The kingdom being the kingdom of God, the righteousness is only the righteousness of God, the peace is only the peace of God, and the joy is only the joy of God—joy in the Holy Ghost; it is found only in the Holy Ghost.ARSH April 5, 1898, page 218.2

And “verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”ARSH April 5, 1898, page 218.3

Except a man be born again, he cannot see righteousness, he cannot see peace, he cannot see joy in the Holy Ghost.ARSH April 5, 1898, page 218.4

To be born again is to be born from above. It is to be born into the things of God. It is to be born of water and the Spirit.ARSH April 5, 1898, page 218.5

The things of the kingdom of God—righteousness, and peace, and joy—can be known only through the Spirit of God; for “the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.”ARSH April 5, 1898, page 218.6

And “the kingdom of God is within you.” Is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, within you? If not, why not?ARSH April 5, 1898, page 218.7

Do you profess to be a Christian,—a citizen of the kingdom of God,—and have not the essential elements—indeed, the kingdom itself—within you?ARSH April 5, 1898, page 218.8

If this be so, it can be only because you are not born of the Spirit. And “if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of is.”ARSH April 5, 1898, page 218.9

O, the Heavenly Father is more willing to give you the Holy Spirit than you are to give good gifts to your own children! “Ask, and it shall be given you.” “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.”ARSH April 5, 1898, page 218.10

“Editorial Notes” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 75, 15, p. 218.

TO his disciples, Jesus said: “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.”ARSH April 5, 1898, page 218.1

Lazarus had been sick; and the disciples, thinking that now he was “taking rest in sleep,” answered, “Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well.”ARSH April 5, 1898, page 218.2

“Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.”ARSH April 5, 1898, page 218.3

First Jesus said, “Lazarus sleepeth.” Then he said, “Lazarus is dead.”ARSH April 5, 1898, page 218.4

When he said, “Lazarus sleepeth,” Lazarus was dead; and it was with direct reference to Lazarus dead that Jesus said, “Lazarus sleepeth.”ARSH April 5, 1898, page 218.5

It is, therefore, perfectly plain that the direct teaching of the Lord Jesus is that when a man is dead, he is asleep.ARSH April 5, 1898, page 218.6

When Jesus said, “Lazarus sleepeth,” Lazarus was dead. In saying to his disciples, “Lazarus sleepeth,” he was informing them that Lazarus was dead. In so saying, he meant that Lazarus was dead; for he so explained his word.ARSH April 5, 1898, page 218.7

It was only the misconception of his meaning by his disciples that caused Jesus to say anything further than that Lazarus was asleep. But seeing this misconception, he said, further, “Lazarus is dead.”ARSH April 5, 1898, page 218.8

It is, therefore, perfectly plain not only that Jesus definitely taught, and intended definitely to teach, that the dead are asleep; but that he taught, and intended to teach, his disciples to think and speak of the dead as being asleep.ARSH April 5, 1898, page 218.9

It is, therefore, perfectly plain that, upon the authority of Christian truth, the dead are asleep, and that the sleep of the dead is distinctively a Christian conception.ARSH April 5, 1898, page 218.10

That many people—even professed Christians—do not believe this does not in the slightest affect the truth of it. Jesus taught it, and it is the truth. He taught it that men, and of all people his own disciples, should believe it. Those who do not believe it simply rob themselves of a great Christian truth.ARSH April 5, 1898, page 218.11

“Studies in the Book of Daniel” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 75, 15, pp. 218, 219.

AS before remarked, King Nebuchadnezzar’s setting up thyat great gold image, and commanding all, under dreadful penalty, to worship it, was, in a number of points, an open challenge to the Lord. It was the assertion that his idea of the kingdoms of men should be accepted as the true and divine idea, instead of that of God. It was the assertion that the embodiment of this human idea should be worshiped as God. And all this was nothing less than the putting of Nebuchadnezzar himself in the place of God, as the head of all religion and of all government, and the director of all worship.ARSH April 5, 1898, page 218.1

Yet the Lord employed it all, not only to instruct the king, but to instruct all nations at that time and forever after. The situation created by Nebuchadnezzar for his own glory, the Lord would use in accomplishing his great purpose of giving to all nations the knowledge and glory of God.ARSH April 5, 1898, page 218.2

In the great crowd that was assembled, there were the three faithful servants of God—Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And when, at the voice of the royal herald, and the sound of harp, flute, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music, the great crowd of princes, governors, counselors, sheriffs, and all the people “fell down and worshiped the golden image,” these three young men stood bolt upright, and gave no notice whatever to the image.ARSH April 5, 1898, page 218.3

Then “certain Chaldeans came near, and accused the Jews.” They said to the king: “There are certain Jews whom thou has set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; these men, O king, have not regarded thee: they serve not thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou has set up.”ARSH April 5, 1898, page 218.4

“Then Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury” commanded that the three men should be brought before him. He said to them, “Is it of purpose, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?” He then in person repeated his command that they should worship the image, and the penalty upon disobedience, that “if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?ARSH April 5, 1898, page 218.5

“Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it know unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.”ARSH April 5, 1898, page 218.6

Then the furnace was heated to sevenfold its usual strength, and the men were cast into it, and “fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.” But suddenly the king, fairly petrified with astonishment, rose up in haste from his throne, and cried to his counselors: “Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king. He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.”ARSH April 5, 1898, page 218.7

The king called them forth, and said: “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God.”ARSH April 5, 1898, page 218.8

God had commanded all nations to serve King Nebuchadnezzar, and had said that whatsoever nation would not serve the same king, the Lord would punish. Jeremiah 27:1-8. Yet here he wrought a wonderful miracle to deliver these men who had openly and directly refused to obey a positive command of the king. Why was this? Did God contradict himself?—Not at all. This command of the king was wrong. He was requiring a service which he had no right to require. He had given a command which he had no right to give.ARSH April 5, 1898, page 218.9

In making him king of the nations, the Lord had not made him king in the religion of the nations. In making him the head of all the nations, God had not made him the head of religion. But being an idolater, and having grown up amid idolatrous systems, Nebuchadnezzar did not know this. With idolaters, religion always has been, and still is, a part of the government; in heathen systems, religion and the government are always united: while in the true system—the divine, the Christian, system—they are always separate.ARSH April 5, 1898, page 218.10

And this was the instruction which the Lord gave to King Nebuchadnezzar in this great transaction. In a way in which it was impossible not to understand, the Lord showed him that he had nothing whatever to do with the religion, nor in directing the worship, of the people. The Lord had brought all nations under this king’s yoke as to their bodily service; but now, by an unmistakable evidence, this same Lord showed to King Nebuchadnezzar that he had given him no power nor jurisdiction whatever in their souls’ service. The Lord thus showed the king that while in all things between nation and nation or man and man, all people, nations, and languages had been given to him to serve him, and he had been nmade ruler over them all, yet in things between men and God, he was given plainly and forcibly to understand that he had nothing whatever to do. And this is all written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.ARSH April 5, 1898, page 218.11

And there being present and beholding it all, “the princes, the governors, and captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces” of all his realm, this great truth, with the knowledge of the power and glory of the true God, was by this one mighty impulse spread among all the peoples, nations, and languages throughout the whole mighty and wide-spread empire.ARSH April 5, 1898, page 218.12

“Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, in the province of Babylon.”ARSH April 5, 1898, page 219.1

March 29, 1898

April 12, 1898