mr. Jones. - It was the organic act of Congress, because it was an inseparable part of the legislation itself: it was given as the basis of the legislation, and as containing the reasons for it. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 51.6
Mr. Houk. - Then anything that a member says incorporates it in the act? GCDB January 29, 1893, page 51.7
Mr. Jones. - Oh no, not necessarily. But let us consider how this was brought in. Senator Quay proposed an amendment. The House had passed a bill to close the government exhibit, letting the Fair alone. When it went to the Senate, Senator Quay introduced an amendment to close the whole Fair. His amendment was “That provision has been made by the proper authority for closing the Exposition on the Sabbath day.” That was the first step taken in Congress on the subject of closing the Fair, not the government exhibit, but closing the Fair. The Senate took that step, and in the taking of it, the fourth commandment was quoted by him who offered the amendment, and was adopted by the Senate as the basis, and as giving the reasons for the amendment. Now when this commandment was given by him, and read afterward by the secretary from the desk, as the basis of that amendment, and as containing the reasons for the legislation that was in the amendment, and when the Senate adopted that amendment by changing it to the first day of the week and calling it Sunday, and then the House confirmed their decision, - then it is as plain as day that the fourth commandment is put there and embodied in the legislation of the country by the definite act of Congress. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 51.8
[The clock struck 12, the time expired.] GCDB January 29, 1893, page 51.9
Mr. Durborow announced that the time had expired, and said, “This will bring the discussion to a close for this day.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 51.10
That closed the hearing for that day. The Chairman had shut out the constitutional argument and refused to have that go before the Committee; but the questions that were asked brought all that out, until the time was consumed. The American Sabbath Union knew that their cause was safe, and after the hearing was over, they simply stepped outside the door in the entry way, and called a meeting of their Union, and passed a vote of thanks to the Lord for preserving the American Sabbath. They knew that when the constitutional argument was shut out, they had all they wanted. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 51.11
The next day Elliott F. Shepard made the opening speech, and note how he started. The only thing that makes a congressman is the Constitution of the United States. He has no authority in this world but such as the Constitution gives him, and he has no right to listen to any argument that would not come within the Constitution. But they shut that out, and now see what they did listen to in the first speech that followed:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 51.12
OPENING REMARKS OF COL. E. F. SHEPARD. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 51.13
“I approach this subject with great reverence. When we come to deal with heavenly things, we should put aside earthly things, and should do very much as the Jews used to do in the temple at Jerusalem; before they made their offerings, before they entered upon the service, they prepared themselves by ablution and by prayer for the proper discharge of their duties. Now when we come to consider the Sabbath, that it rests upon the law of God, that it is a revelation to mankind which no one would have thought of, that we owe it entirely to our Father which is in heaven, we ought therefore to come with the same reverential spirit to its consideration ourselves.... GCDB January 29, 1893, page 51.14
“We have resolved not say one single word as to the constitutionality or unconstitutionality of this law before this Committee; for to claim that it is unconstitutional here would be a reflection upon the Committee, upon both Houses of Congress, and upon the President of the United States who approved this law. And you yourself very wisely took that last consideration entirely out from before the Committee when you stated that this was not the place to argue that question. Therefore we dismiss it without saying a single word.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 51.15
Mr. T. A. Fernley, in his speech, told the Committee that there was no authority for reconsidering the question because there was no new evidence presented; that there was not a single new reason before the Committee for opening the Fair on Sunday. And he said that the only possible ground upon which you can reconsider that question is its unconstitutionality. So that confirmed the position that he had refused to hear from us; so that everything they objected to from us they got from somebody else. They went on - not with heavenly arguments by any means - but they proposed to consider heavenly things, and they reined the Committee up before death and the Judgment, stating that when they came to die it would be a consolation to them to know that they had acted right on the maintenance of the Sabbath. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 52.1
Others would bring up and threaten the wrath of God upon the nation if it did not preserve the Sabbath. A man was there from Asia Minor, and he wanted the World’s Fair closed on Sunday as a stimulus to missions; and if the World’s Fair should be opened on Sunday it would be the greatest set-back to the missionary cause that ever could happen to it. And thus they would bring the Judgment before the Committee, and the presence of death, and threaten them with the wrath of God and the Judgment of God if they did not do so and so. In an editorial in the REVIEW not long ago there was a quotation referring to this point; that these men would go to Congress, speak for God, and threaten these things if Congress did not do so and so. (See REVIEW of Oct. 25, 1892.) That has been done. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 52.2
Here is an argument from a lawyer, a judge, Judge S. B. Davis, of Terre Haute, Ind., that was sent up there, and distributed by the hundreds, and lying in quantities on the table of the Committee, in which is said:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 52.3
“The Supreme Court of the United States says, ‘This is a Christian nation,’” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 52.4
and goes on from this to argue for national and State recognition of Sunday. Yes, “this is a Christian nation.” That was the grand chief argument of all. This is a Christian nation; the Supreme Court of the United States has said so. If there are any of the brethren here who doubt whether the decision of the Supreme Court means anything, I wish they had been there and seen what it meant there. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 52.5
What is the situation now as the legislation stands to-night? As it stood then? What is the situation since? Here is an article from the Chicago Herald of Jan. 14, 1893, that gives the situation, and so I read it here:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 52.6
“It is anything but an encouraging prospect which the friends of Sunday opening of the World’s Fair have before them.... The hearings which have taken place during the last four days have greatly hurt the Sunday opening cause. Not that the advocates of closing have had the best of the argument, for they have not; but the publicity given to the matter throughout the country by this agitation has brought down upon Congress an avalanche of protests and appeals from religious people and church organizations all over the country. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 52.7
“The churches and the ministers are at work again quite as earnestly as they were a year ago, and with equal effectiveness.... GCDB January 29, 1893, page 52.8
“General Cogswell, who was counted upon till to-day, is now wavering. The Methodist Episcopal Church has brought some influence to bear upon him which he finds it difficult to resist.... The trouble is that a large number of members who believe in Sunday opening on principle and as a matter of right are too timid to vote their convictions in the face of organized opposition from the churches and ministers. These statesmen argue that the men who want the Fair open on Sunday are reasonable men who will not permit their judgment or their votes to be affected by failure to get what they want. While on the other hand the Church people who are for Sunday closing will, if their wishes are thwarted, lose their tempers and at the next election make trouble for those who vote against them. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 52.9
“This sort of cowardice or caution, combined with the fact that the ministers who are making Sunday closing a sort of stock-in-trade have no hesitancy about bulldozing their congressional representatives, or any one else they can get hold of, offers an explanation of the changed condition of affairs with reference to this question.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 52.10
I read here the closing statement of Rev. Joseph Cook in his speech before the Committee:- GCDB January 29, 1893, page 52.11
“Sunday is the tallest of the white angels now entering foreign lands. Shall we consent to allow Chicago now to rise up and stab this angel in the back, in our country? And shall we call down the goddess of liberty from the Capitol to assist at the murder? God forbid.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 52.12
In whose hands is the government of the United States? - The churches. Who owns Congress? - The churches. Who is using it? As that gentlemen from Ohio said: “We have been able by our strength to use Congress as we choose.” - The churches. These are the facts. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 52.13
These are some of the things that are taking place before us. Now the study will be what is soon to come upon us from what is now taking place before us. When we see that, as the testimony has said, we will see the necessity, recognize the necessity, that the Holy Spirit shall be recognized, received, presented to the people. And that is where we are, brethren, as Brother Prescott has said. The only question is, Shall we seek God for the power of his Holy Spirit? The country is sold into the hands of a religious hierarchy, and that is sold into the hands of the devil. GCDB January 29, 1893, page 52.14
CORRECTION. - Beginning with the 12th line of second paragraph on page 14, it should read thus: “Persecutions will come more definitely and decidedly upon the people of God, because the godly are seeking for uprightness and holiness, and the disobedient are in sin.” GCDB January 29, 1893, page 52.15
REVIEW AND HERALD EXTRA
DAILY BULLETIN OF THE GENERAL CONFERENCE.