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    December 28, 1897

    “Editorial” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 74, 52, p. 828.

    “WE know that all things work together for good to them that love God.”ARSH December 28, 1897, page 828.1

    Do you love God?—Of course you do. Then it is settled that all things work together for good to you; and you know it.ARSH December 28, 1897, page 828.2

    Knowing this, it follows, as a matter of course, that you never scold nor complain about anything whatever that occurs.ARSH December 28, 1897, page 828.3

    This must be so, because it is perfectly plain that no person will scold or complain about what he knows is working for his good.ARSH December 28, 1897, page 828.4

    Note that the Word does not say, “All things shall work together for good,” as though it referred to some future time, and meant that “it will all come out right after a while.”ARSH December 28, 1897, page 828.5

    No; it is present tense, “All things work together for good.” They do it just now, while they are occurring. They are going on—working together—“all right” just now; and we are to comfort ourselves with this truth now, not putting it over in the future, with the word that it will “come out all right sometime,” while we are sulking or fretting under it just now.ARSH December 28, 1897, page 828.6

    Suppose it be so, that you “cannot see it.” The Lord says it, and it is so. And if you cannot see it, it is because you do not look right. Look at it as the Lord does, and you will see it as the Lord does. Then you will know it, for he says so. And knowing that it is so, you rest in him in perfect peace.ARSH December 28, 1897, page 828.7

    “The Eighth Commandment” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 74, 52, p. 828.

    “THOU shalt not steal.” This text tells what we shall not do. It is the negative form of an obligation.ARSH December 28, 1897, page 828.1

    If you want it stated in the positive form, you will find it in the twelfth chapter of Romans and the seventeenth verse, the latter part of the verse: “Provide things honest in the sight of all men.” That is the positive statement of the commandment which, in the negative form, is, “Thou shalt not steal;” in other words, Thou shalt be honest, and provide things honest in the sight of all men.ARSH December 28, 1897, page 828.2

    Another place says not only in the sight of men, but in the sight of the Lord. Thus the positive form of the eighth commandment is, Thou shalt be honest in the sight of the Lord and in the sight of men. And if I do not provide things honest in the sight of the Lord, I cannot provide things honest in the sight of the Lord, I cannot provide things honest in the sight of men. We are to be honest in the sight of God all the time. We are to work in the sight of God; not simply as in the sight of God, but actually in the sight of God.ARSH December 28, 1897, page 828.3

    “All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” Then where is the use of trying to cover up anything, or to do anything in secret, or have any secret way? Whoever will open his life unto the Lord, whoever has his whole life honest with God, will be honest in the sight of all men just as certainly and just as easily as he lives in the sight of all men, because his life will be simply the expression of what is within. And when the life is held open to God, as the flower to the sun, then God fills the life with fragrance, just as the sun does the flower, and “maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place.”ARSH December 28, 1897, page 828.4

    Two verses in the one hundred and thirty-ninth psalm put this in the way in which he wants us to look at it. We will first read the first few verses. Here is stated a great fact, whether we recognize it or not: “O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether.”ARSH December 28, 1897, page 828.5

    From this it is easy to see that every man must be dishonest with the Lord before he can be dishonest with men; for if he is honest with the Lord, he will recognize this fact which we have read,—that every thought, every word, every way, is wide open to the Lord. Whether man realizes it or not, it is so; and if he is honest with the Lord, he recognizes that fact; and then, as he never tries to hide from the Lord any thought, any word, or any deed,—when the whole life is so open as that to the Lord,—the life will be just as open and honest as that to men. He cares not what men know about him; for they cannot know anything bad about him. He does not shun to have men know what he does; for he cannot do anything dishonest or mean. He will not do anything crooked, it is not in him to do it; for God is with him to correct his life, and to make it pure and sweet and clean.ARSH December 28, 1897, page 828.6

    The last two verses of the one hundred and thirty-ninth psalm are the expression of the every-day life of the Christian: “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Every man who will take the first verses of this psalm, and recognize that this is a fact, and then, in the sincerity of his heart, will repeat to the Lord the last two verses, will be honest always. He will provide things honest in the sight of all men. He will be a Christian all the time. For when he is holding his life open to the Lord, and is asking the Lord to try him, and see if there is any wicked way in him, he is ready then that the Lord shall do that thing, and lead him in the way everlasting; and he will certainly be led in that way. And all this is spoken in the commandment that says, “Thou shalt not steal.”ARSH December 28, 1897, page 828.7

    “The Lord’s Coming” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 74, 52, pp. 828, 829.

    JOHN THE BAPTIST had proclaimed the coming of the Messiah. He had told the Jews the coming of the Messiah was so near that those to whom he was then preaching must expect him, must look for him, and must believe on him when he should appear.ARSH December 28, 1897, page 828.1

    There was, indeed, at that time a general expectation of the Messiah. As John himself was preaching, “the people were in expectation, and all men mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ or not.” He was asked, “Art thou the Messiah?” “And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Messiah.” They said again to him, “What then? ... What sayest thou of thyself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.” And “John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.”ARSH December 28, 1897, page 828.2

    However, when John had been some time in prison, and was expecting every day to be put to death, he sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus, “Art thou he that should come? or look we for another? And in that same hour he cured many of their infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits; and unto many that were blind he gave sight. Then Jesus answering said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached.”ARSH December 28, 1897, page 828.3

    Thus the preaching of the gospel to the poor was given by Jesus himself as one, and not the least one, of the evidences that he was the Messiah. Even at the very beginning of his ministry, as he stood in the synagogue, he read and applied to himself, as fulfilled that day, the scripture, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.”ARSH December 28, 1897, page 828.4

    Not only did he give the fact of “the preaching of the gospel to the poor” as one of the great evidences that he was the Messiah; but he gave it also as one of the great evidences that he was the Messiah who was then to come, and whom John had preached as the one on whom the people should believe in order to be saved. This point, then,—that he was the true Messiah, who had been heralded as the then coming one,—is the particular one in this communication between him and John.ARSH December 28, 1897, page 828.5

    John had believed with all his heart, and had preached with all his might, that Christ was then coming. This was not enough, however, for that time, because there was general expectation that then the Messiah was coming.ARSH December 28, 1897, page 829.1

    Many were looking for a messiah then to come; but they were not looking for the right kind of messiah. The Pharisees, the priests, the scribes, and many of the people were looking for a messiah; but the messiah for whom they looked was one who was but the reflection of their own worldly and selfish ambitions; and any one who would not satisfy their own ambitious views in this, would not be accepted by them as the messiah. Therefore, though they were looking for a messiah, yet as they were not looking for him in the right way, and were not looking for the right kind of one, they were, in reality, not looking for the true Messiah at all. John the Baptist, therefore, preached not only that the Messiah whose coming he preached was the true Messiah.ARSH December 28, 1897, page 829.2

    And now in the darkness and gloom of the prison, and in daily expectation of death, beset with the temptations and discouragements of Satan, John desired evidence from Jesus that he was the true One whom he had preached, and who was to come. He desired certainly to know that he himself had not got ahead of the Lord’s true message; but that all that he had preached was certainly true, and was being fulfilled in Jesus alone, without there being “another” to be looked for.ARSH December 28, 1897, page 829.3

    Jesus gave to John the desired and the certain evidence that he asked for; and in it, as an essential part of it, was, “To the poor the gospel is preached.” Therefore those who, in that day, looked for a Messiah who would preach the gospel to the poor, who would show fellowship with the lowly, who would lift up the fallen, who would seek the outcast and the forsaken, and who would receive sinners,—those who looked for such a Messiah as this, looked for the true Messiah.ARSH December 28, 1897, page 829.4

    This evidence of the Messiahship of Jesus is good for all time; it is as good for to-day as it was for the day in which it was given to John. To-day there are many who, in former times, have believed with all their heart, and proclaimed with all their might, that the Lord is coming; they have looked for him, and have expected him to come. But as he has seemed to tarry, and as the perils, the corruption, and the darkness of the last days have pressed in, intensified by the temptations and discouragements of Satan, who is working with great power because he knoweth that he hath but a short time, these dear souls, too, like that other one who had zealously proclaimed his coming, have been led to query, Is he really coming? Have we been too ardent? Have we proclaimed too strongly that he is coming? Have we got ahead of the Lord’s true message? Is this truly the message of his coming? Is he really coming in response to this message, and in fulfilment of our proclamation?ARSH December 28, 1897, page 829.5

    Are you one of these? Have these queries passed through your mind? Dear soul, be of good cheer: the word comes to you, and the evidence, as it did to John; and through his church this word and evidence is exemplified now, as in his own person then,—“To the poor the gospel is preached.” Thousands of voices are rising up in the power and Spirit of Christ, and saying, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.” This is Christ’s evidence to you to-day, as it was to John the Baptist, that your labor has not been in vain, that your proclamation of his coming was timely and correct, that he himself is coming, and that there is no other to be looked for.ARSH December 28, 1897, page 829.6

    Likewise to-day there are many talking of a coming of the Lord, many who are looking for a coming of the Lord; but, as of old, their own ambitions and opinions have so obscured the truth of it that he will never come as they are expecting: therefore, in reality, they are not looking for the true Messiah in his second coming; they are not looking in the right way for his coming, and so are not looking for the right coming of the Lord.ARSH December 28, 1897, page 829.7

    Now, we, with all these others, are looking for the coming of the Lord. How shall we know—how shall anybody know—that we are looking for the real, true coming of the Lord?—Ah! those who look for the true coming of the Lord will be witnessed unto by the Lord Jesus, in the person of his church, that “to the poor the gospel is preached.”ARSH December 28, 1897, page 829.8

    Does, then, the church of Christ with which you belong bear this divine credential? Does that church, as a church, as the body of Christ, in the name, and Spirit, and power of Christ, “preach the gospel to the poor”? In view of this demand, do you not see the wonderful significance of the fact that the church which the REVIEW AND HERALD represents is now, as a church and the body of Christ, called bodily to go “into the streets and lanes of the city,” and “into the highways and hedges,” to extend the divine call to “the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind,“—in a word, to preach the gospel to the poor? He is clothing “his body, which is the church,” with the divine credentials, and is thus giving to all people the divine evidence that he, the true Messiah, is coming again; and that all who look for his coming, in harmony with this evidence, will be looking for the true coming of the Lord, and so will never be ashamed nor disappointed.ARSH December 28, 1897, page 829.9

    And when his whole church, at his call, rises up in his own power and Spirit, and thus, with the Spirit of the Lord God upon her, preaches the gospel to the poor, then, by that same power, the eyes of the blind will be opened, the deaf will be made to hear, the lame to walk, and the dead to rise; and that power will, without a check, simply swell into the power and glory of his coming.ARSH December 28, 1897, page 829.10

    Praise the Lord, the Messiah is coming. Be of good cheer: the gospel is preached to the poor, and Jesus is certainly coming. “Get ready, get ready, get ready:” the Lord is coming.ARSH December 28, 1897, page 829.11

    “Russia and Turkey” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 74, 52, p. 828.

    SPEAKING of the situation in the East, the December Review of Reviews says: “Nothing but the very strongest combination can avail to check Russia’s ultimate progress toward Constantinople.” The rumors of an alliance between Germany and Turkey, it does not consider authentic enough to be accepted, but adds: “It is significant, however, that Russia should now have reminded the Turkish government that a large part of the war indemnity of twenty years ago remains unpaid. Hitherto Russia has not pressed Turkey for the money, and has seemed to regard the pecuniary claim as a means by which to keep Turkey under moral domination. But it has been reported that the Turks intended to use the indemnity paid them by Greece for the purpose of rehabilitating the Turkish navy, and this idea does not find a pleasant reception at St. Petersburg. If Turkey’s indemnity is to be spent for ships under the tutelage of Germany, with a view to increasing the aggregate strength of the combination against the dual Alliance, Russia may well prefer to collect her outstanding bill against Turkey, and apply the proceeds in naval construction on her own account. The gathering in Constantinople of agents representing the Krupp gun works of Germany and the Armstrong works of England, found their negotiations seriously interrupted by the Russian attitude. In order to give her diplomacy the proper impressiveness, Russia has allowed it to be known that her strong fleet in the Black Sea is in a state of entire readiness, a squadron of eleven vessels, including four first-class battle-ships, being now ready to proceed to the Bosporus on a few hours’ notice.ARSH December 28, 1897, page 828.1

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