Two Trends Calling for Correction

Some brethren, in their desire to respond to such a call, have concluded that in order to bring about a reform they must exclude from all Sabbath services any announcements or any references whatsoever to the use of lit­erature or to missionary activities. We take this opportunity to point out the fact that such a conclusion is not to be drawn from Brother Watson's appeal. Those who knew his burden, and who had discussed this whole question with him, can testify that he had no thought of opposing or stopping the proper use of literature in connection with our church activities. He is an ardent supporter of the use of our literature and of all church mis­sionary endeavors.

In this connection we call attention to the well-known and approved denominational method of handling such matters, as given in an action of the General Conference session of 1930:

"Recognizing the need of presenting to our con­gregations on the Sabbath, plans whereby the church members may take an active part in giving the truth to others:

"We recommend, That appeals for specific mis­sionary objectives, either home or foreign, be so presented as to afford food for spiritual development, and that care be exercised not to allow such specific appeals to take the place of worship and instruc­tion from the word of God.

"When presenting, on the Sabbath, the question of securing literature for missionary purposes or personal use, it shall be done as far as possible either on the home missionary Sabbath or during the church missionary service, and the following plan shall be adopted:

"1. After a brief, spiritual presentation of the matter, those who desire to make pledges to pay for such literature shall write out their pledges, with names and addresses, on paper furnished, and pass them in, so that the church missionary secretary may have them for record, Each person making such a pledge shall at the same time be given a church-order envelope, with instructions to make out the requisition and enclose the necessary money during the week, the envelope to be placed in the offering basket on the next Sabbath.

"2. Where a fund is to be provided for free litera­ture or any missionary materials, an offering may be taken in the ordinary way." *

We appeal to all to earnestly promote and foster every line of church activity, avoiding any extremes that would stifle or hinder the work; and on the other hand, to avoid every practice that desecrates the Sabbath.

I. Commercializing the Sabbath

"Thus saith the Lord, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for My salvation is near to come, and My righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keep­eth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil." Isa. 56:1, 2.

As preachers, I ask you where, in time, have you applied that scripture? To Noah's days? [Voices: "No!"] No, you have not. Where have you applied it? What does it call for? To whom is it addressed? We have a habit of applying it to the world, but, fellow work­ers, it is addressed to the people of God. It calls upon those for whom Christ died to follow its admonition; it calls for that kind of Sabbathkeeping that exalts God and His moral law in the Lord's people. And it calls them to keep the life from evil. Is that not true? Moffatt's translation reads:

"This is the word of the Eternal: 'Hold to religion and do what is right, for My deliver­ance is at hand, My triumph will be soon in sight. Happy the man who does My bidding, happy the mortal who holds to it, who keeps the Sabbath and profanes it not, who keeps his hand off any evil deed!' "

That is very definite and direct, and it ought to be a very definite and direct message to the ministry of this church. It ought to cause an awakening of conscience among us, an awakening of desire of heart to do better, and to set an example of full obedience to the law of God before the church.

What would you do, may I ask, if you were laboring in a town or a city and along came some one to sell literature in your church? Would it be right for him to set up a book­stand on the Sabbath outside the church and sell literature to the public? What would you do in such a case as that? Would you tolerate that? And what would you do when you heard of it, if you were General Conference president? Would you do nothing, or say it was all right? Those who would say decidedly "No," will you please raise your hands? [Unanimous response.] Thank you. But what would you do and what should I do, to coun­teract the example of a minister, or of any other person, who would set up a bookstand inside the church, and virtually do that very same thing? What would you think of a General Conference leader or a local minister who would do that? Answer that question, please. You would call the attention of that brother to the wrong of it, and plead with all your heart for a decided change, wouldn't you?

I tell you, my dear friends, that such disre­gard of the Sabbath either by the ministry or by the lay leadership should not be allowed. It does ^-not glorify God. Paul, In his letter to the Galatians, chapter three, asked, "O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you?" In the third verse he further asks, "Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" We all recognize such a procedure as great foolish­ness. But how much greater foolishness it is for us, the people who preach to the world that they must render obedience to the spirit and the letter of the holy law of God, to set an example of actual disobedience to that law. This text calls attention to the endeavor to bring about perfection by the works of the law, and calls it "foolish." Are we less foolish than the Galatians if we discard the manifest works of the law, and attempt to serve God by definite disobedience to Him in our prac­tices and in our missionary efforts? What do you say? [Voices: "No!"]

It is sinful to take any part of the hour of service in the church—whether it be fifteen minutes between the Sabbath school and church service, or any other time—and com­mercialize any of God's holy time. [Voices: "Amen!" "Amen!"] That is sin in the sight of God. And it is time that we as a people awaken to that fact.

I have seen this abuse with my own eyes. I have heard it with my own ears. And I have received complaints from those who tell me that they have observed it. It is a terrible thing. Jesus would surely cast out any such money-changers if He were here, just as of old. My friends, I believe this is wrong in God's sight, and it is time to put this thing right, and for the leadership of the church to deal with this thing. God wants righteous leaders, men with a clear vision of right and wrong, who will take their stand and lead in the way that is right. And I call upon you to put away this evil, this abuse, whenever and wherever it lifts its head, and to let right­eousness come in. We must put this abuse away, even though God has a message in the literature that you want distributed among the people.

I am told by some that we must have the Sabbath for this because that is the only time we can get all the people together. That is a poor argument, even though we are assured that they are endeavoring to distribute litera­ture to get converts to present truth, includ­ing of course the Sabbath truth. Thank God for every convert. My friends, we must see many, many more conversions by the power of God in homeland bases of the message. We must see more of it in the church. We must see it exercise its transforming power in the hearts of our people every Sabbath day. And if we are not ready to deliver that kind of converting, reformatory message, and to be that kind of instrument in the service of God every Sabbath day, there is need of a real work of grace being done for us as ministers. The Lord demands fruitfulness, and all that we have been able to see falls far short of what He has in mind for each one of us. But we cannot rightly seek con­verts to the law of God and the Sabbath by disregarding the very claims of that Sabbath, and commercializing God's holy day.

And now I leave this with you, brethren. Turn your own hearts anew to God, and let Him show you how to lead the church of God away from this thing. If someone comes into your church and wants to make such use of the Sabbath, say to him, "Brother, you are not in any position to take the service here this day." Let there be some Christian cour­age in our hearts to say "No" to every such wrong, and to say "Yes" to God's ideals and requirements for the holy Sabbath.

II. Giving National Offense

There is another matter that is on my heart which I wish also to bring to your attention. We are living in most perilous times, times when one cannot say a word without the pos­sibility of its being heard around the world—especially if it is an unwise, offending word. You cannot speak publicly for this people anywhere but that it may be heard to the ends of the earth. It somehow often gets into print, or in some way is brought to the atten­tion of government officials. And if it is a wrong word, these people will take it up and cause trouble for our believers and our work.

In Isaiah 41:6, 7, I read:

"They helped everyone his neighbor; and every one said to his brother, Be of good courage. So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, It is ready for the soldering: and he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved."

Is it always that way among God's workers today? I appeal for that kind of mutual sup­port in God's work. You who are leaders here in the United States must aim so as not to hurt our brethren who are laboring in Europe, Asia, Africa, China, and the rest of the world. You should write and preach and teach this message so that you will not be afraid to meet the results in any other part of the world. It must be so. We must have that kind of spirit, dear friends, that will make us neighbors to our brethren, and that will cause us to consider the geographical situation, and the rights and privileges of our brethren elsewhere to differ from our view­point in some circumstances, and to work with them and to help them, no matter what the nationality, race, color, class, or clime in which they labor. If we are not willing to do that, but feel free to criticize and pass judg­ment on the governments of other nations, or the way the work is done in some other part of the world, then, dear friends, we are not following the instruction of our Saviour, to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

My friends, as General Conference president, I have had to face this problem many times, through situations which have been brought to my attention because of statements made by writers in some of our papers or other literature. You do not exalt God, dear friends, by uttering truth in such a way that it hedges up the way of God elsewhere. Do you? [Voices: "No!"] Are you serving God best by using such a program as that? May the Lord help us to have wisdom and love in our hearts, and give us power that will keep us from such wrongdoing.

Our literature, while being kept strongly missionary, should be removed farther from the field of national and international prog­nostication, and should be kept as free as pos­sible from expressions and presentations which may bring offense to nationals, and which will necessarily cause most serious sorrow and difficulty in the future of the work in coun­tries near and far. I have recently read state­ments in two of our publications, not pe­riodicals, which not only are offensive and mischievous, but will in all probability be found to be quite untrue. One of these state­ments would, I feel sure, be considered mis­chievous by the three greatest nations of the world, and, as far as I can judge, is uncalled for by any reasonable presentation of the topic with which the author is dealing.

That sort of thing is unrighteousness. We are not to exercise the gift of prophecy con­cerning events to take place. Such an attempt as that is not the preaching of the truth.

At one time a sermon was sent to me which prognosticated some certain things which were soon to take place; and it was published in one of the daily papers. The writer told what was going to happen the next spring in Europe. It purported to be a very distinct prophecy of what was going to happen that next year. I did not believe that writer had the gift of prophecy, or that he could tell what was going to happen that next spring. I read the ar­ticle, folded it up and put it carefully away, with a determination in my heart to see if any one of his prophecies came true. That, dear friends, was in 1913. And not one of his prophecies came true, but instead the world plunged into the horrors of the World War, contrary to his predictions.

My brethren, if we would only preach our message; if we would only let the things alone that we do not understand! If we would just preach God's truth, and ask Him for wisdom to enable us to preach it with power all over the land in which we happen to be living, and not put stumbling blocks in the way of our people and workers in any other country —because of unwise statements made in re­gard to conditions prevailing in that or any other country—then we would prevent the bringing of needless perplexity and suffering to our people in those countries.

I have felt impelled to call seriously the attention of the General Conference Com­mittee to this before I give up entirely my executive work for the time being, that the General Conference Committee may know how I feel about this after observing its influence on our churches for six years.

I want now to tell you, having spoken these few words to you, that there is not a man that more fully loves this truth, not a man among us that has stronger confidence in his brother ministers, and not a man that can look into your faces and more earnestly tell you that he is a peace lover at heart, than I. And yet I say to you, we have come to a time when we must be more guarded in word and example, and in seeing that all of our state­ments are reliable and wise.