From Disappointment to Triumph by C
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June 23. 1960 GENERAL CHURCH PAPER OF THE SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS The Church of God and Its Support-1 From Disappointment to Triumph By C. L. TORREY, Treasurer, General Conference ROM earliest times dedicated men and women have Said the servant of the Lord, "I saw a company who F had a part in the process of building God's spiritual stood well guarded and firm, giving no countenance to temple or church. The servant of the Lord says, "Paul and those who would unsettle the established faith of the the other apostles, and all the righteous who have lived body. God looked upon them with approbation. I was since then, have acted their part in the building of the shown three steps—the first, second, and third angels' temple. But the structure is not yet complete."—The messages. Said my accompanying angel, 'Woe to him who Acts of the Apostles, p. 599. shall move a block or stir a pin of these messages. The The final phase in the building of the spiritual temple, true understanding of these messages is of vital importance. or church, began after the great disappointment in 1844. The destiny of souls hangs upon the manner in which At that time a large number of students of prophecy they are received.' expected the Lord to come in power and glory and take "I was again brought down through these messages, and them with Him to heaven. These waiting ones pinned all saw how dearly the people of God had purchased their their hopes on departing from this world, leaving behind experience. It had been obtained through much suffering heartaches, suffering, sin, and death. and severe conflict. God had led them along step by step, When Jesus did not come, the disappointment was great until He had placed them upon a solid, immovable plat- indeed. Some left the Movement and went back into the form. I saw individuals approach the platform and ex- world, while others searched the Scriptures for the cause amine the foundation. Some with rejoicing immediately of the disappointment. These sincere believers found that, stepped upon it. Others commenced to find fault with instead of referring to the coming of Jesus to gather His the foundation. They wished improvements made, and people, the prophecy "pointed to Christ's ministration then the platform would be more perfect, and the people in the most holy place, to the investigative judgment, and much happier. not to the coming of Christ for the redemption of His "Some stepped off the platform to examine it and de- people and the destruction of the wicked. The mistake clared it to be laid wrong. But I saw that nearly all stood had not been in the reckoning of the prophetic periods, firm upon the platform and exhorted those who had but in the event to take place at the end of the 2300 days." stepped off to cease their complaints; for God was the —The Great Controversy, p. 424. Master Builder, and they were fighting against Him. Although William Miller had led out in searching the They recounted the wonderful work of God, which had Scriptures and expounding the 2300-day prophecy, he did led them to the firm platform, and in union raised their not see or accept the seventh-day Sabbath as God's holy eyes to heaven and with a loud voice glorified God. This day. However, many of those who experienced the great affected some of those who had complained and left the disappointment later accepted the Sabbath truth and in platform, and they with humble look again stepped upon due time united in organizing the Sabbathkeeping Ad- it."—Early Writings, pp. 258, 259. ventists, naming themselves the Seventh-day Adventist It is an inspiration to turn back the pages of history Church. These members kept the commandments of God that record the acts of the early Sabbathkeeping pioneers and had the Spirit of Prophecy in their midst as foretold and note the plans they laid for the finishing of the work by prophecy (Rev. 12:17; 19:10). God had assigned to them under the guidance of the Holy So, out of the ashes of the great disappointment arose Spirit. Their assignment and that of their successors was a people grounded in faith and tried in the fires of af- to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every fliction. It was upon these men and women that God creature. What a tremendous undertaking to contemplate! built the foundations of His remnant church. The founda- They were few in number. They had no educational in- tion was strongly laid. stitutions in which to train (Continued on page 11) S.S. Lesson Help for July 9 Vol. 137, No. 25 Vol 137, No. 25 June 23, 1960 [These news items are taken from Religious News Service, Ecumenical News Service, and other sources. We do not necessarily concur in statements made in these items. We publish them simply to give our readers a picture of current COVER From Disappointment to Triumph religious developments.] EDITORIALS Page 3 Bible Society Reports New Scripture Distribution Record The Critics Examined—Raised "With" Christ—An- other Shift in Protestant Thought? ✓ A record distribution at home and abroad last year of 17,650,917 volumes of Scriptures in 296 languages was reported GENERAL ARTICLES Page 6 by the American Bible Society at its 144th annual meeting False Claims of Shepherd's Rod Exposed—Getting in New York. At the end of 1959 the whole Bible had been pub- Right With God and Man—Full of Years—The Serv- lished in 219 languages and dialects, a complete Testament ant of the Lord—The Gospel of Forgiveness in 271 more, and single books in 661 more. This made a total OUR HOMES Page 12 of 1,151 languages in which some part of the Bible has been published. Ann's Embarrassing Moment—Steam Vents and Whis- tles—Tale of the Talents Southern Baptists Announce Braille Monthly for FOR ADVENTIST YOUTH Page 14 Teen-agers Words to the Young—Youth Deny Self for Missions ✓ The Southern Baptist Convention's Sunday School Board MISSION STORY OF THE WEEK Page 16 announced in Nashville, Tennessee, it will start publication next October of a monthly magazine in Braille for use by blind Among the Aborigines of Taiwan early-teen-agers in Sunday school. Entitled the Intermediate Braille Baptist, the publication will contain the International NEWS FROM HOME AND ABROAD Page 18 Uniform Sunday School lessons which appear in the Inter- Osaka, Japan, Evangelistic Center—Ordination in Ni- mediate Pupil, a monthly for sighted pupils, plus a selection geria—Lahaina, Maui, Church Dedicated—Laymen on of articles from Upward, a weekly story paper published by the the March in Australasia—New Hospital in Port-of- Spain, Trinidad—European SDA Servicemen's Meet- board for the 13-16-age group. ing—Wickford, Rhode Island, Church Dedication— New Medical Horizons in Viet Nam—Advanced Edu- NAE Cites "Unrest" Over Catholic President cation at Solusi Missionary College—"Get On That Train and Go Back Home"—Manila Sanitarium Mo- ✓ Doubt that a Roman Catholic President "could or would bile Clinic—From Home Base to Front Line—VOP resist fully the pressures of the ecclesiastical hierarchy" be- Student Graduates at Age of 107—Forward Despite cause of "the political-religious nature" of the Catholic Church Difficulties in Nyasaland—Ordination Services in the was expressed in a resolution adopted by the National Associa- Middle East—In Brief-1960 Camp Meetings—Church tion of Evangelicals at its eighteenth annual meeting in Calendar for 1960—Sabbath School Activities Chicago. "The real source of unrest" regarding Catholicism and the Presidency, the NAE said, "is the total lack of any con- SABBATH SCHOOL LESSON HELP Page 28 vincing commitment of the Roman Catholic Church to the The Decalogue (Lesson for Sabbath, July 9) principle of Church-State separation." Such assurance, it added, "could only come from the highest authority of that POETRY organization and could only be evidenced by realignment Our Father's Love, p. 6; Someone Knows, p. 9; Giving of Catholic policy in those countries where Catholicism is now for Missions, p. 11 the established religion." Faculty Salaries Up in Church-related Schools TO OUR CONTRIBUTORS ✓ College faculty salaries have risen an average of 10.6 per As the chronicler of the history of the church the REVIEW is always interested cent throughout the nation in the past two years, the U.S. in prompt reports with pictures of important happenings—church dedications, Office of Education reported in Washington, D.C. 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