If there were any degrees of excellence in the word of God, this passage would be one of the grandest and most glorious in all the Bible.ARSH October 26, 1897, page 678.2

God is a consuming fire only to sin. And he is a consuming fire to sin only because of the intensity of the perfection of his holiness. In the presence of his holiness, sin cannot abide; it is instantly consumed.ARSH October 26, 1897, page 678.3

O then open wide to him, heart, soul, and spirit,—the whole being,—and bid him welcome to come, with all the perfection of his holiness, and abide in you, that all sin may be consumed from within and about you, and you be partaker of his holiness.ARSH October 26, 1897, page 678.4

It is written, “Be ye holy; for I am holy.” And, “Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” But bless his holy name, he says, “I will dwell in them and walk in them.” “My presence shall go with thee.” His presence going with us; he abiding in us; and he, by his holiness, being a consuming fire to sin, we shall be made holy. Welcome him in his holiness, and so abide.ARSH October 26, 1897, page 678.5

But O, if he is not welcomed, and we remain apart from him with our sin, then the day comes when we, with all the sin, shall stand in the blazing glory of is presence, and the sin will be consumed; and we, having clung to the sin and identified ourselves with the sin, shall be consumed also.ARSH October 26, 1897, page 678.6

So while, if there were any degrees of excellence in the words of God, this would be one of the most glorious passages in the Bible, it would also be at the same time one of the most fearful—the more fearful, because the more glorious. Therefore let us, in godly fear, “fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD THY GOD.” Deuteronomy 28:58.ARSH October 26, 1897, page 678.7

“That Faithful ‘Saying’” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 74, 43, p. 678.

“THIS is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.”ARSH October 26, 1897, page 678.1

This was at that time “a saying.” What is a “saying”?—Here is the definition of the word: “A saying is impersonal, current among the common people, deriving its authority from its manifest truth or good sense.”ARSH October 26, 1897, page 678.2

At that time, then, it was current among the common people—of the Christians—that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” As a Christian was walking along the road, he would say, in faith, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” As a Christian was working in the field, with a full heart he would say, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” As a Christian was going about the house, or sewing, or cooking, or washing, or scrubbing, with joy she would say, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.”ARSH October 26, 1897, page 678.3

At first this “saying” derived its authority from its manifest truth and good sense, as manifested in the heart’s experience of every Christian; but at last God himself put his endorsement on it as “a faithful saying [a saying full of faith], and worthy of all acceptation,” and as such set it before the world forevermore.ARSH October 26, 1897, page 678.4

To-day, however, this is not a “saying;” it is not current among the common people of the Christians. To-day when this Scripture is quoted, nine times out of ten it is as though it read, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom Paul was chief.” And then those who read it or quote it will soliloquize as to what a terrible wicked man Paul must have been; and then reason that “if such a bad, bad man as Paul, the chief of sinners, could be saved, surely I can be saved, who am not very much of a sinner.”ARSH October 26, 1897, page 678.5

Thus this blessed saying is no longer a saying. This which God has declared to be a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, and which he set before the world for all time to be a saying among Christians, is not now a saying at all. That scripture does not say, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom Paul is chief.” It does say, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.”ARSH October 26, 1897, page 678.6

To read this saying, or to think of it, as though it read, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom Paul was chief,” is to destroy it as a saying. For an essential characteristic of a saying is that it “is impersonal.” And “impersonal” means “not relating to any particular person.” Therefore to make this saying apply particularly to Paul as the chief of sinners is to destroy it as a saying.ARSH October 26, 1897, page 678.7

That which is impersonal applies to all persons alike. It is an essential property of a saying that it shall be impersonal. That “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief,” is a faithful saying. Therefore it applies not particularly to Paul, but to all Christians alike.ARSH October 26, 1897, page 678.8

This is shown, also, by the fact that the Greek expression in this saying, is but another form of the expression of “me the sinner” (Alford), in the prayer of the publican in Luke 18:13; and conforms exactly to the words, “Let each esteem other better than themselves.” It is literally impossible for any person to esteem another better than himself when he does not believe that the other is better than himself. And no person can believe that another is better than himself, without first believing that he himself is worse than the other. But when a person finds out that he himself is the chief of sinners, it is then easy enough to esteem others better than himself. It is then, too, that he sees the force and the blessedness of that “faithful saying,” and to him it becomes “a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.”ARSH October 26, 1897, page 678.9

Perhaps you have not yet found out that you are the chief of sinners. If so, you are missing a most blessed part of Christian experience.ARSH October 26, 1897, page 678.10

O, the days are coming back—yes, they are here now—when once more, as at the first, upon the authority of “its manifest truth and good sense,” and upon the authority of the word of God, it shall be “current among the common people” of the Christians that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” And so once more this will be a saying. It will be once more, as at the first, the faithful saying that God appointed it to be. for it is as true to-day as ever it was in the world that “this is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.”ARSH October 26, 1897, page 678.11

“That ‘Afterward’ Is Now” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 74, 43, pp. 679, 680.

IN Joel 2:23 it is written: “Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain.”ARSH October 26, 1897, page 679.1

Note the two parts of this scripture, marked by the opposite tenses,—“He hath given,” and, “He will cause,“—”He hath given you the former rain, and he will cause to come down for you the rain.”ARSH October 26, 1897, page 679.2

When it can be said that he hath given the former rain, it then can be said that he will cause to come down for you the rain; and this that will come is, of course, the latter rain.ARSH October 26, 1897, page 679.3

But that is not all; when it can be said, “He hath given you the former rain,” and it remains that “he will cause to come down for you the rain,” it is both “the former rain and the latter rain” that come down. The former rain does not cease, but still comes down; it continues, and blends with the latter rain when it comes down, and thus, “He will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain.”ARSH October 26, 1897, page 679.4

Can we know when it can be truly said, “He hath given you the former rain”? Let us read the margin of these words, and see. Here is how it reads, then: “He hath given you a teacher of righteousness according to righteousness.”ARSH October 26, 1897, page 679.5

What would be the teaching of righteousness according to righteousness?—Surely it could be nothing else than the teaching of righteousness according to a righteousness which, as the standard, would be so perfect and so complete that there could not possibly be any question with regard to its acceptance by the Lord as perfect righteousness in behalf of whosoever might present himself with it. And surely such righteousness could be nothing short of the very righteousness of God himself. The teaching of righteousness according to righteousness, then, can be nothing else than the teaching of the righteousness of God to people in such a way that they can receive it and know that they have it, and know that they are accepted of God in it.ARSH October 26, 1897, page 679.6

Well, then, do you know of anything, has anything come to your attention, that would suggest to you that it could be said now that God hath given you the teaching of righteousness according to righteousness?ARSH October 26, 1897, page 679.7

Have you yourself heard any teaching of the righteousness of God?ARSH October 26, 1897, page 679.8

Have you yourself been told that the righteousness of God is freely and fully given to you?ARSH October 26, 1897, page 679.9

Have you yourself been asked to accept the righteousness of God?ARSH October 26, 1897, page 679.10

Have you been taught that the very righteousness of God itself is the only righteousness that will ever avail for any soul? that all other righteousness—all our righteousness—is filthy rags?ARSH October 26, 1897, page 679.11

Have you been taught, and has it been insisted on to you, that “now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe”?ARSH October 26, 1897, page 679.12

Have you been taught that you are “justified [counted righteous] freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to... declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness; that he might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus”—have you?ARSH October 26, 1897, page 680.1

Have you been taught that it is Christianity only to “be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith”?ARSH October 26, 1897, page 680.2

We need not ask any more of these questions. You know that for years all this has been taught diligently; and that people everywhere have been persuaded, and are still persuaded, earnestly, to accept this righteousness of God. you know that for years God has been sending to all his people the teaching of righteousness according to righteousness. Whether you have accepted it or not, you know that that has been done.ARSH October 26, 1897, page 680.3

What then?—Ah! this: “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.” Joel 2:28. It shall come to pass afterward. What is the force of this word “afterward”? Let us read it in the following connection, and see it we can detect its bearing: “Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for he hath given you a teacher of righteousness according to righteousness.... And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.” Is it not plain, then, that this word says that after the teaching of righteousness according to righteousness, he will pour out his Spirit? This is the way it was at first; and this is the way it is now, at the last.ARSH October 26, 1897, page 680.4

So God has sent to his people for years the teaching of righteousness according to righteousness; he has given the former rain, and now he pours out his Spirit, now he causes to come down the rain, both the former and the latter rain. He has given “the former rain moderately;” but now he will give it abundantly, and the latter rain too.ARSH October 26, 1897, page 680.5

According to the scripture, he was to give first the teaching of righteousness according to righteousness, and afterward pour out his Spirit. And the Testimony says: “The money expended to prepare ministers for work was essential at the time when there was so much opposition to the light that God was giving in regard to justification by faith and the righteousness of Christ, which is abundantly imputed to all who hunger and thirst for it. But the Lord has set before you another work,—the work of extending the truth by establishing centers of interest in cities, and sending workers into the highways and hedges.”ARSH October 26, 1897, page 680.6

This other work that the Lord has placed before us is the preaching of the gospel to the poor. In order for Jesus to do that work, he was baptized with the Holy Ghost; and in order for us to do that work, we must be baptized with the Holy Ghost.ARSH October 26, 1897, page 680.7

That is the work set before us now. In order to do the work, we must be baptized with the Holy Ghost.ARSH October 26, 1897, page 680.8

That is the work set before us now. In order to do the work, we must have the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Therefore the time of the pouring out of his Spirit, the time of the baptism of the Holy Ghost, is now.ARSH October 26, 1897, page 680.9

Please read carefully this parallel, and see whether it is not indeed a parallel, and then say whether the time is not now:—ARSH October 26, 1897, page 680.10

Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain.ARSH October 26, 1897, page 680.11

Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for he hath given you a teacher of righteousness according to righteousness; and it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.ARSH October 26, 1897, page 680.12

“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, ... that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.”ARSH October 26, 1897, page 680.13

Let us indeed “be glad and rejoice,” and also give honor to him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife is making herself ready; for to her is granted that she shall be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white; and the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.ARSH October 26, 1897, page 680.14

O, put on the wedding garment, for the time is now! And sound aloud, far and wide, to all others the blessed call, “Come; for all things are now ready.”ARSH October 26, 1897, page 680.15

“Who Is Troubled?” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 74, 43, pp. 680, 681.

IT is gravely remarked by the Independent, “It may be a relief to some who have been troubled by the idea that God wrote on the table of stone, with his own finger, an account of the creation in six literal days, to discover what careful readers have long known,—that the comment was no part of the original commandment.”ARSH October 26, 1897, page 680.1

Of the time when the fourth commandment, with the other nine also, was spoken from heaven, the “comment” as to the six literal days was spoken with all the rest. For it is written, “God spake all these words;” and then follow the ten commandment in full, just as they have been ever since,—literal six days and all.ARSH October 26, 1897, page 680.2

Then, further, it is written: “The Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice. And he declared unto you his covenant which he commanded you to perform even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.” “These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice: and he added no more. And he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me.” “And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon Mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.” “And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and the other were they written. And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.... And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses’ anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount.”ARSH October 26, 1897, page 680.3

“And the Lord said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and come up unto me into the mount, and make thee an ark of wood. And I will write on the tables the words that were in the first tables which thou brakest, and thou shalt put them in the ark. And I made an ark of shittim-wood, and hewed two tables of stone like unto the first, and went up into the mount, having the two tables in mine hand. And he wrote on the tables, ACCORDING TO THE FIRST WRITING, the ten commandments, WHICH THE LORD SPAKE unto you in the mount out of the midst of the fire, in the day of the assembly: and the Lord gave them unto me. And I turned myself and came down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there they be, as the Lord commanded me.”ARSH October 26, 1897, page 682.1

There, without any note or comment, is the Lord’s own story of the speaking, the writing, and the giving, of the ten commandments, on tables of stone, to Israel. And the plain, simple truth is that God spoke the ten commandments as they are in the twentieth chapter of Exodus, with the words as to the six literal days; that he then wrote them, “with the finger of God,” containing those words as to the six literal days, twice, upon two tables of stone; and that the second set of tables, with the writing “according to the first writing,” were put into the ark, where they were preserved, and where they remained until the destruction of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar.ARSH October 26, 1897, page 682.2

The words of the ten commandments, as finally put in the ark and kept there, were as we now have them, with the words as to the six literal days. The writing of these words was “according to the first writing.” The first writing was “with the finger of God,” and was the writing of the words which had been spoken by the Lord from haven.ARSH October 26, 1897, page 682.3

Therefore, as the words of the ten commandments, as preserved in the ark, were as we have them to-day, and so contained the word as to the six literal days; as the words of the ten commandments as preserved in the ark were “according to the first writing;” and as the first writing was “with the finger of God,” and was the writing of the words that had first been spoken by the Lord from heaven; then it follows certainly that the “comment,” or “account of the creation in six literal days,” was “a part of the original commandment” as spoken by the Lord from heaven, and written “on the table of stone, with his own finger.”ARSH October 26, 1897, page 682.4

And this is exactly what the word said at the first. Read: “And God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.... Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man servant, nor thy maid servant, 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.”ARSH October 26, 1897, page 682.5

Therefore, further, it is perfectly certain that anybody who may “have been troubled by the idea that God wrote on the tables of stone, with his own finger, an account of the creation in six literal days,” can find relief by believing what God has said of it, far better than he can by “discovering” “what careful readers have long known” that is not so. It matters not how careful a reader may be, he can never know what is not so. And it literally is not so that the so-called “comment is no part of the original commandment;” it is all the word of God spoken from heaven and written with the finger of God.ARSH October 26, 1897, page 682.6

With the exception of some words of the devil and some other unbelievers, there are no comments in the Bible, anyhow: it is all the word of God. For the Scripture came not “by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” Therefore as to any trouble over the account of the creation in six literal days, it all turns on the simple question of whether or not we believe what God says. he who believes what God says has no trouble. He who does not believe what God says has nothing but trouble.ARSH October 26, 1897, page 682.7

As for the comments on the word of God, the first one that was ever made in this world was by the devil. And his comment was that what the Lord has said was not so as he had said it. The woman accepted this comment, and so engulfed the whole world in trouble. And, “I fear, lest as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”ARSH October 26, 1897, page 682.8

“Good Words about the Sabbath” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 74, 43, p. 681.

LATELY the Platte Presbytery addressed to the churches of its charge the following excellent words respecting the Sabbath:—ARSH October 26, 1897, page 681.1

DEARLY BELOVED: In pursuance of our official duty, which is also a privilege and a pleasure, we earnestly and affectionately address to you, individually, without distinction of sex or age, as loyal lovers of the Lord Jesus, some words of exhortation.ARSH October 26, 1897, page 681.2

We call your attention to the universally acknowledged and deplorable fact of the increase of Sabbath desecration. Set apart at the creation, and fundamental to the development and maintenance of the divine ideal of man’s domestic and social, physical and intellectual, moral and religious life, the Sabbath is vital to God’s plan, for both time and eternity, for the human race. The Sabbath was needed in Eden,—how much more outside of it!ARSH October 26, 1897, page 681.3

An ancient philosopher said he could move this earth itself if he had a somewhere to stand,—a place on which to place the fulcrum of a lever. The Lord designs to move this world of sin and sorrow, to lift it up to heavenly places in Christ Jesus. But he needs to have, in respect to time, a place to stand, a somewhere from which to work the lever of divine truth,—and the Sabbath is that appointed place. Take away the Sabbath, with its opportunities for worship, reflection, instructing the ignorant, and sweetly persuading the hostile and indifferent; and the Lord is, in a very wide-reaching sense, practically shut away from his own earth. The powers of evil, human and infernal, are working actively, wisely, and all too successfully, to accomplish the very end.ARSH October 26, 1897, page 681.4

The Lord once corrected such a condition of things among his chosen people by sending these away into captivity, desolating their homes, and keeping them waste “until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths.” And God’s people in our own land must bestir themselves to rescue the Sabbath from its and his foes, or they will be sorry for it too late, and suffer sorely. God’s enemies are sleepless and tireless; his people must be the same. Every attack must be met and repulsed; all undermining of the foundations must be watched against and thwarted.ARSH October 26, 1897, page 681.5

Then from this point onward, the churches were exhorted and instructed as to the observance of Sunday and the rescuing of it from its enemies. “The lines of Sabbath desecration” singled out as chiefly to be avoided were, the Sunday mail, the Sunday railway service, and the Sunday newspaper.ARSH October 26, 1897, page 681.6

Now the instruction with regard to the Sabbath, which we have here reprinted, is excellent, appropriate, beautiful, and true, only as it is spoken of the seventh day. Not one word of it can have any true application to Sunday.ARSH October 26, 1897, page 681.7

It was the seventh day, not Sunday, that was “set apart at creation.” Genesis 2:2, 3.ARSH October 26, 1897, page 681.8

It was the seventh day, and never the first, that was, as the Sabbath, made “vital to God’s plan for both time and eternity, for the human race.”ARSH October 26, 1897, page 681.9

It was the seventh day, not the first, which, as “the Sabbath, was needed in Eden;” and, indeed, “how much more outside of it”!ARSH October 26, 1897, page 681.10

It was the seventh day, and not Sunday, into which God put the reflection of himself and all that he is to men, so that to “take away the Sabbath, ... the Lord is... practically shut away from his own earth.”ARSH October 26, 1897, page 681.11

It was with respect to the observance of the seventh day, and never the first, that “the Lord once corrected... his chosen people by sending them into captivity.”ARSH October 26, 1897, page 681.12

Thus while all this statement of the presbytery as to the Sabbath is admirable, it is a mystery how men who can see so clearly, and state so well, that which is divinely true, can apply it in a way that is absolutely false, and to a day that is a positive fraud. It is certainly the very fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.ARSH October 26, 1897, page 681.13

October 19, 1897

November 2, 1897